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#2 – Barcelona Blog: GP3 Round 1

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Marussia Manor GP3 driver Dino Zamparelli talks about his experience of the Spanish Grand Prix.

Put the kettle on, there’s a lot to talk about

Wow what a weekend. The Spanish Grand Prix was reunited with the Barcelona circuit this weekend – a

weekend which saw the 2013 GP3 Series kick off at the Spanish capital, a weekend which reaffirmed my thoughts on one particular GP2 driver (we all know who) and a weekend which saw Fernando Alonso almost get done for picking up a Spanish Flag after taking an imperious victory in front of his adoring crowd. (Were they having us on?!)

Let’s talk about me first. I was excited, I was happy and I was eager to get going. I had been working my socks off since January to be fully prepared, both physically and mentally for my first GP3 race of the year. GP3 must be one of the last championships to get going – but it usually brings some real excitement to the F1 package.

I flew over on the Wednesday, which was two days before Friday Free Practice. I managed to see my team briefly on Wednesday before heading back to the hotel and getting an early night. Thursday was prep day – so doing all of the things needed to prepare for the weekend.

Firstly, my new race suit was delivered from Sparco. I handed in my measurements a few weeks back and they delivered all of the under garments and race stuff on Thursday. Trying a whole new outfit is often nervy for a driver, especially when it’s delivered to the track the day before the event. What if it’s too tight? Or ridiculously loose? I was just praying they were going to be OK; which fortunately everything fitted nicely and I felt good in my new suit.

I then had to get some photos taken for GP3 in my new race gear. I did my best impression of Derek Zoolander, before heading off to do a track walk with my team. This is something that most team and drivers do (unless you’re Kimi Raikkonen…). The track was only open from 11 onwards – so me and my fellow team mates in Marussia Manor travelled down to the Marussia garage and followed the Marussia F1 boys along the way. We looked at braking points, the optimal lines through a corner, and generally going through everything with my engineer.

Once that was done, we went through lots of data and video analysis, before shooting off to the hotel for some lovely Italian pasta and another early night.

I woke up Friday morning, had a nice breakfast at 7am. I got ready and pumped for the Free Practice session for that day. And then…and then I realised the GP3 practice wasn’t until 5:30 that evening!! A full day of waiting and standing around is so much worse when you just want to get out there! At least I was able to watch the F1 and was even invited by Marussia to watch the practice in their garage. It’s crazy to see just how many men and women are working over the weekend for the F1. We all know the sound of an F1 car is immense, but until you’re actually stood directly behind one, with the driver revving that engine like a lion trying to fight his way out of a cage, you cannot appreciate it to its full extent. Put it this way, it was loud.

Finally though, my time had come. The time for my official GP3 series debut was approaching and suddenly I was in the pit lane in my car, (which I’ve called Robin, by the way). I got out on circuit and settled into my first GP3 official practice session. Other than not actually being able to complete a lap due to horrendous traffic, it was fine! Traffic on a race circuit is always a key issue for drivers – it’s one of those things that really, really frustrate you, but you literally cannot do anything about it.

The only way to compare getting traffic when you’re on a good lap is; imagine doing a day’s work and earning a nice wage, you’re happy with how hard you’ve worked for the money and happy that you’ve finally got some cash. You walk into your house and nothing is going to ruin the day now because you’ve got money – you open a letter you find on the floor and it’s got two parking fines and a speeding fine in it, thus blowing the cash that you’ve earned that day. That feeling you get right there, is the feeling of being on a nice lap and then coming into the final few turns and seeing about 10 cars all slowing down and setting themselves up for a good lap. It’s very frustrating, and the only thing you can do is accept it.

Saturday morning was what I was focussed on anyway. A 30 minute qualifying session and hopefully traffic wasn’t going to be a massive issue. Luckily, traffic was not an issue and although I made a small mistake on my hot lap, I was going to start my first race in 9th place, which wasn’t too bad. It wasn’t great, as I was gunning for pole position, but for my first GP3 session, I wasn’t too despondent. I could race from 9th and the clear goal was to be inside the top 8 by the finish as the top 8 get reversed for race two. So if you win the race, you start 8th, if you finished 8th you would start on pole for race two and so on.

I was in 9th with three laps to go and I was much quicker than the guy ahead of me, and with the golden carrot dangling ahead of me for 8th spot, I got a bit hasty and impatient to overtake and unfortunately misjudged my braking point. Before I knew it, I was heading towards the gravel trap at 100mph, jumping out my car and on the side lines watching the field go through the following lap. All of a sudden my race was over. I was distraught yes, but I made a mistake and quickly picked myself up and moved on. I will learn from it and make sure it doesn’t happen again.

To add a little bit of insult to injury, salt the wounds and to add a knife into my back, I received a ten place grid penalty for my move. So incase there is any doubt about where I was starting race two from, I was starting from dead last.

Race two was actually fun; before the start of the race, I thought points were completely out the question, as points only went up to 8th place for race two. By the end of the lap one however, after having dispatched of 13 cars, I started to believe it may be possible after all! Let me tell you now, that was where my charge ended, and points wasn’t going to be possible. However, having overtaken 13 cars on lap one, with some nice moves around the outside and inside; I was fairly positive about my weekend as a whole. I ended up the race in 15th spot from 27th.

Tyres are big topic for discussion. I read this morning that Pirelli are going to rein the tyres back soon, as the racing was becoming too artificial. From a driver’s point of view, the tyres are a nightmare. From a spectator’s point of view, it’s quite interesting. But I believe as a whole, it’s swung too far to being on the verge of ridiculous. Fernando Alonso’s Ferrari stopped four times in the Spanish GP. Four times!? That was unheard of a few years back – if you stopped four times then, it’s because you had a mechanical issue or you were pretending to have one because you were hopelessly fighting at the back and realised points weren’t going to be possible.

The GP3 tyres are fairly similar to the F1; i.e. the characteristics are the same. As a series, we were unsure about how long the tyres would actually last. We had done the practice yes, but we hadn’t been able to do long runs in high track temperatures. So the Barcelona race was a bit of an unknown for us. The tyres did last longer than I anticipated, but they were still going off at the end. Some drivers struggled more than others. At one point I saw a Red Bull car go from 4th to 20th in about 2 laps…he obviously had a bit too much Red Bull and was a bit too throttle happy. Or maybe he just needed a parachute as oppose to wings? His tyres looked awful and that was simply because he was too eager on the throttle and the brakes in the opening laps.

My tyres were in fairly good shape, other than in race two. When you’re fighting for every last inch in the middle of the pack, the tyres naturally go off more than if you’re at the front by yourself. As a driver, it’s difficult to actually race on these tyres. If you fight too much with the cars around you, you kill the tyre. One lock up, one slide or one wrong line through a corner and you start the ball rolling for your tyres to overheat at the rear and dispense all the grip onto the track. When you’re fighting for that inch with another driver, a lock up, a slide or a slightly wrong line is just something that happens.

In that case, it’s almost better not to fight with the other driver. It’s better to let the car go and do your own race and preserve the tyres. This is such an unnatural thing for a racing driver to do because all we want to do is race and not let anyone passed. But it’s much like the hare and the tortoise story; where the hare and the tortoise have a race. They start and the hare runs off and leaves the tortoise for dead – only to get tired and have a rest half way through the race. At which point the tortoise, who is still going as he took it slowly, manages to overtake the hare eventually and wins the race.

So Pirelli have designed a tyre which is best compared to a children’s story. The moral of that story…there’s no point being fast – take is easy, go slow and you’ll win the race. But isn’t that the exact opposite of what racing is all about?…

As a driver, I just get on with it. I don’t have an opinion on what it should or shouldn’t be – I just look at the situation and keep those tyres alive as best I can, whilst still racing as hard as possible.

Talking of racing hard, driving standards has once again been called into question after the GP2 race turned into whacky racers. There’s one driver that stood out as driving very poorly, in my opinion. (And from what I read, a fair few others agree) Johnny Cecotto decided to side swipe the Caterham car in race two. Something that I was sure he would get banned for. That sort of driving is outrageous. A racing car is a dangerous, and given to the wrong driver, it can become deadly.

Johnny Cecotto has done this before and will no doubt do it again. I got a 10 place grid penalty for racing hard and trying my best to avoid an accident with the car in 8th place in my first race. Something I thought was pretty harsh seeing as ultimately, we’re all human and we all make mistakes. I held my hands up at the time and admitted it was my mistake and that I was just a bit too over exuberant. However, when you side swipe someone, with the clear intent to put them on the grass and not let them through; how is that allowed to get away without punishment?

I’m sure that the driving standards will be raised in the next race at Monaco – especially with safety being paramount there. Johnny Cecotto will not get away with it for much longer, and if he decides to do something like that again, I’m certain he will get banned.

The standards in GP3 I thought were good. All drivers showed respect, from what I could see, and there wasn’t anything that was worth talking about.

If the race stewards had something to answer for when the news that Cecotto hadn’t been given a penalty after the GP2 race, then can you imagine the reaction of everyone when the news that Fernando Alonso was being investigated by the stewards for ‘picking up an object after the chequered flag’, I believe was the phrase. Why would you even investigate that? They would have had a riot on their hands if they had given him some sort of punishment. Thankfully, Alonso kept his win and no further action was taken. I have to say, usually, the stewards make the right call. Sometimes in racing it isn’t always easy, but a lot of the time, the stewards are harsh but fair.

After the F1 race ended, I was on a flight back to Bristol and heading for home. A weekend which wasn’t what I was aiming for ultimately, but overall it was a positive one. I learned a great deal about GP3 as a whole, how it all works and what I need to do in the future. For me, all the pieces of the puzzle are there, I just have to put them together now if I want to start fighting for victories.

The next GP3 race is at Valencia on the 15th of June – it’s not on the F1 package so will be behind closed doors effectively. However, I will be working harder than ever to ensure that I’m even fitter and even more prepared for that one. I will be working with my team, Marussia Manor to go through everything and work harder to be better next time out.

The motto that I love and live by is, “It’s hard to beat somebody who doesn’t give up”. I’m even more determined and hungrier to be on top next time out.

All the best.

Dino

Follow Dino on:

Website: www.DinoZamparelli.com
Twitter:www.Twitter.com/DinoZamparelli
Facebook: www.Facebook.com/DinoZamparelliRacing
Instagram:www.Instagram.com/DinoZamparelli

#1 – ‘Welcome Readers’

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Welcome to the all new DZ Blog! Welcome readers, thank you for visiting! This is the all new blog as, last year, during my Formula 2 campaign, I had an attempt at keeping a blog up to date, but for those who were paying attention (which I’m sure won’t be many of you), you’ll have noticed that it was a complete and utter fail. #FAIL

I will, I promise, do my utmost to keep this blog up to date. I will be writing before and after every race, that’s a definite. I will also add some random blogs in here and there to spice things up a bit. I’ll generally keep you up to date on my day to day life as I climb the ladder towards F1 and work my socks off to be #1! Firstly, let’s tackle the easy stuff.

So, I chose ‘Behind The Visor’ because I’m hoping this blog gives you an insight into everything that goes on behind my racing visor, on my racing helmet. Obviously not literally, as that would just be a lot of grass, tarmac, apex curves and chequered flags. But, a behind the scenes access, with lots of light hearted banter and plenty of racing videos. I’ll also explain as best I can the procedures that I go through during a race weekend and everything that happens from my perspective! I’ll also try and give you some information on the world of F1 and my thoughts and what’s going on.

So what am I racing? This year I’m racing in the GP3 Series with Marussia Manor Racing! GP3 is directly two steps below Formula 1. GP2 being the meat in the Formula sandwich. We also ‘tour’ with the F1 boys, so our calendar which kicks off next weekend in Barcelona, will follow the Formula 1. This means that every time I’m racing, I’ll be racing in front of thousands and thousands of people in the crowd, and millions and millions live on Sky Sports F1! Exciting stuff!

I’ve been climbing up the racing ladder really since the age of 6. I started out in go-karts and worked my way up, from Ginetta Junior car racing at 15 years of age (managed to win that championship), Formula Renault BARC single seaters at 16-18 years of age (won that year 2), Formula 2 at 19 years of age (couple of podiums in my debut year) and now GP3 at 20 years of age!

It’s been going well, although I’ve always said that Motor Racing is a bit of a difficult sport. For me it’s not a traditional sport in the same sense that football, rugby and so on are sports. Yes it’s called Motor Sport and yes it is technically a sport, but how many kids have kicked a football or passed a rugby ball at the age of 6. And how many kids have driven a go-kart at the same age? OK, admittedly, to define the word ‘sport’, you don’t base it on how many people have tried the sport by the age of 6. However, my point is, that it’s quite an exclusive and elitist sport where you have to be incredibly lucky just too even start out in it.

You have to arrive in Motor Racing, with a boat load of cash, or with a hefty sponsorship deal, as just to run in a Kart for the day takes up a fair bit of wedge. This obviously puts a limit on how many practice days you can do and how many race days you can have. Clearly, if you wanted to practice with a football, or a rugby ball, you have that option available to you at a fairly reasonable cost (if anything at all). To practice in Motor Racing, you have to locate a track, a race team and then find the money to compete. Then, you’ve got to compete against other drivers, most of which will have practiced in the kart longer than you, simply because they can afford to. Therefore, although you might have an abundance of natural talent in a motorised vehicle at high speed, you may never get the opportunity to prove it.

Let me use an example to explain this better; you have two 6 year old boys who want to race and compete in a kart race. One boy, Boy A, has unlimited funds and can have as many test days as he wants and can spend as much time in a kart as wants. He can also have the newest of new equipment and choose whatever he wants to buy. The other boy, Boy B, has a limit to how much he can spend and can only practice three times before the race. He can’t buy the equipment or Kart that he wants, and has to just make do with an older Kart/equipment. So who do you think will be more prepared? I’d say Boy A would be far more prepared. So in theory, he should jump in the same race as Boy B, and smoke him. Leave him for dead! After all, that is how motor racing works. HOWEVER, and there is that however, there is then such thing as natural skill and talent. Add into that a bit of hunger and passion from Boy B and you’ve now got a fairly even slate. Who wins the race? Well, both stand a pretty good chance, and although clearly it’s unfair and uneven for Boy B, he’s still got the opportunity to compete.

I never had the opportunity that Boy A had, and although I’m very much Boy B in this scenario, I’ve learned to love it that way. Because despite all the challenges and obvious handicaps, I still have that chance to compete and fight against the odds. Ultimately, I still have the chance to win.

That feeling of winning a race, knowing I’ve worked so hard and been so determined to even make it on the grid, against the odds, is THE best feeling in the world. It’s like a drug that I can’t come off and the harder it gets to get that drug back, the more I want to do it. Needless to say, I’m hungry for it.

Anyway, to neatly go back to the football analogy, we’ve got two players, both of which have an upcoming game against another team. One player can’t train because he has to work and make a living for himself. The other player spends every day training and getting ready for the match…imagine how much more prepared the other player is going to be. So, as simply as I could put it, that’s what I have been struggling with my whole career.

But not anymore! My determination and my desire to not give in, has landed me a backer, in the form of Bristol Sport. Bristol Sport is the company behind Bristol City Football Club and Bristol Rugby Club (a nice convenient link back to Football and Rugby!) As I live in Bristol and was born and bred here, Bristol Sport are getting behind local talent and hopefully I can make Bristol proud by being the first F1 driver to hail from Bristol. Saying that, as did the radio stations and the newspapers, we were promptly informed by a chap who somehow remembered that there was a Bristolian racing driver back in the 1950’s I believe. Does that count? Up to you! I’m going forward with the title that the newspapers and the radio stations gave me!

I can hear some confused brains right now – how on earth am I from Bristol with a name like Dino Zamparelli!? So my Father is Italian and was born and partly raised in Italy before moving over to Bristol at the age of about 12. My Mother was actually born in London and moved to Bristol at some point in her life. So I was born in Bristol but received the Italian/British genes, got the Italian name, the dark hair/features but can speak perfect English. I can also speak Italian, and Spanish and French for good measure. All part the multinational childhood!

Anyway, enough about my past, let’s focus on the here and now, and the very immediate future! I’ve been signed by Marussia for their F1 Young Driver Programme and I’ve already had seven days of testing in the GP3 car. It’s been going well – as I referred to earlier, I haven’t always had the testing or the equipment to fully show what I can do. But now I do and now I am learning a slightly new way of doing things. I’ve had the luxury of getting used to the GP3 car and gelling with my team, which is great.

We had 3 days of practice back in February in Estoril, Portugal. Then we had 2 days at Barcelona in March, followed by 2 final days at Silverstone in May. Overall it’s been very positive. I haven’t been focussing at all on what any of the other driver have been doing – I only concentrate on what I’m doing during practice. I have been working and developing well with my team and I feel confident and ready for the first race next weekend (10th-12th May) at Barcelona.

I can’t wait to show what I can do and the aim/goal always has, and will always remain the same: to win.

Let’s see how we do – I’ll be pushing incredibly hard. I’ve been training very hard in the gym and with all my trainers. I’ve got a training video explaining all my training coming on a YouTube screen near you very soon! I feel the fittest I’ve ever been as for once, I’ve had the time and comfort to go and train harder than ever before. I’m looking forward to this year, it should be exciting!

Do pop back and find the updates throughout the year. In the meantime, if you haven’t done so already, you can stay up to date on the following platforms:

Twitter: www.Twitter.com/DinoZamparelli
Facebook: www.Facebook.com/DinoZamparelliRacing
YouTube: www.YouTube.com/DinoZamparelli
Instagram: www.Instagram.com/DinoZamparelli

All the best,
Dino