Interview: Darren Turner, Base Performance

by Bunny Richards and Graham Heeps

One of the UK’s most experienced racing drivers and current Aston Martin works driver, Darren Turner, has recently founded his own company, Base Performance.

The main focus of the new operation is on developing vehicle simulators with clients from the motorsport and automotive sectors. Turner himself has worked in the field for more than 10 years, primarily in F1 with teams such as McLaren. Now, says the 35 year-old, it’s time that the technology was opened up to other formulae such as GP2 and sportscars.

Turner explains that there is a particular skill in noticing setup changes to a car in a simulator. “When you are driving in reality it’s very easy. You have all these inputs that come through the car to tell you where the balance is and where the grip level is, and it becomes second nature. All you think about is ‘ok, so I have understeer here, or oversteer, or it doesn’t ride the bump well at that particular place’.

“It is comparatively easy to give that feedback to your race engineer, but in a simulator you don’t have all those key elements there to help you, so you really do have to concentrate on the few elements you do have to get the same level of feedback to the engineer. That’s what I have been able to learn over the years: maximizing those few elements to get maximum feedback at a circuit by using a simulator beforehand.”

Another of Turner’s services is to advise on the myriad technology options available, whether bespoke or, increasingly, off the shelf. He’d always recommend a motion platform and the latest graphics to push the driver deeper into virtual reality, but stresses that it’s the quality of the steering feel that really makes the driver feel part of the virtual car.

Teams outside F1 don’t usually have their own simulator facilities, or necessarily the resources to put them in place, so Turner keeps commercially available facilities from the likes of Wirth Research in mind for client use. But he’s convinced that more and more teams outside F1 are going to have to invest in simulator technology: “It’s not all about the million-dollar simulators, but if they are going to stay competitive then that’s probably where they need to be heading,” he urges. “And once they have decided what they want to do, people like us can help the teams choose the right package then develop it to start getting the best out of it quickly, before their drivers become a part of the simulation program.”