Strakka Performance marks an exciting new chapter in the Strakka Racing organisation, as the Silverstone-based FIA World Endurance Championship race team launches an initiative designed to aid individual driver development on an exclusive one-to-one basis. Strakka Performance is designed to offer a comprehensive bespoke package for drivers who wish to enhance their ability in all, or specific, areas of their craft, with the aim of helping them become a more complete professional driver. The global initiative is aimed primarily at young and aspiring single-seater drivers, and it can cater just as comfortably for more seasoned single-seater or sportscar drivers wishing to improve their speed and skills.

Allan McNish’s protégé Harry Tincknell, who races in the British Formula 3 International Series, was the first to sample Strakka Performance during a three-day test at the Circuit de Catalunya in Barcelona – with McNish in attendance. Harry said of the Strakka Performance experience: “I can’t see why anyone wouldn’t want to do days like these. The good thing is that I have, and the rest of the Formula 3 paddock hasn’t!”

Strakka Performance, which is a dedicated team led by Strakka Racing Team Manager Dan Walmsley, operates two 3.5-litre V6 engined World Series by Renault race cars. It is acquiring other lower-formula single-seaters to offer the driver development initiative to junior drivers.

Whether a driver has the ability to reach the very top or not, Strakka Performance will ensure that he or she can maximise their ability and not be held back by other factors.

Strakka Performance – The Package
Each Strakka Performance day includes:
➢ exclusive track hire (no shared or general test days)
➢ Europe in the summer / South Africa in the winter
➢ simulator sessions prior to each test
➢ dedicated team, including professional engineers and driver(s)
➢ 300kms of circuit running per day
➢ two sets of new Avon ‘F1′ tyres per day
➢ engineering briefings and analysis
➢ full data analysis
➢ on-board video technology
➢ tyre blankets (optional)
➢ pit to driver radio
➢ full engineering post-event report
➢ fitness, diet and nutrition
➢ sports psychology
➢ full race weekend style garage set-up
➢ driver manual and circuit guide
➢ transport of race car, equipment and team
➢ full insurance

Drivers wishing to focus on a particular area can benefit from:
➢ long distance runs to analyse consistency, rhythm, fitness, etc
➢ simulated race craft, slip-streaming, etc (two cars deployed on track)
➢ qualifying on low fuel tanks and new tyres
➢ race starts
➢ pit stop practice
➢ working with engineers to analyses data correctly
➢ becoming a better test driver

Strakka Performance – The Car
World Series by Renault single-seater was selected because:
➢ powerful 480bhp, 3.5-litre V6 engine
➢ lightweight – just 610kgs
➢ 6-speed paddle-shift gearbox
➢ carbon-composite brakes
➢ lap times similar to a LMP1 car
➢ confidence inspiring car to drive

Dan Walmsley: “The fundamentals of a good race car are there in a World Series car – it has good aerodynamic downforce, it’s lightweight so you can throw the car around and feel the low inertia of the car, its got good power at almost 500bhp and its carbon brakes mean that braking discipline is very important. All these things are very transferable to other disciplines, because once you’ve learnt the right traits that will make you a much stronger driver in every category.”

Strakka Performance – The Team

Strakka Racing Team Manager Dan Walmsley will oversee Strakka Performance. He is an Oxford Brookes University graduate with a degree in automotive engineering, gives up his spare time as a consultant with the MIA’s Race Engineering School and has a passion for helping to develop young motorsport talent.

Mark Bennett, who has a vast amount of single-seater experience (having run the likes of Nelson Piquet Jnr in GP2 and four years experience as a World Series team chief mechanic) will run Strakka Performance on a day-to-day basis. He and Strakka’s Race Engineer Jonathan Moury, fitness trainer Stewart Wild and either Danny Watts or Jonny Kane – each highly experienced and sought after driver coaches – will attend every Strakka Performance day.

An individual driver’s race engineer, manager or mentor may also attend Strakka Performance.

Strakka Performance brings with it an experienced and current world championship team that has triumphed the highest level of motorsport. At the 2010 Le Mans 24 Hours, it qualified on LMP2 pole and won its class and the Michelin Green X Challenge – breaking Le Mans records in the process by finishing 5th overall (highest position ever achieved by LMP2 car), setting a new LMP2 lap record (3:33.079), recording the greatest distance ever covered by a LMP2 car and spending the shortest amount of time in the pits during the race by a LMP2 car.

Also in 2010, it won the 1000Kms of the Hungaroring to become the first LMP2 team to win a round of the Le Mans Series outright.

After moving up to LMP1 for 2012, Strakka Racing qualified top privateer and 7th overall at the Le Mans 24 Hours – behind four works Audis and two works Toyotas. After three out of three points-scoring results, it is challenging for 2012 FIA World Endurance Championship for Privateers’.

Strakka Performance – The Philosophy

Strakka Performance came to fruition following a productive 2011/12 winter testing programme in South Africa in which Nick Leventis, Danny Watts and Jonny Kane completed over 5,600 miles (approx. 9,000kms) of running, across three different circuits, in Johannesburg and Cape Town. Such was the benefit found to all three drivers as they prepared for the opening round of the FIA World Endurance Championship – in particular to Nick, who was the least experienced and who previously lacked single-seater mileage – it was felt that to be able to offer this package to other drivers also at the top level of motorsport would be invaluable. Strakka Performance has been created during the first half of 2012, with team personnel designing the comprehensive package and giving its two World Series by Renault cars a total rebuilt.

Strakka Performance – The Quotes

Nick Leventis: “As the driver with the least amount of single seater mileage at Strakka, I found testing a World Series by Renault vital preparation going into the FIA World Endurance Championship, especially competing in P1. It has very similar levels of downforce and power and it enabled me to further enhance my technical ability and understanding in a pressure free environment. I was then able to arrive at Sebring race fit and with a massive head start. We thought it was such an advantage that we could offer it to other drivers who wished to benefit in ways we did – especially as it was relative to single-seater drivers as well as those in sportscar programmes, who have ambitions of furthering their skills, becoming championship winners or moving their career further up the ladder.”

Danny Watts: “With the level of budgets required to progress through the formulas – Formula Renault, Formula 3, World Series, GP3, GP2 – biggest problem for a young driver is still a lack of track time. What you need most is time – on the track, with your engineer analysing data and having the time to develop as a driver – you don’t get that in certain championships when time is restricted. An initiative like Strakka Performance is critical, because it gives a young driver time to test pre- and mid-season. Winter testing is so important, because it allows a driver to come to a first official championship test sharp and not waste a day blowing off the cobwebs. When I got into our car for the first free practice session at Sebring I felt on it, sharp, fit and mentally and physically ready, all thanks to my pre-season track days in South Africa. I only normally do a bit of karting over the winter, and driving a World Series was unbelievably more beneficial.”

Jonny Kane: “As you’re coming up through the ranks as a driver, everyone is looking for that little bit extra to make a difference and to help them progress to the next level, and Strakka Performance is definitely the sort of thing that can make a difference. Every young driver is trying to make it to the top, and it can be the smallest of things that prevent you achieving your goals. Your focus as a driver has to be on trying to control everything you can to the best of your abilities and getting extra track time in a car as good as a World Series single-seater, with the data analysis opportunity and the fitness instruction, is invaluable. The amount of data we have and the quality of the people working at Strakka means that I don’t think there is anyone who wouldn’t benefit from their knowledge. For both up and coming young drivers and experienced drivers, Strakka Performance can be of great benefit.”

Dan Walmsley: “Strakka Performance has been born out of a necessity we had as a team to develop one of our drivers who missed out on a lot of opportunities as a youngster to develop himself with some of the fundamentals of racing through junior formula. We were looking to put Nick in a seat where he could test, develop and learn and we just couldn’t find anyone out there who was doing it at the level we were looking for. Motorsport needs to be treated with respect, you need to know cars have been prepared to a high technical, mechanical and safety level, and so we decided that the only way we could ensure that was to take it into our own hands. As we conceived that idea, we found that a lot of other people were looking for the same thing. We’ve expanded the idea into how we can make it a more complete driver development programme, and Strakka Performance will look at areas of working with drivers as engineers to help them understand what the car’s doing, provide them with sports and nutrition information to make sure they’re the fitness athletes they can be. Our objective is to give a driver the best chance of achieving his peak performance. Whether a driver has the ability to reach the very top or not, we will ensure that he can maximise his ability and not be held back by other factors.”

Harry Tincknell: “I’m in my second year of Formula 3 and looking to progress into something with more power, like World Series or GP2, and it’s really good to be able to come down to a top Grand Prix circuit like Barcelona and have as much time as I need to build up to speed as quickly or as slowly as I want to. Strakka made sure I had a good amount of knowledge about the car and how to drive it beforehand, the engineers are very experienced, so I just fed off them. There is so much more time – on a race weekend I have two forty minute sessions and that’s it, but on Strakka Performance we’re out from 9am until 6pm and you’ve got a lot of time to come in, analyse the data, see where I can improve and go back out again – it’s not rushed like it would be on a normal test day when you have sessions. Plus you’re also free to make all your mistakes here in private and when you go to a race meeting you can put it all together and do a good job. The more practice you get the better you’re going to get, so how can you not want to come and learn with these guys? I can’t see why anyone wouldn’t want to do days like these. The good thing is that I have, and the rest of the Formula 3 paddock hasn’t!”

Source : Strakka Racing