Good morning, and welcome to the press conference for the Belgian V-Prix, as we enter the final four races of the season! Joining us today we have Christian Sear of XXX Energy Phoenix Motorsport, Bradley Downton of Downton FV Team, Ben Farrell of ROKiT Arrow Mechanics, Jamie Franklin of JFPT Franklin Honda, and Adam Blocker of FIRST Motorsport.
Scott Parkin - FVTV: Okay, today folks we're gonna kick things off with Arrow. With Q1 finally settling down for the season, has it been much more beneficial to you to have the increased mileage of racing more regularly, or has it increased the challenge of your first season? Ben Farrell: Yeah, the increased milage has helped not only the factory team understand the car to a greater extent, but the pitstop team also gain experience at a race weekend. Q1 as a whole has troubled us as a starter team, being stuck in there all season hasn't helped us to get faster. Looking to next year escaping it is definitely our goal. SP - FVTV: It certainly is an obstacle. Sticking with you for the next one. Currently you sit in the bottom three in the championship. Do you hope to move up, or are Franklin, Lucas and Cheema too far ahead? BF: I don't see much changing down there unfortunately, most of the time we can bring the pace on the saturday but the experience of the 3 mentioned teams trumps any strategy we can bring on the sunday, as understanding the tyre compounds is still something we are perfecting. Franklin and Lucas look to be with us on the saturday at least so that's a positive. SP - FVTV: Always good to look at positives! On the topic of positives, we'll move to Jamie. The Franklin car looked on fine form in Turkey; despite being put near the back of the grid courtesy of a clumsy Alvarez, Addison still worked his way up to a very impressive finishing position. Do you expect to keep this momentum going as we enter the final quarter of the season? Jamie Franklin: I'd like to think so. As I've already made clear, we were only 2.9 seconds off of Mattson in 11th place despite that incident. Given the damage on the car and the time lost, not only from the incident itself, but from the recovery drive, I think Nick would have had a great shot at taking 11th, which as you know, would have taken us back out of Q1, so that's a bitter pill to swallow. The good news is that there is clearly pace in the car, and I think with the right strategy we can certainly exploit that, so I'd like to think that we could keep the momentum going in the final four races. SP - FVTV: Brilliant, we're all excited to see what Franklin can do! Moving over to Adam now. In the last few races, the gap from yourselves to the top two has appeared slightly larger, but you're still keeping them honest for the most part. Is it discouraging to lose this ground, or does it spur you and the team on to be the best you can be? Adam Blocker: The drop off in pace is somewhat of a mystery. Our engineers are working hard to understand if the other teams have brought updates, simply found setup improvements, or if we have missed the mark the past couple races on setup. With Formula Virtual weekends only having one practice session all teams do rely on simulation and data from previous races to set up the cars, and it can be difficult to make adjustments during the weekend if the initial setup is off. The good news is we are still on course for our best ever constructors' finish and we are in good shape for 2021. SP - FVTV: That much is true, you're definitely nailed on for third! Staying with you here; strategy didn't really pay off for Perez in Bahrain, and Hoskins was unfortunate to have to retire from the Turkish V-Prix. How does this misfortune affect the drivers, and is it a testament to the mental fortitude of these athletes that they come back time and again and give it their all? AB: Felix and Will both understood that we had to try something if we wanted a shot to win or get on the podium in the last two races. Unfortunately in both cases the strategy did not pay off, but Felix in particular did a fantastic job recovering his result in Bahrain. Will was also on for a good drive in Turkey given the circumstances until his incident. Overall we give the drivers a good bit of input into things like tire selection, both of them are intelligent and give good feedback that is useful for deciding that sort of thing. SP - FVTV: Strategy plays a huge part in FV definitely, and I suppose the risks can't all go your way. Now onto you, Christian! First of all, welcome to the press conference room! We're all excited to have you. As we're all already aware, you stepped up into the role of team principal for the remainder of this season, affording your close friend Alex Easton a break from the pressures of FV. From the outside it's appeared a seamless transition, with the car performing well and both drivers in fine form. How has this change been for you, and how does it feel to be managing a Formula Virtual team? Christian Sear: It’s all very surreal for me, even just being here at media events like this is an all new experience as I’ve only ever been involved in the behind the scenes things at the team. However, so far, the transition has been very smooth as you say and thankfully the team has carried on working exactly as before. This has meant I’ve been able to settle into the new role a little easier and actually start to enjoy the newfound responsibilities and complexities of being in full control of a Formula Virtual team. SP - FVTV: Well we're all excited to have you around while Alex is away! Let's go to the man who gives you engines; Bradley Downton! Last race saw Powers unable to pass Ruiz for a long time, ultimately costing him a shot at the race win. This is in stark contrast to the Powers from Bahrain who the team publicly stated had ignored their strict instruction to allow his teammate through, before going on to claim the win. What happened between then and now to diminish that incisive nature? Bradley Downton: Nothing in Nathaniel changed between Bahrain and Turkey, it was purely down to how the car was set up. He had slightly more downforce on the car than Klaas as that was how he felt more comfortable and quicker, but it really hurt his top end into twelve, making it very difficult for him to execute overtakes. SP - FVTV: That does explain it all! Staying with you for the next one. You enter the final four rounds with arguably the fastest car, a comfortable gap back to Porsche Mathershaw in second, while in the first four rounds you were really looking nervously back at FIRST. What do you attribute this incredible development throughout the season to the most? BD: I mean, we weren't - and I even stated as much in these press conferences earlier in the season. You don't get anywhere by looking behind, so while we knew FIRST were pretty quick, we were never looking nervously back at them. As for the development the car has undergone this season, it is purely down to the incredible team we have working on the cars - both at the track and factory. The boys and girls put in extraordinary amounts of work, and I think the fact we're fighting a powerhouse team in Mathershaw, and such a historic engine manufacturer in Porsche - even if that history doesn't quite extend to FV yet - has really inspired everyone even further to try and outdo them. SP - FVTV: Things do usually end up pretty stable by this stage in the season. Sticking with the Q1 battle, let's go to you again Jamie. Since Domenicalli got back in the car, Franklin's pace has improved as I previously mentioned. Are you benefitting from more expertise and setup knowledge, or is this more of a right place, right time situation where the car is just becoming better? JF: I think I'd say it's a little bit of the car having improved, but we've definitely all noticed a change in attitude from Enzo. He is really wanting to push himself to prove a point. Of course, experience in this sport also pays dividends, so there's a lot of benefit from all angles. SP - FVTV: Experience is absolutely golden in such a relatively young series! Back to you now then Christian. The battle for 7th in the constructor's is very close, just six points separating yourselves, Ocelot, and Westwood. Do you think you can stay in the fight for 7th, or will you just loosen the reins slightly given you're all but certain to achieve at least 9th? CS: It’s such a fantastic battle to be involved in and no one at Phoenix expected to be at the level we’re at now when the season started. Ninth place is almost certain which is a huge achievement in this incredibly competitive series and we’re all more than content with that, but we will push the two above us for the remainder of the season and just see where that leaves us in Brazil! SP - FVTV: It's certainly going to be tight, and a thriller down to the wire! Right, a couple of questions addressed to all of you now. First of all, the last couple of races have seen softer tyres suffer some harsh punishment in terms of degradation. Now that we're going somewhere with much lower temperatures, will the field suddenly move to softer compounds, or do you think a lot of teams will attempt to make harder compounds work for them despite a very short pitlane? AB: I think cooler temperatures and the ability to overtake at Spa will open up a lot of people to running softer compounds than previous races. But I think the temperature will be in a window where at least 2 compounds will work well, and a third might even be an option. JF: I think we definitely could see a move to softer compounds. I wouldn't be surprised to see a good mix of softs, a fair few mediums with some gambling on the extras. But Spa is an odd one, I remember both Ruiz and Powers struggling here in low temps on, what was then, the super softs, so I don't think it's going to be cut and dry as to which is the best strategy. CS: I have been speaking about this to a couple of the team principals in the last few days. I think the general consensus is that the softer tyres will be the order of the day here but I will tip my hat to any team who takes some sort of gamble and reaps the rewards if it works! BF: Harder compounds seem to be the way the lesser teams of the paddock sneak into the points, unfortunately. We seem to be unable to heat up the hard and medium tyres, as evident by the French GP, where temperature wasn't that much of a playing factor. But who knows. BD: Which the temperatures here are lower than what we've seen recently, I don't think they'll be low enough for everyone to plump for the two softest compounds - I'm expecting rather middle of the road strategies. SP - FVTV: We'll just have to wait and see. Finally, I know nobody ever expects this question, so I hope I've not caught anyone off guard. But what are your ambitions for this weekend, what do you hope to get out of it and where do you expect to be? BD: We've got some really strong momentum at the moment so we need to carry that through. Spa is a track that should suit our car reasonably well, so we're hoping for another strong performance. Another 1-2 would be a dream, but continuing to extend the gap to Mathershaw is the hope, we need to consolidate this position now. BF: Well I can always dream of a points finish, these kind of tracks always seem to suit the car. However, realistically I'm not so sure as in Turkey we were looking behind us instead of in front of us, so we'll have to see. CS: Well, the ambition for the weekend I think, in an ideal world, we would be back up in the points with at least one car and hoping to close the gap on Ocelot ahead of us in the table. However, the reality may be slightly less exciting than that. Ingram have made very large gains recently and Westwood are always improving so I think we may find ourselves just outside the points. JF: First and foremost, get both guys into Q1, and from there we need to have a great qualifying. It's going to be tough, but we can't expect to pull something out in the race, when we're not maximising our one lap pace. Personally, I want us to be aiming for at least 15th and 16th on the grid, and then taking advantage of any mishaps ahead of us to secure an even better race result. AB: We expect to be 5th and 6th at this point. Hopefully we can get a podium with good execution and strategy. I think the race in the midfield and upfront will be pretty good overall, Spa normally puts on a good race. SP - FVTV: Brilliant stuff! Now we're gonna move on to the fan questions! First one is for... Bradley! You have removed Nathaniel Powers from two practice sessions during a close title fight with his teammate. Are you presumably ashamed by your actions by costing one of your drivers valuable practice? BD: I touched on this in an interview the other day, but shall repeat myself for the sake of this question. From the start of the season, it was planned Matteo would run in practice sessions at six races. In those six races he would replace Nathaniel for three, and Klaas for three. The drivers were all in agreement, and we have stuck to the plan. So far, both Nathaniel and Klaas have missed two sessions each. Matteo will run in Nathaniel's car here, and Klaas' car next time out in Monza - so they're both giving up equal time, so I'm not entirely sure what there is to be ashamed about? SP - FVTV: Yet another tricky fan question! Next one is headed the direction of Christian. How have you been coping without Alex Easton at the helm? CS: Ah, it’s different without Alex here all the time. He has an unusual management style with everyone but it seems to work by really being the glue that holds everything together when things start to get a bit mental but I’m still in very regular contact with him and he’s always available for when I get stuck. It does feel different without him for me personally because my role has changed but I think that Phoenix as a team has come together even more with various team members stepping up such as Terry (McCarroll, Head of Finances and PR) who is essentially working about seven different roles now! SP - FVTV: Sounds like a real coalescence of talent and passion! Okay, now we have a question for Ben! How secure are Ellington and Takahashi for next season? Will we see a promotion for Brynildsen? BF: Takahashi is signed to the team for next season and there has been no major development yet to say otherwise, we have been asked about his selling price around the paddock though, but no serious bid has been submitted. As for Lewis, he returns to meteor at the end of the season from his loan to us so we will have to see, our scouting team has been busy if the situation calls for it. SP - FVTV: Brilliant stuff. Now over to you Adam, a fan asks; who do you see as Felix Perez long term teammate? Surely Hoskins age will begin to count against him? AB: That's a good question and one that we are pondering over ourselves. We have not officially announced anything on our driver lineup for next season, but we are happy with both of our current drivers in the short term. In the long term we will definitely be exploring a few different options, there are 3 or 4 good young drivers out there that I could see signing in the future. But there's a lot of factors at play and of course a lot of it also depends on how well we do with the new regulations next season and how big our budget will be in future years. SP - FVTV: Interesting stuff! Now we go to Jamie, someone wants to know how many pushups you can do in a minute! JF: (Gets down on the floor to try) Never actually tried that challenge before, but the answer is now 45! SP - FVTV: Well, well done! I couldn't do more than a few. Now back to Bradley. Last year you vanquished Franklin, this year it seems as though you are putting DS to the sword. Are you FV's best team now? BD: I'm going to assume that is meant to be Mathershaw rather than DS? (laughs) This is a simple answer, it is not for me to decide. If you want to think we are the best team - we will happily take that, it is absolutely what we strive for. SP - FVTV: I think we definitely do have a new team to beat! Finally, over to Adam again. I’m a hardcore American FV fan and I admit that this year you have your best driver line up with Perez and Hoskins. Do you plan on this being the future of the team or will you remove them for Americans to please the American fans like myself? AB: Fantastic, always great to have some American support and passion for FV. To answer your question, the first priority is to have the team perform at a high level. We aren't going to hire an American driver just for the sake of having an American driver. Some people criticized us previously because they thought we did this with Douglas Bacon, which wasn't true. Douglas brought a lot of experience to the team, had lots of pace in the wet especially, and actually got our best result in 2016 that allowed us to beat North Star. That being said, if a strong American driver does come along we will definitely have an interest in either supporting them in junior series or an interest in hiring them in Formula Virtual. American FV fans should be excited for next season: we will be coming off our best season to date including at least 2 wins in 2020 and North Star have hired Brock Kidd, the former IndyVirtual champion. Brock I'm sure will do a fantastic job, and he does have a Ford powerplant in the back of that car which will be great marketing for Ford and FV in the US. SP - FVTV: Brilliant, and I think that's all we have time for today. Thankyou very much as ever to you all, and thankyou to the fans who send these questions in! We look forward to seeing you on track tomorrow for Free Practice!
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
|