Need for Speed: Interview with Alan van der Merwe

When BAR-Honda and primary sponsor Lucky Strike announced at Monza a year ago their Bonneville 400 project, which aimed to set an outright top-end benchmark for a Formula One car running within contemporary regulations save for mandatory safety equipment as required by the FIA and Bonneville's officials, more than a few cynics sneered.

Some even denounced it as a cheap publicity stunt which would divert the then-winless team's vital human and technical resources.

Juan Pablo Montoya's McLaren, after all, hit 372.21km/h at the same circuit earlier in the year - the highest-ever recorded speed for an F1 car - without needing a total of seven miles to do so, while speeds of over 350km/h were commonplace before the old, bold Hockenheim was emasculated half a decade ago.

However, ten months after announcing their plans, Honda, who completed their buy out of BAR in late December, have both the record and their first Grand Prix victory since 1967 firmly in their collective pockets.

Jenson Button's Hungarian Grand Prix win sent the British media into overdrive, yet the team's record runs, which saw South African Alan van der Merwe topping 400km/h whilst averaging 397.481 km/h over a measured mile, hardly registered a blip on F1's achievements radar.

The 2003 British F3 championship winner, a contracted Honda development driver, gave autosport.com a full run-down on running a standard 2005-spec Formula One car on a salt lake in Utah."

DR: Alan, when and how did it all come about?

Alan Van der Merwe: "In March 2005, the team called me and told me they wanted to use me for about ten days maximum to run up and down Bonneville's salt to see how fast an F1 car can go, and to take some pictures. They wanted to see whether we could hit 400 km/h.

"Then, over 90 (running) days later we set the record. It turned into a monster of a project, both technically and logistically, and has been a very good exercise in all sorts of ways."

DR: What were the parameters?

Van der Merwe: "Basically to take an FIA-legal F1 car, one that could be easily identified by the audience, and see whether we could hit 400 at Bonneville. We knew a contemporary F1 car could reach 430 on tarmac, but we did not know what it could do on salt."

DR: And, your reaction to the request?

Van der Merwe: "Initially I guess I was cynical, which was the same reaction as everybody else. But when I looked at the physics of the matter, realised we would have the same horsepower as an F1 car, it became very interesting, as the only way we could go quicker (than achieved by 'standard' F1 cars) was by reducing the drag."

DR: Did the team consist of race team personnel, and how many were there in the team?

Van der Merwe: "No, they were mainly factory-based guys, not people would normally go to the running of a car. We had a total staff of about 50, I guess, but actually the guys involved with the running of the car, the skeleton crew, numbered six, plus four Honda (engine) engineers. Gary Savage (Honda F1's Deputy Technical Director) led the project in conjunction with John Digby and John Dickinson."

DR: What were your biggest challenges?

Van der Merwe: "The biggest challenge was the lake and the weather, plus the fact that on salt we would only have about 35% of the grip on tarmac due to the surface, which even when dry is more like a wet surface than hard topping, massively reduced downforce."

DR: The project was announced last September, and the record set in July this year. Was that the original programme?

Van der Merwe: "No, basically last August we went to Bonneville for a recce (reconnaissance), to see what the car could do. We used a BAR 06/7 chassis set up to Monza (aerodynamic) specifications with a 2004 V10, then using what we learned there we re-engineered the car.

"Thereafter we went back to the US for a record run, but the place was flooded so we did some shakedown runs at Mojave (near Edwards Air Force Base in California) to keep the momentum going, make sure it did what it said on box.

"Then this year went back for some quick shakedowns at Mojave, some technical tests at RAF Lyneham in the UK, then some more at Victorville (California), which has the longest runway of any US base at something like 15,000ft (4.6 kms) and ran there to verify that it would stay together for at least a mile. Then we went to Bonneville in mid-July."

DR: You said the lake offered 35% of the grip available on tarmac.

Van der Merwe: "Yes, engineers use an mU term to describe grip levels or co-efficients. Tarmac is about 1.7 mU, whilst on salt we had 0.6, or about 30%.

"The best way of illustrating the effect is to talk about acceleration: on tarmac get from standing to near enough 400 km/h in about a kilometre; on salt we used 3 miles (5 kms). Which meant that on tar I could take the car by scruff of its neck; on salt I had to drive like a granny. I could induce wheel spin in seventh anytime I wanted to."

DR: So, no traction control?

Van der Merwe: "No, we disconnected the traction control system to save time and money, rather than develop a TC system for use only on salt. In terms of Bonneville the best instrument for predicting and preventing wheel spin became the driver."

DR: Any other technical changes?

Van der Merwe: "Well, we got rid of the rear wing (not a mandatory F1 requirement) and substituted it with a vertical fin (for stability), the sidepods were narrowed and tapered, plus all aerodynamic devices we didn't need, like fins and brake ducting and that sort of thing, were removed.

"We had to ballast the car to about 850 kilograms (prevailing F1 regulations - 600kgs with driver), but tried to get the same sort of weight distribution although we had to hang the weight wherever we could.

"A normal front wing was retained, but with very little flap. Generally the downforce came from the floor (under-body of the car)."

DR: And the safety requirements?

Van der Merwe: "Obviously we retained standard FIA-approved stuff, and I wore overalls and a helmet. We fitted a parachute to make it a legal record, but it was not used on record runs as the car had perfectly good brakes to slow it within the distance available."

DR: Were any precautions against the effects of salt taken?

Van der Merwe: "Salt is a highly aggressive environment, and I don't think our car will remain a pretty car for very long although they have taken good care of it. The car will survive, it will spend the rest of its life touring around the world, but it will show the effects of the salt.

"Wheel bearings had to be sealed and adjusted, those sort of things. Even metals that shouldn't corrode ended up corroding."

DR: What were the conditions like?

Van der Merwe: "I have never been as hot in my life as (I was) when the car was standing still. It was 50 degrees Centigrade outside so with engine heat it must have been about 70 degrees or so. The hottest and most humid race I have ever done was in Macau, in Formula Three, and this was not a patch on it. Fortunately in Bonneville we had a dry heat, but in-car with a hot engine I literally thought I would keel over.

"At the end of each day we had definite layers of salt over our faces, but we were more worried about salt in the engine, that sort of thing.

"Even at speed heat was filling up the cockpit; I knew Honda put together very good engines, but I still did not think the engine would last that long. Every run we did we went above critical temperatures, yet we never even believed that the engine would let us down."

DR: I believe the engine ran the equivalent of three Grand Prix distances in the four days of the record attempt.

Van der Merwe: "Yes, once we had set our fastest run of a day, we flogged up and down within the permitted hour, and with each run being over seven miles long (three build up, a measured mile and three to slow down) we quickly clocked up the distance."

DR: Given the open space available to you, was there a sensation of speed?

Van der Merwe: "There's a marker every mile, a metre-and-a-half high orange dayglo marker with black numbers, and at 400 they were just blurry dots as you went past; the sensation of speed is much bigger than on a circuit, but in a different way.

"You have different kinds of feedback telling you you are going quickly. At that speed there is about six tons of drag acting on the car, so the minute you lift off the thing just decelerates like a brick.

"Then, when you come out of the measured mile, you lift off gingerly, and the numbers just rub right off. When we started the project they, the team, said to me, "You probably won't even know you're doing 400," but there was never ever any doubt in my mind that I was going very quickly indeed."

DR: Did you need to apply a different driving technique on salt?

Van der Merwe: "Driving out of a garage on tarmac you're able to slip the clutch progressively and pull away; pulling away on salt you put on very few revs and drop the clutch, its like pulling away on ice. Building up to speed in first to fourth gears is horrendous because there's no downforce and the severe mechanical limitations of the tyres on salt.

"The torque through the gearbox is strong, so you just can't be in a hurry. That's when you work very hard to keep the car in a straight line. Up to fourth gear it's like driving a very powerful rally car on a very slippery surface. Then, at about 260, 270 the downforce comes in..."

DR: That high?

Van der Merwe: "... yes, at 400 the car has the same downforce as a Monza-spec car at 280.

"Once you get a little bit of downforce and the car starts behaving in a way that it should, and from there onwards basically it's a matter of managing wheel spin all the way to keep it at the optimum amount of spin - which is about 10 kilometres per hour - and you sort of stroke it to keep it there.

"Once up to 390, the last 10 kms seemed like an eternity. I scrolled from the temperature page (on the digital instrument read-out) to the speed page, watched the kilometres pop over. Every 100 metres or so it would flick on to the next number, then at the slightest hint of wind the numbers went back down.

"At that stage you start ducking down, and you let go the steering wheel because you don't want to take any energy away from the car. It was almost as though I was praying, hoping for no interference from winds or the surface or anything.

"On the other side of the track, just as long as the speed build-up area, I just cruised to get the temperatures down, that sort of thing. There were guys at the end with dry-ice who turned the car around within the permitted 59 minutes and 59 seconds."

DR: Did you change tyres at all?

Van der Merwe: "Tyres, which were standard Michelin intermediates with doubled tyre pressures (up to 1.65 bar), were barely touched because there was no grip on the salt so we didn't lose any time there."

DR: What is your overriding impression of the attempt?

Van der Merwe: "Well, it was like a dream. Here I was being given my favourite racing car to go and play on this massive big open space. There is a lot of history down there on the salt, and it was very much an emotional experience. Every time the car went the guys were willing me on, and it was a great team exercise in terms of bonding. It was as much a human exercise as a technical exercise.

"It could be the start of something, I would love to go back and have a go at the outright wheel-driven record. (Set by Don Vesco in October 2001 with the gas turbine-powered Turbinator at 458.440mph for the flying mile.)"

DR: I believe a movie about the attempt is being produced.

Van der Merwe: "Yes, everything was filmed all along. They filmed at factory, on the salt, the build-up and the shakedowns, and the idea is to release a 90-minute documentary high definition movie with very beautiful pictures of how an F1 team works together.

"The producer is Hannes Schmid, who is highly respected, and (it) will show F1 as never seen before and in very positive light. It will be Lucky Strike's legacy tool after they leave Formula One at the end of this year."

Footnote:

Two factors prove that Honda's record-breaking runs were far from a stroll through a Paris park: during the build-up to the record, Van der Merwe spun at 388 km/h (another F1 record!), and the benchmark for an open-wheeler car of under 3.0 litre capacity - 229.969 mph/370.098km/h (set by Jeffrey Nish, who witnessed van der Merwe's runs) - had stood for 19 years.

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