Good morning and welcome to Indianapolis, United States for the Team Principal’s Thursday press conference ahead of this weekend’s US V-Prix – round fourteen of the 2021 Formula Virtual World Championship. Joining us today, from left to right, are; Adrian Arnello of Arnello Milner & Ronson Autosport, Adam Blocker of FIRST Motorsport, Rai Miyamoto from Ocelot Japan Racing, and Alex Easton from Royal Phoenix Motorsport. Welcome gentlemen. Scott Parkin – FVTV: We’ll start today’s press conference with you, Adam. It was an absolutely dominant display from Felix in Canada, but ultimately ended in slight disappointment. I don’t think I can recall Felix ever looking so utterly dominant before, what do you put that display down to? Adam Blocker: I think we had a good car setup for Canada that really allowed us to get and keep the super soft tires in their optimal temperature window. I also think the nature of the track, with its many heavy braking zones that require high commitment favours Felix’s aggressive driving style. The result was a shame but it summarises our season. SP – FVTV: Coming to you Rai. After six retirements in five races in the middle of the season, with some awful luck along the way, do you think you might’ve now turned a corner and we’ll now see what the car and drivers have been capable of all season? Rai Miyamoto: It’s hard to tell, we just need to take things one at a time and see how things develop. It’s been a hard season but we gotta do what we can to stick at it. SP – FVTV: Absolutely. Adrian, after another quiet race in Canada, it seems as though AMR have been fairly anonymous since that incredible result in Germany; six races ago. Is it fair to say that the foot has been taken off the gas to focus on next year, since that race? Adrian Arnello: I think we're still hungover after that race! Nah in all honesty we're still pushing, but the midfield has really taken a step ahead of us, so I think it's less us going off the loud pedal and more the other lads doing a mega job with their cars. We are looking forward to 2022, but its a bit of this, a bit of that. They're keeping us keen, that's for sure! SP – FVTV: Thanks Adrian. Okay Alex, I’ve done a little bit of research into Phoenix’s results over the years, it turns out that the second half of the season seems to be much stronger for you then the first half of the season. Out of your 133 total points, 96 have been scored in the second half of a season. What do you put this down to? Alex Easton: raises eyebrows Well, first of all Scott, hats off to you for doing your research on that one! I was aware that we had that sort of trend, we’ve become known for our improvement throughout each season, but I didn’t realise it was quite so weighted. I think, to answer your question as simply as possible, we do tend to go into the start of the season with a good base car, but we never tend to go too radically in one particular direction in case we go in the wrong direction, because we simply couldn’t afford to correct that. It also probably takes us a little bit of time to really understand our car and get to grips with it, which is probably why we see such an exaggerated improvement in the latter half of the year. SP – FVTV: Thanks Alex, the Team Principals will now take questions from the press. Hugues Antoinette – Canal+: My question is for everyone. Last week the FVA reveal the 2022 Race Calendar, with three new tracks in total – Detroit, Adelaide, and Brno – what are your opinions of the changes that have been made, and are you excited for Formula Virtual visiting street circuits? AB: I think adding street circuits is good for schedule diversity and I am all for that. I’m disappointed about the loss of Indy every other season, but equally excited about the addition of Detroit - a true home race for Ford. I just wish we could have Indy and Detroit! Adelaide and Brno should both be good additions, looking forward to both. RM: I think it will be interesting to see how the dynamic changes with it all, I’m looking forward to it. AA: Yeah nah, understandably we're gonna miss Albert Park, we had a really good run there this year, but at the same time, the legend that is Adelaide really excites us! Street circuits are a tricky beast to tame; unforgiving as all hell in my opinion, but challenge is par for the course, so we're just keen to get onto them and smash out some good results. AE: I can only echo what Adam and Adrian have said. The addition of Adelaide and Detroit excites me massively, the prospect of seeing Formula Virtual head to street tracks is something I never thought possible, so all credit to Nic and the FVA for their hard work to make it possible. Going to a new country – the Czech Republic – can only be a good thing for the sport too. We’ve seen in the past how going to these countries for the first time can really develop the fan base there, like with Slovakia, or Dubai this season, so I fully expect similar results from Brno! Matt Stevenson – WTFV: It has been coming for some time, but Lucas have now overhauled you for fifth place in the Constructors’. Sixth would be your lowest position since 2018; when the team ended up tenth. Do you think this season has been a backwards step from the last two seasons, after such a good trajectory in recent years? AB: Overall it’d be impossible to argue that this isn’t a backwards step. I do think we’ve had the most misfortune we’ve ever had in a season and should really be comfortably 5th at this point in the season. To be frank, we’ve made some engineering decisions that we now know led us down the wrong path and the performance of Will in the second car has been disappointing far too often. I think and hope we will be able to return to stronger form next season, we have been working on pretty major changes to the car’s design. Danny Webber – ABC FV: It’s quite clear to everyone the step that the team have taken this year to elevate yourselves into the midfield, after years at the very back. So, what next? Is there a plan in place to challenge the higher reaches of the grid, or is being in Formula Virtual’s midfield enough for Arnello, Milner and Ronson? AA: Our eyes are on the skies I think, we've been pushing hard to get a 2022 car that can take us another step forward, but we also need to be realistic mate, even if that means another midfield season. We are confident in what we've got though! Give it another 2 seasons and we'll see if it pays off. Hitoshi Ouchi – FansOfOcelot.jp: Hunter Ryan with a fantastic race last time out, some excellent aggressive driving and perfect strategy from the team. Do you now feel comfortable in seventh place with a gap back to Phoenix and Ingram? RM: You can’t ever get too comfortable until it’s mathematically not possible. Ryan is very talented and we are proud of what he manages to achieve. HO – FansOfOcelot.jp: As Rai says, it is still mathematically possible for a change in positions of Ocelot with Phoenix or Ingram. Can you compete with the Ocelot? AE: Short answer, no, I don’t think we can! Ocelot have been incredibly unlucky in the mid-section of the season – something we know all about from last year – and I think, now that we’re seeing them have clean races, their pace seems to be a level above ours. But, of course, we’ll fight all the way until the very end of the season – as will Ingram – so the battle for seventh is absolutely still one to keep an eye on! Rebecca Parnell – XtremeV: Question to everyone. The US V-Prix has become known as a race where anything can happen but will be dropped from the calendar for next year. How much of a loss is it for Formula Virtual? AB: I think it’s a tremendous loss. I know we are on the road course but Indy is Indy. One of the iconic race tracks in the world. If not the most iconic. Most seating capacity of any sports venue in the world. Almost 110 years of auto racing history. And aside from the “magic” of the venue, it has put on some of the best FV races of all time. And it’s had both forms of races, races with pure chaos and races that were good because of quality racing. AE: I think it is a slight shame, Indy has a real rich history in Formula Virtual so of course it’ll be strange not going there next season. But, we’re not losing it totally, I think the rotation system with Detroit only adds more intrigue to the calendar year on year, and stops it becoming stale. At the end of the day, the guys at the FVA know what they’re doing from a business point of view, we just turn up wherever we need to go and try to do the best possible job. AA: We're not too upset since it looks like it'll be rotated between Indy and Auto City, but yeah, Indy tends to kick up some interesting results. We rolled a car there, remember? That was cool! Nah in all honesty I think having new tracks accompany old ones keeps things fresh and interesting. We're just keen to get out there and have fun while it lasts. RP – XtremeV: Rai? RM: No comment from me. SP – FVTV: Some good questions and answers there, thank you. Final question now; as we enter the final three rounds of the season, things are coming to a head up and down the field. So, to each of you, what are your personal hopes and expectations for the last three races? Do you have any objectives you want to meet? AB: Not sure what to expect to be honest. The dream would be to reclaim 5th in the constructors. We would need some good fortune to make that work, but in FV anything can happen over a short period of races like this. If our performance here is anywhere close to Montreal I’d love to see a home podium, but we will have to see where we are Friday to see if that’s realistic. RM: Just take the races one at a time and see what happens right now. We don’t really have expectations other than it will be what it will be. AA: We'd love to score a few more points! Few teams keeping us honest this season and it's gonna be a fight and a half to stay where we are in the standings. It's been an exciting season, that's for sure! AE: We don’t really have anything to lose in our particular fight, so we’re going to have to go all out over the final three races and leave absolutely nothing on the table. Of course, Ocelot are in the better position in terms of being so far clear, but in terms of nerves I’d rather be in our position, chasing them! Other than that fight in the Constructors’, we just want to see both of our guys competing for a point or two in each race. SP – FVTV: Okay that’s fantastic, cheers guys! Thank you as always to the Team Principals in attendance today, make sure you tune in tomorrow for Friday Practice ahead of the US V-Prix!
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