Adapting to a new braking system is a huge challenge for any driver – witness Danny Ricciardo’s struggles with his McLaren in Formula 1 for the first half of 2021. “The Porsche was definitely a good place to learn lessons in braking, especially without ABS. It means you really have to focus on your brakes, and get the peak, and the correct bleed off – lessons that I’ve been able to take into the Lamborghini, fine tuning bits and pieces to get it perfect,” says Esmee. “If you’re in the Porsche with no ABS, you can brake at 50 bar and that’s about it or you’re going to be locking all four wheels, whereas in the Lamborghini you’re absolutely stamping on the pedal trying to brake at 100 bar. The trace we see in the data is very similar, it’s just fine tuning it and understanding when to roll out of it, when to have the higher peak pressure, and try not get too much ABS induced into the braking – there’s a lot of things to think about and understand.”
Managing weight distribution has also been one of the season’s big challenges. “I thought that being mid-engined, the Lamborghini would be easier to drive but it’s actually harder due to the weight distribution – you don’t really know whether it’s at the front or the rear,” Esmee says. “With the Porsche you know you can send it all to the front with the brakes, and then when you accelerate it all goes to the rear.”
The Lamborghini does have some specific advantages, says Esmee. “We’re lucky in that the Lamborghini can take a lot of kerbs. The biggest weakness with the Mercedes-AMG GT3 is that it can’t, not to the level we can.”