Hirate, Kobayashi Participate in F1 Testing19.12.2006

Hirate, Kobayashi Participate in F1 Testing

In early December, TDP (Toyota Drivers Program) drivers Kohei Hirate and Kamui Kobayashi participated in the F1 joint testing session held at the Jerez, Spain circuit. During the week prior to the Jerez session, Kobayashi had the chance to experience serious F1 driving in Barcelona, while Jerez marked the first time behind an F1 wheel for Hirate.

Hirate’s F1 experience began on December 6, the first day of joint testing. Continuing rain from the previous evening left the circuit very wet at the time of the morning test session. At 9:07 a.m., Hirate climbed into the TF106B driver’s seat, and headed out onto the course on a set of rain tires.

Having experienced the Jerez circuit in GP2 races, Hirate was familiar with the course. Nevertheless, it was his first time behind the wheel of an F1 car. “At first, I drove as carefully as possible until I got used to the car,” said Hirate later. His early times reflected this approach, as Hirate recorded a short run of four or five laps at about 1 m 28 s per lap. The track completely dried out for the afternoon session, which was when the serious driving really began.

During this session, Hirate ran consistently in the 1 m 23 s range, appearing to have become well acquainted with the F1 machine.

“Having several times experienced GP2 testing was a lot of help. When I first drove GP2 after moving up from F3, the tremendous difference in acceleration and other performance factors was almost overwhelming. When I hit the brakes, I felt like I was going to go right through the front of the car (laughs). There was an enormous difference between the two levels. In comparison, I think the move from GP2 to F1 is a much less significant. Even so, deceleration, acceleration and cornering speeds were of an order of magnitude beyond what I was familiar with. For GP2, there are sections where you have to ease off the throttle, but in F1 you can go through at full throttle. And the behavior of the car is so stable that there isn’t any shaking or sliding during cornering. I was very surprised and impressed in this respect.”

Hirate said that over the course of the first 20 laps, “I became more used to the car, gaining a better understanding.” Increasing pace with each succeeding session, Hirate drove a total of 73 incident-free laps, finishing 15th out of 17 drivers. On lap 63, Hirate recorded a personal best 1 m 21.424 s, which was about two seconds slower than the quickest lap of the day, set by Felipe Mass (Ferrari).

Hirate appeared to be bolstered by his times, saying, “I wasn’t able to completely attack the braking in the high-speed corner and the final corner. With a little more experience, I think I could save a second or so.”

Fitting in well with the team, the staff took to calling Hirate by the nickname “Koko,” a variation of “Kohei.” Overseeing the testing, Panasonic Toyota Racing engineer Giambito Amico praised Hirate, saying, “Koko is a driver who can adapt very quickly.”

“He didn’t make any mistakes, and I was very comfortable with him out there. He also interacts well with the engineers. If you compare his time with Franck Montagny’s (driving the same day), except for some losses in the braking areas, the times were basically the same. Hirate was able to see this for himself, which I think gave him a good dose of confidence. New drivers tend to perform much better on the second day. I think if we have Koko out there two days in a row, he will be able to make some good time gains.”

The next day (December 7), the plan called for Kobayashi to take over for Hirate. Unfortunately, a series of setbacks only allowed Kobayashi to record 53 laps—somewhat of a disappointment on his first day of testing. It was clear, however, that having experienced the F1 car once already in Barcelona, Kobayashi himself was feeling much more comfortable in his understanding.

“There were some successes as far as today goes. I think my driving has shown that I have become more familiar with the car. More than anything, I am happy that I was able to complete the day without any mistakes.”

The rain continued to fall rather heavily the next morning. Although the rain stopped at around 10:00 a.m., the track remained utterly drenched. Until a short time after noon, all of the drivers were forced to use full wet tires. While the afternoon weather turned to clear blue skies, the slight breeze wasn’t enough to dry the track out. Of course, Kobayashi and all of the other drivers had a difficult time picking up the pace.

During the last part of the session, Kobayashi was able to pick up time, recording laps in the 1 m 21 s range. Then finally, on a set of new tires, Kobayashi marked a personal best of 1 m 20.978 s, finishing 11th out of 17 drivers.

Kobayashi said, “Yesterday, I wasn’t able to drive like I wanted through the high-speed corners. Looking at Ralf’s (Schumacher) data, my cornering speed was off by about 30 km/h initially. I was able to reduce the gap to about 10 km/h, but I wasn’t happy with my performance in that respect. Today, though, I think my performance was very comparable to the other drivers.”

On the second day, Kobayashi trailed Ralf, who finished 4th overall, by .6 seconds. Kobayashi critiqued his own performance, saying, “I’m making tiny mistakes here and there. If I could have selected my quickest times from the data, I would have been very fast. Unfortunately, I couldn’t connect it all in the same lap.”

“Kamui is the type of driver who gets his feel, and then builds quicker and quicker laps.” (DTC Noritoshi Arai). Kobayashi’s progression over the two days certainly confirmed that assessment.

Having completed this testing session, Hirate shared his impressions.

“I always dreamed of driving in F1, and now I have been able to drive an F1 car in this test session. In this sense, I am very happy. Having lived in Europe for the past few years, I had the chance to be closer to the F1 environment, so I wasn’t completely overwhelmed. But this was an incredibly fun experience. I was very excited, trying to challenge myself to accomplish something new every time I went out on the course.”

Kobayashi said:“I’m basically a ‘pedal-to-the metal’ driver. Even though something bad could happen during cornering, if I think I can control the car, then I go for it. But I haven’t had much confidence to this point in F1. My greedy side wants to drive some more. But I think I can be satisfied with the things I learned during this test session. From now, I plan on taking everything I learned here to the next level.”

Next season, Hirate will be racing mainly GP2 races, while Kobayashi will focus mostly on Euro F3. Even so, Arai said, “We want to find the opportunities to get both drivers in as many F1 testing sessions as we can.”

He continued to encourage the two young drivers, “Of course, our main objective for next season is to win races. But we also want [Hirate and Kobayashi] to drive F1 and learn as much as they can. Just as we saw here, we expect these two to show their true talents each and every time they drive.