Twenty grid places of penalty for Bortoleto, at Audi. Fourth energy storage system, fourth control electronics, three allowed of each. He starts from the back whatever he does on Saturday. I read that and loaded up Austin in the sim.
The Circuit of the Americas, I have fewer laps there than at Spa. Two thousand four hundred laps of Spa. Never been. And Austin is further than an hour’s drive, so even less.
I did a full qualifying run. The uphill first corner, the late apex, the esses flat out. I did it again this morning. Then I applied the penalty by hand in the grid file: twenty places. Result, I start last. I found four tenths on my best lap and I still start last. In the sim, that’s the only lap where the delta changes nothing in the running order.
I read the regulations in English, as usual. Lindblad, at Racing Bulls, is on his sixth combustion engine, four allowed: five places, because the first breach costs ten and the ones after cost five. Colapinto, at Alpine, fourth control electronics, ten places for a first breach. In my sim, an engine doesn’t wear out. I’ve had the same one since my first online licence. The real engine has a variable I haven’t modelled: it ages.
Josiane wrote to me when she saw my file.
You altered the grid yourself. At the post, that’s called a document error. Nothing further to report.
She’s right about the document. But the lap is still faster. It counts towards Sunday’s setup, when it’s time to climb back up. In theory.
It’s true, we checked: Nextgen-Auto.
