Bad weather may have curtailed running at Silverstone on Friday as teams tried to get to grips with new regulations for the British Grand Prix weekend – but Oliver Turvey played a major role in helping his Vodafone McLaren Mercedes team overcome those challenging conditions.
08.07.2011
As McLaren’s test driver, Turvey spent all day lapping the Silverstone GP circuit – not on track but in the simulator at the McLaren Technology Centre, supporting the race team with additional data to perfect the car for the race.
Turvey spends Friday on race weekends working with the team back at McLaren’s Woking HQ to help develop the set-up of the cars, and his knowledge and experience proved invaluable last weekend as the team paid specific focus to engine mapping changes in the regulations.
“I’ve been working hard for the team in the simulator all year on developing the car and providing support to the race team on Friday of Grand Prix’s,” said Turvey.
“At Silverstone, the poor weather conditions meant not much running was done on Friday at the track but we completed quite a lot of running to provide the team with information on the set-up required for each of the possible different engine modes, so it was quite a productive day.”
And unlike the other races, this time the close proximity of the team’s UK base allowed Turvey to join the team and see his input make an impact on the racetrack.
“After my day in the simulator, I spent the weekend at Silverstone to support the drivers and engineers at the track,” he added. “I followed it all from the garage with the team and it was a great to be able to contribute my feedback from the simulator as well as see the team at work over a race weekend.”