SPEAKER_01 0:00

Aidan, what a really good way to start off uh the weekend here at Alton Park. Uh topping the timings in free practice. Nice session for you.

SPEAKER_00 0:06

Yeah, the car felt really good. We changed a couple of things, uh done a couple of things coming here that uh we wanted to try and it seemed to be working well. Obviously it's uh it was a very green track this morning, it's gonna get rubbered in as the day goes on as long as it doesn't rain, so things will change a lot. But it was a very promising way to start, and the car feels very in a very good position. So we'll uh hopefully be able to work on from here and try and keep pushing.

SPEAKER_01 0:36

Absolutely. I think everybody's gonna be watching the monitors for the weather forecast, aren't they, for this weekend?

SPEAKER_00 0:42

Every time you watch them, it does something different. I think we'll just watch the sky to be honest with you and take it from there.

SPEAKER_01 0:48

How difficult is it round here? Because you can have 85-90% of a dry line around the track, and then there are patches where it gets really quite damp.

SPEAKER_00 0:57

I personally I like it when those are the conditions. It was the same at Brandsatch in the race too when we managed to get to the battle for second from 17th, but the red flag put us back a lap, so I think it's it's a great equaliser, and I enjoy it personally. So fingers crossed tomorrow's full of weather like that.

SPEAKER_01 1:13

Um both you and Mikey seem to be hooking up the car with your team quite nicely at the moment, putting some consistent and very good laps.

SPEAKER_00 1:20

The car's very good, the chassis' great, it's the the areas we need to work on is uh most low speed traction, and um this is quite a flowing track with the exception of turn four, which is where we're where we're leaving a little bit of time on the table. But the mid to high speed corners and the flown corners that's where this car excels, so that means that's why we're so good at Donington. Um obviously snared and we were overheating with the temperature, but um there's some things have changed on the cooling package since then, also. Um but yeah, it's just all we're still learning a new car. So if we can kind of pop up near the front here and there, as we're learning, it's um it's uh very um inspiring for the future, shall we say?

SPEAKER_01 2:02

Talking of popping up near the front, everybody's uh used to the new qualifying format now with the the qualifying race. How important? Is it any more important now qualifying than it was previously? Is it any more difficult because of the new format?

SPEAKER_00 2:15

I think it's the the race is difficult because everyone's just locked in a train pushing their boost. I think it's difficult if you're limited on boost, um like us at Brands. I think we had a good pace at Brands, but because we went their third in the championship, I don't think we had in the the engine the party mode available that the mountain boys and the Swindon boys have. Um so we were a bit screwed, shall we say. I mean they seem to find something extra that means they can fight without boost. Um it's rarer to see the other engines do that. So yeah, I think if you're down on um boost seconds per lap, it's a very difficult race. We've back to 20 after Snellerton, so yeah, it's the first time since um Donington will be able to give a real go.

SPEAKER_01 3:03

Let's hope that this morning's session translates into a good qualifying and three good races for you. Fingers crossed.