Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing – 21st Season
Pre-Race Notes
Itaipava São Paulo Indy 300 Nestlé – Streets of
Round 4 of 16 in the 2012 IZOD IndyCar Series
DATE: Saturday – Sunday, April 28-29, 2012
QUALIFYING BROADCAST: 6:00 p.m. ET on NBC Sports Network April 28; Live on the IMS Radio Network and
www.indycar.com (timing & scoring)
SPECIAL BROADCAST: “INDYCAR 36” will air on NBC Sports Network at 10:30 a.m. ET April 29
RACE BROADCAST: Live on Sunday at 11:00 a.m. ET on NBC Sports Network
RADIO BROADCAST: The race will air on IMS Radio Network, XM channel 94 & Sirius channel 212
TRACK LAYOUT: 2.6-mile, 11-turn street course
RACE LENGTH: 75 laps / 195 miles
2011 WINNER: Will Power
2011 POLESITTER: Will Power (1:21.8958; 111.478 mph)
SATO’S HIGHEST ROAD/
STREET COURSE START: Pole at Edmonton 2011
SATO’S HIGHEST ROAD/
STREET COURSE FINISH: 4th at Mid-Ohio 2011
SATO IN
RLL’S TOP START/
FINISH AT
NEWS & NOTES:
FIRST INDY CAR RACE FOR RLL IN
The Itaipava São Paulo Indy 300 Nestlé marks Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing’s first time to compete on the Streets of São Paulo. Previously the team competed in five CART-sanctioned events in
SATO’S NEAR WIN IN THE 2011
The 2012 event will mark Takuma Sato’s third IndyCar Series race here and ninth overall in the country of
“The first year was my debut race in the IndyCar Series and it was good to start from the top-10,” recalled Sato. “However, sadly, it ended too soon immediately; after the start so I wasn't really able to race. The second year was a great memory. It was my first-ever rain race in my IndyCar career but I had great confidence about that and was able to move up the field by overtaking several cars and I led a lot of the race. That was extremely exciting. Unfortunately though, we made a mistake on strategy and I had to come in for a splash of fuel a few laps from the end so we couldn't achieve what we wanted but it was encouraging.”
SATO IN 2012 – HAS LED TWO OF T
In three IZOD IndyCar Series races to date, Sato has led two of the three events. He led the
HUGHES ON CREATING A BASELINE SETUP FOR THE TEAM'S FIRST BRAZIL STREET RACE
Sato’s race engineer Gerry Hughes joined the team prior to the start of the season and has 24 years of trackside engineering experience in series such as Formula One, GP2, A1GP, British Touring Cars, Formula 3 and Opel Lotus. The move reunited Hughes with team co-owner
“Preparing for the unknown is always a challenge, especially when a team has no historical data on which to draw. Having been in this situation before both in Formula One and other formulae, there are a number of key things that I look for, and without giving too much away, you find yourself looking for information across a range of information portals, which may include other formulae that have raced at the circuit, from which you can compare data or even, dare I say it — the internet. I have in the past developed circuit simulations, for a number of circuits that we had never visited and had absolutely no information for, from Google Earth – F1 purists would be horrified!”
HUGHES ON THE TYPE OF DATA ACCESSED
“Well, in the simplest forms, the IndyCar IRIS website gives one a huge amount of information about any circuit that one has not visited. Even getting an impression of the EOS (end of straight) and VMax (top speeds), for a given circuit gives one a heads-up on the gearing in top gear of sixth for a given configuration and all of this is valuable information.”
SATO ON THE 2.6-MILE, 11-TURN STREET COURSE
“I think the Sao Paulo street course is very unique; it has got one of the longest and bumpiest straights followed by such a tight hairpin which requires heavy braking. The complexes after the second straight are quite narrow and the car needs good traction as well as the ability to quickly change direction so it's challenging.”
HUGHES ON THE IMPACT OF THE LONGEST STRAIGHTAWAY OF THE SEASON
“The long straight at the Sao Paulo Street Circuit will invariably drive set-ups towards lower downforce/drag configurations but overall lap time, as always, will be very driven by the balance between grip versus downforce and the effect that the latter has on tire performance for a given set of circuit conditions.”
SATO AND HUGHES ON THE CHALLENGING, SHORTER TWO-DAY FORMAT AND WEATHER LIMITATIONS
“Saturday will be a very busy day for everyone for sure,” said Sato. “The mechanics have to work the whole day as there are both practice sessions and qualifying so we have to make sure we won't have any trouble. Also, the engineers won't have enough time to go through all the details of data and analysis so we need to make very quick decisions. As a driver, I don't mind driving the whole day!”
“Going in to any weekend where there is absolutely no historical data or team experience of a particular circuit is, I suppose, a bit of a daunting experience and is somewhat compounded by a two-day race weekend,” added Hughes. “However, as all of these events and circuits are all new to me, I suppose that my perspective is somewhat different from others in the team. My experiences of the weather in
SATO ON THE BRAZILIAN FANS AND HIS DREAM OF RACING BEING ENCOURAGED BY SENNA
“It's just fantastic.
“I never had a chance to meet him (Senna) but I saw him racing when I was 10 years old and that day my dream (of racing) really started. His speed, the way he raced, his attitude and everything was all about winning the race. I like his personality as well so he is my hero even today.”
SATO ON JETLAG – AND HIS 20k+ AIR MILES SINCE THE LAST RACE
“Yes, I do get jet lagged but I am just used to it. After
HUGHES ON THE CHALLENGES OF “FLY-AWAY” (CARGO) RACES
“IndyCar is a very different series to that of Formula One, where the latter has become predominantly a 'flyaway' race series and the numbers of races actually held in
HUGHES ON HIS PREVIOUS RACES IN
“The very first driver that I worked with in Formula One came from
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