Two weekends into the 2007 season, and the GP2 Series has witnessed four fascinating races, four different race winners and thrilling contests from first to last place. We spoke to GP2 Series Technical Director Didier Perrin to discuss whether the 2007-specification car was meeting pre- season expectations on track. GP2  Series: 

Two  weekends  into  the  2007  season  and  we’ve  seen  four  great  races.  How pleased are you with the 2007 aerodynamic package and updates to the GP2 Series car?

Didier  Perrin: 

I  am  more  than  happy  as  our  targets  with  the  new  kit  were  first  to  improve  our performance to maintain the gap with F1 which was a success (our pole man in Barcelona was less  than  6  seconds  from  the  F1  mid-grid)  and  secondly  to  force  the  teams  to  make  set-up changes  from 2006 in order to set all the teams on a level playing field at the beginning of the season. As we have seen four different winners from four different teams for our first four races it is clear that we have also achieved our second goal.

GP2  Series: 

Both  Bahrain  and  Barcelona  were  very  hot  races  with  which  to  begin  the season. Were you happy with the level of reliability we saw?

Didier: 

As  the  Technical  Director  of  the  GP2  Series,  I  am  afraid  that  I  am  probably  the  most difficult person to satisfy in terms of reliability. I am happy when absolutely no reliability problems affect a race, which was the case for example in Barcelona Race 2 despite the fact that only 15 cars crossed the finish line! Hot  ambient  temperatures  make  both  the  teams  and  drivers’  tasks  more  difficult  as  it  tends  to reduce the margin of error that the car is able to tolerate. During the entire 2006 GP2 season, only 2.4 % of the cars that started a race stopped due to an engine  reliability  problem.  People  could  say  that  the  GP2  Series  reached  a  correct  level  of reliability,  but  I  don’t  like  this  way  of  thinking  and  with  our  partners  in  the  Series  we  constantly strive to improve our performance and reliability and we will continue to push in 2007.

GP2 Series:

We’ve seen an unusually high number of aborted starts so far in 2007, both in Bahrain and Spain. Can you explain the reasons for the grid problems?

Didier: 

First,  consider  the  fact  that,  unlike  in  Formula  One,  GP2  Series  cars  are  not  equipped with dozens of electronic tools to help the driver at the starts, or during the races, and this makes a big difference, particularly in the start procedure.

For example, let’s try to analyse what a GP2 Series driver on one of the first grid rows can have in mind in the seconds before the start. Spending the formation lap struggling to maintain a reasonable gap with the cars in front of you is not so easy while everybody is accelerating, braking, swerving to heat up tyres and brakes while your   engineer   is   braking   your   balls   on   the   radio   by   telling   you   to   “be   careful   with   your temperatures”.

When you are in view of the grid, you must find room to achieve a proper “rear tyres  burn  out”  without  spending  too  much  time  on  the  gas.  You  must  take  care  to  run  on  the clean side of the track, be careful to stop very precisely in the middle of your staring box to satisfy the requirement of the FIA jump start detection system. Then you arrive in place on your spot on the grid.

You check three times that you are in first gear; you try to imagine if it will be better to overtake the car in front of you on the right or the left. You try to concentrate, but your eyes are seeing the water temperature rising, rising and rising on your dashboard display. You carefully try to find the biting point of your clutch but you must be careful because the clutch is very hot and sticky, and you must not stall.

It seems that you are stationary for too long, what is going on? Is there a problem? You would appreciate some information form your engineer, but this time he does not say anything as all he can  do,  like  you,  is  wait  for  the  other  25  drivers  to  take  their  places  on  the  grid….your  water temperature is now above 112 degrees, and the display is flashing. The red lights come on, and the race will start in a few seconds. Your adrenalin rushes, you’re ready  to  go…suddenly  yellow  flags  everywhere,  flashing  lights.  Aborted  start. 

I  must  go  for another lap. The car in front of me does not start, I’ll pass him on the left. But another guy has the same idea, I brake to avoid the collision and…oops, clutch too late. Shit… I stalled! Spectators  enjoy  the  GP2  starts  with  smoke  on  the  rear  tyres,  cars  sideways  and  lots  of excitement. There is a big difference in the speed of the drivers leading up to the first corner as the  efficiency  of  the  start  is  not  due  to  an  electronic  equipment  but  really  to  the  ability  of  the drivers. The price that we pay for real starts and real races is the risk of a few aborted starts. I  tell  you,  the  GP2  Series  is  a  very  demanding  championship.  Ask  Lewis  Hamilton  or  Nico Rosberg which car is easier to drive: GP2 or F1? This is really the reason why if a driver performs well in the GP2 Series, he is ready for F1.