2012 Season Review What a mixture of experiences

This season had a little of everything; a winner’s podium with the American national anthem belting out, costly penalties, great wheel to wheel action in the most difficult of weather conditions, big gamble tire choices on the grid, the biggest crash ever in the GP3 series, an offer from Ganassi’s Indycar team to race for them in Mid Ohio and Conor’s first taste of a Formula One car - phew - all in one short season. Maybe the season did not produce everything desired in terms of hard results, but it certainly provided Conor with the most diverse set of circumstances and experiences he has ever encountered in his career.

He lived in England and drove for one of Europe’s best junior formula teams, ART Grand Prix (re branded Lotus GP and based in France). The opening weekend started with a big win. Mario Andretti was one of the first to congratulate Conor after he scored the biggest win of his career in Barcelona, Spain. Mario tweeted, “Congratulations Conor, your win made us proud here in the USA - keep it up.” Circuit de Catalunya When the lights went out at the start of race two, Conor got a perfect jump from his third place starting position. He was forced on to the grass on the run to the first corner by the pole sitter, Robert Visoiu, but he never lifted and grabbed second place at the brake zone for turn one. The other front row starter, Tio Ellinas, jumped the start and was given a drive through penalty. Once in the lead, Conor controlled the race inching further away with every lap while he carefully managed the Pirelli tire degradation. “When I heard our National Anthem being played on the podium I just had to look behind me at the American flag with great pride. A lot of people have helped me get here and I wanted them to share the moment also,” continued Daly.

It was Conor’s second European win however, as he also won the prestigious Walter Hayes Formula Ford Trophy in Silverstone, England in 2008 as a member of the Team USA Scholarship program. At that time he was the youngest driver to ever win it and the first American.

Monaco

The prestige of Monaco was next up and the tight confines of the Principality caused havoc. Timing is everything, sometimes, but timing was bad on his final lap of qualifying as Conor set a time .3 faster than the pole time at the end of two of the three timed sectors when another driver spun and he was forced to abort the lap. What a difference that lap might have made on a circuit that is notoriously difficult to pass on.

He would line up 8th and unfortunately receive a drive through penalty for a jump start. The penalty put him at the back of the field and after a stirring drive through the field he had a fuel pump break on the last lap. His resulting last place finish meant he would have to start race two from last place.

In race two he was mighty on his charge through the field until he got to 11th place. Because of a variety of circumstances, he vaulted over the back of another car at close to 140 MPH. He mowed the catch fencing down as he completely destroyed his car. He became an instant global sports story from England to Australia. The video went viral within hours and within two days had 1.2M hits on YouTube. The race was red flagged immediately and was unable to restart because of the damage caused to the catch fencing.

The team picked up the pieces and set about building a new car for the Valencia races in two weeks time where he was handed a 10 place grid penalty for the Monaco incident. Both starts ended as non points scoring races and the championship fight suddenly looked a little dire.

England

England and Germany were next up and Conor really had a flawless weekend in Silverstone, England recording 2nd and 5th place finishes with the 2nd place coming after a Lotus GP gamble and treacherous weather conditions.

The weekend had an added point of interest when he did a LIVE VBrick presented 30 minute streaming video broadcast on Friday afternoon from the Force India Formula One race factory. On the starting grid for race two, and despite the track being wet, the Lotus GP team chose to gamble on the weather conditions and put Conor on dry slick tires despite that fact that the track at that time was clearly wet. Only three drivers on the grid would take this gamble. They believed that if Conor could handle the treacherous conditions for about five laps the track would dry and he would then have the advantage. He dropped to 22nd place on lap one but on lap five the complexion of the race began to change. Conor began to slice through the field making up positions each lap. By lap 10 he was setting fastest sector times and on lap 12 he moved into second place behind Irish driver, Will Buller.

That is the way they would finish as there were two accidents on the closing laps which brought out yellow flag sections on the track. Nevertheless being on the podium was a satisfactory end to what was a very difficult event in England mainly because of the torrential rain that fell for most of the weekend.

Formula One The week after the British Grand Prix Conor will be back in a Formula One car for his second data aero mapping test session with Sahara Force India on Thursday, July 12th. Getting behind the wheel of a Formula One car as you can imagine was a thrill. In the second test he was allowed drive the car as hard as he could under acceleration and braking. The sound of the engine was according to Conor, memorable.

Germany

Although he never competed at Germany’s Hockenheimring circuit before, within six laps of qualifying he set the provisional pole time after his first set of new tires. He was unhappy with his second set of tires as he lost the delicate balance needed, and ended up starting race one from third on the grid - his best qualifying position of the season to date.

Conor faced an interesting challenge as he had never completed a single lap on wet tires around Hockenheim before the race one started. “I like the rain but it’s usually helpful to have at least a few practice laps to see where the grip might be in the different corners and to get a feel for the car. That was not to be and I was up for the challenge,” said Conor. “I was towards the front of the field so I knew that he visibility behind me would be worse that mine.”

The rain was considerable so the race was started behind the pace car and was then red flagged after just three laps with Conor leading. At the restart Conor was unable to hold off Swiss driver, Patric Niederhauser, but nonetheless he finished in an impressive second place - not quite “que The American National Anthem” but close. “I was mad and happy all at the same time. My engineer, JoJo was thrilled because of the championship point’s implications but I was mad that I could not hold off Niederhauser,” said Conor. “By the time I got up on the podium though it felt pretty cool.”

For race two on Sunday morning he launched the perfect start and then held his breath making a great pass around the outside of turn one. Into the hairpin half way around the first lap he pulled off a great out-brake move to grab third place just before the pace car was deployed because of a massive five car crash at the back of the field.

The race finished under yellow with Conor becoming the only driver this season to be on the podium in both races of the weekend. Conor’s points total for the German weekend was the third highest of any driver this season and to confirm his remarkable speed and consistency in recent races Conor outscored every driver in the championship by nine points over the last four races (England & Germany). He was also the only driver to score two podiums in a weekend at that time. Hungary

Hungary was just unfortunate as a tire gamble went wrong. He had three tire choice gambles during the season with two right and one wrong. This was the wrong one.

Sunday morning dawned wet for race two and again as been almost customary this season, teams had to gamble with their decisions on whether to start their drivers on wet or dry tires. All three Lotus GP cars started on wet tires on the drying track and about half way through the race it was obvious that dry tires were considerably faster.

As teams started to make pit stops, Lotus GP were in a quandary because Conor was battling for the lead of the race and they were trying to determine whether it would be better to ride it out and hope for the best, or make a pit stop to change to dry weather slick tires. Because Conor’s battle for the lead was so intense the team elected not to stop and hope Conor could make the tires last to the end.

“This is a great team and I support their decision making because they are right more often than not. After half way I started to struggle on the wets and I was looking to drive through all the water I could get to cool them down,” said Daly. “The last three laps were a real struggle and I think I went from P2 to P9. At that stage I was just hoping to finish.”

Unfortunately Conor’s championship hopes took a beating as he fell to sixth place. “I’m not going to think about what might have been. I’m going home to America for a few weeks and will then concentrate on Spa and Monza,” said Conor. “I can win another race before the end of the season and that’s the plan.”

Spa

On a circuit that he calls his “favorite road race track in the world” Conor Daly captured his fifth podium finish of the season with a third place finish in race two on Sunday morning in Spa, Belgium. After a slow start from the front row where he fell to fifth place, he then blasted the rest of the opening lap passing Vainio, Ellinas and Williamson to regain 2nd place.

With a clear shot at catching race leader, Matias Laine, Conor unfortunately locked a right front wheel which flat spotted the tire and his challenge was over. With the flat spotted tire he was unable to hold off Antonio Felix Da Costa who passed him for second place on the second last lap.

“Unfortunately, I flat spotted my right front behind him, I was trying to catch Laine but it wasn't going to work with the flat spotted tire. I could see Felix Da Costa was quite fast and I just made a mistake into the Bus Stop under braking - my right front never stopped smoking itself. It was unfortunate but it was my mistake.”

Monza

The final two GP3 races of the season in Monza, Italy held much promise but did not produce the end of season results desired.

Having contributed to the Lotus GP team's third consecutive team championship with five podium finishes during the season (including a win in Barcelona) Conor struggled to qualify 8th for race one on Saturday. At the second chicane Italian David Fumanelli, swerved and bounced over Conor’s left front suspension damaging the front wing. Despite the damage Daly went from fourth to eight and back to fourth place again meaning he would start race two on Sunday morning from fourth place. "It was a challenging weekend for me," said Daly. "After qualifying on Saturday we made a great improvement in car set up but some wild contact and damage at the second chicane hindered progress." In race two on the long run down the back straight out of the Ascari chicane Conor pulled out of the draft and attempted to steal third place from Marlon Stockinger. The move went wrong at almost 170 MPH when he locked his front brakes and missed the turn in the apex. He went off the track and across the gravel trap managing to bleed off enough speed to avoid contact with the tire barrier. He was able to rejoin the race but had fallen back to 18th place. He charged back up through the field to finish 11th. "Today I made an aggressive move that didn't work out," said Daly. "We've had some great moments this season, I've learned a lot and I know what I need to work on to improve for next season."

All of a sudden the season was over. Lotus GP had claimed the team’s championship but for the first time ever, they were barren to the drivers’ championship.

Indycar offer from Ganassi During the break in August, Chip Ganassi offered Conor a drive in Mid Ohio. Their regular driver, Charlie Kimball, broke his hand in a test session crash, hence the call to see if Conor would be available. While Conor was flying between Hungary, England and America after his GP3 races in Hungary, the offer was turned down. How many drivers turn down an offer to drive a Ganassi car?

The emotional decision might have been to say - Yeahhhh, great let’s do it - but the intellectual decision side of the brain said - not the right time yet. To be thrown in at the deep end with no testing just did not seem to be the right thing to do at this stage of Conor’s development. If the call came one time, there is no reason to believe that it will not come again some other time in the future. In another two years, Conor will be developed to a much higher level and will be ready for any opportunity that may come his way on either side of the pond.

2013

It’s almost hard to believe that we are talking about the 2013 season already. Conor wants more power and grip. There are two choices, GP2 or World Series Renault 3.5. GP2 is double the price (E2M euros) and the WSR 3.5 car is twice the car. A WSR car is a potent piece of kit and the hope is that Conor can test one in Barcelona, Spain sometime in October. After that we will continue constructing the development of his career.

Thank you for your support.

Daly, the 2010 American Formula Star Mazda Champion, is sponsored by: VBrick Systems, Inc., Delavaco Capital Inc., Callcap, Merchant Services LTD, The College Network, PACE Electronics and Tom Lange Company with additional support from; St. Vincent Sports Performance, Alpinestars and Aspin Group.

For more information about Conor Daly please contact: teri@motorvationllc.com