Four races into the F1 season, Toro Rosso’s Daniel Ricciardo had his first experience of a wet practice session. This is what he had to say.
Friday morning in Turkey was very wet and cold. Earlier this year I got a taste of the wet in the Formula One car, when I managed a few laps of pre-season testing in Barcelona with the wet tyres on – but this was proper wet and the real deal. It was good actually, I had a really good time out there. It’s my first time driving in Istanbul, and I thought the track was brilliant – though I’m sure it’s even more enjoyable in dry conditions.
I’m still overwhelmed by how much grip a Formula One car has. I was braking for corners in the wet at a point where, in other formulas, I’d be braking in the dry. Certainly in any of the race cars I’ve driven before. It’s pretty amazing.
'I can build on this when I'm wet weather driving in the future'
Overall I was happy with the performance. I though the STR6 was pretty well balanced for the rain, and considering my experience levels in these conditions, I think I did OK. I can build on this when I’m wet weather driving in the future. I think it was a good way to start.
The team changes the practice programme when there’s rain falling. It was a shame here in Turkey because Pirelli gave us some extra tyres, a new prototype hard compound that we were going to test. Had it been dry, we would have had three sets of tyres to use in the session. In the end because it was wet we only had the one. We decided to use the full wet tyre, and if it had been raining on Friday afternoon, Jaime would have used the same set of tyres when he drove the car. Toro Rosso wanted to limit themselves to using just one set per car for all of Friday, to ensure they had plenty left if the weekend if more rain fell. I still managed a fair amount of laps thought, but it meant by the end of the session I was saving the tyres. Instead of the three runs I’d hoped for, we could only do two – but it was good to get the experience in those conditions.
Everyone talks about the mighty Turn Eight here. In the wet we were still going through it in fifth or sixth gear and it’s very, very fast. I imagine in the dry it wants to tear your neck right off your shoulders. It was good fun. Actually the whole circuit is good fun, though there are a few points where they might want to look at the drainage. At Turn 11, the kink on the back straight, quite a few people spun because there was a river flowing across the apex. That was a little bit… interesting. Each time you come through there you hold your breath and grip the steering wheel a little bit tighter.
'Quite a few people spun because there was a river flowing across the apex'
The other thing to mention are the bumps at Turn 12. At some point over the years the ground’s fallen away a little bit and left the surface quite uneven. It wasn’t so bad in the wet, but watching the afternoon session it looked really hard, particularly the slow motion shots of the McLaren. I think if you’re doing that for sixty laps, that’s really not going to help you out – good luck to anyone racing with a headache. It’s just another situation that a driver has to deal with though, and it looks pretty spectacular – at least it does watching on a monitor.
Another thing that might make you ache is the fact Turkey is one of the few anti-clockwise tracks. They are a little bit harder. All the tracks we go to have left– and right-hand corners but I guess over time we turn right more often than left, so naturally the left side of your neck is a bit weaker. It isn’t something you can prepare for in the week before the race, you can’t suddenly decide to lift more weights with the left side of the neck. It’s more a case of looking at it before the start of the season and making sure you’re building up your strength for all situations. Then when the time comes you just ramp it up a little bit.
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