Official Website of Steven Richards, FPR V8 Supercar Driver
Anatomy of a Test Day
For most people it would be easy to assume that when a team goes testing it is for the driver to get some practice driving the car. This could not be further from the truth. In the past five years testing has slowly become more and more restrictive. The reality for this is based around cost and to provide all teams big or small a level playing field from which to play from.
So how often do we test? Aside from race meetings, teams each get a total of six days to practice on a circuit that must be nominated from your home state. For Jack Daniel’s Racing, that circuit is Winton, two hours north of Melbourne.
Over the course of the season, small advantages are found with regard to the performance of the car. These small gains give the team more direction to go and hunt for more speed from the car. That is the whole reason behind testing.
The driver can get onto the pace of the circuit within about 10 laps of driving, even if we have not driven the car for a few months. It is then a case of working with the team to run through all of the recent developments to gain a technical advantage on track that will help enable the team to increase its performance which means lap times.
The day is very structured, with many things to run through. We always have a log of things to try and this will take the whole of the day to complete.
Our first test session for this season happens on the 13th and 14th of March. It will also see the debut of a new car, chassis number 044. I can’t wait as this is the first real hit out for the season and we are all itching to see how it goes.
