Blog / Maurice at Brands Hatch 2023
28 APRIL 2023
"We had ten minutes for qualifying and were running an aggressive set-up, which meant that we shredded our inside rear right tyre and had a puncture in the practice just before qualifying, so we had to pit and change it. By the end of qualifying, I had wrecked another tyre purely because the set-up was aggressive and the car was soft.
This is fine for one lap pace but not great for distance and shredding the tyres, and from this, we were on the back foot a bit for trye management. We adjusted the set-up to manage the tyres better, but this played a big role in how we drove the car for the 2-hour race. For tyre management, I was driving the car at 70/80% for the race and couldn’t push as much as I wanted to. But we had a strategy of doing a two-stop race, whereas others were doing a three-stop. So, to make that work for the 2 hours, we would have to sacrifice some pace.
I started the race and managed the tyres well and was able to do a long stint at the beginning. This was really physical and tiring. My body was aching with the effort for the last 5/ 10 minutes, but I got through it then my partner jumped in and after his stint I did the remainder of the race and brought the car home.
The car was challenging to drive. As a team, we have some work to do on the set-up before the next race. I drove 1 hour 20 minutes and was really tired but happy with the mileage and learning. We have more of a plan and direction to go with the car and looking forward to the next race.”
