AUDI CUSTOMER RACING STALWART
RAHEL FREY
Frey gave the R8 GT4 its debut
at the Nurburgring 24 in 2017AUDI(^22) 1 AUGUST 2019
Our latest expert is Swiss sportscar racer Rahel Frey, who has spent the past
nine years on Audi’s books supporting GT customers around the world
AKA RAHEL FREY
I had this situation recently in Japan with a
customer team. When you know how your car
works and you know what every ABS position
in your car does, it definitely helps a lot.
At Fuji Speedway it’s really hard braking for
the first corner, then you have a really fast middle
sector where we usually don’t brake that hard, so
for the first and last corners we adapted a little bit
the interference from the front to the rear axle.
ABS always helps the amateur drivers because
you can still brake really hard, just smash the
pedal and let the ABS work, but when we have dry
conditions we actually won’t hit the ABS that hard
because it makes our braking way longer and it
makes sense just to release a little bit and then hit
it again just to increase deceleration in-between.
That’s one of the reasons why free practice is so
important. I always like to play around with my
settings so I’m already adapted to it and I don’t
have to look for it in races – some drivers just want
to set a fast lap time to see how it is for qualifying.
You always have to choose what’s best for you.
With the tyres we have today in every GT
class, there is quite a big diff erence from one
fast qualifying lap to the end of your race. We
have quite high degradation so there is quite a
high grip drop – it’s really important to play with
the settings anyway. As a driver you can make
the diff erence – not as much as when you
don’t have ABS, but it’s still possible.
You always have to be aware when developing
a car like the RS3 or the GT4 that you can’t
always adapt it to your driving style. This you
can only do when you’re in your own car and
you can go for the set-up that fits you best.
A car always has a special characteristic
you can play around with and we are always
developing a basic set-up so the team can
quickly adapt to whatever customers prefer
most. That’s why it’s important to have lots
of drivers doing endurance testing, because
each driver has a diff erent style and adds
some other ideas. Audi Customer Racing
has 13 drivers and we are used quite oft en.
All our engineers know their drivers and
know I have a smooth driving style so can take
care of tyres and don’t struggle at all doing long
runs. Then, when you need a more aggressive
car for one fast qualifying lap, they know, ‘If
it fits Rahel with her smooth driving style
then it will fit our customers as well’.
Smooth drivers are a good contrast to
customers because they are normally quite
enthusiastic, trying to brake late and driving
quite aggressively. But in the end the last
move is always to think of our customers.
SUTTON