Good morning and welcome to Montreal, Canada for the Team Representatives’ Press Conderence ahead of the Canadian V-Prix – round twelve of the 2023 Formula Virtual World Championship. Joining us today, from left to right, are; Nic Forrest of North Star Racing, Bradley Downton from Downton FV Team, Adam Blocker of FIRST Motorsport, Sven Schubert from Porsche FV Team, and finally Alex Tunnicliffe of Toyota Kowhai Racing. Welcome to everyone of you. Scott Parkin – FVTV: “We’ll begin with our 2023 constructors’ champions, Downton. Bradley, first of all, congratulations for winning the 5th constructors’ title for the team. The season is pretty dominant so far in terms of both championships. Did you expect the big gap to the other teams and winning the title after only 11 rounds?”
Bradley Downton: “Firstly, thank you for the kind words. The entire team have done an exceptional job to put us in the position we find ourselves this season, however I don’t think any of us could have expected the gap to be what it has turned into. We were convinced AMR at least would run us very close, and it seemed a bit like that at the start of the season, but I think we’ve utilized our experience of being in this position before to maximise our results. And to win the title with five races to spare is testament to the job done by every single individual in the team.” SP – FVTV: “Thanks for the answer Bradley. I guess the team loved to hear those words from their boss. The next question is for Nick Forrest: Nick, again a very pleasing result for North Star and especially Brock Kidd. In the last races we noticed a positive progress in terms of performance for North Star. What do you think makes the difference to the races earlier this season in comparison to the other teams?” Nick Forrest: “Well thank you, first of all, it’s been an incredible two races for North Star, in both Italy and Turkey. It’s also the first time we’ve taken back-to-back podiums in our history, which seemed almost unthinkable at the start of the season. As for the performance swing and how that’s come about, I think it’s partly the upgrades we’ve made to the car this season have been working pretty much exactly as we’d expected, bringing a good deal of pace that we started off lacking, and partly that we have a much better understanding of the car as a whole team we did over the past couple of seasons, and we’ve been able to find a better direction and design philosophy to work with as a result. We’ve been making big strides in recent races, and hopefully we can at the very least hang on to this kind of form in the future.” SP – FVTV: “Sounds like everything going well for North Star and its looking good in the future. The next question is for Nick again from Mike Foster, pitstop.us. Your question please, Mike.” Mike Foster – pitstop.us: Like Mr. Parkin said earlier, Brock Kidd had two podiums in the last two races. He raced two nearly perfect races and profited from mistakes of others. What makes him so good and consistent at the moment? I guess some teams are interested in his performances? NF: “That is true, I’m not going to pretend he hasn’t had offers from other teams on the grid. Brock’s been showing in recent races the talent we always knew he had, and especially with the new financial regulations regarding driver contracts coming into force, we were expecting quite a bit of interest in him. Right now, I think we’ve been able to give him a car that he has a lot of confidence in, that really seems to mesh with how he likes to drive. Of course, when he joined us at the start of the 2021 season, the car was pretty poor, and 2022 didn’t get much better. It’s maybe the case that both the team and driver have been steadily learning and making those steps forward together, pushing each other forward, and we’re starting to reap the benefits of that.” SP - FVTV: “Okay, thanks for the answer Nick. The next question is for you, Alex: After a few races this season it was clear that Kowhai is the best out of the three newcomers this season. You currently sit in 11th place in the standings with Lopez and Lamborghini behind you. How confident are you to finish in 11th at the end of the season considering the pushing Lopez of Meyer getting very close to an eleventh place finish? Alex Tunnicliffe: “I don’t think we ever expected to get as good a placing as we have managed this season and while its great that we managed to capitalize on that chaos we saw in Dubai, we are not focused on maintaining our 11th place. We know that on most days we cant compete with Lopez and I’ve worked with Max before: He is a great driver. So its just a matter of seeing if the cards fall our way or Lopez’s really, they might get that one good race like we did or they might not.” SP – FVTV: “Thanks Alex, now we speak to Sven Schubert: Sven, its rather disappointing to see Porsche this far away from a Top3 finish in the standings. The last race in Turkey was a good result again, but we have to remember that Porsche is still missing a podium finish this season. Can you tell us something about the problems and the solutions you have for this massive drop and what has to change to get back to form?” Sven Schubert: “Yes this season is a complete disappointment. We missed one deadline so that one cost us a lot unfortunately plus we are just unlucky this season. It seems like our drivers get sucked into trouble permanently. Turkey was the first race which we could be happy with. Alexander had a great day which resulted in his best performance yet.” SP – FVTV:” Thanks Sven, lets hope for better days to come for you and Porsche. We have another question for you from Liam Carpenter, VirtualM Canada. Your question please Liam.” Liam Carpenter – VirtualM Canada: Sven, we heard rumours about Ruiz leaving the team at the end of the season. Can you tell us something about this? SS: “We won’t comment any transfer speculations at this point…” SP – FVTV: “Okay… thanks Sven. The next one is for Adam Blocker: Adam, FIRST had again a rather disappointing race in Turkey. No Top10 finish in the last six races, best finish of 12th for Perez and best finish of 13th for Klien. It does not look like the team developed anything on the car since the start of the season. The focus is all on next year, right? Adam Blocker: “We did have some upgrades early in the season which allowed us to score points on a few occasions, however we’ve definitely fallen behind in recent races. At this pint we’ve shifted our focus towards 2024 in most respects.” SP – FVTV: “Thanks Adam, I guess you are right with not many races to go. Another question for you Adam from Mike Foster. Your question please, Mike.” Mike Foster – pitstop.us: “Adam, the next three races are located in north America, we could say three home races for FIRST, especially the race in the United States. I guess, I can speak for all American fans that we want to see FIRST perform well. Are there any special preparations for the next races to maybe close the gap to the teams ahead and what do you think is realistic in terms of expectations for the last five races?” AB: “Traditionally we’ve run well in the US and Canada especially, so I’m optimistic that we could stand a chance at stealing a point or two from the next couple of races. That’s probably the goal over the last 5 races: to not go pointless. On the engineering and car preparation side we prepare for the North American rounds like any other races, however we’re all humans so naturally we do put more effort and attention into these races where possible. We have a lot of fans and sponsors in the US, Canada, and Mexico – especially for Felix (Perez) in Mexico – and don’t want to disappoint them.” SP – FVTV: Thanks Adam, I think the fans in North America are looking forward to see how FIRST can perform there. Back to you Bradley. A very simple question: World champion: Klass or Matteo? BD: “That’s impossible for me to call. It’ll be whichever of the two who does the best job over the course of the entire season. I think Klass probably has the edge because he has the experience of being in this position before, but Matteo has shown he is more than competent of taking the fight to Klaas – so we’ll let them battle it out, and may the best driver win.” SP – FVTV: “The best solution for this scenario, looking forward to the title fight. I have another question for you, Alex: We have seen Maxi Thunström inside the Kowhai motorhome. Any news about a possible comeback in 24 for him or just a little chat with Thunström? AT: “We’ve been having a fex chats with a few drivers, but you guys will all get to find out soon when we make our driver announcements.” SP – FVTV: “Very interesting answer from Alex. Okay, now a question for all of you: What are the goals for this race? NF: “Ideally for Noth Star, we have to continue outscoring Porsche and closing the gap for 6th in the standings. They’re around 30 or so points ahead at the moment, and there’s only five races to go, but we’ve seen in seasons prior that’s eminently doable. I think as long as Brock keeps up his form, and Hector can avoid being hit by misfortune, like the collision with Klaas that took him out of a potential top five finish in Italy, and getting caught up and shuffled right to the back on the opening laps in Turkey – which he drove fantastically to recover from and score a point, incidentally – I think if that’s the case, we can continue making good headway against Porsche, and taking the fight right to them.” BD: “It’d be somewhat ridiculous to say we’re aiming for anything other than extending our run of victories, however we need to acknowledge that AMR still have the pace, Ocelot are now right on our tails and the likes of Peugeot Westwood, Phoenix, Porsche and Noth Star have all shown pace in recent races too. We know we’re going to need to be on the top of our game to hold them all the bay.” AB: “The realistic goal for Montreal is to run top 15 on pace and execute the race the best we can and hope to move up through attrition or others not executin as well. We know its unlikely to finish top10 on pace alone right now.” SS: “Just get out of all the trouble and finish as good as possible” AT: “Another solid race with both cars finishing is our main priority at this point, we want to treat the rest of this season as a way to learn and gather some good data to help us push up the field in 2024:” SP – FVTV:” Excellent. Thank you to the Team Representatives for attending today. We’ll see you tomorrow for Practice and Qualifying ahead of the Canadian V-Prix!
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