Long Beach GP Track Walk And Racer Interviews - SHAKEDOWN

LEO PARENTE: Shakedown back on the ROAD.
OK, that's a little obvious, but we're here in Long Beach,
2012, the day before all the racing action.
But that's a good thing, because we're going to be able
to walk the track ourselves and give you some track notes
how to negotiate this really, really famous street course.
Then we're going to talk to the drivers, IndyCar and
American Le Mans, and listen to the experts tell us their
are techniques to make this track work for them in racing
and overall speed.
We're going to talk to Rubens, Sato from IndyCar, Patrick
Long, Joey Hand from ALMS, all the great guys.
Back in Long Beach for our second year, this is the start
of our coverage.
We're probably going to see three shows when we're done
here at Drive, all for you.
Rubens, tell me, what's the biggest difference racing in
America versus your past experience?
RUBENS BARRICHELLO: Well, the biggest difference for me it's
obviously the car, and the fact that I have no idea what
the tracks bring to me.
Every time is a new track.
You think that an Indy Light driver, for example, is a
newcomer to Indy, OK?
But he has driven on the tracks.
I'm new to anything, and although I have so much
experience under my belt, it's been the hardest thing just to
go through a new circuit every time and to learn something
that obviously you watch on TV, and
you get to know something.
But theory never works as best as practical.
LEO PARENTE: Is there a different camaraderie among
the drivers and the teams in the US versus what you've
experienced?
RUBENS BARRICHELLO: Well, I tell you, I've been welcomed
really, really well here.
It's been so fantastic to have all the drivers come to talk
to me, and it's a family all together.
And when you close the visor, you just
want to beat everyone.
But you should have a social life, and they have it here,
and I'm really happy that that happens.
LEO PARENTE: Let's start our lap, end of the front
straightaway, full check, start/finish was way back
there, maybe half a mile.
But if you notice, the track is uphill, so that allows you
to compress this breaking zone into turn one.
And if you look into turn one under the Firestone, it's
blind, so we really need to learn our reference points.
Our break point and turn in will be up there where the
track levels out.
PATRICK LONG: Turn one is not easy to pass.
It's pretty easy to defend because as you come down
Shoreline, you can make yourself wide going into the
breaking zone.
The other thing is it's really easy to get it wrong.
It seems like it's fast on entry, but it tightens up
quick and the tires kind of come and grab at you.
LEO PARENT: The key is not to turn in too early.
Aim for the back of the berm, right where the white cone is
right now, avoiding that tire wall, getting the car rotated,
riding the berm, then getting that straight shot toward the
wall on the right, the white wall after the Toyota marks.
TAKUMA SATO: This is a typical street, course slippery, but
really bumpy, and also a couple of the high speed
corners, which you don't usually have in street course.
A street course is usually first and second gear,
90-degree corners.
Long Beach has got a nice flow in the corner as well, which
is very challenging.
So obviously, aside from the breaking point and making your
car to have good stability under the breaking with
traction, that's the key.
And according to that, you just need
commitment all the time.
LEO PARENTE: If you line up on this right wall, there's the
straight shot toward the fountain, the famous Long
Beach fountain, to one of these combination collection
of corners that make this track different
and work for you.
You'll fall in love with this yellow barrier because you get
track right here.
If this isn't a first-gear corner, is a real floaty
second gear.
But you've got to get this car positioned to concentrate on
the straightaway that's coming after this fountain.
Very, very slow, very tricky, and we saw the BMW Corvette
get sucked into an attempted pass.
This is not the place.
Simona, a couple of quick questions.
What's the biggest challenge?
Where are the challenge corners on this track, Long
Beach, for you?
SIMONA DE SILVESTRO: I think Long Beach is challenging
pretty much in general because of the uneven of the roads and
things like that.
But the challenging part is some pretty high-speed stuff,
like turn one is pretty quick.
And then you have the hairpin where it's really slow.
So you have to have a car that is good everywhere.
And we haven't been here with the new Indy Cars.
It's gonna be really interesting to find where we
need to be faster at this track.
SCOTT SHARP: It's critical to have a good breaking car,
because that's really where you're going to
get a pass down here.
So many of the GT cars are like-speeded.
Obviously going down in to turn one is probably the
number one passing zone.
It's three, four cars easy wide.
You really can get drafting and tuck underneath somebody.
You can then sort of follow the leader for the next three
or four corners.
But certainly it starts to open up heading into turn six,
turn seven, turn eight.
The track's just so wide, and the fast way is to really open
up your entry, that leaves the door wide open for someone to
get inside.
If they don't and they try to block you, they really screw
their exit up.
So there's ample chances to get alongside somebody or get
underneath someone.

LEO PARENTE: This corner's definitely got my attention.
Those yellow berms are all that's going to melt this
corner here onto the straightaway.
You can see is a little bit uphill.
That's your only reference.
Those other cones will go away.
The tire wall is on the other side of a severe off-camber
feeling to the track.
So I'm turning and I'm going to get the car as rotated as I
can to get on the power and get as straight as I can and
as fast as I can onto the straightaway.
If you screw this up, you're probably bouncing over the
berms, unsettling or hurting the car.
If you turn in too early, you're going to be stuck
trying to rotate the car on off-camber.
This corner is a lot of hidden speed.
If get this right, it's all good down the straightaway
we're about to show you.
So at the top of this crest, right where it's flat, that's
where you want all the turning done, the car positive,
heading out on to the straightaway.
When they finish that tire wall, you'll be aiming for the
end of the tire wall.
You won't even be looking at the tires if you do this
corner right.
You definitely have to stay off.
Are you squaring this corner off?
Joe?
MALE SPEAKER: Well, you can touch it.
But when you touch the chassis that's where sometimes you get
a little greedy.
Because you touch it once, you'll be fine.
Then you'll be trying to cut a little bit more.
That's where it'll become your load.
LEO PARENTE: So obviously on a street course, the marker
numbers are your friend.
That 100 is really where you want to end up starting to
concentrate on where the turn is.
But as you start to learn the track, you work nuances.
So areas between the 100 and the turn in, you'll start to
use decals on the wall, seams on the track, tire marks,
anything to really refine that turn in beyond just the
generalities of a 100, 200 marker.
JOEY HAND: On a road course, what happens if you run wide?
You go in the grass, maybe the gravel, whatever.
Here you run wide by just a little bit, and you knock the
side of the car off.
LEO PARENTE: Do you run the car with some push, or is it
more rotation for this place?
JOEY HAND: Well, I mean, any street course, when you show
up, you've got to have a car--
I like a car that has a little bit of push.
But you have to have a car that's got a strong front,
that has good front grip, especially to the center of
the corner.
And so it's a fine balance, because you need that front
grip, but you also need really good traction here especially
at Long Beach.
Leading on the long straightaway, of course you
can do all the passing.
You have the tightest hairpin in racing, really.
And we really need first gear, what I call power-down grip.
And so we set up especially for this track
with a special setup.
So you're always monitoring that.
Traction?
Front grip?
What do you want more of?
LEO PARENTE: So to playoff what you just said, is the
hairpin the most important corner?
JOEY HAND: Well I mean--
LEO PARENTE: Or pick another one.
JOEY HAND: No, I would say the hairpin's the most important
corner to get a good run off of.
LEO PARENTE: I'm going to argue this is the most
important corner on the track.
This is on the back straightaway.
It's complex with its downhill off-camber narrowness, but
it's a fast, fast, fast corner.
Turn in probably just after the 100 marker, back of the
berm is what aiming, and end of the tire wall is probably
my track out target.
But here, if you don't carry speed, you're not going to
have a good lap.
And as you come up the back straightaway, that 100 marker,
Toyota, is you turn in.
Here's you apex right next to this berm,
running on the paint.
And there's your track out, the Mothers billboard on the
white wall out there.
On a qualifying lap, I'd argue that this first part of turn
10 all the way out to track right is part of the
straightaway.
I'd go as fast as I can, as hard as I can, late break out
here, maybe center of the track, turn in to set up for
the hairpin, find some time here.
One of our coaches just told me, duration of time in this
corner is really important.
Less time, faster lap.
Hairpin turn in, apex track out.
Turn in, I want the car to be here.
See this crest?
I want to be turning.
Use that, rotate the car, back of the wall, track out.
That orange cone matters.
If I track out properly out of this hairpin, that cone's
going to give me a confirmation that I'm on my
way for a good lap, down this very fast front straightaway
under the Toyota bridge, past start/finish.
And that's a lap at Long Beach.
And this was our preview of the Long Beach Grand Prix, the
Toyota Grand Prix.
Stay tuned for Shakedown and TRACKSIDE.
We're going to have the IndyCar action, the GTs from
American Le Mans, and World Challenge.
Thanks.
[MUSIC PLAYING]