Vergne: Why track walks are so important

Ahead of his first Chinese Grand Prix, Jean-Eric Vergne explains why track walks are so important, fills us in on his sightseeing triparound Shanghai, and waxes lyrical about French thrillers…

This is my first time in China and it’s been pretty good so far. I arrived in Shanghai quite early on Monday morning because a friend of mine goes to business school here and we wanted to meet up before race weekend.

I could say I got a grand tour of the city but that would be stretching the truth. We just hung out and did a little sightseeing. It was good. I saw a bit of the city and, as everyone does, went to the top of Pearl Tower for a view of the city.

That took me up to Wednesday morning, when I went to the track for the first time. I had a preliminary meeting with my engineers and then did the track walk with them. For me, not having raced here before, the track walk was an important thing. It might seem a bit odd and I think some people outside F1 wonder what a driver can learn from walking around rather than driving, but it really helps get you orientated.

You learn the bumps, the cambers, how the kerbs are set up, which ones you can attack, and which you might have to leave alone. You spot your marks for braking and start looking at possible lines. It’s an important part of the process. Sometimes you don’t even notice what you’re picking up, but your brain is taking in all this information and it’s surprising how much comes back to you when you drive the track for the first time. Often it’s like you’ve driven the track before.

The other important aspect of the track walk is simply that it allows you time to chat with your engineers. Again, it sounds strange, but sometimes you don’t actually get the chance to talk to the guys as much as you’d like as there are sponsors around, autograph sessions, maybe the FIA press conference… so the track walk is a good opportunity to relax with the guys from the garage. It’s not all work talk either. That’s obviously the most important aspect but it’s also a chance to talk about friends and family and stuff you’ve been up to.

I’ve had a pretty quiet time here in terms of team commitments, so on Thursday evening it was good to get back to the hotel, have some tea with people from the team and then get to my room to watch a movie and sleep. It was a French film, L’Immortels, with Jean Reno. It’s a thriller and a pretty good one at that.

Today, it was straight to the track to get set up and started with free practice. All in all it went very well. I tend to learn tracks pretty quickly, so I think I was up to speed right after my second flying lap. This track’s not so complicated and maybe it’s only turn one that is a little tricky. The rest feels pretty okay.

The car feels okay too, not perfect, but tomorrow we’ve got one more practice session to get everything nailed and then it’s into qualifying. It’s a pretty intense time but I’m looking forward to it. I think we can do well here so we’ll see what happens.