Returning to Oulton Park this year was a great feeling after such a successful start there during my previous year in F3. I worked hard over the winter break on fitness, preparing myself for a three-race weekend, a great opportunity for lots of track time.
The weekend started off slightly problematically with a gearcut issue in qualifying which made it hard to concentrate on getting the best out of the car. This was made worse as I had no practice the day before as would normally happen. I pushed hard to make up time on a damp track but lost some momentum with yellow flags out on circuit. After the 30-minute session I ended up in 13th position for the first and third races with the result of the second race to be decided on the finishing position of the first. It wasn’t the start I would have hoped for but, as there are 30 races over the year, there was no need to worry.
Going into the first race the pressure was off. I had the mentality of having a great start to the race and trying to get into the top eight as a decent target on a very hard overtaking circuit. My start was essential and, after a good tyre-warming lap, I immediately made it into 10th place. I kept hunting down the pair of cars in front of me, once getting up to the back of Will Buller, and getting past pretty easily after a mistake gave me a perfect opportunity. I pushed to get to the back of Jazeman Jaafar but a lack of laps left made it impossible to get past. I finished the first race in ninth position.
The second race was a sprint of 20 minutes which would prove to be very interesting. I started ninth and knew that, as in the first race, a decent start could make a big difference. I managed to get up into seventh place after making some places up on the start (getting past my team-mate on the grass) which put me behind Jaafar again for the rest of the race. It is very difficult to pass on this circuit.
The final race saw me starting in 13th place with hopes of finishing in the top ten. I was very focused for the race and managed to get straight into 10th place on the first lap by passing Jaafar. I pursued Alex Brundle and caught up to the back of him, trying many many moves to pass, but to be fair to the guy he drove a sensible, defensive race. It’s a shame I didn’t have much free air as the car felt very decent and was producing some very good times. I finished the last race in 10th position scooping some points.
Overall it was a solid performance with room to improve. But the main thing was getting the first race out of the way and scoring points in every race. I plan on finishing in the top five at Silverstone and, with any luck, pushing on the top three for my first podium finish of the year.
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After a long winter period of training and general preparation it has come to the first race which takes place at Oulton Park this upcoming weekend.
To say the least it has been a long time coming and I am really looking forward to the start of the British International series that I am driving in this year the original source.
There is very unpredictable weather forecast for Oulton Park, so who knows what could happen!
After Winning the National F3 class I managed to get myself an invite to the 56th Macau Grand Prix, I never expected my season to finish off by going to Macau and to drive on a street circuit. The chance to race the international car for the first time was a great prospect and a great experience for next year but I certainly couldn’t have thrown myself in the deep end any more than this.
After watching many hours of on-board footage of Macau and getting used to the layout I realised this was going to be a very difficult learning experience but really thought the prospect would be fantastic and couldn’t wait to get there. Before I went out to Macau I trained for the heat and humidity of what was expected out there, so went to Birmingham University to make good use of their heat chamber and also stepping up my regular training.
When I finally got to Macau the weather wasn’t quite what I expected and I was a little shocked to find out it was the coldest November on record! I spent the days running up to the first test session going through various plans and ideas of what I should do out on circuit as well as general set-up work. The time seemed to go on forever and the more I waited the more I got impatient as I just wanted to go out on circuit.
The format of the weekend was Thursday- first practice and first qualifying, Friday- second practice and second qualifying, Saturday- qualifying race and morning warm up and then finally on Sunday the main feature race.
First practice came round and after a briefing on how important it was not to crash on the very narrow street circuit and get as many miles in as possible I decided to make my all-time worst error and turn in a little too late into Lisboa corner and ended up getting onto some dust and unclean circuit which guided myself nicely into the nearest barrier. To say the least I felt embarrassed and pretty annoyed that I only did 2 laps of the first session. After cooling down and realising that this was my first self-produced crash and mistake of the year I best had get on with the rest of the weekend.
Going into the First Qualifying I found trying to get up to speed was pretty difficult due to the lack of laps done on the circuit and the lack of knowledge of the tyres and car, but increased my speed gradually and made sure I stayed out of the barriers. I stayed out for the whole 45 minute qualifying session and managed to get into 26th place.
The second Practice was 30 minutes long and I stayed out the whole time again to try and get as much knowledge and time in the car as possible as this was still my first race meeting in the international car. I produced a better lap time as I gained more confidence, and the second qualifying meant a better opportunity for the qualifying race the next day. In the second qualifying I stayed out for the whole session again and improved on my overall lap time and managed to equal my grid slot from the first quali which was 26th place.
For the first race on Saturday morning I had a lot of work to do and as long as I improved my lap time and position wise I would be in for a great shout for the main race on Sunday. The race arrived and after changing set-up on the car for the first time this event I made sure I knew what I had to improve on to progress further. After the warm up lap I prepared for a decent start and by doing so hoped to make some lost ground up by the first corner.
I made a decent start to the race and avoiding a crash from my team mate Jake I followed the pack into the bottle neck corner of Lisboa and got caught out by the lack of room on the entry and lost the rear end of the car over some of the bumps under the braking zone. After narrowly avoiding Henry Arundel in the first corner and spinning I had more ground to make up as I had lost a few places after a decent start.
Chasing the pack down I continued to push and battle with various other cars that had either out-braked themselves into corners or managed to catch up to pack. An accident forced the safety car out for a long duration and the race ended up finishing on the safety car.
I finished in 25th place which wasn’t as good as expected but an early mistake caused this problem. I improved my lap time and had a brand new set of tyres for the main race the next day so had great hopes in mind. The whole event had been going more difficult than thought but as a first time driving round Macau I expected to be off the pace and also learning a new car was always going to be difficult.
The morning warm up on Sunday went very well improving once again on my overall performance and lap time and closing the gap considerably to the leaders. I had good hopes of the race and due to the nature of the final race there was going to be quite a few incidents that hopefully I would gain from. I would have liked to finish in the top 15 realistically and with a shout of a top 12 if my luck was with me. After walking round the grid and watching the ceremonies that go on before the race begins I fired myself up and remained mentally in the zone for the last time I would be in a car until next year.
After the warm up lap the start begun and I made a poor start off the line losing some places down to the first corner but thinking there was a long race ahead anything could happen. The worst case scenario happened when one of the front running drivers tangled with the brick wall after a very fast corner and spun in front of the rest of the pack, the majority of the grid made it through but as I came round the corner the entire road was blocked and I unfortunately had nowhere to go, I ended up running in the back of my team mate Jake out of all people and shortly followed by another car choosing me as their target and destroying the remaining un-scuffed piece of wing left on my car at that time.
In the end, it turned out that the carnage totted up to an 8-car pile-up. Shame to say my debut in the international car came to a disappointing end and left me with a decent amount of crash damage but at the end of the event a great experience and a lot learned. I hope to continue the success from this year into a series that is decided by sponsorship and if possible a win in the Fortec car next year in the British F3 International series if all goes to plan.
Many thanks to all that have supported me this year it is much appreciated – here’s to much of the same success next year.
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After Portugal I came to Brands Hatch on a high after winning the National championship the previous week, there was no pressure and I was going into the last race weekend of the series extremely hopeful and looking to enjoy the last round as much as possible.
Brands Hatch is a very challenging circuit due to the high speed corners that are blind over crests making some of the corners very hard to judge. I have fond memories of Brands as my first ever race in cars was here. I planned on the weekend to cap the season off in style but more than anything else I was in it for the pure enjoyment.
The practice sessions went OK and nothing better than that. I struggled to find pace in the car not for the first time this year and had to work really hard in trying to improve the handling to how I would like it. After scratching our heads overnight we realised a couple set-up issues which we corrected overnight for the qualifying the next day.
Going into the first qualifying I found the car difficult to drive and without testing a set-up change made into the session I found it very difficult to get a decent time. I continued to struggle for pace throughout the qualifying and for the first time this year I qualified worse than second place ending up in third and 17th overall to Joe Ghanem in second and Gabriel Dias on pole. I knew I didn’t have the car set-up how I wanted so worked hard for the second qualifying and worked on it further for the race in hope that I and the team have found a solution.
The first race I was one row behind Dias which meant by the first corner I possibly could get past if I got a decent enough of a start. The temperatures were significantly colder than Portugal as you would expect so getting tyre temperature is key, especially for a great first lap.
Brands Hatch is very difficult to overtake on so most of the overtaking is done on the first lap when it is very close. After a couple of practice starts I was ready and prepared for the race start but only to find out the race start was delayed as Max Chilton on the front row over cooked his brakes and caught fire! This is never a good thing to do just before you start a race.
Another parade lap was done and the starting procedure was underway again. After having quite a few practice starts now I knew exactly what to do so when the red lights came on then went out I managed to get a cracking start and due to my high speed going into the first corner I decided to go round the outside of a selection of cars. I was in first place from the first corner making up six places by the first corner and just had to keep pushing and make sure I didn’t lose too much time whilst other faster international cars came past.
The race as I expected was fairly sedate as Brands is just too narrow and difficult to overtake on, so from the first lap onwards I just pushed to get fastest lap and then stayed in position for the rest of the race. This is not to say it was easy by any stretch of the imagination, I had many moments that could have cost me a place of two but since making some final set-up changes from qualifying the car was suited to my driving style and the current conditions. I crossed the line in 1st place national and 9th overall I also had the fastest lap time. My lead was irrelevant, but it moved up to 62 points clear of second place man Dias.
Overall I had a great race which a fantastic first lap and I hope to do much of the same in the second race.
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After first qualifying I had a lot of time to make up as I was near a second of the pace. After many hours discussing the issues with my engineer we came to a couple of conclusions that would hopefully help us close the gap significantly.
I went out into second qualifying with the idea that the car would be more suited to me and circuit and after a one flying lap I could feel the difference in the car. I felt much more confident with the car and with a couple laps to warm my tyres up I started to get a better feel for the new set-up.
After many laps of pounding round trying to find some extra pace the session was over. I set a time that was 0.1 of a second quicker than my previous effort but the difference this time was that due to the ambient temperature being hotter the car were slower that the mornings qualifying. I ended up 0.4 tenths off pole man Dias closing the gap and having 2nd place was a decent improvement. Overall the session was much better but still room for improvement.
After my victory in the first race I was in good spirits for the second race and planned to do the same. The changes after the second qualifying definitely made an impact and helped me out massively. I changed a couple more things on the cars before the second race which was a little bit of a gamble but I fancied trying something a little bit different for future reference. Going into the last race of the series I was fairly calm and collected as usually the last race of the series ends up in carnage.
After the last green flag lap I would do in the national class car I sat on my grid slot and prepared for the start. Holding the revs at a steady rate I slipped slightly on the brake pedal which was holding me on the slope and crept forwards, I quickly came off the power and on the brakes at which point the light went out, I got caught out and made a fairly poor start and lost a few places by the first corner.
At the second corner I got a nice surprise of a car spinning directly in front on me and lost even more places to avoid it. I was in 4th place – from which I had to get to at least second place not to spoil a year of getting on the podium and a year of only finishing in 1st or 2nd place. I dispatched of the 3rd place man Max Snegirev fairly quickly which put me onto the back of 2nd place man Joe Ghanem. After many laps of battling I made a bold move into the second corner to take 2nd place.
I was 4 places down on Dias and a fair few seconds, I continued to push for the rest of the race and only realised the laps were going down and Dias was still a distance away. The chequered flag come out and I claimed my 8th second place and finished 15th overall.
I finished the whole year with 11 wins, 8 second places, 11 fastest laps and 6 pole positions. I came into the championship in hope of dominating and wining the whole national series, I can safely say I have done that with a total of 351 points and a lead of 56 points over second place man Dias.
I want to say a big thanks to my sponsors this year without whom I would never have been able to achieve this victory, my family and friends who have given me their full support, my mental mind coach who helped me with my preparation and mental strength when times got hard, my trainer who got me fitter so I can cope with the real challenge of driving any car I can get my hands on and last but not least my team who gave me a championship winning car and took me on this year even when times were tough.
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Coming to Portugal to race is fantastic as I am a great fan of the country and the weather which leading into the race weekend soared into the mid thirty degrees proving fitness to be very important. I came out to Portugal two weeks before the race for a holiday and some heavy training to get used to the heat.
This race weekend is probably the most influential of the whole year as there is a possibility of winning the championship. The score is I have to either get two fastest laps and two second places or one win and one top 5 to succeed in sealing the title.
Going into the first practice session I was very interested on how the car would handle round the relatively low grip circuit. The actual layout of the circuit is very unique and strange, mainly due to the fact there is a lot of undulation. The circuit is similar to Brands Hatch in that sense.
After a poor result at Silverstone a decent result was imminent and with it the hope to win the championship. After getting used to the circuit and driving around for about an hour we stumbled into more engine issues which this time the overheating got the better of this engine and another engine change was undertaken in between practice sessions.
The second practice session was a lot more productive and with a good setup I felt very confident going into the qualifying sessions the next day. After waiting the usual 10 minutes to get some track space I went out on track to put in a hopefully pole lap time. I put in my best time so far but it was 0.2 seconds off Gabriel Dias which put me 2nd in class and 23rd overall which is 2 grid positions behind Dias. The car had been handling very well during the weekend and with only 1 grid positions between me and 1st place there was a decent chance of winning.
Since there was a decent ambient temperature I did not have to work too hard to get tyre temperature for the start. The 5 second board came out so I got the engine at the correct revs and to my surprise the lights came on and went off within half a second. I launched out of my grid slot and managed to get past about 8 cars by the first corner.
After some early accidents a safety car came out for quite a few laps while the carnage was getting cleared up, then another accident happened directly in front of me under safety car conditions! This took even longer to clear up, the safety car was then released and to my surprise Dias managed to get past me into the first corner after a decent slipstream and took the lead.
With 6 laps to go Victor Garcia got past and was pushing to get past Dias and when an opportunity came up I followed Victor past Dias and managed to get a good exit in which I passed Victor as well. I nursed the car home to the finish to take the chequered flag in 1st place and 14th overall doing so increasing my lead from 53 points to 62 which meant all I needed was one more point and I would win the championship.
With the championship even more realistic to get this weekend the pressure was on for the second race but all I needed to do was finish the race and I would win.
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Going into second qualifying I knew Gabriel had more pace than me so the idea was to get as close as possible and if I could out qualify him then that would be great. After pushing for many laps I did not improve much on my lap time from the last qualifying session so in the end was 2nd place to Dias who was 1st and I was 24th overall. Again I was only 2 places behind which meant the job for the race would be easier.
After the first race all I had to do was finish the race and I would win the championship so staying out of trouble was the main thing on my mind.
The start to the race was pretty decent and I managed to get on the back of Dias from the start. I lost some places out to some of the quicker international cars after a few laps and I did not make the task for them very hard as finishing was the only thing on my mind.
I still kept pushing to try and get an opportunity to overtake Dias but he proved to be slightly quicker than myself and he ended up winning the race which left me finishing in 2nd place and 15th overall.
I won the championship by having 53 points more than Gabriel Dias with only another 42 points available at Brands Hatch leaving me more points lead than you can score in an event. Crossing the line and winning the championship was a fantastic feeling and knowing that the next round at Brands Hatch was completely pressure free. This is my first championship win and I will never forget it.
Many thanks to my dad who has managed to put me in a car this year with a difficult time to get money to race, my sponsors for this year without whom I wouldn’t be racing and my team who made the car in winning shape. Thank you all.
I was going to do the Brands Hatch race in the international car but due to the rules of the McLaren Autosport award in which I am a possible nomination for the shootout I cannot race in a class higher than Formula 3 National series. I will be racing in the same car I have all year at Brands and I hope to cap the year off in style.
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Last time I raced at Silverstone I had 1st place snatched from me on the last lap on the second race which really annoyed in more ways than you can imagine and so I wanted this visit to be very different. I very much like the International circuit, although not quite as spectacular as the Grand Prix circuit it still is very decent with a variety of fast and slow corners.
The first practice went reasonably well with only 0.1 of a second separating Gabriel my main rival and me. I had some concern to how the water temperature of the engine was a bit too high but after initial inspections there seemed to be a correction that would solve this issue.
The second practice session proved extremely problematic with the water temperature again being too high – if ignored, it can lead to engine failure. I lost a lot of time in the garage trying to solve the mystery, so from this I had very limited laps and some uncertainty over how the car and engine would hold up in qualifying.
After the practice session the engine was then changed to make sure no mishaps would arrive during the qualifying and a couple of car set-up changes were also made. Going into qualifying the weather was sunny like it had been all the previous day and after waiting 10 minutes for the circuit to grip up from other cars driving around I left and pushed to get my hot lap in. In the end I qualified 2nd in class behind Gabriel Dias and 15th overall only 0.2 behind Dias.
Going into the race I knew I had some handling difficulties which wouldn’t make my race any easier. After a difficult start to the race with my own team mate slowing too much into the first corner I lost many places and had 5 cars between me and 1st place national car Dias. I pushed the whole race trying to catch up the deficit of places and managing to climb slightly higher but to no avail. The whole race I struggled with a lot of oversteer which made my job extremely hard. I had to put up with 2nd place in hope that I could progress both myself and the car for the next race.
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Second qualifying I had to make up some lost ground on Dias and make some set up changes that would help the car in producing a better lap time. From the lack of practice time from overheating difficulties I couldn’t set the car up as quickly as I would have liked. Going into second quali I was reasonably confident that the changes made would help but after 5 laps I soon realised that the car wasn’t quite the balance I would have liked.
I kept pushing to try and get a better time out of the car but after 8 laps this was not possible. The overheating problems had not seemed to stop which also helped in making my job more difficult. I ended up qualifying 2nd in the national class again to Mr Dias this time a dismal 0.6 of a second off and 16th overall.
After many hours of talking with my engineer, from looking into the existing handling issues we tried another couple adjustments on the car in hope of making up some lost ground. After warming my tyres up for the race I prepared myself for a decent start which I succeeded in doing, it was a great shame that I managed to get caught up in the first of many spins and collisions that I had to avoid, this put me way back in the order to 4th place and 20 seconds behind Dias.
I had to make up lots of lost ground and push like crazy to try and catch up. Other cars in the way were the first obstacle I had to overcome and after overtaking 4 of the 5 cars in between myself and Dias I went on a mission to try and set fastest lap and catch up to the back of Gabriel.
After putting down very competitive lap times which at the time was very similar to the international cars I managed to catch up Dias by 0.7 a lap. As the laps went down I still kept pushing but to not luck in the end, the deficit was too great and even though my tyres had seen the best of them I managed to get within 0.1 of a second of the fastest lap.
I had to settle for 2nd place again which in the scheme of things still seemed fairly promising with only 4 more races left and now a points difference of 53 in the lead, I currently have a big advantage in points and which at the end of the day will win the championship for me as long as I keep my head cool and my focus high which I intend to do.
Off to the Algarve next where I intend to finish the championship off and in style. After a few disappointing results I am more than ever focused and wanting to win and the Algarve is the place to do it.
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Coming to Spa is a real treat for all drivers; this circuit is my outright favourite of all time for many reasons, the main reason being the fast corner of Eau Rouge being the most exciting corner of all time regardless of wet dry conditions. Coming back to Spa after a year I was really looking forward to getting out there on circuit and being prepared for any weather Spa could throw at me.
The practice sessions went well which was a good start to the weekend, I knew since the conditions were wet or greasy I would always have the upper hand on my competitors. I have always been very confident of the F3 car in those sorts of conditions and the quick corners of the circuit with minimal run-off areas did not make an exception.
The spanner was thrown in the works when circuit was completely dry for the first qualifying. I had no previous experience in dry conditions all weekend and felt getting a fast qualifying lap out of the car could prove to be very difficult. With rain clouds on the way I had to get a fast lap in straight away and after three laps a decent time was set until red flags from a crash stopped the qualifying session in its tracks.
After the debris had been cleared the track was green and the challenge was to get a better time out of worse condition tyres. I improved on my time which put Gabriel Dias the current pole man under pressure and after which shortly followed by a crash, this meant that I could not improve on my lap time while there was a yellow flag out at that corner due to the wreckage of that car. I did not improve on my lap time but remained in second place for the national race and 15th place overall, only 0.2 off the pole time regardless of the 2 minute 16.4 second lap.
The race was again dry the circuit seemed to be slightly more kind towards us. I was starting one place behind Gabriel which meant the race could be anyone’s. After getting the usual tyre temp over a very long lap I lined up on my grid spot and launched of the start, I narrowly avoided the stalled car of Max Chilton and after a crash on the exit of the first corner again I lost some places putting me 6 places in total behind leader of the national class Gabriel.
The safety car was deployed and after counting the cars behind I knew I had to do something special to get up to the back of Gabriel. After the safety car I was straight on the case and making places up from the first corner onwards. I made 3 places up in two laps and after seeing Gabriel losing a few places I was only 2 places behind, and at which point I had the fastest lap by nearly 1 second! Unfortunately for Gabriel he had a sudden technical issue and I then got past him, shame as I would have liked a race to the end and a battle but it was not meant to be.
In the end I won the race and got fastest lap, finishing 14th out of a possible 24 cars on the grid. I increased my lead by 9 points giving me 69 more points than second place championship man Gabriel.
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The weekend started off slightly problematically with a gearcut issue in qualifying which made it hard to concentrate on getting the best out of the car. This was made worse as I had no practice the day before as would normally happen. I pushed hard to make up time on a damp track but lost some momentum with yellow flags out on circuit. After the 30-minute session I ended up in 13th position for the first and third races with the result of the second race to be decided on the finishing position of the first. It wasn’t the start I would have hoped for but, as there are 30 races over the year, there was no need to worry.
Going into the first race the pressure was off. I had the mentality of having a great start to the race and trying to get into the top eight as a decent target on a very hard overtaking circuit. My start was essential and, after a good tyre-warming lap, I immediately made it into 10th place. I kept hunting down the pair of cars in front of me, once getting up to the back of Will Buller, and getting past pretty easily after a mistake gave me a perfect opportunity. I pushed to get to the back of Jazeman Jaafar but a lack of laps left made it impossible to get past. I finished the first race in ninth position.
The final race saw me starting in 13th place with hopes of finishing in the top ten. I was very focused for the race and managed to get straight into 10th place on the first lap by passing Jaafar. I pursued Alex Brundle and caught up to the back of him, trying many many moves to pass, but to be fair to the guy he drove a sensible, defensive race. It’s a shame I didn’t have much free air as the car felt very decent and was producing some very good times. I finished the last race in 10th position scooping some points.
