I first met Natasha at a Mazda track day at Thruxton late last year. What immediately struck me was her competitiveness and determination.
My role within the Mazda team, besides the driving, is to coach and help Natasha. A great tool at our disposal is the 'Pi Systems data logger'. This is widely used within motor sport. I've previously used it in 'one make' championships (Vectra and MGF) and to test Touring Cars. It's an absolute must, providing data on car speeds, braking points, throttle position, G-Force and loads of other information.
We sit down with our race engineer Sean after every test, qualifier and race to analyse the data. Then we use it to improve performance and identify any problems.
It allows us to overlay our laps and compare performances. From this data Natasha can see exactly which parts of the circuit she is slower on, and by how much. Without the data logging we'd be relying on vague discussions and guess work. Whereas now we know exactly where the differences are and we can work on them immediately.
In general Natasha has amazed me by how brave she is at braking. She often brakes at the same point as me, sometimes even later. This can pose a problem of 'over driving' and actually slow the lap time down. It's a hard habit to break, you see that the lap times need to improve, push even harder on the brakes and actually go slower. It becomes a vicious circle if you don't identify it and start braking earlier and concentrate on good mid-corner and exit speed instead.
The main area that Natasha is working on now is this mid-corner speed. There's a fine line between being too slow and too quick, as either will lose time. Natasha knows this is something we need to focus on and is steadily improving.
Race craft is also another area we're concentrating on. Years of karting and car racing tunes you in to a race situation. It's very difficult to pass this knowledge on, but we've discussed many scenarios and the best way to deal with them. Endurance racing is different to sprint racing and requires not only overtaking skills but also demands that you let the overall lead cars lap you with the minimum of disturbance to your, and their, race.
I've been teaching Natasha the best places to allow these cars through. The Mazda RX-8 is a match for them on the brakes and through the corners. So it's best to ensure that the overtaking driver knows you won't let them past in the braking areas or corners, but will allow them a clean, easy pass on the straight. This minimises your 'lost time' to only a couple of tenths of a second, whereas if you allow yourself to be pushed wide on a corner it can cost a couple of seconds. Which all adds up over time.
I know that due to Natasha's competitive nature she sometimes becomes frustrated. But she's proven she is able to take the pressure. She has won races and the Mazda Formula Woman Championship. And now Natasha's got her sights firmly set on Britcars.