The all-important laps in the the top 10 shoot-out at the end of qualifying – or Q3, as it is known – are just the climax of a long period of preparation.
It starts back in the factory, where engineers pore over data and try to give the team what they think will be the best baseline with which to start the car at a given track.
Through the three practice sessions, the team work with the driver to hone the car so he feels as comfortable and confident as he can taking it to the limit. And then comes the crucial hour on Saturday afternoon.
“Once you enter qualifying,” Vowles says, “you will notice quite a change of atmosphere in the team – doesn’t matter whether it’s Q1 or Q3, it is quite serious and orchestrated.”
The team have to negotiate their way through two knock-out sessions, making sure they judge the lap-time improvements of others correctly to avoid embarrassing early exits, making tyre choices and doing just enough running so the car, tyres and driver are in the best possible condition for the last 10 minutes when it really counts.
Given the complexity of modern F1 cars, with hybrid engines, energy regeneration, hundreds of settings and temperamental tyres, it is no easy matter.
“You need to make sure the driver has entirely bought into the psychology of what you are trying to do in qualifying,” Vowles says. “There is no point giving him a set of tyres and then saying off you go. You need him to be providing feedback.
“If you say we have a soft tyre, you need to work with him and say: ‘What do you need to get a feel for the baseline? One lap, two laps, a push lap? How does the braking change when we change engine modes, is it significant enough that you need a little practice before Q3?’
“A lot of it is about getting the driver in the right mental state. The car performance is one aspect of things but you are asking drivers to find the absolute limit of their and the car’s performance and to do that you need the driver in the right mindset and bought into what the team is doing as a programme.
“Over the recent years he has just got better and better by learning how to combine that enormous talent with the understanding of the technical side of the tyres and the power unit and the chassis and bringing it all together.”
