Photos: Jim Walsh

If you went to Silverstone in the late 1970s, chances are you would have seen Jim Walsh starring in FF1600

Silverstone’s National layout frequently leads to single-seaters’ closest action today in Formula Ford 1600, and several decades ago series used the Club layout for similar thrills. The Wellington Straight led directly into Woodcote, used as a lap-ending hairpin, and a crowd favourite for FF1600 races on it in the 1970s was local (but Northern Irish-born) driver Jim Walsh.

Why? When there were last-lap fights involving six or more cars for victory, Walsh was able to get through the pack to win.

He is now 73, and since 2003 there has been a FF1600 race at Silverstone which awards the Jim Walsh Trophy. Formula Scout caught up with Walsh to discuss how he became a category legend, and where else his single-seater career went.

Walsh’s route into racing, as for so many drivers did at the time, was a trip to the Jim Russell Racing School in 1973.

“My father was a big motorbike fan and used to take me up to Mallory Park to watch and I always thought I’d love to go motorbike racing,” he recalls. “But a mechanic that worked for my father, John Murphy, was doing FFord and [we] used to go watching him at Silverstone and then my father asked me did I want to have a go and put me through the Jim Russell School.”

Having learned the essentials, the 22-year-old started racing in 1974 with a Merlyn Mk20A run by his family.

“It was a quick car, a nice-handling car,” Walsh remembers. “We had little bits of help, but it was only minor – family, friends and stuff but basically it was my father that put all the money in.”

Ahead of his debut, Walsh tested at Silverstone and had Murphy on hand to provide useful tips.

Silverstone debut, with wife Maureen

“I remember my first winter testing before the start of ’74. I thought I was going into Becketts really quick, and John and Syd Fox just went by me like I was standing still. And I thought: ‘God! How can you get that quick?’. But you just learn quickly [following] a quick driver.

“I spent a lot of time through that first winter practicing and testing in the wet and that’s how I got to love the wet. To get to know how a car [reacts] when you lose it, which way it would go. And it helped when you’re following somebody that was losing a car to know which way they were going to go.”

Walsh’s first start was on March 9 at Silverstone, in the circuit’s first FFord race of the year, and he finished third. After trading the Merlyn for a Van Diemen, he continued to impress and won the FF1600’s Vandervell Award for novice drivers.

For 1975, he switched to a Hawke DL12 and raced in both the British Racing Drivers’ Club and British Automobile Racing Club championships. They were of equal merit at the time, with the British FFord championship being created in 1976.

Walsh won three races at Silverstone in BRDC FF1600, and two there in BARC FF1600. He also won at Brands Hatch and Oulton Park in the latter.

Future Formula 1 driver Geoff Lees was the man to beat, winning the BRDC, BARC and BRSCC FF1600 titles and the final ever edition of the FFord Festival held at Snetterton before it switched to its current home Brands Hatch. All of that success came in a Royale RP21 drawn up by Rory Byrne, who would later design Michael Schumacher’s title-winning F1 cars.

Walsh got himself into a Royale for an “attack on the championships” in 1976 and was again supreme at Silverstone. Seven of BRDC FF1600’s nine races were held there and he won four of them en route to the title, and in BARC FF1600 another Silverstone win sat between two victories at Thruxton.

Going sideways is a skill in FF1600

His rivals included 1992 World Sportscar champion Derek Warwick and Ireland’s three-time Le Mans 24 Hours class winner David Kennedy and CART podium-finisher Derek Daly in a strong year for Britain’s FFord scene.

Despite his success, Walsh’s funds dried up and he sat out 1977. He returned to action in 1978 thanks to sponsorship from Crompton Lighting and his “great asset”, wife Maureen. Together they “mortgaged the house to keep going” in FFord.

Walsh was BRDC FF1600 runner-up on his return, with an early win at Thruxton and two victories at Silverstone late in the season. He was now driving a Royale RP24, the last of the Byrne-designed chassis.

A Royale adorned in a yellow-and-white Crompton Lighting, and going sideways in a controlled slide, is undoubtedly the archetypal image of Walsh’s career.

Royale was run by Alan Cornock, and Byrne’s successor was Pat Symonds. He was responsible for the angular RP26 which Walsh won the 1979 and 1980 BRDC FF1600 titles in, and has been involved on-and-off in F1 for the last four decades.

He followed Byrne to Toleman (which later became Benetton and then Renault), engineering his title-winning designs and rising up the ranks to be the team’s technical director until ‘Crashgate’ in 2009. He was then chief technical officer of Williams and F1 itself, and now consults the Cadillac team working to join the grid next year.

Walsh did not drive for Royale’s works team, but says his car his deal with the manufacturer made him a “semi-works” driver since “we got a lot of help from Alan on that one”. He found working with Cornock and Symonds to be a “brilliant” experience.

“Alan was very supportive and helped me a lot and Pat was a smashing bloke. He was just starting off at the time and we were good friends. We just kind of developed together and obviously Pat went on to do great things.”

Victory at Silverstone

Walsh won 10 more times in the BRDC’s championship in front of its Clubhouse at Silverstone, along with two victories at Thruxton and a maiden triumph at Donington Park. And he was managing his road-surfacing business thoughout.

“Testing was always a bit of a problem with work commitments. A lot of the time you’d use the heats to sort things out. But when I did test it was brilliant. With Pat and Gerry Corbett and Alan we got to the nitty-gritty. I enjoyed the development of the car, trying out different things and getting the car quick.

“I had great help with the development of the car from Gerry at the Jim Russell school as well. Sometimes he would add little bits to the chassis, just to stiffen it a little bit, and that helped with the laptimes.

“Pat was a great help too. We got on ever so well. We helped develop the car and some mornings we were at Silverstone testing in the winter, and it was that cold that the water would freeze when it went outside the garage door when we were changing radiators. He was a great character and he was a great help to me.”

During 1980, Walsh also stepped up to the winged FF2000 as a works Royale driver: “That was a bit ad hoc really because it wasn’t a full team sort of thing, so it was just trying out different races and different cars. But yeah, it was good.”

As part of Royale’s sales drive, Cornock wanted “to promote the car over in Ireland” and Walsh “got invited to race over there at Mondello Park”.

“Never been to the place before, but John Murphy used to have a little racing school there. Cornock had a relationship then with Murphy to promote the Royale car [in both categories],” Walsh explains.

“We went over to Mondello and John walked me around the circuit and showed me the lines and everything. And we were very quick. In fact, first time there we got below the lap record in testing.

Pack racing in FF1600

“Derek Daly was the top Irish driver at the time, and it was so funny, but I had a bit of a hard time getting accepted there, coming over with Royale and beating [locals]. There were some fun and games, shall we say, with the starting. I think the time I posted for the first race was on the front row and they put me on the third row. So, John went and protested and they agreed in the end to put me on the outside of the front row.

“They had some sort of an agreement that they’d appear to say ‘switch off your engine’ and I went to switch the engine off and they dropped the flag. And of course, I went down to about fifth or sixth, but me and Derek Daly had a great scrap, because I caught up with him and we were having a great dice for the lead and he just did this monumental dive down the inside and took the two of us off…

“But after that we were then taking over the FF2000 car to develop that over there and we went quick. [One race] started off dry, but it was a wet race, and we were all on slicks and we went through and actually won the race and that did a lot of good for Royale. The people of Mondello accepted me then as a good competitor, shall we say.”

Back in the day, there were plenty of tricks that drivers tried to get away with. Nothing nasty but a bit of gamesmanship.

“Looking back at them days, we got away with murder at times. When you think of the regulations now with track limits, it’s incredible, it’s got to be a lot more disciplined,” Walsh says.

“John used to teach me all the tricks of the trade,” he adds. “Because there was a lot of tricks in them days.

“I always remember Syd Fox. He was hilarious [with] some of the tricks he used to pull. He used to have a little cup of oil near the manifold and a wire to the cockpit, and he’d pull that to show smoke, and whoever was following would back off. All little tricks that we used to learn. And that’s what made FFord in them days very fun. It was ever so popular. So many entries, three heats and a final. It was good.”

Jim Walsh today

And Walsh himself? Any tricks that he’ll own up to 45 years later?

“I think one of the naughtiest things I ever did was going into Woodcote once, and I think there was about five or six of us abreast, and I was squeezed onto the concrete. There was a marshals’ post just on the concrete on the inside.

“I went round the marshals’ post on the inside to get round and actually got in front at Woodcote on the last lap. That was very dangerous, actually. On reflection, I should never have got away with that, but I did,” he admits with a smile.

There was never a budget for stepping up to Formula 3 with a top team, and Walsh was still driving for fun while working full-time in his company rather than pursuing a career in racing.

He also made a few appearances in sportscars in 1980, driving in Sports 2000 (prototypes inspired by FF2000 and Group 6 sportscars) for near-neighbour John Robinson who built cars for the category under his own name.

For 1981, Walsh signed up to drive the new Magnum 813 in British F3. Understandably, details of events 44 years ago are hazy, but Walsh remembers “an Iranian company that bought the rights of the Magnum F3 car, the design and everything”.

“The chap who was running the team was a Mr [Farrokh] Darriani, who was connected somehow with the Iranian royal family, I believe. It was all very political, and Jim Wright was going to be the team manager and bless him, he was getting really nervous about the potential of [problems] with this Iranian sponsor.”

The Shah of Iran had been deposed in 1979, fleeing to exile and bringing to an end the rule of the Iranian monarchy. A year later a siege at the Iranian Embassy in London, broadcast live on national television, had gripped the nation’s attention. As such, Britain’s relations with Iran were tense, to put it mildly. Not the best time to set up an Iranian-financed F3 team.

Racing against future CART star Roberto Moreno

Walsh was invited to test the car at Silverstone alongside FFord rivals David Leslie and Eddie Jordan, a future F1 team boss.

“It started to rain but they said go out anyway, and even as it started to rain, I still posted a quicker lap than Eddie and David. On the back of that, that they signed me for the drive.”

In fact, as Walsh explains, the Automotive Designs team had its sights set on rapid expansion: “They’d signed me for F3 and Formula 2. They wanted to go all the way.”

But it missed the first two rounds after an accident in pre-season testing before making an inauspicious debut at Silverstone where Walsh qualified 17th.

“The race didn’t go too well because the throttle stuck through the race, so I had to retire. It was a bad time. Fortunately, or unfortunately, should I say, the sponsorship couldn’t get put through because of the ties with Iran. But the chap, even though he knew that the deal had just fell through with the sponsorship, still wanted just to race that first race. And that was it.”

The team appealed to the Royal Automobile Club to try “to get the advertising permit through”,  while Walsh was contacted by Howard Groos to test a Pacer FF1600 car at Snetterton. He claims he was very quick in that test, but it ended badly.

“We broke the lap record there at Snetterton; the Pacer was really quick. But unfortunately, the steering bracket broke going into Riches and it was a big head-on [crash], so I was in Norwich Hospital for a while,” recalls Walsh. “It was a real shame for the car because on the back of that, I don’t think they did too well after that.”

With scant marshalling or medical support at the test day, the badly-injured Walsh had to be cut out of the chassis by two fellow drivers and his Pacer mechanics before an ambulance took him to hospital.

“[In hospital, I] got the news that that the RAC had turned down the appeal against the sponsorship advertising. So, the whole deal fell through,” he says matter-of-factly with a slight shrug.

“A big old accident that just put the damper on things and getting the news in Norwich Hospital that the deal had fell through, I thought I’d done enough in FFord [and] that it was time to give up. ‘You only get one shot’, I thought at the time.

“I was a director of a road surfacing company, so I just decided to concentrate on work and give up racing.”

Walsh never changed his mind, although he did consider a comeback in touring cars a few years later.

“Funnily enough, after all that, when I had ‘retired’, I was tempted with an offer to go into touring cars, which I’d never contemplated. I was always single-seaters, really. Crompton were very keen to do it because of the television coverage. I’d let my licence lapse, so I had to go and get six signatures to get my licence back, but unfortunately that fell through as well.”

He has no doubt that had things worked out differently, the speed and grip of F3 would have suited his style.

“I would have enjoyed that. I used to enjoy the speed that you could take the corners, it was brilliant. I used to get frustrated with FFord in some ways because of the restrictions of the tyres, you were sideways a lot of the time. I was trying to get the most I could out of it. I felt FF2000 and the F3, in the short time that I had, it was brilliant to have that extra speed through the corner. That was great.”

Also testing at Snetterton on the day of Walsh’s crash was Van Diemen’s new factory driver, 21-year-old Ayrton Senna.

Walsh and another F1 champion, James Hunt

“He was quick,” Walsh says of following Senna as they lapped Snetterton. “At that time, Russell was a very quick chicane and there were only a few people that could take that flat in a FFord and [this was] his first time on the circuit. He took [the corner], I followed him through [flat], and he was flat as well. I thought ‘he’s going to be quick’, and that proved to be so.”

FFord was an immensely popular category in Britain at the time, and Walsh raced against — and beat — some of the category’s most iconic names: Lees, Rick Morris, John Village, David Wheeler and Warwick.

“There was some great talent around at the time. We always used to have great dices and still shake hands and have some fun afterwards and never held grudges. There was always good, hard racing. But there’s countless ones that have showed potential but never really got the break. And I think that’s the story of motor racing, you know?”

Walsh lived in Northampton, the closest large town to Silverstone, at the time. Why was he so successful at his local track?

“It was all down to slipstreaming,” he says, modestly. “I learnt a lot in the early days with the likes of John Murphy and Geoff Lees. The secret really was not to lead on the last lap, so you had to make sure that you’re in a good position, second or third. It didn’t always work, but there was a lot of respect as well with drivers. There was one time, I think, we went three or four abreast round Woodcote and none of us took each other off.”

Walsh made his name with last-lap moves at Woodcote in its Club layout form, but had as much fun elsewhere on the track and felt Copse – turn one of the Club layout then and of today’s National layout used by FF1600 – also helped set up his wins.

“Some of the biggest enjoyment was the Grand Prix circuit. I used to love taking Club [corner] flat in top [gear]. There were some great races there. You just learn the tricks of the trade with slipstreaming.”

He added: “Copse was a very quick corner, but mentally you would tend to brake and if you’ve got a good line into Copse on the first lap, you could more or less break the slipstream, and that was the key to a lot of races won.” It remains the case now.

Racing at Brands Hatch

“I actually did quite well at Brands Hatch [too],” says Walsh, claiming he matched the lap record of the period in a Royale RP26.

In the 1978 FFord Festival, he won his heat, quarter-final and semi-final, defeating that year’s dominant driver Kenny Acheson each time. In the 20-lap final, Walsh came up against the Hawke-driving Bernard Devaney in a fierce battle at the front.

“We were pulling away, but Bernard was holding me up and I tried to go around the outside of Paddock [Hill Bend], which was a very dodgy move, and I just didn’t make it around the outside. The two of us came together and I went off and that was that.

“I used to enjoy some of the other circuits – Thruxton and Donington. In fact, there was a lot of times we were right down on the pace, and we had lap record times on different occasions. It was always broken shortly afterwards, but you know…”

Walsh stays involved with motorsport, and of course has a trophy named after him. The race is part of United FFord, the national championship for Britain today.

“[Championship promoter] James Beckett approached me with that. He asked me if I would attend and just hand out the trophies for that meeting.”

He is full of praise for Beckett’s efforts in “[bringing] back the spirit and revival of FFord in both the past and present format, and the racing is a joy to watch”. Beckett is responsible for the Walter Hayes Trophy, the huge end-of-year elimination-format event at Silverstone that first ran in 2001 that attracts ex-F1 racers and future IndyCar talent to compete.

“I have no regrets,” Walsh assures as he looks back on his life in racing. “I had a good career. Sometimes you have to believe that some things just aren’t meant to be. I was fortunate to have a very good wife and two lovely girls, and I had a company to be involved with as well. So, no regrets at all. We’ve had a good life and had a good career in racing.

“Fun days, fond memories.”

The post Jim Walsh: the unassuming master of slipstreaming in 1970s FF1600 appeared first on Formula Scout.

Photo: Gerard Kraaijenoord

To mark the 40th anniversary of her landmark French F3 win at Albi, Cathy Muller joined the Formula Scout Podcast to discuss her varied career, her racing family and women in motorsport

Cathy Muller is unique within motorsport: a European karting champion, a Formula 3 star in the 1980s, the sister and mother of touring car world champions Yvan Muller and Yann Ehrlacher respectively, a racer in touring cars, sportscars and even ice racing, a team manager, active within the FIA and now supporting the Iron Dames project.

Yet despite these remarkable achievements, her name will mean little to most racing fans today. Memories are short. When Sophia Floersch finished seventh in a FIA F3 Championship race at Spa-Francorchamps in 2023, her result was hailed as the first ever F3 points finish by a woman. She had scored in FIA European F3 in 2018, and others in the category had before that.

Muller and Ellen Lohr, as well as others such as Claudia Huertgen, had been regular F3 points-scorers in the 1980s and ’90s. Across her five seasons in F3, Muller racked up 46 top-10 finishes. She joined the Formula Scout Podcast [listen via the link at bottom] to recall that period of her career and much more.

Muller came from a racing family. “My father was racing in hillclimbs in 1974. My parents bought me the first kart and after my father stopped racing, we went on the race track and we started like that. I was 12 years old,” she remembers.

But karting was more than a hobby. After winning the French junior title, the then 17-year-old became the first female European karting champion, taking the 1979 100cc title at the Biesheim circuit, close to the family home in Alsace. “There were only men [racing], I was the only girl,” Muller recalls with a smile.

She would go on to take a world championship, “but it was a women’s championship, so it was not that important,” she adds slightly dismissively.

There was also fifth place in the prestigious Race of Champions (Coppa dei Campioni) held at Jesolo in Italy. “At that time it was a very big race. It was like a world championship so everybody was there like [Ayrton] Senna, Mike Wilson, [Terry] Fullerton, all these top drivers.”

Amusingly, her fellow competitors couldn’t believe that a woman had beaten them. “Nobody really knew that there was a girl. It was not like today [when] everybody knows everything. When I went to take my trophy at the prize giving on the Sunday evening, they were surprised that there was a woman, or a girl, I was very young, and they thought the driver had sent his daughter. But then they found out that it was a girl!”

Muller herself was unfazed. “I didn’t really care. I was there like a driver. It was funny to find out that many people were surprised that there was a girl, but that’s it.”

For 1981 she moved up to cars, initially in the Renault 5 Turbo European Cup but her big break came later in the year after she enrolled in the Elf Winfield school at Magny-Cours. With the backing of Elf, the French state-owned oil company, French motorsport was booming, with a host of future Formula 1 drivers passing through the Winfield school.

Under the watching gaze of Alain Prost, Didier Pironi, Jacques Laffite and other racing luminaries, Muller shocked onlookers by winning the final.

“It was not easy to win, because first we went out and from 300 drivers there was only 10 left.” The field was reduced to five drivers for a five-lap shootout in the grand final. After leader Gilles Lempereur spun, it was Muller who came home first.

However, so great was the disbelief of the jury that they ordered a re-run of the final. Muller won again.

“[Some watching F1 drivers said] ‘ah, that’s great, it’s a girl’, some of them said ‘no, it’s not possible that a girl wins this school’ because it’s only men who [previously] won this school, and men who were now in F1, and were part of the jury. So they said ‘okay, you drive again another heat, with the other ones’ [competing to win]. It was the first time it happened like that.

“We even had to change cars and then we drove the heat again. And every time I went on the track I was faster and faster and faster. And that’s it. I won Winfield Elf school. It was something really very, very nice [and] gave me the chance to have a budget for the year after to do Formula Renault.”

There is a great photo [above] with Muller holding the trophy inside the car, as a who’s who of French motor racing of the time looks on.

“I did the whole year in FRenault [France]. I progressed very well and I won the last race, the final [at Paul Ricard], which was very helpful because then I moved into F3, the European championship.”

She led home Lempereur again in that FRenault race, putting her fifth in the standings while he won the title.

With continued backing from Elf, Muller joined Dave Price Racing for 1983. There was Senna, [Gerhard] Berger, [Emanuele] Pirro and so on, so it was very nice. It was a very good learning year.”

Muller switched to MC Motorsport for 1984 and came 11th in the standings with a best result of fourth at Knutstorp. She finished in the top seven in nine of the 12 races she contested. She also did the 1983 Macau Grand Prix, the first time the race ran for F3 cars, although remembers very little: “I have some flash like that, but I remember only that it was incredible. A good experience. I was quite good on [street] circuits.”

However, the highlight of Muller’s single-seater career and “one of my best memories” came in September 1984 when she took part in a round of the French F3 championship on the Albi airfield circuit.

“At that time my team, the French press and the French drivers said: ‘The European championship is not at a good level. It’s not worth it. The French championship is much better etc.’. The boss of my team had heard enough so he said ‘okay, we’re going to do a race there’. I said ‘Are you sure? Okay, let’s go there.’

“We went there to Albi and I remember there were three corners just after the straight and I was the only one to take these corners flat. I won the race and it was incredible. My mechanics had written on the pit board ‘thank you’, so I think it’s one of my best memories because what is important in racing for every driver is to be very, very close to the team, it’s a team win.”

She tells another humorous story from after that race. “That’s where Jean Alesi said that he saw me making ‘pee pee’ against a tree. It mean that I was not a woman, I was a boy. They tried to find an excuse [for] how they could be beaten by a woman.”

As with her Elf Winfield victory, there was shock. How could a woman win? “They took my car apart after the win, they looked if the tyres were correct, because they said there is something wrong, because it’s not possible she wins.”

Naturally, all was above board. “But that’s how it was at that time. I’m not complaining, at that time if a woman was racing on a circuit, and if you take a boy on the braking, the boy doesn’t like it. So, he prefers to crash than a girl overtakes [him]. I didn’t care. It was their problem.”

Since Muller’s win, there have not been many comparable results by women in contemporary junior single-seater series at the third tier. Rahel Frey won from pole in a German F3 race at the Nurburgring in 2009, and Juju Noda was victorious at Paul Ricard in Euroformula last year but was racing with an officially-sanctioned weight advantage.

Muller gained something of a reputation for her feistiness on track. She agrees but points out that as a woman she had to give as good as she got.

“Of course, you have to be aggressive, even doubly aggressive. The problem was more at that time, but it’s still a little like that now, when there is a woman faster than a boy, you are not sympathique [likeable], you are perhaps not a woman, you are not nice. Do I care? No, it’s their problem.

“The only year where I didn’t have any problem, was the year where Yvan and myself have been driving in the same team. We had the same colour of the car and we had the same helmet.

“There was no radio like today. I never had any problem because they never knew [whether] it was Yvan or me. Much easier, much better and overtaking was normal. That’s how it was. At least it gave me more power and made me stronger. I never give up.”

Talking to her leaves you in no doubt that she was prepared to fight her corner against the men.

Photo: Gerard Kraaijenoord

With the demise of European F3 at the end of 1984, Muller made the move to British F3, then considered the category’s strongest series in. She continued to have Elf’s backing and was back with DPR, who had run the previous year’s champion.

At the time, her arrival was nothing short of sensational. Partly because relatively few Europeans were in British F3, but mainly due to Muller being a 22-year-old woman.

Illustrating the progress in social attitudes in the intervening 40 years, references were as much about her looks as her performances on track. The programme notes for the opening round at Silverstone described her as “the attractive French lady [whose] hard driving, late braking style… could raise more than a few eyebrows”.

Later in the season, she was described as “adding a little glamour to proceedings”. while aiming to “turn a few heads, on the track, as well as off it, this afternoon”.

It turned into a tough year; Muller taking two fourth places and frequently running in the points but never quite getting the breakthrough to make podiums possible.

And she was dreadfully homesick. “For sure it was a mistake for me. I was in one of the best teams but I need to have the family [around me]. We are always all together and I think I was not ready to go away from the family. We live in a part of France where the people are very much more hospitable. When a stranger comes, we look after him.

“In England, after the race I didn’t even have time to [get] changed. I had to go home with the overalls because the team went and that’s it. I was just not ready to go there. I needed more family ambience, so all the racing was not that interesting.”

In 1986 Muller was able to move up to International Formula 3000, one step away from F1, but was handicapped “because we didn’t have the budget”.

“My first race in F3000 was in Pau. No testing, nothing before, so it was quite hard, but it was incredible. Now you go to the simulator or you go to do some test. I was just doing my seat [fitting] in Pau and then straight away in the testing with the F3000. We just had enough finance to do that, but we didn’t have the finance to do the whole season and to do the preparation.”

Perhaps unsurprisingly, she failed to qualify there, and switched teams twice before the end of a difficult season.

She made a return to F3 for 1987 [pictured above], and teamed up with brother Yvan under the Ecurie Elf banner for 1989. “We did the team together because it was easier and the cost was much less. We did everything ourselves. I was doing all the organisation, all the logistics. It’s not the best way to do it. It’s better always to be with a constructor.”

And Muller was already thinking more of her younger brother’s wellbeing than her own racing. “I was more worried about what Yvan was doing, because usually he was in front of me,” she explains.

At the end of the season, she got an opportunity in single-seaters’ second tier again, this time in Indy car racing’s primary feeder series Indy Nxt. Here, unlike the cold English, she encountered a much more welcoming environment.

“America was really incredible. The people were very warm, and everything was new,” she says.

“I [was] invited to do a race in Laguna Seca. Then the year after they said ‘okay, come over if you want to race because we have a budget, etc.’.”

After beginning 1990 on the Phoenix oval, she headed to the streets of Long Beach for the second race. “I was in the same hotel as the Indy [car] drivers [including] Mario Andretti. I went into the elevator and there were two or three drivers, and they said ‘hello, how are you?’. I looked behind me to see who they were speaking to because I never thought they were speaking to me

“Then they said ‘if you need anything or you need some tips, don’t hesitate to come’. That was really a nice welcome.”

Round three was back on an oval at the Milwaukee Mile. Muller was going well until an error cost her dearly.

“I had the best time. I was on pole position. They told me to come in to change the tyres. The pit was very bumpy and at the time, you had no [speed] limit in the pits. I [hit] this big hole [and] went into the pit barrier. ‘Oh my god,’ I said. ‘No, it’s not possible I did that’. So I passed from pole position to dead last, and after it the rain came. They repaired the car very fast, and I went out again and I was top five again. It’s not easy when you don’t know the ovals but it was interesting.”

The team was very apologetic for not warning her. “But I should have been more careful. I didn’t want to get out of the car. You know, I was in the car, and I said ‘oh my god, I’m not going to take my helmet off’.”

Ultimately, just as she was getting to grips with the US scene, having taken consecutive fifth places at Meadowlands and in Toronto, her season was over. “My big sponsor had to stop because of the Gulf War. So I came back to France.”

Despite the welcome from competitors and fans in the USA, she still missed home. “I’m not sure I was ready to leave my home and my family to go over there. I was probably a bit too young, but for sure it would have been really great to continue over there. Regrets? No, I don’t have really regrets. I did other things after which were very nice.”

And she still had the feeling of competing in a man’s world. “At that time, it was not very popular to be a woman racing because [there was a] feeling that if I was in front then the level of the series was bad.”

Having already had a couple of outings in the World Sportscar Championship, she got a last minute call to drive a Spice prototype at the 1991 Le Mans 24 Hours for the Japanese AO Racing team.

“The Japanese girl [Tomiko Yoshikawa] didn’t get the superlicense [so] they called me the Monday before Le Mans to say ‘come over, come to Le Mans, you are going to do the race’.”

Photo: Roger Gascoigne

So, with no testing, she joined an all-female crew with Desire Wilson and Lyn St James, the crew being dubbed ‘The Spice Girls’ by the local media. They “didn’t go very far” as Wilson “lost the brake pedal” with three hours remaining.

“The car was really not looked after. My brother was looking at the car [before the race] and said: ‘My God! You are not going to drive this car.’ It was crazy!”

Muller spent three seasons racing the gorgeous but tricky Peugeot 905 Spider [pictured above] its own series, and was 1994 title runner-up, She saw out her driving days in the Ferrari Challenge, winning her last ever race, despite being two months pregnant with son Yann.

Having run their family F3 team, Muller got more involved in team and driver management, looking after her brother’s career as well as touring car outfit Exagon. Combining that with racing herself became too much. “You can’t be team manager, cooking, organising the logistics and driving. It’s just too much,” she laughs.

For Muller, family clearly comes first. Watching her son Yann race is far more stressful than watching Yvan or racing herself, she says.

“Once you have a kid, it’s just a nightmare. It’s very difficult to be a mother. We did everything with my husband [ex-professional footballer, Yves Ehrlacher] that he [Yann] is not going to race. But at 16 years old he started to race and seven years after he was twice world champion.”

“I did one race with my son, an ice race. He was starting two rows in front of me but I didn’t look at what I was doing. I was looking [at] what he was doing. I understood very quickly that I have to go back and just leave Yvan to deal with the racing. [As a] mum, the first thing you want to tell him is be careful, which is not possible. One day he said to me, ‘mum, you were very stressed on the starting grid’. Since that day, I don’t go anymore on the starting grid or in the pits. No way. I go in the tribune [grandstand], and I hide myself, so I’m sure he doesn’t see me!”

Photo: Cyan Racing

Muller has stayed closely involved with the sport, initially acting as a talent scout for the FIA’s Women in Motorsport [WiM] Commission for 12 years under its president, rally legend Michele Mouton. “We decided to stop at the same time as Jean Todt, to leave new blood doing the job.”

She is now proudly involved in the Iron Dames project, under the “absolutely incredible” Deborah Mayer. “She looks very much after the young kids, she treats her drivers in the best way. What motivates her is her passion. All the team, all the people who work for her, we are all passionate so it is really a pleasure to work for them.”

As part of the Iron Dames “detection cell” she is scouting for talented youngsters. The role also requires a maternal touch.

“[It’s] because they are so young. My job is that they still take as much pleasure as possible first of all and to take away the pressure. I try [to make sure] that the pressure stays only in the tyres.”

Her current focus is on the youngest members of the programme, still in junior karting. “This year we selected two young girls, 12 years old – Vicki Farfus, daughter of works BMW driver Augusto, and a French girl, Mia Oger. Deborah wants to look to the future, for the Iron Dames, so now we start with the young [ones].”

In her FIA role, Muller was part of the team behind the WiM Commission’s Ferrari Driver Academy-affiliated Girls on Track Rising Stars programme. Its graduates have included Ferrari and Mercedes-AMG F1 juniors Maya Weug and Doriane Pin.

While Weug emerged victorious, Muller “was quite sorry for Doriane, because we all saw her potential”.

“I said to Michele ‘we need to do something for her, we can’t leave her’. She didn’t have any budget and her career could have stopped there, you know? So we asked Deborah ‘would you be able to make a test?’. A few days after Doriane did the test in Mugello. And that’s how it started for her.”

Photo: Dutch Photo Agency

“[Iron Dames] managed her very well, but Doriane is so strong. She’s a hard worker. She never gives up. She’s all the time with the data, the engineer and working, working. She trains a lot physically. Now you can see the result. She’s really a nice person, very humble, very normal.”

“I think she’s going to go very far and if there is one [female] driver today able to go to F1, I would bet on her. It’s too early to say F1, but she has the potential, and for sure she will do very high level racing in her career.”

Like Ellen Lohr, Muller has mixed feelings about the merits of the all-female Formula 4 series F1 Academy.

“I’m not the best fan of a women’s championship. Racing generally must be mixed,” she argues. “That’s how the drivers will progress the most. But I must say the way Susie [Wolff] is handling the F1 Academy is very good because on the other side when I see what I have had in my career, I had no advantage. I didn’t want any advantage, but I had more negatives than advantages, because women were not accepted at that time. It means that the one who is going to win is going to go straight up, is not staying for two years or three years in the F1 Academy. It must not be a show like we had already in the past. The level of the F1 Academy is much higher but it must be a bridge to go higher and to drive with boys, with girls, totally mixed.

“I hope we are doing everything to work in the right direction. But for sure, girls like Ellen or me or some other girls, we would have been able to go to F1 at that time. But there was no place really for [women] there.”

The post Podcast: Cathy Muller on her landmark F3 win and defying disbelief appeared first on Formula Scout.

Photos: Ian Salvestrin

As the Italian F4 championship celebrates its 10th anniversary, commentator Ian Salvestrin joins the Formula Scout Podcast to discuss some of the highlights of the first decade and his take on its current crop of talent

While he is involved with multiple car and kart racing series around the globe, Ian Salvestrin’s distinctive voice, enthusiasm and catchy, if sometimes a little corny, driver nicknames have established him as the “voice of Italian F4” for English-speaking audiences.

His level of research, paddock insight and close relationships with drivers and their families put some other commentators to shame.

After attending “one or two races in 2015” Salvestrin’s Italian f4 involvement really took off during its third season in 2016, which he recalls “coincided with the change in the broadcast scene; I guess you could say it’s when live streaming became commonplace rather than experimental”.

“Before Motorsport TV came into existence, it was Motors TV which was run out of England and so we had an English broadcast. It was a highlights series in 2016, so we did hal- hour highlights of each round.”

“[2016] was a trial year. It was on-and-off for 2017 or ’18 off memory because as WSK we were still doing the FIA World and European Karting Championships, which was priority. And then I think from 2018 or ’19 [I’ve been doing it] ever since.”

We are now so accustomed to live streaming of every possible series, it is hard to remember what life was like beforehand. “The world has changed. Everything is broadcast in English and I would like to think to a reasonably high quality,” he says proudly.

What have been his most cherished memories from those 10 years?

Often it has been “the unknown drivers who have gone on to star” who have left the greatest impression on him.

“There has been a lot of favourites that have come in, who have done okayand other unknowns who have not necessarily won the series but have gone on to be absolute stars which no one picked. The classic is Ollie [Bearman] in 2021. He was a good driver in world karting. He did the last couple of races in 2020 with US Racing and he was in the top three or top five. Then Van Amersfoort in 2021 and he just wiped the floor, and we all know the story since.”

On a personal level, a highlight has been the “very good genuine life friends” he has made, thanks to his close involvement with the series over so many years. “Speaking selfishly, you get to know drivers and their families. Week-in, week-out with them. You’re travelling all around the country, so you stay in the same hotels, airports, racetrack.”

On-track, Salvestrin picks out the 2020 season as a personal highlight. “Gabriele Mini in 2020 was class. He was brilliant. That was possibly, and this is a subjective opinion, the strongest season in the series in my humble opinion. You had phenomenal drivers in it, Dino [Beganovic] was there, Johnny [Edgar], Dexter [Patterson], mind you, he was given a crap car, Sebastian [Montoya], Jak Crawford, who won a couple of rounds.

“Remember that was the delayed start year, 2020, so we didn’t start the first round until July at Misano. Gabriele dominated – three pole positions. He was really good. We knew him for the previous five years from WSK karting. He was a worthy winner. He beat Francesco Pizzi to the title.”

That year was remarkable already due to the COVID-19 pandemic and its impact on motorsport, and particularly society’s response and the sport’s reaction to get racing back underway.

Salvestrin has strong views on what he sees as government overreaction, but the circumstances undeniably created a unique atmosphere and camaraderie in paddocks (and led to Formula Scout’s trackside reporter co-commentating with Salvestrin).

“I was actually looking at some highlights the other day and sadly those video highlights will be ever ruined by those ridiculous face masks we wear, so every photo, every video there, we look like clowns,” rues Salvestrin.

“It was bizarre circumstances just to travel, just to make it to the track. There was drivers, there was mechanics, there was journalists, who are not at this round because they’ve tested…”. His “lack of respect for that farcical period” means he can’t bring himself to add the word “positive”.

“It was a tough period to travel, just to be at each race, so it brought everyone stronger. There was a real sense of family, of friendship there and, and ferociously competitive on the track.”

Aside from that year, illuminated by Mini’s brilliance and darkened by the pandemic, he also picks “Ollie the year later” as a highlight.

“Then 2016 with Mick [Schumacher] and Marcus [Siebert] was a strong championship and that came down to the final round. That was David [and] Goliath, not so much Marcus and Mick because they’re both good drivers, but Jenzer Motorsport, the small team versus the monster, which Prema has now become, competing in IndyCar next year, World [Endurance Championship], F4 and Formula 2.”

Salvestrin was also involved in the launch of Formula Regional Europe, initially under the same ACI Sport and WSK banner as F4, in 2019. “That was really good, those events. That was certainly a highlight to have the two championships running together and many of the F4 drivers going into FRegional which still happens now anyhow, but due to circumstances another organisation, or Renault directly, is now doing FRegional,” he reflects.

While FREC ended up being merged with the Formula Renault Eurocup, Italian F4 has grown in strength so much – after seeing off early competition from ADAC F4 – to not only rank as the most prestigious of the FIA-sanctioned F4 series but prove so popular that a multinational spin-off called Euro 4 was launched last year.

Photo: ACI Sport

Salvestrin believes that the success of Italian F4 and the country’s other racing series is due to a combination of factors.

“Italy is the world centre of the karting. If you want to be a professional basketballer you go to America. If you want to be an ice hockey player you go to Canada or Finland. If you want to play cricket, you go to England or my country, Australia. For karting it’s Italy. There is no question.”

“Another reason is, that’s where the industry is,” he says. From the 1960s into the 1990s customer junior single-seaters were largely manufactured in Britain by the likes of March, Ralt and Reynard. Now the segment is dominated by two Italian factories, Dallara and Tatuus.

Salvestrin relates the experience shared with him recently by a competitor in Spanish F4. “They have a van driving from their base in Spain to Italy two or three times a week: Tatuus, the car is manufactured in Italy, the electronics are in Italy, [tyre supplier] Pirelli’s in Italy, the engines are in Italy, the race suit suppliers are in Italy, everything.”

With grids again nudging upwards towards 40, Italian F4 appears in rude health. But could it suddenly implode in the same way as Germany’s ADAC F4 series did at the end of 2022, collapsing under the weight of its own success?

“I can’t see that happening anytime soon because there’s a very good, strong, solid base,” he replies. “I can’t see it collapsing, so to speak. Not at all, because the industry is there, everyone is there. So many people live there, non-Italian people living there and speaking the language, and [the Italians] have learned English [which] has improved dramatically over the past two decades. It has just become a heartland.”

Turning to this year’s championship, Salvestrin is in no doubt that the title fight is already as good as over.

“Ollie was the first English driver to win the series. I dare say, we will have another English champion in 2024. I realise we have only had three of seven rounds. That’s nine of 21 races. Freddie [Slater] has been absolute class. He’s well prepared.

Photo: ACI Sport

“We knew this. He’s a world junior karting champion, he got pole position for his first KZ2 gearbox karting race in 2023. Anyone who’s ever driven a KZ2 kart knows they are absolute violent monsters. They are ferocious. He got pole position in the first race. He won races in KZ2.”

“He did do a couple of races in the Euro 4 series and Italian F4 and got a pole position last year. He’s extremely well prepared with ADD Management, with Prema of course. Nice as possible family. You would not meet a nicer family in the paddock. His parents, he’s the oldest of five, I just cannot speak highly [enough] about them. He’s a class act.”

Like Bearman, Slater has a younger brother who also races. Thomas Bearman recently had a breakthrough karting weekend in Italy, while Alfie Slater is currently 18th in Ginetta Junior, the entry-level sportscar series Freddie won last year.

Despite the older Slater’s dominance, with seven wins from nine races so far, his lead is ‘only’ 38 points over Salvestrin’s “pleasant surprise” of the season so far, Van Amersfoort Racing’s Hiyu Yamakoshi.

“Imola – pole position for all three races by 0.3 seconds, but VAR have struggled since they won the title with Ollie in ’21; a big project to go instantly to Formula 3 and F2 racing. It seems as though their F4 and FREC [programmes] have suffered but they’re back.”

Yamakoshi is the only man to defeat Slater so far this year, winning twice at Imola. “[But] he did frustratingly, dare I say, throw away a win in race three. But he’ll learn from that. He won’t make that mistake again, but he’s quick,” he says.

Slater’s team-mates Tomass Stolcermanis and Alex Powell, a Mercedes-AMG Formula 1 junior, are two more drivers Salvestrin singles out for praise and has high expectations of.

“[Stolcermanis] won a couple of races with the Energy Corse team in karting. Freaking hell, he’s a talent. On his day he pulls off some unbelievable moves. I think when it clicks with Tomass, people will be watching and saying freaking hell, this kid’s good.

Photo: Prema

“Kean Nakamura Berta, a former junior world champion as well, Euro champion. I don’t know what to say. He’s had a couple of incidents. A couple not through his own fault. He’s had one podium, it just hasn’t happened for him so far. He’s also an Alpine F1 junior. He’s also in that bracket.”

Beyond the pre-season favourites, Salvestrin rates Maxim Rehm, “an outstanding young talent,” and his Australian compatriot Jack Beeton highly.

Beeton took pole at Vallelunga with US racing, the reigning champion team. “It’s his second year in the series. He won F4 South East Asia, [where] the level might not quite be the same, to put it politely, but he still won the series. And it’s good experience. The problem is it’s three rounds in and Freddie’s won seven out of the nine races.”

Aside from his driving ability, he emphasizes Slater’s professionalism in front of the media. “One thing which is very impressive about Freddie is his skill with the media. He’s excellent. He’s one of the best I’ve seen,” he says. Praise indeed from a commentator who has seen so many top talents embark on their single-seater careers.

While media training is now a core part of a young driver’s education, Salvestrin laments the difficulty of interviewing some of the less talkative drivers.

“In years gone by, I’ve had to interview so many racing drivers. And some drivers from various countries are not so good with the media and it’s one word, one syllable answers. I love it when an American wins a race. I don’t even need to ask a question, just give them the microphone and go and have a coffee. Come back in five minutes and they’ve just written a Hollywood-style speech. The Americans are absolutely brilliant!” he enthuses.

“Some of the people with the media, it’s natural. It’s just the same as some are natural drivers or some are natural footballers or natural runners or whatever. Some are just natural with the media and Andrea [Kimi Antonelli] is actually very good. I must say he’s got that very bubbly personality which he’s had since he’s eight years old [while] Freddie’s a well-spoken Englishman.”

Photo: ACI Sport

The key to Slater’s performance is in his preparation, Salvestrin believes.

“That’s critical because they’re racing three times in the weekend. Then it’s three weeks to the next race, so it’s very concentrated to excel in that that short period, the qualifying sessions very short, you’ve got one lap [with peak grip], so the preparation’s absolutely key. And this is where Freddie’s done very well, but as I said, he took pole position in his first ever KZ2 kart race which Andrea did too,” he notes. “Not a coincidence!”

Clearly, for Salvestrin, a young driver that can perform on a KZ2 kart (against the older, more experienced opposition who can spend many years becoming the standard setters in shifter karting) is a talent to watch for.

Salvestrin’s commentaries are peppered with self-created driver nicknames, some of which stick as they move up – “Dynamite Dino” or the “Boy from Brazil”, for example.

“It’s just a natural creation. And sometimes it works. Sometimes it doesn’t,” he admits. “I do try and give interest to the people watching. We had so many safety cars at the weekend. Immensely frustrating. I can only describe the race order on lap eight so many times without giving other pieces of information. Certainly [I have] no intention of ever being disrespectful or turning it into a gimmick or a sideshow.”

With multiple racing series competing for fans’ attention, and F1 squeezing other categories out of the media spotlight, a bit of humour can help get attention, as long as it is in combination with the knowledge and passion that we expect from those calling the races for the television and streaming audiences.

While Slater is in a commanding championship position, his rivals can reduce the pace gap. Will anybody launch a challenge in the season’s second half as Kacper Sztuka did in 2023? If they do, Ian Salvestrin (and Formula Scout) will be there.

The post Salvestrin calls Slater “a class act” among Italian F4’s long list of stars appeared first on Formula Scout.

Photo: Kacper Sztuka

Sixteen years on from Robert Kubica’s F1 victory, Polish motor racing is on the verge of a new boom. Two drivers leading the current generation of young Polish single-seater talent join the Formula Scout podcast.

Born just a month apart in the same hospital in southern Poland, Kacper Sztuka, the reigning Italian Formula 4 champion, and Tymoteusz “Tymek” Kucharczyk, the current points leader in GB3, have progressed through the ranks together.

Their fathers, Lukasz and Maciej, competed against each other in rallies and their sons “started karting together when we were like four years old,” explains Sztuka. “Tymek’s father was pushing my father to do it together and we finally made it to the track.”

After competing together through their karting years, the childhood friends have since taken diverging paths as Sztuka headed to Italy, winning the F4 title at his third attempt, before being snapped up by Red Bull to join MP Motorsport in FIA Formula 3 for 2024.

Kucharczyk graduated to F4 in Spain, courtesy of the Richard Mille Talent Academy shootout, taking third in the championship in 2022, before moving up to GB3 in Britain last season.

Illustrating the brutal ups-and-downs of motorsport, after a stunning second half to his F4 season with 10 wins from 12 starts in the Italian and Euro championships, Sztuka has endured a difficult start to his F3 season, reaching a nadir with the announcement just after our interview that he had been abruptly dropped by the Red Bull junior programme.

Kucharczyk, on the other hand, has bounced back from a difficult learning year in GB3 to score three victories with Hitech GP, including two last time out at Spa-Francorchamps, to sit on top of the championship standings after three rounds.

“I’m just super grateful, to be honest, because it finally seems that everything starts to work out really well for me and for the team,” Kucharczyk says.

“We’ve been quite a bit unlucky for the first two rounds, especially in round one when we should have scored a podium.” After “a bit of my mistake in race two at Oulton [Park] and a much better round two at Silverstone and then that amazing last round at Spa,” he finds himself leading the championship, “which is really crazy,” he says.

“We were super quick all weekend. Whatever the conditions were, if it was either like wet or dry, we were the quickest. That gives us a lot of confidence for the next round. I have a lot of positives to take out of the weekend. I’ve learned quite a lot of stuff. The more laps I do, it’s just getting better and better.”

Despite his two wins in Belgium, he is aware that there are still areas to improve. “I know I should have done a better job on my second-best lap [and] in the last race. There’s so much going on in race weekends and your driving is so limited that you don’t know really what could happen, but I’m just happy that I didn’t take that too much risk that I could deliver the results that gave me the championship lead, that’s the most important thing.”

Now, he adds, he needs “just to keep that momentum going and score the points and keep on this form.”

Having moved across from Douglas Motorsport over the winter, Kucharczyk underlines the hard work he and his new team Hitech have put in “because we struggled a bit in the beginning of this season, I’m not going to lie.”

Although the decision to go to Hitech came “quite late, so I didn’t have much time to adapt to a new team,” he has settled in quickly, helped as well by already knowing his team-mates from karting.

“The people [in Hitech] are taking their job really professionally and are true fans of motorsport,” he enthuses. “It’s a huge team, with F4, GB3, FIA F3 and F2, so there’s a lot of people walking around and my team boss is a really important person in the paddock.”

Photo: Jakob Ebrey Photography

“It was not easy really in the first few test days [and] we didn’t show our real true pace but I’m just happy that in the races we could prove everyone wrong. Six wins in a row for Hitech GP just shows on what level we are right now,” he says.

Besides adapting to the new team environment, “the tyres changed a bit. I think I had to adapt a bit longer than I would have expected to do, but I’m super happy to make the team proud [and] to finally make some good results.”

Kucharczyk feels that he has developed in the last year. “I generally think that I’m a bit more mature driving now, I’m a bit calmer. I’m trying to analyse a bit more what’s going on around me and [what] the track’s looking like.

“Now I’m trying to be a bit more focused on the setup and also only on the driving while I’m in the car. I just know what I have to do really and obviously, I believe the team that they give me a good package so I can just do my job, and I don’t need to care about anything.

“Last year it’s been a bit of ups and downs. It was never really constantly good. We were fast last year. Most weekends, at some point we were the fastest or closer to the fastest, but something was just not clicking right. What I think I was lacking a bit [was] that confidence from the team that you know that they can deliver the car and I can just deliver the results. The way the team works, it’s just so professional, like another level really. So, everything is turning out how it should be really.”

As Kucharczyk’s world looks increasingly bright, Sztuka has been struggling to get to grips with “the very big step” to F3, with the added pressure of Red Bull’s expectations upon him.

After two seasons with US Racing in F4, meaning he “spent a lot of time with the team, the mechanics and the engineers,” he has also been adapting to a new environment at MP Motorsport.

Photo: Red Bull

Though the lack of testing compared to F4 has made “the process of getting used to the team a bit slower,” he was able to establish “a very good feeling with the team” from day one, he says. Compared to F4, he has been shocked by the amount and depth of data analysis required in a top F3 team like MP.

“I’m happy to be in this team. As a rookie it’s a really good place to learn and to build the pace there. The teamwork which is very important in F3 is done properly. We are getting used to each other in the team,” Sztuka adds.

On track, the opening rounds in Bahrain and Melbourne “were something different to what we have in the normal European season,” he admits.

Racing for the first time outside Europe, Bahrain’s abrasive track surface and resulting “really high” tyre degradation caught him out, while F3’s limited track time meant he was under immediate pressure to learn the Albert Park circuit.

Despite that, he believes that “it wasn’t as bad as the result was for me in terms of driving, especially in qualifying as it improved by a lot comparing to Bahrain. It just seemed like the pace wasn’t there from practice until the feature race,” he explains.

Back in Europe, Sztuka feels that the “Barcelona test gave me for sure a much better feeling in the car,” ahead of the Imola-Monaco double-header.

He’d been hoping to show stronger form at Imola, a circuit where he won in F4, and “improved” qualifying pace put him 12th which, he says, “wasn’t actually too bad. I wouldn’t normally be happy with P12 in qualifying, even though it gives me pole position on Saturday, but the fact I did it on used tyres makes it a bit better. For sure I’m not saying I would score pole position, but I think I could be a bit higher with a new set.”

Photo: Red Bull

Despite those positive signs, he again struggled for pace in the races. He did score his first points with fifth in the sprint race but would have been hoping for better after starting from reversed-grid pole. “Difficult first lap on Saturday and then a bit of struggle in in the first part,” he says, and while Sunday’s race brought further disappointment, he felt that he had “learned a lot from Imola.”

While “not happy with the result” on his first-ever race on a “proper street circuit” at Monaco, it still “wasn’t too bad,” he believes. “I wish I was in the points all weekend, but I’m not saying it was a completely negative weekend. There were some positives, and we also found a good balance on Sunday with the race set up.”

As the F3 field heads back to Barcelona and a run of tracks he knows, he is confident that he and his MP Motorsport team have made some strong progress, with “a lot of lessons learned in these two weeks,” making improvements on his main weakness so far, the all-important one lap qualifying runs.

“Now we have to work on the race runs and, of course, keep improving qualifying but we are for sure moving in a good direction. I think there is for sure a few reasons to bring better results.

“But in the end, it’s about the performance, the speed and the work you put in,” he reflects.

As Sztuka looks forward to showing his potential on circuits he knows, his backers at Red Bull have, after just four rounds, decided to put an end to their cooperation.

Speaking before the split was announced, Sztuka had been positive about the support from Red Bull, including runs on the sim in Milton Keynes, singling out the head of the driver academy, Sebastian Vettel’s former engineer, Guillaume Rocquelin, better known as “Rocky”, for praise.

Photo: Red Bull

“He comes after each race to have a chat, to speak about what went well and what went wrong” Sztuka says. Interestingly, given what later transpired, he adds that “we also spoke about the progress and we both think that that the results should come, and we should focus on what we do on the driving, and I hope we can get good results.”

As for Dr. Helmut Marko, “the contact is more limited than people think,” he adds.

While Sztuka has said on social media that he intends to see out the F3 season, the loss of Red Bull support inevitably re-opens the never-ending search for budgets, something that both Sztuka and Kucharczyk have struggled with.

Kucharczyk has no doubts that without the budget that came from winning the Richard Mille award, he wouldn’t have been able to move up to cars. “Winning the shootout made me able to race in formula cars. That’s a fact. Without winning it, I wouldn’t be here. I guess I’d be still in karting or whatever, doing some nonsense stuff really at this age.”

The Polish fans, who previously supported Kubica in great numbers, have waited a long time for the next heroes to cheer for.

Sztuka appreciates the “great support. The Polish fans are the best fans, as we say. I’m grateful to have them.”

“There are a lot of people watching our sport, especially due to the Netflix series [Drive To Survive] which had an impact obviously. It’s a very popular sport and as we are climbing to the pinnacle of motorsport, there are more and more people following us.”

Kucharczyk says he has even seen Polish flags “at Silverstone, which was really, really good. I was just driving with my smile all lap long, just waiting for the flags on the straight,” he laughs.

“I would say that the generation we have now of Polish drivers is probably like the golden era of single-seater race car drivers in Poland for a very long time, since Robert Kubica really,” he continues.

Photo: Jakob Ebrey Photography

“But Poland is more of a rally country than a racing country and people don’t realise how expensive it is,” says Kucharczyk.

“There’s a lot of talented drivers in Poland right now that could easily go up to FIA F3 or FIA F2 just like me and Kacper,” he maintains.

“Poland just needs to understand that without real backup, a real academy or whatever, without the support of Polish government, we probably won’t reach F1 or be even close to F1. It’s just financially not possible. Me and Kasper are working very hard to show all the little kids racing in Poland that is possible to race. But they have to work very, very hard and get that financial back up.”

Sztuka agrees: “Just the fact I made it to F3 makes me really proud because it’s not really possible for some other drivers even though they are very talented.”

“There are many talented Polish drivers right now, so I think we have a very good potential to have at least one of us in F1 [but] it’s really important right now for Poland to give them the financial support and at least a chance to show themselves.”

Kucharczyk emphasizes that “getting the financial backup is so hard in Poland that probably for most of the young Polish drivers, it’s just hard to show off their real skill. Me and Kacper obviously got super lucky that we managed to race together in karts to be in that kind of environment where all the young talents are showing up and we were one of the brightest out there. But not everyone gets that lucky.”

The lifelong friends spent “eight or nine years” racing karts, “staying in the same hotel, travelling together in the same car or plane.”

Sztuka remembers “some other drivers on the way, [who] were with us for two or three years but only me and Tymek were there from the beginning until the very end of karting. And then, of course, we split in F4 but I hope we can we can get back together as F3 and F2 is a world championship so you cannot choose anything else than that.”

Photo: WSK Karting

So, the big question: who was faster in karts?

To Kucharczyk’s pleasant surprise, Sztuka modestly suggests that “Tymek was faster, looking at the whole career of karting. I had good moments, but I think Tymek just had more good moments than me. A shame we couldn’t compare each other in F4, but in karting he was faster.”

For his part, Kucharczyk (pictured above in 2021) acknowledges that “in one lap pace, Kacper could really be impressive, [which] sometimes caught me absolutely off guard.

“I would say also I had a bit more constant karting career, so Kacper did quite a bit of switching between teams, trying to find that sweet spot, where I just basically stayed in two teams for most of my karting career.”

Could the friends be reunited on the FIA F3 grid in 2025, budgets permitting? Or even F2, as the pair jokingly suggested during the interview?

Kucharczyk is clearly heading in the right direction for F3, if he can maintain his current form. “The GB3 car is actually a bit quicker than the FRECA so I would assume that it prepares you a bit better to FIA F3 and so to FIA F2 too. Just where will I get the money from?” he laughs.

Sztuka has always been a driver who requires more time to adapt to a new category, something that obviously sat uneasily with Red Bull’s operational style. Hopefully, without the strictures of an F1 academy to adhere to, he can find his own rhythm and rebuild his confidence to prove his doubters wrong.

The enthusiastic and loyal Polish fans will certainly be hoping for another driver or two to cheer for at the top levels soon.

Photo: Tymek Kucharczyk

The post Pole positions: The lifelong friends leading a Polish racing resurgence appeared first on Formula Scout.

Photo: Photo Gregory Lenormand / DPPI

When F2’s new era begins, the racing world will likely follow one rookie in particular: Andrea Kimi Antonelli

By now, news of Mercedes-AMG Formula 1 junior Andrea Kimi Antonelli’s step up directly from Formula Regional to Formula 2, skipping Formula 3-level competition entirely, has been widely reported. Since rumours of his move started to circulate in the Monza paddock in September, the level of hype has seemingly gone into overdrive.

Twelve months ago, Antonelli had just made his FRegional debut in the Middle East’s championship. Now he is already being considered a sure bet in some sections of the media for an F1 seat at Williams for 2025, and even, following Lewis Hamilton’s shock move to Ferrari, at Mercedes.

His sensational talent has been well-known in junior racing circles since before his eagerly-awaited single-seater debut in 2021, once he had turned 15.

Formula Scout has naturally followed his development closely, from being in the paddock for his debut weekend in Italian Formula 4 at the Red Bull Ring to following his title-winning FRegional European Championship campaign trackside in 2023.

Having interviewed Antonelli after his double F4 title triumph in 2022, it was a pleasure to again welcome him back to the studio for a follow-up as he prepares for the demands of an F1 support series after FREC’s relatively relaxed atmosphere.

How hard has it been to get used to the amount of attention from the mainstream motorsport media and fans?

“It was not easy because obviously all of a sudden from when the news came out, it was like ‘bang!’,” he says.

“It was the first time I was experiencing such a thing, but Prema and Mercedes were ready for that, and they helped me to keep focused especially because when the news came out it was during the FREC season so I still had to deliver and to finish the job, so I had to stay focused.”

News of Antonelli’s jump up the ladder came as a major surprise. So how did the plan come about?

“The initial decision came from Mercedes,” he explains. “They obviously want the best for me. And they made the decision because they think it’s the best for me.”

Nevertheless, he admits that when he was first informed of the idea, “I was quite shocked, to be honest”.

“But at the same time, I was really happy because I was like ‘wow, F2, a really big step’. I was really excited but, at the same time, initially I was a bit concerned because I know it’s a really big step because I’m skipping F3, but it is a new challenge.”

After a win-free beginning to the season, “FREC was going really well” with victories in three successive rounds and he had “managed to recover after a difficult start, so [Mercedes] were really happy with that”. That’s when the F2 discussions began.

The final decision was taken “after the summer break”, he confirms, with Antonelli still in a tight title fight at the time with Martinius Stenshorne and with four rounds to go, meaning he needed to avoid being distracted by the sudden attention.

“I was like: ‘Yeah, guys, like, I’m really happy. Thank you for this. But let’s first finish the job in FRegional, and then we’ll think about F2.'”

Having had time to get used to the vastly increased scrutiny, Antonelli appears comfortable in the glare of the enlarged spotlight now, even finding it “kind of motivating”.

“I’m not really concerned anymore about this step because in testing I felt quite comfortable,” he said, adding his focus is already on the job ahead, and “trying to get ready, as best as possible, for the first race”.

Photo: Formula Motorsport Ltd

The Mercedes hierarchy, from team principal Toto Wolff downwards, have clearly been trying to downplay expectations, and, together with Prema, will aim to cosset their protege as much as possible. “Prema and Mercedes really helped me on that side and both of them don’t want to set any expectations for me,” Antonelli explains.

He has been within Mercedes’ ranks since 2018, having been scouted by the junior team’s leader Gwen Lagrue while still in mini karting. With Frederik Vesti moving onto endurance racing and Paul Aron leaving the programme, he will be the marque’s most senior representative in junior single-seaters this year.

Antonelli’s F2 move is something of a break with tradition from Mercedes’ usual more conservative approach. He admitted to Formula Scout after his triumphant 2022 in F4 that he had initially been disappointed not to move up to F3 for 2023.

“I have to be honest, I wanted to go to F3 but speaking to Mercedes at the end we decided together to do FRegional, not because of the speed but because of experience,” he said at the time.

For Antonelli, Mercedes’ support has been “crucial since I started with them, and I’m really happy to be with them for several years now and to keep going with them”.

“I have mainly Stephane [Guerin] and Gwen [Lagrue], but this year, I will have also Jerome [d’Ambrosio – ex-F1 driver and GP2 race-winner, now Mercedes’ driver development director] and other people from Mercedes, so I will have their full support.

“I have a really good relationship with all of them and I actually enjoy spending time with them on the racetrack. They’re really supportive, especially on the hard moments, on the difficult moments, they’re always there trying to try to hype you up, to push you to work harder and to do even better, and I think that’s really helped me, not only as a driver, but also as a person.”

As Antonelli explains, the support from Mercedes does not stop when he leaves the track.

Photo: Prema

“For example, from last year they gave me a full-time personal trainer who helped me on the physical side, especially after weekends, because now he moved to Bologna, where I live. It’s really helpful that I can actually have consistency on the trainings, which is really important, especially for this season.”

F2 has a brand new car for 2024, and Antonelli drove its predecessor in the three-day 2023 post-season test at Yas Marina Circuit. He was seventh fastest, 0.212 seconds off the benchmark pace, and his average long run pace was the 15th best.

“I felt good with the car straight away. This is something I didn’t expect,” he admits. “From the first day, I really, really felt confident with the car. I kind of expected to be on the pace, but obviously, I know the level is really high.

“The team really helped me because they also know the car very well so they could set up well straight away, even to help me to adapt to the car. So maybe we started also with an easier set-up in order to help me and then we developed on that.”

He adds: “From the first session I just tried to improve lap-by-lap, even though it was not easy, because in F2 with the tyres you don’t have many laps, so you’re quite limited on that side. It’s not like the lower categories, where you have many push laps because the tyres keep improving.

“Actually, in F2 it is the opposite; the tyre gives you the best on the first laps, and then it starts dropping so you need always to get the best out of it in the very beginning. And that is one thing where I struggled during the test, because being used to the FREC tyres, I had to change a bit the mindset. So trying to give everything at the very beginning, while in FREC you try to keep a bit of margin in the start to then give everything at the end when the tyres give you the best. So this was a point where I struggled during the test, but I improved in the last two days. Apart from that, the feeling was good.”

Although an analysis of testing times compiled by Formula Scout revealed Antonelli’s long-run pace was 1.311s down on team-mate Ollie Bearman, he was satisfied with the progress made in that area of driving.

Antonelli’s single-seater career

“The long run was surprisingly good, because I really tried to focus on feeling the tyre, also talking to my engineer, not going over the limit of the tyre, because in F2 there is no real degradation of the tyre, it is more thermal.

“If the temperature goes way too high, you start to lose a lot of performance, so you have to stay under that window of temperature. I have to say, I really improved during the three days in the long run, because I understood how to stay under that window. Obviously there’s still quite a bit of room for improvement, but [the long run] was actually really good.

“Where I struggled, to be honest, [was] to extract the best out of the tyres in the first two laps. I was always doing the lap way too late compared to the others. So this is going to be one of the main areas to look to improve.”

Having begun to get on top of the specifics of F2’s challenging Pirelli tyres, he was undaunted by the step up in performance.

“The power was not that big an issue, to be honest. The main difference compared to FREC was the braking, because in F2 you have carbon brakes, which are really, really powerful. You can put quite a lot more pressure on braking, and you can actually push the braking quite a lot.

“So that was [another] thing where the first day I struggled a little bit, but then I improved. Also, the brake warm-up because carbon brakes, under a certain temperature, don’t work well. Keeping the temperature up was not easy during the test. The first two days I really struggled but then in the third day I fixed it. The braking was quite a bit of a challenge during the test. But after every run I was understanding more and more. For the [pre-season] test in Bahrain I will try a few new things in order to improve also the brake performance and hopefully it will work out.”

He confesses that the first three-day test also underlined the higher physical demands placed on the driver. “Physically, it was tough. In Abu Dhabi, I’m not gonna lie, on the last day I struggled a little bit of the physical side.”

Photo: Prema

The initial challenge there came from having “to change the training quite a bit from FREC” to suit F2’s cockpit demands.

“F2 is quite a bit more demanding: it has more downforce, the car is a bit heavier, so the g-forces are higher, and also it has no power steering, so with more downforce the steering wheel is heavier as well.”

Where did it hurt most? “Everywhere!” he laughs, before clarifying that while his neck had been fine “because I really worked before that test on the neck muscles”, his arms were “the main area where I struggled”.

“The best training is in the car,” he says. “In the car with the g-forces, and other factors, you use muscles a bit differently [to the gym].”

As a result, Antonelli has been “training quite a lot” during the winter break. “I really worked hard. And now I’m really pushing on the physical side to be as ready as possible for the first race.”

Ominously for the opposition, he adds: “I think I didn’t have the full confidence still at the end of the three days. But for the next few tests that we will do in Bahrain [on February 11-13] it will be much better.”

Unless a chance arrives to do a shakedown test for their team, that will be first time the 2024 F2 field get to drive the championship’s new car. Antonelli says that the potential levelling effect on performance that could have between the experienced and inexperienced drivers was “for sure” a factor in the decision to race in F2 this season.

“The new car is new for everyone, so that is also a help,” he says. “Experience will still pay off a little bit, especially at the beginning, even though it’s going to be a new car. It’s going to be a new challenge for everyone, not only for drivers, but also for the teams.

Photo: Prema

“We’re just at the beginning of developing [the car] because it’s just been released but for now we’re doing good work. We’re doing quite a lot of [simulator] sessions because they can help with trying to find the best compromise on the car balance.”

Only once Prema can get out on track for the “crucial” Bahrain test will “we really understand how the car works with the new regulation, and how it will behave”.

It’s not only the performance and handling of the car which will require a rapid adaptation, but the format of events too. There’s limited track time before qualifying with one practice session, while in FRegional and F4 he enjoyed pre-event tests and multiple practice sessions.

“In the first few rounds, I will need to adapt to this new format, to change a bit the way I approach practice because when you have only one practice, you really need to maximise all the track time you have. Already I’m working on the sim to change this mindset and try to maximise every lap. The sim is one thing, on the real track is another thing. For sure we’ll need a bit of adaptation, but then I think we’ll be fine after a bit.”

If Antonelli is able to adapt quickly, and there is no serious doubt that he can, it will also reflect well on FRegional as a category for developing young talents.

Antonelli had surgery on a broken wrist in November 2022, a legacy of his gold medal-winning drive in the FIA Motorsport Games F4 Cup the month before, and it restricted his off-season schedule before FRegional Middle East began in January.

“I missed like the whole winter testing. I did early Mugello. And then one day in and out in Barcelona,” he says, adding he “went to the UAE with basically no experience” and “still not fully recovered with the wrist from the injury”.

He went on to win the title in his “useful” FRME campaign, despite the start “not being the easiest”, then did the same in FREC.

Photo: SRO

“Even though the tyres were different [Gitis instead of FREC’s Pirellis] and also the engine was different [Alfa Romeo in place of the Alpine powerplants used in Europe], it was still good learning, to understand how the car was working race-wise and during the quali. Especially in the races, while following other cars, which was really difficult. In the end, we managed to win the championship, which kind of prepared me for the European season.”

Antonelli flitted between second and third in the standings through the first seven races of the FREC season as he picked up three second places but no wins.

“The start was not the easiest, especially in Imola with the technical issues and in Budapest, where I had a gearbox problem in race one,” Antonelli reflects. He and Prema’s engineers “worked really hard”, taking their first win in round four at Spa-Francorchamps and moving into the points lead in round six at Paul Ricard with his third victory of the campaign.

“Consistency was the key to the championship. Even in those weekends where we were struggling a little bit with the pace, we managed to take the best out of it, scoring the most amount of points we could and that allowed us to win the championship,” says Antonelli, whose title-winning margin over Stenshorne was 39 points.

The Paul Ricard win before the summer break “was really, really a good thing, especially on the mental side”, and the maien win at Spa “was also a turning point on the mental side because it gave me the momentum to keep pushing hard”.

Once Antonelli had momentum, he wasn’t planning to give it up easily, racing with an F2 future now at the back of his mind. In fact, rather than adding pressure, he “turned into extra motivation to do even better”.

“I didn’t really want to think about F2, because I knew there will still be a job to finish, which was obviously FREC. Even though they told me that I would have gone to F2 [anyway], I still wanted to do my best and to finish the job in the best way possible.”

Photo: Diederik van der Laan / Dutch Photo Agency

After a fourth win of the season at Monza, the title was within reach and Antonelli clinched it with a scintillating drive to victory in the penultimate round at Zandvoort. “A great weekend and to take the championship with a win was really special.”

His performance in the Netherlands, particularly the win in race two, underlined what makes Antonelli special.

“I think that was one of my best races. During the whole weekend we’d been really fast in the wet, from the practices. Qualifying on Sunday didn’t go as planned, because the red flag came out and also the session wasn’t restarted so it was a bit of a mess. In the race, we showed our real potential in the rain. The car was working really well. I felt really good in it and I was just driving naturally, not thinking, and everything was coming easy.

“It was not an easy race, don’t get me wrong, because conditions were really difficult, it was really slippery because it was really cold and windy. So even to keep the tyres up to temperature, especially behind the safety car, was really difficult. It was really tricky but I just felt really good under those conditions.

“It was one of the best feelings I’ve ever had in a race car, because I was just driving naturally, and the outcome was the win.”

While Zandvoort was undoubtedly a highlight, the tragic loss of Dilano van’t Hoff in the race Antonelli won at Spa cast a shadow over the season. “It was really a hard hit,” Antonelli recalls of the race. “Everything happened like super fast. When I think about that, I was on the track at the same time. It was really hard to get back, to focus mentally, because, obviously, you never want to to experience these kinds of things.”

The paddock was back racing a week later at Mugello, which Antonelli initially found difficult.

“It was hard to get back in the right mood, but at the end, this is what I love to do: I just tried to keep going and to do even better. That was my mentality that weekend and since Spa I raced for Dilano as well, [it] was my motivation to do it better.”

Photo: FRECA

Starting 2024, Antonelli’s feet are still firmly on the ground and neither he, Prema or Mercedes want to make bold claims for the season.

“Of course, the mentality is to try to win, but at the same time, I am aware of the difficulties that I might face during the season. For sure, I’ll try to do my best. I’ll try to learn as much as possible in testing, in order to make as much experience as possible and then we’ll see during the season where we will be, but I think we can do a good season. I just need to keep working hard and try to do the best job as possible together with the team.”

“I’m just really looking forward to this season,” he says. He’s not the only one, that’s for sure. It’s going to be a fascinating year.

The post How Antonelli is getting to grips with F2 in the racing world’s spotlight appeared first on Formula Scout.

Photos: Gavin Baker Photography

On this week’s podcast, Road to Indy star Mac Clark talks about his career so far and what’s lined up next

A protege of former IndyCar star James Hinchcliffe, Mac Clark is a rising talent on the IndyCar support bill but is well aware that is gets harder, rather than easier, to add to his successes as he goes up the single-seater ladder. Following a 2023 USF2000 campaign that did not quite go to plan, Clark is in good spirits about 2024 as he plans to race in USF Pro 2000.

He has already starred in the series, taking pole and two podiums in a cameo appearance, but will that make it any easier to find a full-time seat for next year and once in the series to achieve such results again?

Clark joined the Formula Scout Podcast to talk about the high points of his career so far, the challenges he has overcome, the challenges he is still to face and why he loves oval racing. You can listen to it on Google Podcasts, CastBox, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify, and can read the interview below.

Mac Clark, you’ve been busy in recent seasons. This year I’d say there was a lot of expectation coming into due to previous years, but it didn’t quite go to plan. Would you agree with that assessment?
I would. And I appreciate the way you hyped me up a bit there. This year, the goal was to really go in and be successful right away. And for us that didn’t happen. We had a really rough start to the season in USF2000, and then we kind of found our footing in the middle part, but at the end of the day we didn’t come home with what we wanted. That being the championship.

How much of that was down to circuit familiarity. And that first weekend was so bad compared to what the rest of the season would be. Did that kind of throw you off what you’re expecting going forward thereon?
I think so, yeah. We had a lot of mechanical issues early in the season. We had an engine let go, we had some electronics issues, so I think that definitely didn’t set the stage nice for the whole season, for the remainder of it. And definitely put us on our back foot in terms of championship points as well. I mean in a series that’s so competitive, if you have one or two bad weekends it can really affect how the whole calendar yet shapes up.

Does that change your approach in weekends, if you’re already know you’re in the chasing position?
In my opinion it does. I’d never really been in a situation where I was chasing so much, until this year. And I do feel like it affected me, definitely, in the racing a little bit. As you get to the third and fourth weekend of the year where you know you’re behind, you really have to put your foot to the metal and make up some points. I wouldn’t say it was a positive or a negative impact on myself as a driver, but I definitely felt it. I don’t know if there was a little bit more pressure, or what it was, but it was sitting in the back of my mind for sure.

Would you say it’s useful to have that kind of season now in your career rather than later on at a higher level, where everything else is hyping up the pressure as well?
I would have to agree with that, 100%. I think this was a great learning year for me. Didn’t go the way we wanted, but I’d rather have it now at like a USF2000 kind of level versus maybe next year, the year after when I’m starting to get closer to IndyCar, when it really matters. Not that this year didn’t matter, it was definitely important for my development.

But when the eyes of the world are on you and you’re looking to make that transition into professional racing, I think it’s even more important to have a good year. Whereas this one we can kind of chock up to ‘okay, this went wrong, this went wrong, let’s fix it for next year, let’s go win another title’.

Have you already gone through that review stage of what did and didn’t go well this season, and I presume the relationship with the team you’ve been racing with, are you maybe staying with them next year as well?
Nothing is confirmed yet. I should have an answer for you guys in the next coming weeks. The goal for next year is USFP2000. I got a really cool opportunity to move up actually, for one of the last races at Circuit of the Americas, the Formula 1 circuit. And it went really well. We had a pole position, two podiums. So that kind of set us up for 2024. But I’m definitely into like the full off-season swing where I’m looking back at last year, reviewing it mentally, working on things that I need to work on as a driver to make 2024 even better.

Mentioned how that first weekend went so well. That’s like a trend in every series and car you’ve raced in. You start off on it straight away, win pole, podium. But it’s not always easiest to continue that. Why do you adapt so quickly to new cars?
Honestly, I’m not too sure. I think it honestly stems back all the way from the karting days. My father was a racer before me, and growing up he was always my mechanic. Like I never had a mechanic, it was always like the dad/mechanic-type programme. And he was not hard on me, but he would purposefully put me in any car at any track that he could, any configuration, to try to get me to adapt quickly. And I think that’s kind of a skill that I’ve honed in on.

Not saying there isn’t room for improvement. But I think any great race car driver, if you look at anyone driving at a professional level, one of like the sure tells is that they’re very, very quick to adapt. So that’s a skill that I try to pride myself in, something that I want to use going forward to impress people.

How many days did you get to do in the USFP2000 car before race debut?

I did one test day down at MSR Houston, where the team is based, and then basically COTA was my second day in the car. So it was a pretty quick turnaround, there wasn’t much testing involved, just because it was such a like heat of the moment opportunity. We really didn’t know whether or not it was going to happen. So very grateful for DEForce Racing for that one. So it was one day of testing, and we got to COTA and I really didn’t know what to expect. But I mean it went well.

What do you make of the COTA track? It was built for European-style cars. But now one of America’s biggest tracks and lots of undulation. Do you find it very similar to the other Road to Indy tracks you more regularly race on?
I’d say it’s an outlier. It’s a weird circuit, because the first sector-and-a-half is so flowing, high-speed, like very European. You can see that F1 is meant to race there. And then you look at the back sector and it’s super tight and twisty, and a lot different. So it’s kind of a weird circuit in where it doesn’t flow.

I like it personally, it’s one of my favourite tracks on the calendar. And now that I’m starting to move up the ladder and getting into faster and faster cars, I feel like that just kinds of elevates the hype around COTA.

It is definitely a track suited to higher levels of downforce. Any other standout moments from 2023, good in the moment or on reflection felt more rewarding?
I think the Freedom 75, the oval win, was just kind of ‘I’ve arrived’, or a breakthrough moment. We really struggled up until the fourth or fifth round of the championship, when we got to the oval. And I mean we unloaded the [inaudible] car. DEForce Racing did an amazing job. But me getting comfortable on the oval, and Lucas Oil Raceway is not really a normal place. You’ve got to run the high line, it’s progressive banking, it’s really strange as a guy who comes from a road racing background.

And to get the job done at the Carb Night Classic, on the Friday night of the Indy 500, everybody’s in town, everybody’s watching, it was a really special moment for me and I feel like that’s still one of my favourite wins in terms of everything that I’ve done in my career.

Transition to oval racing, how did you find that? And like the prospect of more of them at the higher levels?
I really do enjoy the oval racing, and I think accepting the challenge of it was almost what made me so excited. The first day I did on the oval, I claim is like the hardest day that I’ve ever done in a race car mentally. It is so different to what you’re used to as a road racer in so many more ways, and I feel like people often don’t give oval racing the credit it deserves for how difficult it is. It’s extremely technical, just in a different way to road racing. So I am really looking forward to it. I know usually you have two ovals on the calendar for USFP2000. Not sure if that’s going to be happening for 2024. And then obviously moving up towards Indy Nxt and IndyCar, I mean you get to IndyCar and it’s half the schedule, right?

The kind of problem with IndyCar’s increasing popularity, they’re looking at a race in Argentina and other places, which inevitably will be road or street circuits, not ovals. And tracks that are likely to be dropped are ovals. Even Texas. You mentioned difference between road racing and oval racing, and you’ve done slicks-and-wings, but also grooved tyres in wingless cars as that’s where you first gained international attention with your results in FF1600
It was a strange transition. I would say the transition that was bigger was karting to cars. That was bigger. But definitely going from low downforce, a treaded radial tyre to proper wings and slicks is kind of strange as a driver, because you look at it and everyone tells you that in a downforce car you have to go faster to have more grip or to be more comfortable. And to break that mental barrier I think is challenging. It definitely took me a few days in a downforce car to really figure it out. So that was the main challenge. It definitely wasn’t a seamless transition. There was a bit of a mental block there, things that you have to learn, things that are different.

At the very start of your car racing career was IndyCar the aim, or were you looking at maybe F1 as well?
I always say that I started too late and on the wrong side of the pond for F1. I mean F1 is a dream, as it is for every young driver. It would be an absolute privilege to drive an F1 car, but it’s never really been my focus. And when I initially started car racing, open-wheel IndyCar wasn’t even the focus at all. Even though I was doing F1600, which is an open-wheel category, it was really the first step in Canada that led to sportscar racing. So you kind of prove yourself in F1600, maybe get a championship under your belt, and then we were actually looking at IMSA and transitioning into sportscars.

Because having a sustainable career in sportscar racing I feel like is more realistic than maybe the open-wheel ladder kind of route. And as I got more and more into it, I won more races, I got some opportunities. The Richard Mille Young Talent Academy, through Birel, the kart manufacturer that I raced with, that was kind of the eye-opener for me. And that really kind of changed the whole geography of my career path. And that was ‘oh my goodness, maybe we should try open-wheel racing and have a crack at it’. It just took off from there.

Looking forward to next year, we kind of do have a calendar and you now know the car as well. What are your expectations? Are you going into next season with as much expectation as going into this year’s USF2000 campaign, or are you going to kind of take things down a notch and go ‘not going to set my expectations too high, I’m going to see what’s going to happen, and then set my expectations one or two rounds in’?
Definitely the first one. Coming off of COTA, and what we did there was special, it’s the same attitude as last year. I don’t think that you can let your guard down. I believe in myself and I think that if I take care of what I need to, I can be the best driver on the grid no matter where I am. So I want to come into the season swinging, I want to get an early points gap like we did in the USF Juniors season, and I want to make it happen. I don’t want to have another bad start to the year like USF2000, and I’m determined to not let that happen.

How important is the scholarship system for you going up the ladder? From USF Juniors you had that prize package to then come up to USF2000. Have you had to find more budget to then make it to the next step, or are you feeling pretty confident budget-wise for the next year and even the year after
It definitely is a challenge. And as we all know motorsport is very expensive. As of right now, I don’t even know if I’m going to be able to do the full season in USFP2000. Like it’s a very kind of week-by-week, month-by-month programme without the scholarship. Even last year, I mean the USF Pro championships and Andersen Promotions do such an amazing job giving championships the ability to level up. With the scholarship system, even this past year we didn’t know if we were going to finish the season. So it’s a constant struggle. We’re always out looking for new, long-term partners to come on board with us all the way to IndyCar. So moving forward, it’s always about keeping your foot in the door, shaking new hands, making new directions, and we’ll try to do that for next year and make the full season happen.

Aside from speed difference, what makes the USFP2000 car more enjoyable than the USF2000 on road courses and ovals?
It just has more of everything. More horsepower, the rear tyres are bigger, the set-up’s actually a lot more open. So you can play with the rear geometry. There’s a lot more stuff that goes on in the technical side, so that you can improve the car that way. More wing. And I feel like it just suited my driving style. I’ve always been a driver that’s aggressive on the entry and a little bit late to power. Not that’s necessarily good or bad, sometimes it works for you, sometimes it doesn’t. But I feel like in the USFP2000 car that kind of suited me and what I was about, and that’s what gave me success early on. So I really enjoy the car, I think the platform’s great and I’m looking forward to driving it this coming year.

When you were in karting, who were the drivers you were looking up to? And are there any pro drivers now, people who have been watching your career, that you’re in contact with, that you look to for advice?
Absolutely. James Hinchcliffe, a childhood hero of mine, has now become a very close friend. So he’s a part of my management team, and I work closely with him away from the race track, and at it as well. He travels with the IndyCar circuit because he’s with the NBC team doing the broadcasting. But having someone like that, a mentor who has done what you’ve done, especially for me coming from the same country and a similar background, it helps a lot. Not only from a driving perspective, you know him giving me tips on what I should be doing at different tracks in different cars, but also just having that reassurance. So he’s definitely one of my secret weapons, as I like to call him, and I’m always looking for more of those.

The post Podcast: Interviewing Road to Indy star Mac Clark appeared first on Formula Scout.

Photo: Formula Motorsport Ltd

Formula Scout caught up with F3 race-winner Franco Colapinto to find out why he has been trending online

Aside from football, it is generally rare for athletes from second, third or even lower divisions in their sport to make headlines outside of specialist press and to trend online at a national scale. When such competitions do get wider attention, it tends to be following a negative event or because of the involvement of a famous name or brand.

Last week, junior single-seater racing became a hot topic in Argentina as fans made ‘#FranColapintoaF2’ trend on Twitter in the country and even celebrities got involved in what was a widespread online call of support for FIA Formula 3 race-winner Franco Colapinto’s ambitions to step up to Formula 2 next year.

Colapinto is currently a Williams Formula 1 junior and is looking for the budget to secure one of the few remaining seats on the 2024 F2 grid. Rather than a crowdfunding effort, which racing drivers have turned to in the past, Colapinto’s own fans instigated a media buzz with the purpose of attracting the attention of potential sponsors who could plug the budget hole.

To explain how effective that fan-led push has been, and what his plans are for the rest of 2023, Colapinto joined the Formula Scout Podcast for this week’s episode. You can listen it on Google Podcasts, Pocket Casts, Spotify or below.

The post Podcast: Franco Colapinto explains his fan-led pursuit of an F2 seat appeared first on Formula Scout.

Photos: IndyCar / Joe Skiblinski

Callum Ilott is eyeing up the chance to talk to IndyCar’s top teams for 2024, having impressed in his 22 races with the underdog Juncos outfit so far. But he knows how hard negotiating for seats at this level is…

Only a few years ago, Callum Ilott was one of the most promising drivers competing in junior single-seaters. He was third in GP3 in 2018, and Formula 2 runner-up with Virtuosi Racing in 2020, but never made it to a Formula 1 race seat after.

He currently races in IndyCar for Juncos Hollinger Racing, with whom he debuted late in the 2021 season, and led the team’s first ever full-time attack on the series last year. Ilott ended his rookie season by qualifying on the front row, and started his sophomore campaign last month with a fifth place. With the team looking competitive enough for similar results to be achieved through the year, its bolstering Ilott’s reputation and helping make sure he stays in single-seaters’ top tier for 2024.

But when Ilott finished second in F2 almost two-and-a-half years ago, he had a very different negotiating card for landing a seat at the top level. On the Formula Scout Podcast, he talked about how  events behind the scenes evolved in 2020 while he was a Ferrari junior in regards to a step up to F1, and why that never materialised. It was a situation where, according to him, he was kept in the dark for most of the year as fellow Ferrari junior Mick Schumacher beat him to the title and an F1 seat.

“It was that they [the Ferrari Driver Academy] would help find a seat. It’s not that you definitely get one,” Ilott said when asked whether he had been promised a 2021 F1 seat ahead of the 2020 F2 season.

“There is never any guarantees in this industry, so it was understood that it was never guaranteed, but obviously you’ve got a very good chance if you’re finishing the top three.”

“It is very difficult because I was not told really anything from that side,” Ilott explained about how close he came to becoming an F1 driver in 2021.

Photo: Formula Motorsport Ltd

“Like I never really knew what was going on until it was solid. Of course, there are other ways for me to find out information, and I did. And then the media would always clarify that information two weeks later or three weeks later. So you knew you were kind of getting stuff that was correct.

“I felt like I got quite close. But of course you never know really where these deals are at, where mines are at. I think in some ways I could have got a bit more help in some areas. But again, it can all change in a week.”

Schumacher ended up graduating to F1 with Haas, a team Ilott had set to drive for in the opening practice session of the Eifel Grand Prix before rain and fog led to it being abandoned before Ilott got a chance to head out on track.

“I remember that Nurburgring FP1. Before that, it was kind of looking like that’s the direction of everything. And then I remember the Monday after that weekend, it just all changed. And then it went from you have a great chance to ciao ciao basically,” Ilott recalled, despite not mentioning the team he had more chances to step up with.

“The world works like that and it’s quite tough. And it was quite tough to hear. And again, I didn’t hear that directly. I heard it through my own sources. I mean, if it was all from the one side, I didn’t know until three races to go that I wasn’t going to F1, two races.”

Although he understands that is part of the F1 game, the then-FDA member admits he would have liked to receive more direct information about what his future was looking like and at an earlier time.

“It’s tough, and it’s a big, big moving entity, F1. Lots of decisions are made off of lots of things. It’s never just one thing. I mean, if it was on who was the quickest driver, I’d probably have a seat. If it was off of championship results, I’d probably have a seat, or at least a chance,” he reckoned.

Ferrari juniors Shwartzman, Ilott and Schumacher in F2

“I wish some things were communicated earlier, or at least the idea and the perception. And I much prefer being told the truth than some bullshit half of the time because, you know, it’s just you live your life off of hope.

“I lived 2020, 2021 off of hope, and a lot of people don’t give a shit about your hope. ‘It’s just a dream for you, okay, go along’. I found that out on one stage that no one really cared personally about my dream or whatever.”

Ilott described his situation those years as being a “pawn on the front” on a chessboard, which was “tough”.

“We’ll just let you move two spaces and get on with it,” he said. Such a scenario prompted him to look elsewhere for the future, and let him ultimately to where he is now.

“That was why 2021, I took it into my own hands and was like ‘well, you know, I’m going to go and find my own way because no one would ever find the way for me’ kind of thing. So I went over to IndyCar and that’s the start of it.

“But no, I don’t think it’s managed poorly. It’s just that’s how it works, you know. That’s why sometimes you need people in the right places. But you are dealing with something that’s so political and so big, there’s a lot more to it than that, a lot more to it than just being managed slightly better,” the 24-year-old affirmed.

Ferrari announced Ilott as its F1 test driver for 2021 just over a week after the conclusion of the F2 season, in which he had won two feature races, a sprint race and claimed five poles, and he also joined Ferrari’s engine customer Alfa Romeo Racing as one of its reserve drivers. That led to two free practice outings, and he combined those duties with racing Ferraris for the Iron Lynx team in the GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup, the Le Mans 24 Hours – where he finished third in the GTE AM class – and the Indianapolis 8 Hours. 

“Testing with Ferrari in a certain way is like a holding place on a contract. Because there was a reserve driver, and that was [Antonio] Giovinazzi, and test driver was more like the simulator side of things.

Photo: Scuderia Ferrari

“I wasn’t really going to the track with Ferrari, I was just behind the scenes. And not doing a massive, massive amount, which is why I started doing some of the GT stuff as well because they had a space there and there was probably potential to run for the Hypercar,” he explained.

“Then the reserve stuff with Alfa, I wanted to do. So I pushed for that and got that with Fred [Vasseur, Alfa Romeo team principal]. And that came with the FP1s, and that kept me busy, going to the track, staying in touch with people, and filling my weekends up basically.

“The FP1s were obviously great to do and a great experience. And then to work with all those guys and see the professionalism and learn from Giovinazzi and [Kimi] Raikkonen. To see them hand in hand and like the way they speak, the way they work with the team, for a potential if I got the seat in ‘22 to be able to replicate and do the best job possible.”

Ilott enjoyed his maiden F1 practice session appearance at Algarve, where he clocked 21 laps in Giovinazzi’s car. His next outing was at the Red Bull Ring, where he did 23 laps, which would be his last despite the initial plan was to do a few more practice sessions in preparation for an eventual F1 debut in 2022.

“I had more agreed. Then I found the IndyCar stuff, and I think I had to sacrifice one for an IndyCar test or race. I think it was maybe Sochi I had to sacrifice, because I was probably going to do that one. And I chose the IndyCar stuff because I was like that’s probably what I’m going to end up doing [next year]. And then I had another two, but they kind of disappeared as soon as I confirmed I was doing IndyCar.”

Moving to America for 2022 meant he had to stop working with Alfa Romeo. However, he briefly returned to the F1 paddock in Miami to deputise as reserve for Robert Kubica, who had a clashing racing committment.

“I still keep in touch with Fred. Obviously now he’s at Ferrari. They needed someone for Miami and I was there. I was going anyway, and it made sense. And so it was just limited to that.

Photo: Alfa Romeo Racing

“I did offer for anything else, but they didn’t need it. I think they had [Theo] Pourchaire for a couple of races later on in the season, which I might have done if I was around.”

IndyCar is now Ilott’s “medium-term project, which could be very long term if you look at Scott Dixon, Will Power [for example].

“At the end of the day, I’m with Juncos, and they brought me into IndyCar. They gave me the opportunity, and we’ve got a big plan to try and improve as much as possible.”

Notwithstanding, he keeps his mind open for the longer term.

“I would like to see what other opportunities there are after IndyCar. There could be the Hypercar stuff, [it] is very appealing. I do take an interest to that, but it was at the wrong time in my career to really step into it. I think there’s more of an impact I can do in single-seaters, and it was a good opportunity for me in IndyCar.

“I think I’m going to target probably another four years in IndyCar and see what position I’m in and where I’m at and where the championships are, and then look at what else I might be able to do. I might stay in IndyCar for the long term. I might have maybe won the championship and have an opportunity in F1, which I may or may not turn down out of spite.”

An F1 call-up, even if from a team running towards the back of the field, would definitely bring a dilemma up in Ilott’s head.

“It depends on what I’ve got lined up in IndyCar or in Hypercar [in the future]. I think with currently one of the top two or top three teams in IndyCar, that’s a great long-term career and opportunity. For one year in F1, is it worth the trade? Probably not. But because it was something that I worked at for many, many years and still got turned down for, just to be able to do it and see what it’s like, you know, a lot of people would be like you’d be crazy to turn down the opportunity.

Photo: Juncos Racing

“But it really depends on how settled I am, and how much I’m enjoying IndyCar.

“So, I’m not going to write it off, but at the same time it’s like I’ve got to be in the position to be able to have that decision. And it would be a nice decision to have, that’s for sure.”

You can listen to the full interview on Google Podcasts, Overcast, Pocket Casts, RadioPublic, Castbox, Apple Podcasts, Spotify and below.

The post IndyCar star Ilott: “I lived 2020, ’21 off of hope” while in F1 seat limbo appeared first on Formula Scout.

Photo: TGR NZ

Once he made a safe return to Europe, after extreme weather hit New Zealand as he went to leave the country, Charlie Wurz joined the Formula Scout Podcast to discuss his title-winning campaign down under

This year the Toyota Racing Series returned with a new name, a field of international talents and brilliant racing. The COVID-19 pandemic led to the 2022 season being cancelled, and the series’ comeback as Formula Regional Oceania last month was full of close battles and dramatic moments.

The New Zealand Grand Prix also made a return, attracting some familiar faces from the race’s past, and the points lead changed hands twice during the final round of the season.

M2 Competition’s Charlie Wurz emerged as champion, and joined this week’s Formula Scout Podcast – but only after he had got back to Europe safely as a cyclone struck down under just as he was planning to fly home!

You can listen to the episode on Google Podcasts, Overcast, Pocket Casts, RadioPublic, Castbox, Apple Podcasts, Spotify and below, and can read the interview too.

The post Podcast: Catching up with FRegional Oceania champion Charlie Wurz appeared first on Formula Scout.

Photo: Gavin Baker Photography

A driver with no US racing experience managed to win the IP2000 title, but it required a steep learning curve

On this week’s Formula Scout Podcast, Indy Pro 2000 champion Louis Foster joins to talk about the challenges of his first year racing in America, and how he overcame them to win the title. Listen to the episode on Google Podcasts, Overcast, Pocket Casts, RadioPublic, Castbox, Apple Podcasts, Spotify or below, and read on for some of the highlights!

Foster made the podium on debut, and led the championship after three races, but his first win did not come until the seventh race of the season.

“If I’m honest, the thing that hindered me for the first three, four weekends was getting used to the Cooper tyres,” said Foster.

“They’re quite a hard compound, whereas the last few years I’ve been driving on Pirellis and Michelins. So having to get my head around those was a bit of a learning curve. But once that was done, I mean, it’s not too different to Europe to be honest.”

Foster describes IP2000’s tyres as being “quite a stiff compound” too, which required adapting his driving.

“So qualifying, I was used to last year and the year before, I’d chuck on a new set of tires and I’m pushing 110% almost and really maximising it. Whereas the Coopers, they didn’t have much of a peak, so I was overdriving quite a lot at the start of the season and asking too much of the tyre. And then once I toned that back a little bit, we kind of figured it out and then we were away for the rest of the year.”

Of the 11 full-time drivers in IP2000 this year, seven were classified as rookies and Foster was counted among those. His Exclusive team-mate Wyatt Brichacek was going into his second season, and Foster could also count on considerable experience from his renowned engineer John Hayes.

“We were suggested him. When we first went out to do our tests at the end of last year in America, obviously we didn’t really know anyone, and it’s very difficult to understand the scene of motorsport in America when you’re coming from Europe.

“So we were recommended John by someone that we knew in American motorsport through IndyCar, and John was a very, very good engineer, we clicked on really well and he knew his stuff. I think that’s one of the main reasons why we ended up winning the championship, was John.

“Exclusive, they’re amazing as well. Had my main mechanic Derrick [Barnes], who worked really, really hard all season to make sure that the car was in top shape.”

The first big unknown for Foster this year was street circuits, with St. Petersburg starting off the season and the extra-bumpy Toronto appearing later on.

“St. Petersburg is a very, very fun track to start off the season with. It’s also a very good track to start off street circuits, because it’s quite a nice welcome to street circuits, it’s not too aggressive, it’s pretty smooth and it’s quite, won’t say easy, but compared to Toronto an easy track.

“But Toronto, it’s very, very bumpy, there’s a lot of surface changes, you’ll be going into the corner and its Tarmac, and then mid-corner you’ll hit a batch of concrete and all of a sudden you understeer. It’s definitely a challenge you got to work with, but I really, really enjoyed the street circuits. This year was my first year driving on them and I think a lot of street circuit driving is mental. I think there’s a lot of massive gain you can have with your mentality at street circuits.

“I think a lot of people tend to be quite scared of the walls. But if you kind of block that out a little bit, and you kind of ignore that the walls are there almost in a way, then you really can kind of get to the limits. But if you’re always driving in fear of the walls, you’re never gonna go fast enough.”

That approach led to a third and a second in St. Pete, and two lights-to-flag wins in Toronto. The other totally new challenge was ovals, with the short Indianapolis Raceway Park and Gateway featuring on the calendar.

“[The ovals] were fun, definitely something new and different to what I’m used to. First one was IRP, which is a very short oval, it’s about 20 seconds or so, and a strange oval as well because it’s progressively banked, which means that it’s the steepest by the wall,” Foster beams.

“What that means is that the racing line is to stay at the wall the entire time. So unlike most ovals, where they start at the top and then kind of come down to the apron on the apex, and then go back up again, this one you stay at the wall the entire time. So you’re driving about a half a car length from the wall the entire lap, for the entire race. So it’s quite scary.

“Small mistakes are very scary because you haven’t got much room to fix something, until you hit it. But that was good fun, I managed to win that race, which was very surprising and probably my favourite one of the year, being my first time ever on an oval.

“[Gateway] didn’t go particularly well. I did finish fourth, but we had a small issue with the set-up of the car and everyone knows on ovals that if the set-up is slightly off, it’s very, very detrimental and you can’t do anything about it. I had a bit of understeer, and it just got worse and worse through the race, so I couldn’t really do anything about it. I just kinda had to sit there and suffer unfortunately. That’s one of the negatives of ovals when the set-up’s not quite right, you can’t really do too much to fix it. But I really enjoyed the ovals this year, it was a good learning curve.”

The fourth place at Gateway interrupted a consistent run of podiums for Foster, who finished first or second in almost every race from picking up his first win on Indianapolis Motor Speedway’s road course to the season finale at Portland.

The Toronto success in particular, which was the only time a driver won all races in a weekend this year, showed how well Exclusive and Foster had come to terms with the new car and the challenges of running on the IndyCar support bill.

“It was definitely always a concern in my mind throughout the weekends how the grip would change, and especially the percentage-wise of grip from the front to rear,” Foster explains.

“If there’s more overall grip, you’re going to have more rear grip proportionately to the front because the rear tyres are bigger.

“We definitely took educated guesses a lot of the time. The big one was Toronto, because IP2000 hadn’t been there for two years, so there was no rubber at all on the track. So once IndyCar hopped in, we went instantly a second faster, and they could put some proper rubber down. It was definitely something that we were keeping a close eye on throughout the year.

“We always had the race pace, and even if you look back and watch you can see it in round one, two, three, and before I got my first win. We always had that race pace, but the qualifying pace wasn’t there at the start because of the tyres, I needed to get used to them.

“The drivers I was driving against this year had three, four years of experience on those tyres, so they knew them quite well. Whereas I got thrown in at the deep end. But once we figured that out, I learned about the tyres in qualifying and understanding that I’m overdriving the car, then I just pulled it back two or three percent and then we started qualifying further up front, and then that’s why it all suddenly looked like we found a bunch of pace.

“When realistically we didn’t find loads of pace, I just drove to the tyres more. And then once I started on pole, I could then win the races a lot more easier than from fifth, for example.”

IP2000’s pole margins in 2022

St. Petersburg 0.0360s, Barber Motorsports Park 0.1657s, Barber race two 0.0069s, Indianapolis Motor Speedway 0.0175s, Indianapolis Raceway Park 0.0350s, Road America 0.4907s, Road America race two 0.1295s, Mid-Ohio 0.0898s, Mid-Ohio race two 0.1403s, Toronto 0.0836s, Toronto race two 0.2280s, Gateway 0.0554s, Portland 0.1364s

Foster won seven times, and Juncos Hollinger Racing’s championship runner-up Reece Gold claimed four wins including the final two races at Portland from pole. The average margin that pole was taken by across the season was 0.1242 seconds, with Foster claiming five of those. Gold’s team-mate Enaam Ahmed, a driver with FIA F3, Euroformula and past IP2000 experience, came third in the standings despite failing to win a race or claim a pole position.

The top two will do battle again next year in Indy Nxt, with Nolan Siegel and Josh Green also graduating from race-winning IP2000 campaigns to drive for HMD Motorsports on the next level of the ladder. There are three new tracks for those drivers to learn, and precious little test time to understand the Dallara IL-15 and its new tyres compounds as “a slight issue with tyre supply” with Indy Nxt’s switch from Cooper to Firestone tyres for 2023 has led to “very little” testing taking place.

“So far I’ve done the Chris Griffis test [at IMS], and then I did two days at Sebring,” says Foster. “We had a day at Barber, but I had tonsillitis for that. That was two days before the Aston Martin Autosport BRDC Award shootout, and then I still had tonsillitis during that so I got double screwed, but life goes on.

“We have two more days in the car before St. Pete, one at Homestead-Miami in January and then another test some time after that. But that will be on the brand-new Firestone tyre, which I’m very much looking forward to trying out and seeing how it goes. The amount of proper testing days everyone is going to get, realistically, is two days.”

The AMABA shootout at Silverstone included testing a MotorSport Vision Formula 2 car, a Ligier LMP3 prototype sportscar and an Aston Martin Vantage GT3, and off-track physical tests, and Foster actually “wasn’t feeling well enough to drive” on one day due to his tonsillitis. The fact that he was struggling “quite a lot with my health” was taken into consideration in the assessment of his performances, and Foster said it was still “a childhood dream to be able to compete in an award like that” for a second time after also reaching the shootout stage in 2021. However he missed out on victory again.

2022 Indy Pro 2000 standings

The post Indy Pro 2000 review: Foster finds a title-winning groove on US debut appeared first on Formula Scout.