Good morning and welcome to Hockenheim, Germany for the team principal’s Thursday press conference ahead of this weekend’s German V-Prix – round eleven of the 2019 Formula Virtual World Championship. Joining us today, from left to right, are; Shane O’Connell of Meteor International FV Team, Arthur Lapierre of Red Bull DS Automobiles Team Mathershaw, Bradley Downton from Downton FV Team, Jamie Franklin of Franklin, and Adam Blocker from FIRST Motorsport. Welcome gentlemen. Reporter: We’ll start off the press conference today with the race winners in Austria; Franklin. Congratulations one the one-two Jamie, which I believe is the first for the team since Mexico 2015. How does it feel to once again be seen as the team to beat in FV? Jamie Franklin: We've always been the team to beat, it's just that not everyone wants to admit it. So it's no different really, we have always had a target on our backs, but to show the doubters that we are still more than capable of domination leaves a very sweet taste. Reporter: Kinnumen has taken a big step up in the last two races compared to earlier in the season, has the improvement been down to the pressure? JF: Tumo's had an incongruous start to the season, but it seems he's finally found his feet. Coal put under enough pressure will turn into a diamond, that's what Franklin is all about, so we hope that he continues to shine. Although as we've discussed, he'll do well to check any arrogance on the radio and do his talking on the track. Reporter: Let’s hope for Tumo’s sake his form continues. Bradley, coming to you now; Powers made a lot of mistakes in Austria, was he not comfortable in the car and if so is that something you're worried about for this race? Bradley Downton: Nathaniel was unhappy with a number of things in Austria and they would have absolutely contributed to what happened. Unfortunately we've not had chance to go back to base between the races and fully analyse the issues. We are confident however that - at a totally different circuit - the same issues won't reappear. Reporter: The US V-Prix was the fiftieth victory for the Downton engine manufacturer, with the Downton team itself taking half of those fifty. Which win so far - firstly for the team and then for the engine - is the most important, or memorable for you and everyone at Downton? BD: We've had some fantastic wins both as a team and engine supplier; home wins, wins to take titles, the win in Belgium last year for FV 100, but it's hard to look past that first win in Brazil. Was it deserved on pace? Probably not. But we nailed the strategy and got that little bit of luck that was needed too, and it was truly magical. As an engine manufacturer, it has to be the follow up in South Africa with Mathershaw, which was the first victory for another team powered by our engine. Reporter: Excellent, speaking of Mathershaw, Arthur; Adrien Simon received some quite harsh criticism after the race last weekend following a difficult V-Prix for him. Does he, or the team, pay much attention to comments online? Arthur Lapierre: I think it’s the sort of comment that is only really made by the sort of person who doesn’t understand the sport. Adrien, myself and the team all take criticism when it is warranted, otherwise we don’t take much notice. Reporter: Having nearly won the first three races you've gone backwards since then, have you switched focus to next year with the big changes to the team? AL: I don’t think it’s accurate to say that we’ve switched focus, we’ve simply not quite been on the development pace of the other front runners - we’re exactly where I said we’d be at the beginning of the season, so maybe people will listen next time! Reporter: That’s very true, if I remember correctly you said you’d be hoping to fight for podiums. Over to you Adam, Perez had a rather embarrassing crash in the pit lane in Austria, he's had good pace but has crashed a few times, is it fair to say he’s too erratic at the moment? Adam Blocker: Pérez has some bad days where one mistake seems to lead to another. He needs to get better about focusing on maximising the result after making a mistake rather than kicking himself so much for making the mistake. But he knows this and it is something we are working on. Reporter: Zozulya’s points last race took FIRST’s total points tally over the 300 mark, while your fellow 2016 newcomers are way back on 233 and 199, and 2015 newcomers Ocelot are only nineteen ahead of you. Do you find yourself comparing your team to the teams who entered in the same time period, or is it not really something that interests you? AB: Yeah, it’s definitely something I like to look at. North Star and Holmqvist will always be good benchmarks for us and in some ways they are more successful than we are, North Star have a race win for example. But ultimately we are just trying to maximise our own performance on track, and while we watch what a lot of other teams are doing to see what works and what doesn’t, we tend to do our own thing. Reporter: Interesting stuff, thanks Adam! Shane; Ellington did brilliantly in Austria with sixth, moving you into eighth in the standings, do you think you can challenge for seventh with him? Shane O’Connell: Phoenix in seventh are not our aim, we are not racing them. Our aim is sixth, we think our pace is similar to Holmqvist so we should aim to catch them by the end of the season. Reporter: That’s a bold call, not what I was expecting! With Lamborghini joining you and the move to Italy next year are you looking to sign an Italian driver to complete the set? SO: It’s a possibility but we are not ruling out any option. Right now we have Lewis, MJ, Jules and Andrey all wanting to get one of those two Meteor drives in 2020, and all options will be considered inside and outside of that group. Reporter: The Meteor line up certainly seems like one of the hardest to predict for next season, I’m sure that’ll be discussed much more as the season goes on. Okay onto the fan questions; starting with you Jamie. “Backmarkers nearly cost Ruiz the race, were you worried that your drivers would get caught up in an incident and lose the one-two?” JF: I won't lie, there were a number of squeaky bum moments on the pit wall, not least of which the pile up at turn one. But both drivers drove sublimely on a day when everyone else faltered, even with the best efforts to take out Enrique. Reporter: I don’t think anyone would deny that your guys drove sublimely. Okay, Arthur; “There's been no more news on your new engine manufacturer Porsche, can you confirm if they'll be supplying another team?” AL: I’m not the man to ask - Dr [Heinrich] Wallinger is in charge of the Porsche Customer Racing programme in Virtual Motorsport. I don’t expect he’ll tell you much though... Reporter: Apparently, we sent someone to ask and got a short answer... right, Adam; “With Zozulya leaving at the end of the year, what do you think have been his highlights at FIRST?” AB: Oleksandr has had some great moments with us, and he definitely has talent. Hopefully we will have a few more good moments for the rest of the season. My favorite moments of him are him winning FIRST’s first ever race we entered in the FV2 winter series in 2014, him winning on debut in FV2 in 2016, him leading in Austria 2017 on strategy and ultimately finishing second, his strong recovery drive in Brazil 2017 to finish second and decide the title between the two Downton drivers, and his important seventh in Malaysia last year. Reporter: He has had some great moments; it’ll be interesting to see if another team picks him up in the future. Shane; “Would you agree with the general opinion that Lopez and Simon was one of the worst line ups in the series history?” SO: Yes, that’s a fair assumption based on their performance and careers so far. Reporter: But you're considering them both for one of your seats next year? SO: Yes, they have not performed this season so far but have the opportunity to prove themselves otherwise. Reporter: That’s fair enough, I suppose! Okay final fan question here for you Bradley; “At what point in the season do you focus on one driver’s title challenge, given the fact Franklin are looking so strong?” BD: When it is mathematically impossible for the other one to win. End of. Our drivers will continue to be allowed to fight to the end. They just need to not come together. They know the consequences if they do. Reporter: Excellent, that’s what we like to hear. Now gentlemen, we are lucky enough to have with us here today the fastest – and arguably biggest – four teams in Formula Virtual right now, as well as Meteor. So, I ask each of you to rate the other four teams’ season so far out of ten; what has gone well for them and what could have gone better? Shane, would you like to start us off? SO: Sure. Starting with Downton, they get a 9/10. Many people expected Franklin to dominate them this season but it’s not been that way. So far they have shown Franklin the way but Nathaniel and Klaas need to make zero mistakes from now until Brazil if they are to keep Franklin behind. Franklin, an 8/10 for me. Enrique has been excellent as expected but Tumo struggled a little until USA. He’s greatly improved in the last two and if he can stay at that level then they are definitely the favourites for the title. DS Mathershaw get a 6/10. They’re about where many expected them to be before testing but after the start they had, it’s been slightly disappointing. FIRST get a 6/10 too, maybe 7. Compared to last year they have been excellent. People expected them to win races but their step up should be marvelled at if you look at the teams they are fighting. The drivers have let them down a lot at times but Adam must still be very happy with 2019 so far. JF: Well, starting with the lesser teams, Meteor is about a 2/10 for me. Management of that team has been awful, their drivers more so, squandered points by having inept "drivers", proven by Ellington's result in Austria. A driver, I hasten to add, that I don't rate all that highly, so clearly their car is better than we've been lead to believe. FIRST is probably a 4/10. Don't really rate their drivers either, plenty of poor races and only one podium to show for their season. DS Mathershaw...maybe a 7/10. An okay season for a team that's been downplaying its chances, and it would be higher but lately they've seemed to be unravelling and falling behind quite a lot judging by the gap in USA and Austria. Downton, I guess I'd give a 9/10 for begrudgingly. They've almost had a perfect season, but I think they've been very lucky. I don't think they deserved 3rd and 4th with the number of mistakes in Austria. But they can't keep relying on that if they want to beat us. We're coming for them. BD: I'm intrigued as to what Jamie would rate his own teams’ performance? JF: I'd say about an 8/10. Luck hasn't been on our side, Tumo hasn't been performing well enough, but Enrique has been the best driver this season. BD: Meteor - 2/10. I think Lewis in Austria showed that teams’ true pace, and what results could be extracted from that car. I'd say they're right at the top of the fight for fifth fastest, so to be where they are in the Championship shows something went very wrong. I'd say that something was the driver line up, so hopefully for them Lewis can save face a bit. FIRST - 4/10. Was expecting something special from them this year, but they've just not taken that final step I expected. I wonder - like Jamie - how much of that is to do with the drivers. Mathershaw - 8/10. Really thought they'd struggle this year after last year’s battle with us, but they've been there or thereabouts. Quick at the start, they have slipped back, but still solidly third. Franklin - 6/10. Yep, you heard. I mean no disrespect Jamie, but I expected far more. The early season fell apart for them completely and I feel Tumo has cost them a lot of points when you look at his performances to Enrique. Both the team and Tumo look to be turning that around now though, which is absolutely of concern to us, though we're excited to finally get the chance to battle it out with Franklin on track. Mind you, I'd be far happier if the second half of their season went like the first half did! Laughs AB: In terms of the other top teams, I am happy that FIRST are considered among them. Downton have to be a 9/10, sure they have had their weak races but on the whole they have been strong at every track we’ve been to and have big leads in both championships. They also haven’t blown many chances for good results. I’d put Franklin at 7/10. I think that will go up in the second half of the season, but so far they have had fast cars and have wasted a lot of chances for better results. They are starting to turn it around with the last couple races though. I’d put Mathershaw at 6/10. They haven’t had that much pace compared to Downton and Franklin at most tracks and have also missed some opportunities for better results. Now it looks like they will finish 3rd in the constructors. AL: Downton: 9/10, but only because 10/10 means perfection and as good as they’ve been they haven’t been perfect, they’ve been excellent but there has been the odd error sneaking into their campaign. Franklin: 9/10, but approaching a 9 from the opposite end of the spectrum - they’ve been doing excellently, and their in-season development has worked wonders. I fully expect them to launch a title bid as they have no split priorities for 2020, it’s simply a case of how much they can spend in the remainder of the season. FIRST: depends on what you want me to rate. Compared to previous seasons, it’s got to be something like 8. But if you want me to compare them to the top echelon of the sport like many are starting to, I’ll say a 5 - they’re good but not quite there yet, and their driver line-up lacks somewhat compared to the other top teams. Reporter: Final question, your hopes and expectations for the weekend, and who do you think are favourites to take the victory on Sunday? JF: Do you really have to ask? Reporter: A one-two, anyone behind you is irrelevant? JF: Finally someone gets me. Reporter: Ha! Okay, onto the rest of you then please? SO: Franklin are favourites, they look in very good form now. For us, we are aiming for another double points finish. AB: I’m going to go with Ruiz to win. I don’t expect this track to suit FIRST that well so I’ll be happy with a quiet double points finish for us. BD: We expect Franklin to be strongest, but our hope is to be ahead of them still, or at least minimise the damage if we can't best them. AL: Hopes? Victory. Expectations, somewhat more tempered... Reporter: Fantastic, thank you very much to the five of you and everyone joining us for the press conference today. The weekend certainly seems set up to be a cracker with the Downton team going toe-to-toe with the mighty Franklin, and with DS Mathershaw and FIRST waiting in the wings; it’s anyone’s guess who’ll come out on top. Make sure you join us tomorrow for Friday practice!
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