Hello and welcome to Magny-Cours, France for the Team Principal’s Thursday press conference ahead of this weekend’s French V-Prix – round six of the 2020 Formula Virtual World Championship. Joining us today, from left to right, are; Lucas Wilson of Lucas V-Prix, Adam Blocker of FIRST Motorsport, Dylan Lopez from Lopez FV Team, and Ben Farrell from ROKiT Arrow Mechanics. Welcome to you all. Scott Parkin – FVTV: First of all, I must come to you Adam. Congratulations on FIRST’s maiden victory last weekend at Silverstone. It feels as though the first win was long overdue as the team has been up amongst the top few for some time now. What does that win do for the team? Do you feel that it’s almost been a bit of a monkey on the back, that you’re now rid of? Adam Blocker: I think the main thing the win does is boosts the morale of everyone in the FIRST and Ford organisations, which will help us in our future car development, driver and engineer confidence at the track, etc. It also validates our organisation to a certain extent which might help in recruiting new quality employees. Additionally, it helps us practically as the one-two gave us a lot of points in the constructors' that will only help our final result this season. SP – FVTV: Sounds like it has given the team a real huge boost. Lucas; last week’s British V-Prix certainly looked to be a step in the right direction for Lucas, until both of your cars had their races ruined by the incident with Beckenbauer. Did you feel as if you’d made a big step forward or would you say that the strategy was the main reason for your cars performing so well? Lucas Wilson: Yeah we were going well, Marcus had been on track to score us some points. Then Beckenbauer happened. One would thing that driver of his experience would know not to try a silly move like that. Just goes to show you that wisdom is not a guarantee for drivers with career longevity. SP – FVTV: Strong words there! Coming to you Ben; despite not qualifying at all for the British V-Prix last weekend, it certainly seems as though Arrow have made considerable progress from testing and the first race. Would you say the team is now fully finding its feet in Formula Virtual after a tough start? Ben Farrell: It was certainly tough last weekend, the Silverstone track obviously just didn't suit our car, but it’s safe to say we've seen some improvement certainly. Lewis has joined with a surge of enthusiasm and although he hasn't quite made it to a race yet, he's confident the car is making the steps that are needed. As for the team finding its feet, we would have hoped to get both cars in the race at least once...but we are more confident now and we have more knowledge about the car and what works and what doesn't. SP – FVTV: Excellent, hopefully the progress continues. Dylan; as has been stated by many already this season, Wagner and Kangur looks to be the strongest line up Lopez have ever fielded. Have you noticed a difference between this season where you have two drivers with multiple race wins, compared to previous years? And how has Elroy adapted to a driver of Allar’s calibre coming into the team? Dylan Lopez: I think there has been a bit of a difference this season certainly. We've finally tasted success on the top step of the podium for starters. This season is already shaping up to be our most successful in terms of the Constructor's standings. As for Elroy and Allar, they're enjoying the competition they have between each other. They've been pretty close to each other on track in all of the last three races, and they're enjoying the competition between each other, but we've been rather unfortunate when we've been in strong positions so far this year bar Japan. SP – FVTV: Okay the Team Principals will now take questions from the assembled media. Neil Allenby - FVTV: Felix became the 22nd driver in history to win a Formula Virtual race, and is the first ever Mexican to do so. Firstly Adam, what has this done for Felix, have you noticed a difference already in the days following? And secondly, what do you think this does for his future? Do you expect much more of a fight to keep him in your team over the coming years if his progression continues on the current trajectory? AB: Ultimately, we will see how he performs this weekend and the rest of the season but I think he will be approaching the weekends with more confidence, which can only help him. For the most part, he has always been pretty confident anyway which can be seen in quite a few of the overtaking moves he has made over the past couple years. In terms of whether other teams will want him, well that's up to the other teams. Matt Stevenson – WTFV: Dylan, for years people have been saying that Lopez start strong but can't maintain it over a season, this year you started as strongly as possible with a victory for Allar Kangur. Last week you struggled to score points. As a team with a history of falling off in the development race, why do Lopez struggle so much with in season development, and do you think you’ll be able to buck the trend? DL: Your guess is as good as mine. All teams put x amount of resources into improving their cars throughout the season. I don't believe we've dropped off very much at all, compared to previous seasons, but with the midfield as tight as it's arguably ever been it could take as little as a minor upgrade that propels a team further up the grid. Another thing that really hasn't helped us is our qualifying. To go from winning a V-Prix, to qualifying fifteenth four rounds later for me isn't a sign that we've been necessarily caught, but it's definitely not doing us any favours on some of the circuits that are tricky to overtake on. Layton Smith – Thegrid.net: My question is also to Dylan. As has been mentioned previously, you’ve suffered from a bit of a gradual drop off in performance so far this season. Are you worried about the teams behind you, or is your focus solely in front of you? DL: We've only scored eighteen points since Japan, so it is our focus at the moment to ensure we at least hold our position in the standings. If we can sort out our recent qualifying demons, then we expect that we'll be good enough to maintain our position in the Constructors’. Rebecca Parnell - XtremeV: Lucas, after the disappointment of Britain – and other teams getting results – you are now left with the reality of Q1. How are you and the team approaching this challenge? LW: Laughs We were in it all last year! I think we are quite experienced with Q1 now. We will dust off the old procedures and try and claw our way out again. Rebecca Parnell – XtremeV: Following on from that, Ben; whilst Westwood and especially Franklin’s results last weekend lifted them out of the Q1 battle, it made your job to get out of it much more difficult. Are you now setting your sights on Cheema as the team to beat, or are you expecting to be competing in Q1 for the foreseeable future? BF: We were never really targeting a Q1 escape judging by our failure to make the race with both cars on four occasions, but Franklin escaping Q1 is a tad disappointing. However, it is clear to see that Franklin has a lot of experience and clearly knows what they are doing, and also makes it evident there is still plenty for us to learn and improve. And as for Cheema, I see that vision a bit down the tunnel, our target for now is to stay planted hopefully at the front of the Q1 battle and then we move from there. Theo Parker – VM Magazine: Hi Ben. You dropped Rodolfo after just two races and brought two-time V-Prix winner Lewis Ellington into the team, however, he still has not qualified for a race for you. How quickly does he need to start matching Yakumi, and is there a risk he may find Rodolfo back in the seat at all? BF: No, Rodolfo will not be returning to the seat anytime soon, it isn't a possibility. Lewis has provided a great insight into the world of FV for us and also grants us understanding we could never get without him. Yes, he has struggled to make the race yet far, but a lack of knowledge with him only getting to drive in practices and qualifying is holding him back, we believe that he will flourish once he gets into a race with us and gets more acquainted with the engineers and ins-and-outs of our team. Layton Smith – Thegrid.net: Marcus Thunder received plenty of criticism last season after he was beaten quite comfortably by Arden – who was then inexplicably left on the side-lines for this season. Lucas, do you feel like Marcus is justifying your decision so far, and is there the chance for a swap if he underperforms again? LW: Marcus is doing a great job. He struggled a lot last year because we designed the car for Big Carson. However last year, when they were designing the 2020 car. We took a more shared approach with both drivers on regards to car set up. So the car is suited as best as it can be to both drivers. I can't comment on contract status but we as a team are very happy with Marcus. Klaus Ammermuller – RTV: Lucas, Dylan and Adam. We are lucky to have here today three teams who have won a handful of races; two of your teams taking your first wins this season already. My question to Lucas and even Dylan; how did your first ever victory change the team in terms of fans, feeling, and future? And to Adam, how do you predict the first win will change your team? Assistant walks on stage to Lucas and whispers something into his ear LW: Sorry everyone. I have another some other business to attend to. If you have any questions for me or the team, could you let Bettina here know and we will try and answer them on our virtual conference tonight. Puts jacket and glasses on and leaves the room SP – FVTV: Well, er, okay we’ll go straight to you then Dylan please. DL: We've certainly gained a large Estonian following in the start of the season. Allar thoroughly enjoys driving past the contingent of fans wearing blue and donning the Estonian flags. Elroy's always the same as well, with his supporters from his successful period in Team 23 and Franklin. Winning the race itself certainly brought about a feeling amongst us all that the monkey was finally off of our backs. It's what we're all out here to do. We understand how lucky we are to be here and it's meant the absolute world to us that all of our hard work paid off. AB: As I previously answered I think it will be big for short term momentum and for the points we gained from it, but long term I think our trajectory is pretty much the same as before Silverstone. Now obviously if we can get some more great results like that one, our trajectory will be even better but in either case we are in a good position to be fighting near the front for years to come. One hope that I have is that FV might pick up a larger audience in the US if an American team is winning races and consistently running near the front. KA – RTV: And Ben, when you sit alongside these four Team Principals who have six wins between their four teams, do you look to the long-term future of Arrow and envisage many great achievements like that? Or do you and the team prefer to keep your heads down and work on the current battles you find yourselves in? What I mean to say is, do you set short- or long-term goals? BF: Short term goals and what we are focused on right now, but obviously long-term plans are always good things to stored away. I think any team would dream and hope for wins, obviously, that seems to be all but a vision for now but we hope to build on where we are right now and see where we are maybe two years down the line. And seeing all these team principals around me with many wins between them has certainly humbled me a lot. Scott Parkin – FVTV: Final question, to the remaining three of you. During the days following the British V-Prix, there was some discussion by Team Principals and fans about points being awarded to positions further down the field – I hasten to add that this is purely discussion and has not been suggested by FV CEO Nic Morley – but, what are your opinions on this? BF: Of course, as a team that is further down the grid, I was inclined to side with the discussion that was in favour of handing points down the grid, however after serious discussion with many of the team principals around me I have almost changed my view completely and believe that the top ten points system is good as it is, despite us being nowhere near there for now. AB: I like the current points system, mainly because scoring a point is an accomplishment right now. It makes the battle for tenth a real story during each race and those kinds of results are big for teams near the back of the grid, which adds excitement to the races. But also because scoring a point is so much harder with only the top ten scoring, it makes days where your teams scores points special if you are near the back of the field or even in the midfield. DL: I don't really have too much of an opinion to be honest with you. It just depends whether or not the head honchos see it as an issue that needs to be fixed immediately before the world burns down. SP – FVTV: Okay great stuff guys, thank you to the three of you and to Lucas for attending today, and to the media for your questions. Make sure you join us tomorrow for Friday practice ahead of the French V-Prix.
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