Felipe Nasr has admitted a lack of a simulator could affect his Sauber F1 Team when the new clutch-start rules kick into effect at the Belgian Grand Prix next weekend.
The Swiss team do not have a simulator, with the Brazilian driver feeling that without one, he is being forced to learn circuits and procedures on track during a race weekend, which he feels is far from ideal.
“The lack of simulator is a down factor, for sure, and the team is aware of that, which is why we’re trying to think about something next year,” said Nasr to Autosport.
“It can only be positive for a driver to set his mind for a weekend, to prepare his techniques, racing lines, braking lines.
“There is a lot you can practice before a race weekend on the simulator, so it obviously takes a bit longer to learn a new track.”
Nasr has admitted the team have been searching for other means to learn to get around the lack of simulator, but is grateful for the track time during free practice to learn the tracks properly, and will be looking to learn about the new start procedures in Belgium during those sessions.
“We’ve tried different ways, such as visualisation stuff, watching videos to try to replicate things in your mind, and as long as we have free practice it doesn’t harm us too much,” said Nasr.
“But I still feel a simulator is the best way to compensate for lost track time, and now we have these new rules from Spa with the clutch, which is something else you could try on the simulator.
“We’ve already tried some procedures in Hungary as we had to build up some references.
“It’s going to be difficult to have the perfect start without all the information from behind, but then it will be the same for everybody.
“All we are looking for is consistency; it doesn’t need to be the best. It’s easier to get it wrong than to get it perfect, so as long as we have a standard, that’s good.
“But at a time like this I would love to have a simulator, to try these things.”
