Jaguar Magazine 02/2017 – English

Mexico City’s Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez race track
sits an impressive 2,240m (7,340ft) above sea level,
weaving its way for a 2.1km stretch running through one of
the many parks that enlivens a mega-city heaving with 22
million inhabitants. A staggering 3.5 million cars are on
the city’s roads during rush hour, which can lead to serious
travel paralysis, but nothing is left to chance as far as the
Panasonic Jaguar Racing Team is concerned.
On the contrary, the team’s schedule for the week
leading up to an event like the Mexico City race is worked
out with military precision. It kicks off on Wednesday at
midday, as the support crew gain first access to the
garage to unpack the freight, while race engineers and
mechanics have the first of many briefings needed to
bring the full team up to speed when arriving at a new
racing destination. Join us as we take an exclusive look at
the preparation taking place on and off the tracks.
PHOTOGRAPHY: LAT PHOTOGRAPHY
PHOTOGRAPHY: LKJDÄLKJDF KJLÄKJ ÖÄÖK ; DFÄÖLKJÄLKDJ ÖÄDFÖÄ (2)
DOING THEIR
HOMEWORK
Mexico City itself
creates unique
challenges, as Jaguar driver Adam
Carroll reveals: “We race in some
very hot places, so some heat
sessions in a hot room are important
preparation. For the Mexico race we
also did some additional altitude
preparation with the team at
Loughborough University - that
helped me improving my cardio
vascular heart rate.”
Further extensive research and
prep is carried out before the team
even leaves its UK HQ. Carroll’s race
engineer, Patrick Coorey explains:
“If we’re racing at a new track we
start to get information such as CAD
drawings about four weeks before.
Our first look is usually a detailed
driving simulation map.
We use this to simulate different
options to learn the characteristics
of the track, and compare it to other
known tracks. We want to find the
most efficient way of using and
harvesting the energy over a lap.”
It doesn’t stop there, though. “As
we haven’t driven the circuits
before, we look for differences from
our simulations as soon as we can
after we arrive on Wednesday,”
adds Carroll. “Smaller holes or
bumps can only be identified once
we’re actually there, so we need to
know the track first-hand.”
Feet on the ground: Race engineer Patrick Coorey (above, right) and the team take a closer
look at the Mexico City circuit. When preparing for a race, nothing can be left to chance
THE JAGUAR 37