Néstor Girolami hopes new Honda’s start problem is now fixed

ALM Motorsport’s Néstor Girolami hopes the start problems he has been facing in the new FL5-spec Honda Civic Type R TCR have now been rectified.

He qualified second at the Hungaroring this weekend, but was wary that his gains in single-lap pace had to be matched by improvements in his start procedure if he had any chance of converting his front row start into a podium finish.

“Track temperature was similar to FP1, but towards the end of qualifying it was getting hotter and car balance changed a little bit. But from us, I think it was a good qualifying so far,” he explained to TouringCarTimes.

“We aim for the top three, we were P2. Very close to [pole man Yann] Ehrlacher, but at the end he had a little bit more. It looks like they are waiting always for us to do the laptime, then they adjust their reference. But this is something that I don’t care. I mean I do my best, we are in the early phase of development [with this car], so we need to keep working to be at the level of them. Because we saw after two sessions yesterday, they were pretty good in sector two which is quite good for the Honda in terms of aero. It looks like we need to still do some work in the car.”

Girolami revealed where he lost time to his rival, but noted he did at least improve his pace from the first segment of qualifying to the second.

“From Q1 to Q2 I improved two tenths. And then the second lap of Q2 was exactly the same. Of course you are trying the limit and you do mistakes. Sector one was not perfect for me, I had a lock-up of the front-left at turn two, I lost two tenths there, and then it was difficult to recover. We never give up, I keep pushing, I did the same laptime. I think could have been a little bit faster, but I don’t know if it was enough to beat Ehrlacher.”

Having failed to beat Ehrlacher in qualifying, Girolami’s hopes of rectifying that in the race rested on one key detail.

“First we need a clean start. Like it was not easy for the past weekends for me. We changed the system, the start system is different. We have some components that are different from last year. It’s more related to frictions, and we had to change completely th start procedure. And it looks quite tricky, but I think I got over, and I studied quite a lot the technical part why it was happening.

“Because I almost stalled the engine in the last three races. And in Vallelunga, if I couldn’t release the handbrake I would have stalled the engine. So that’s the reason why I start earlier, to be honest. It’s not that I want to take excuse, it’s just something that is not working the same as the last year, and we had to investigate, we understood what was the difference, and now I think we are in a good position to hopefully [get] a good start.”

He added that his strategy for the race would be determined after three laps, as by then he would know how much management would be required if he was fighting for positions or not.

Girolami predicted Ehrlacher would do everything he could to reach turn one without losing the lead, and was correct. And the only reason the pole-sitter needed to was because of Girolami’s great getaway.

After the race, TouringCarTimes caught up with Girolami again to ask about how he converted his front row start into second place in the race.

“As we expected, we learned from what happened in Vallelunga and made sure that all the procedures and the start strategy works like it should be. And now I feel confident with the starts!

“So we did a good start, as I was always doing in the past seasons. But okay, it’s everything new, we have to learn many things from the new car, many things are different. We are still in the early phase of developing this car.

“[Anyway], I was confident before the start that I would have a good one. It was so close to get Ehrlacher on the start. He closed the door aggressive, but just enough to keep in front. And then I had no other choice than to go outside but the difference [carrying] the speed was quite a lot.

It could have been a completely difference race if we could have taken the [lead at the] start. This car lost a lot of downforce behind. So I’m pretty sure if I managed to get the start ahead of Ehrlacher then the race would have been completely different.

“Then I was hit by Ma [Qing Hua], for the third time during the season. He overtook me but pushing me out of the line into two. So, then, I understand it’s great for Yann, but it’s not the way that we should race. Anyway, I managed to overtake him again, but the gap was already big and [inaduble] from Yann. It was a good fight with Yann in T1, I would say very clean. He did what has to be done, braked very late and tried to slow me down, so it was a good fight there. And then I think he managed the pace to win the race.”

It was not just on Girolami’s car where ALM had a problem to fix, as debuting team-mate Ruben Volt had a scary exit from the race when the spring in the throttle pedal broke and the pedal went to the floor mid-corner. He managed to retire his car safely, but said he might need to go to church on Sunday given how fortunate he had been to feel the spring go in a place where he was not going to accelerate into barriers at speed.

The reversed-grid Race 2 takes place on Sunday at 12:05 local time (CEST).