The Driver, the Car, the Circuits, the Races

Part 3: The driver, the car, the circuits and the races

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The Driver, the Car, the Circuits, the Races

The Driver

After racing karts from the age of 8 in the UK and Europe with great success and driving for works kart manufacturer teams, a lack of budget meant I couldn't make the switch to single-seater cars, so on leaving school I went to the University of Bath, where I received a Masters Engineering Degree. Whilst at Bath I was a core member of the university's Formula Student team (where we design and build a race car from scratch then race them against other universities around the world), and was the driver for two years, as well as winning the British Universities Kart Racing Championship for Bath. Also while at university, I managed to get a Formula Ford test at Silverstone which resulted in a handful of underfunded races in the British Championship.

After university I went to work for Jaguar Land Rover, before moving to McLaren in Woking, where I'm now Ultimate Series Project Manager and have worked on Senna, Senna GTR, Elva and now am the project manager for Solus GT.

Five years away from the race circuit made me hungrier and more determined than ever to go racing again. After becoming an ARDS race instructor, a drift instructor and a Pure McLaren coach, breakthrough came when Basis Technologies and I formed our partnership and together we have been racing the Basis McLaren across Europe for the last two seasons. It's a very successful partnership and I am proud to be an ambassador for Basis and to represent them both on and off the track.

You can read more about my path to becoming a Basis McLaren racing driver here: https://www.fastfreddie.co.uk/about

The Car

The Basis McLaren is a 570S GT4 race car, built to International GT4 formula regulations. It races on smooth un-treaded 'slick' tyres in the dry, and grooved treaded 'wet' tyres in the wet.

Top speed: Approx 255 kph depending on the circuit and the BoP
3.8-litre / Twin Turbo V8 M838TE
Around 450 BHP, again depending on BoP
2 onboard data loggers with 2 onboard cameras
2-way driver to engineer radio

Whilst on track I can monitor my lap times, my sector times, and my predicted lap times. I can talk to my race engineer on our 2-way radio, where we discuss car performance, race tactics, track conditions, tyre wear, brake wear, car handling and performance, indeed anything at all...

The Circuits

Many of the circuits we visit are Formula 1 Grand Prix circuits, such as Nürburgring and Hockenheim in Germany, Red Bull Ring, Austria, and Zandvoort in the Netherlands. One of my favourite circuits to drive is Sachsenring, more closely associated to MotoGP. It’s a technical, undulating circuit; taking the blind turn 11 flat out at around 160 kph is a great feeling. Zandvoort is also a particular favourite. Again, undulating and technical the best part of this circuit is undoubtedly coming over the crest before Schievlak corner and hitting the brakes from 200 kph. It’s a real rollercoaster!

The Races

A race weekend generally starts on the preceding Wednesday, when I take an early morning flight from London, followed by a drive of anything up to four hours in my rental car to meet the team at the circuit. The team will have been putting up the race awning attached to the team truck and hospitality unit (always sited near to the McLaren race truck and engineers who come to support us at each race meeting), unloading the cars and all the technical and engineering equipment and starting final prep of the cars. At the end of the day there is a track walk for myself, my teammate and my engineers, before heading to the hotel. It's worth noting that any work on the race car must be completed before leaving the circuit, which can occasionally mean an all-night session for the race mechanics, who really do work incredibly hard throughout the duration of the race meeting.

Testing takes place on the Thursday and the Friday, generally three or four one-hour sessions on each day, when we can tune the car in to that particular circuit, giving consideration to the latest BOP (Balance of Performance) restrictions. Between sessions we have various team meetings, consulting in particular with my race engineer, my set-up engineer and my teammate. By the time of race day on the Saturday and the Sunday, we know exactly what set-up we'll be using for the track and weather conditions.

Saturday and Sunday race days both follow the same format to each other. Typically, I (or my teammate) will have a 20-minute qualifying session in the morning to determine our grid position for the race, and I will then do the first stint of the one-hour race, with a pitstop half way through to hand over to my teammate. Sunday will see our roles reversed, and if I qualified on Saturday, my teammate will qualify for the Sunday race and take the first stint of the race. Qualifying is clearly very important for the race, especially with grids of 20-plus cars, and this year I was particularly pleased with my own performances. From the six qualifying sessions I did, the car suffered problems in two of them, but for the other four, I qualified 3rd, 2nd, 1st and 1st, in that order, winning the 'Pirelli Pole Position Award' twice, the only driver to achieve this feat.

Both races over the weekend are televised live on European TV, and worldwide online, and when not talking to race engineers and the like, I will spend any 'spare' time that I have by talking to and entertaining race-day guests, or keeping social media up to date with everything going on.

Sunday evening usually means a dash to the airport to get my flight back to London, often landing close to midnight and getting home very late, before the first of my meetings at the McLaren Technical Centre early the following morning.

Sometimes there don't seem to be enough hours in the day, but all the hard work, not just from me, but from everyone in the team, everyone at McLaren, and everyone at my brilliant partners Basis Technologies Group, makes the success it brings all so worthwhile.

For my fourth and final post, I'll talk you through a lap of Oschersleben in Germany, just prior to me putting the Basis McLaren on pole position.

I'll also give you commentary to an on-board video taken at the Red Bull Ring, Austria, where we scored a convincing win. This particular lap is on a wet track, again just prior to qualifying on pole position.

If you have any questions, please send me an email: fred.martindye@mclaren.com

Fred

Part 1: Insight

Part 2: How We Operate as a Team

Part 3: The driver, the car, the circuits and the races

Part 4: Onboard with Fast Freddie

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