Good morning and welcome to Sao Paulo, Brazil for the Team Representatives’ Thursday press conference ahead of this weekend’s Brazilian V-Prix – round fifteen of the 2022 Formula Virtual World Championship. Joining us today, from left to right, are; Harry Westwood of Samsung Galaxy Red Bull Westwood Racing Technology TotalEnergies Peugeot Sport Engineered, Adam Blocker from FIRST Motorsport, Arthur Lapierre of Coca-Cola Porsche Team Mathershaw, Bradley Downton from Downton FV Team and Alex Easton from Royal Phoenix Motorsport. Welcome to the five of you. Scott Parkin – FVTV: First question for you Bradley, it might have been a slight gift – given Simon’s misfortune – but the one-two in Detroit must be one of your most satisfying results? Not necessarily for the performance of the car but more the doggedness of both Klaas and Matteo to persevere and not make any mistakes when stuck behind the likes of Beyer and Ledesma. Bradley Downton: It was definitely a great result at a great time, that's for sure. We've seen this season that both drivers have made mistakes on occasion, so to see them avoid making any in such a high-pressure situation was fantastic, and the progress that we want to see. SP – FVTV: Coming to you now Arthur. Adrien was desperately unfortunate to retire at the very end of the race in Detroit, a race in which he had driven superbly and looked poised to win. With that retirement he is now mathematically out of contention for the title, however, he has scored the most points of anyone over the last six races so will clearly be retiring with his head held high. Would you agree that he’s currently at his absolute best? Arthur Lapierre: Adrien is a generational talent, one of those drivers we will look back to in 20 years time and remember all those wonderful things he achieved in his career. The result in Detroit was absolutely devastating on many levels, not only ending the title hopes, but I want to see him at the top of the sport for the end of his career - to see him ending things in this form and driving the way he is makes me incredibly proud as both his team principal and his friend. SP – FVTV: Adam, Felix once again showed his class to bring the car home a brilliant sixth on the tricky Detroit circuit last weekend. Did the result feel any more special being a race in the United States? Adam Blocker: Yeah, it was important to get a good result in front of all of our sponsors and the Ford executives. Felix had a really impressive drive coming from around 12th with 10 to go and getting up to 6th, most of that coming through on track overtakes. I think his aggressive style of racing suited the Detroit track well and it was cool to watch. SP – FVTV: Coming to you now Harry. Despite Tumo heroically defending from some much faster cars at certain points throughout the race in Detroit, it was yet another miserable weekend with the feeling that the team is just soldiering on to the end of this season now. Is it fair to say that everyone in the team is almost wishing the year to be behind you now? Harry Westwood: Detroit was an interesting one - we found that the car was actually fairly well suited to the street circuit, which is unlike us, although if you remember rightly we also looked fairly strong at Adelaide a few months back. We learned a lot, but these are things we should have picked up on earlier. Team morale is definitely taking a small slump I won't lie to you - but that is exactly why I'm giving these guys an extended winter break to refresh and come back stronger than ever next season. SP – FVTV: Alex, with Phoenix looking comfortable in third for some time now, would it be fair to say you’ve taken your foot off the gas slightly in terms of pushing Porsche Mathershaw and Downton? Alex Easton: I’ll be totally honest with you, we absolutely have eased off with the development of the PX5. In fact, we eased off some time ago now! It was necessary in order to ensure that this season wasn’t a flash in the pan for Phoenix, we want 2023 to be a really solid year too with the PX6 so switched our focus. However, that doesn’t mean that any less effort has been put in during race weekends. The team has worked just as tirelessly as earlier on in the season and I think our results have still been really decent! SP – FVTV: I don’t think anyone would begrudge Phoenix for that. Okay, we’ll do the Fan Questions now. The first one here is for Harry. “Next season, at Peugeot, you’ll have a great blend of experience and exciting young talent with Tumo and Thierry. This might be a bold one, but, do you think 2023 has the potential to be the team’s best combination of car and driver line up since 2017 or even 2015?” HW: What a great question! That's a toughie, 2015 and 2017 were really strong lineups. We have a similar situation to 2017 in a way with experience and youth. I probably would argue that in Tumo and Thierry we have the most potential of any lineup we've fielded, for sure - and it's going to be spectacular watching the two spur each other on, both of them are incredible drivers! SP – FVTV: Looking back, Westwood really have had some great line ups! Alright, next one here is for you Arthur. “Your team is well known for special liveries, will we see something at your final race, in Mexico?” AL: I can't lie, with the pace of development this season, it isn't something we have considered that greatly. However, it wouldn't be right to end our time in Formula Virtual without something to commemorate it! SP – FVTV: Oh that’s exciting, I’m sure we’d all love to see that! Okay, next one here is for Alex. “Taylor has been retained for 2023 following a really strong season where he’s been close to Kangur for the most part, but will leading the team be a step too far for him next year?” AE: Not at all! I know it’s all been a bit hush-hush but Will and Leah [Taylor, Will’s wife] are expecting their third child any time now so if he can deal with three young kids, I’m sure leading Phoenix into 2023 will be no problem whatsoever for him! SP – FVTV: I didn’t actually know that, all the best to them and I’m sure everyone hopes that everything goes smoothly there! Next Fan Question is for you Adam. “You've decided to retain Klien after a better second half of the season, but is he really the driver to help return FIRST to the front?” AB: We haven’t announced our driver lineup for next season yet, but we are happy with the performance of both of our drivers this season. While it took him a bit to get up to speed and he has made some important mistakes, like his crash at Monza, I think Stefan has shown his potential and has delivered a fair amount of points for us. He’s beaten Felix in qualifying and the race a fair share of the time and his Spa weekend was perfect - third in qualifying and fifth in the race. As he can continues to improve and mature as a driver, and if we give him a better car, I expect him to have more Spa weekends. SP – FVTV: Actually, Stefan has really impressed me this season! Okay, final Fan Question now, for you Bradley. “There are just two races to go before Downton become the sole remaining traditional ‘Big Three’ team. Do you believe we will see a new ‘Big Three’ form with Downton and two other teams over the next few seasons?” BD: It's tough to say really. We might well see a 'Big Three', or it might become a 'Big Two' or 'Big Four'. To us, it doesn't really make much difference. As long as we're there, we don't care how many rivals we have - or who they are! SP – FVTV: Excellent stuff. Okay, the Team Representatives will now take questions from the assembled media. Kurt West – FOX: It’s no secret that FIRST have been gradually reeling in Ocelot for the last five races and at the current rate you stand a good chance of catching them in the final two rounds. If you did finish sixth, after such a poor start to the season, would it almost be as great an achievement as finishing third in 2020? AB: I don’t think it measures up to our 2020 season unless some really crazy things happen in Brazil and Mexico. The thing that made 2020 special was the two wins, including a 1-2 in Britain and a home win at Indy. However, this year has been a good recovery from a terrible start, and while a 7th is already respectable given the circumstances, a 6th would be even better. I think it will be a tough task to overtake given Ocelot’s advantage with only two races to go, but not impossible. Matt Stevenson – WTFV: Harry, what is going on with the Barclay situation? We were told he had a drive but now it seems he is without a contract anywhere for 2023. How has this been allowed to happen? HW: Wow, definitely the tough questions today! The situation with Barclay is... Unfortunate. All parties involved are disappointed. I won't be mentioning any names or playing the blame game, but there was some miscommunication and misinterpretation of the new rule for 2023 regarding driver loans. I wish I could comment further. Peter Duggan – FutureFV.com: Phoenix recently announced that Ott Eskola will be making the step up to Formula Virtual next season after three seasons in The Hive. Chloe King and Barney Hoskins have both had great seasons in VWRS and VERS respectively and you’ve just signed the VOARS Rookie Champion for 2023. How proud are you of your young driver setup? AE: Immensely, no… immeasurably proud! It’s no secret that the whole purpose of Phoenix Motorsport, originally, was to provide a pathway into Formula Virtual for talented young drivers and we’re absolutely delivering on that. This is just the start, too. It’s an honour to have such talented youngsters choosing The Hive as their academy to develop themselves; the likes of Dan [Zientek], Ott [Eskola], Chloe King, Barney [Hoskins], and Zayna Radif will all go on to have fantastic careers, I’m sure of it, and the fact that we can say they all started with us is incredible. Hugues Antoinette – Canal+: The battle for the 2022 Drivers’ World Championship is now between Enrique and Klaas. My question to Arthur and Bradley; what do you see as the biggest strength of your driver’s rival? AL: Klaas is just relentless, he never seems to quit and just keeps on going no matter what. If this goes down to a single point here or there, it will be down to which of the two of them minimised the impact of the bad days just as much as how much they maximised the good days. BD: Enrique is ridiculously consistent - and is on such a mega run of finishing races. I think it's something like only one retirement in the last thirty-odd races, it's a far cry from his days before Mathershaw. The team have been fantastic for him and turned possibly his biggest weakness into his biggest strength. Gianmario Angelino – Sportitalia: In the last weeks and months, there has been confirmation of certainly three big manufacturers entering Formula Virtual to take the amount of manufacturer teams to five, with some other teams like Kōwhai having exclusive relationships with a big manufacturer. The question to Bradley and Arthur; as the top current manufacturers in Formula Virtual, will you be worried for the threat of these new ‘powers’ in the next years such as Scuderia Maserati, Lamborghini and Peugeot? To Harry; do you believe Peugeot and the others can topple the traditional order in the coming years? To Adam; is the FIRST-Ford partnership effectively a works team relationship and can you keep up with the oncoming influx of manufacturers? And finally to Alex; where does this new wave leave Phoenix as a small privateer team, is there still a place for you? HW: I mean, it definitely has to be the goal! I can at least speak for the folks here at Peugeot and say we have a host of talent ready to take on Formula Virtual's big manufacturers. I do reckon that Lamborghini will be one to watch - they've clearly seen something in the floundering Meteor team to execute a takeover. As for Maserati? We'll have to see what they can bring to the table! AB: Ford puts in equal effort to supporting both of its current teams - FIRST and North Star. I wouldn’t characterize us as a full factory team, Ford is primarily focused on running the engine program while FIRST handles everything chassis and aero side. Ford does provide support in the form of software tools and access to testing facilities to help on the chassis and aero side, but they leave it to us to engineer everything. And obviously we have to collaborate extensively to make sure the engine design goes well with the rest of the car. To be honest, the new manufacturers joining doesn’t change much for us or for Ford. We’re focused on trying to close the gap to the likes of Porsche and Downton, and the new manufacturers don’t change that goal. All we can do is focus on what we can control, which is making our car as fast as possible. AE: Oh man, what a question, what was the bit directed at me again? Angelino repeats question AE: Alright nice one! Err, well, I don’t think it necessarily changes things too much from our perspective. We’ll just keep cracking on with our plan and work within our own little budget then worry about where we are when we’re there, if y’know what I mean? There’d be little to no point in trying to set ourselves the goal of finishing ahead of a certain team at all costs then ending up in dire financial straights. We have to just stick in our own lane & wherever that leaves us is fine, because we know we’ve done our best with the resources available and just keep on buzzing. AL: Me personally? I'm not worried at all - we're not going to be the one dealing with those problems any more! I think the new manufacturers will spur on a new era of development and professionalism in Formula Virtual, with the new works teams fighting to establish themselves and then beat the current top teams, very capable semi-works and factory supported teams right at the front of the grid, and the independent teams also proving themselves to be among the very best in the world. There is a slight bittersweet feeling for me - being involved in this new challenge would have been amazing, but I also think we've picked a good time to end on what will hopefully be the highest of highs. BD: Manufacturers come and manufacturers go, it's been the way since 2013. A manufacturer can have as much history or prestige as they like, but they still need to get the development right and build a good car. Most of them are going to be bringing in people who are totally new to FV, so they've got a lot to learn - but I wish them all the best. Are we worried? No, we don't waste time worrying. If someone comes in and does a better job, we applaud them and knuckle down to stop it happening again. Neil Allenby – FVTV: With just two races to go now and the season coming to a close, my question to everyone is; who will win the 2022 Formula Virtual Drivers’ World Championship? AE: I’m going to have to say Enrique. I think it’s just a bit too much to ask for Klaas to overturn the deficit. Either way, I just hope it goes right down to the wire and we get a grandstand finish. AB: Enrique Ruiz. He has a points advantage and he’s coming into his home race with a strong Mathershaw Porsche car, I’d feel silly betting against him. HW: Gotta echo the opinions from Alex and Adam here, I still think Ruiz has the upper hand, but I'm sure it's going to be a nail biter all the way to the finish! I just hope something like a DNF doesn't rob us of a good scrap to be honest. AL: I'm not answering that one, you know already what I want! BD: I figured a question along these lines would crop up, so I spoke to Klaas about it this morning and he's given me an answer on this bit of paper. unfolds paper, clears throat 'It's Enrique's to lose.' SP – FVTV: Excellent answers from all of you today and some great questions in there, thank you everyone. That’s all from the Press Conference today, make sure you join us for Friday Practice tomorrow ahead of the Brazilian V-Prix!
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