This morning, FVTV caught up with DS Automobiles Head of Driver Development and DS Phoenix team principal Alex Easton at the British Formula Virtual team’s base in Greater Manchester to discuss FV and find out what’s been going on over the winter. FVTV: So we’re here this morning in Middleton, Greater Manchester, at the home of Phoenix – or Ecotricity DS Automobiles Team Phoenix to give them their official name – with Alex Easton. Morning Alex, how’s your winter been? Alex Easton: Morning mate, welcome to the Costa del Oldham! Bloody beautiful out there isn’t it? Yeah, my winter has been pretty rammed to be fair, there wasn’t much of a break in all honesty! I’ve been doing a fair bit of radio work over the last couple of months, as well as a few appearances at various events around the UK. Then there’s the continued preparation for our second season in Formula Virtual, the rebranding and everything that comes with it – if you look around you, you can see all the fancy new DS branded stuff we’ve had installed – and also properly getting to grips with my new role within the DS family! Amongst all that, I’ve done quite a bit of charity work back in my hometown and spent time with friends and family. Any leftover free time not doing any of that I’ve just been enjoying nature really, if you walk down that dirt track just outside for about ten minutes, there’s a fantastic area for bird watching right near the canal. Sadly, I’ve had a lot less time for that than previous years, but that’s the nature of gaining recognition as a Formula Virtual team principal, I suppose! FVTV: Understandable! Now, we’re here this morning to discuss all things FV, but I think it makes sense to start by talking about where we’re currently sat - in your wonderful new cafeteria. This, and all the other changes here, really have transformed the place since I was here this time last year! AE: Yeah, you can say that again, I think I’m right in saying that - virtually where we’re sat now - used to be those old toilets that were permanently out of order! Let’s not beat about the bush here, we’re still a tiny team with incomparable facilities when you look at some of FV’s big hitters, but we’re making progress. I think the main changes we’ve made are to make life easier and more enjoyable for our little team of dedicated people here, that’s the main thing. FVTV: Presumably, as I look around me and see DS branding everywhere as you mentioned, funding from DS has made this all possible? AE: Primarily, yes. DS have been wonderful ever since we got the deal sorted with themselves and the whole Downton-DS stable. Speaking of which, have you seen our cakes? Alex produces a tray of coloured cupcakes, each topped with either DS Mathershaw red, Downton orange, Lopez yellow, Lucas purple or DS Phoenix burgundy icing Bloody brilliant, aren’t they? I wanted to get the faces of the five team principals printed on the icing but thought that might be a bit weird, in hindsight. Anyway, sorry, easily distracted! As I was saying, DS have been fantastic with us and have really helped start to bring our factory forwards into, well, the 21st century, I guess! We’re confident that, in the long term, it’s really going to be huge for us here at DS Phoenix. FVTV: Yeah, we’ll come to the future shortly but firstly I wanted to ask you about your debut season in FV; what were the highs and lows for you? AE: I don’t even know where to start to be honest. Without sounding like a broken record, as I said it so many times last year, we went toe to toe with the best twelve virtual motorsport teams in the world last season and came out seventh best – admittedly aided by the sad departure of our good friends Westwood – but yeah it was an incredible first season. I think some of the absolute high points included; Sergio’s fantastic drive in Malaysia, our first time crossing the line in the points in France, Carson’s amazing US qualifying lap, and that hundredth V-Prix in Belgium – in our special gold livery where, for the first stint, Carson was right on the pace of the leading cars, and then of course finishing the race in Brazil knowing we’d got seventh place. Possibly the most emotional highlight for me personally, though, was actually lining up on the grid in Melbourne. We first applied to join the grid in late 2015 but were unsuccessful, so we spent the next two seasons trying to improve ourselves as a team and really convince the FVA that we could come and compete in Formula Virtual when the opportunity arose, and to finally line up on the grid last season felt amazing – to finally see our burgundy and yellow cars out there with the best in the world.. wow. As for low points.. there weren’t that many in all honesty! Yeah we had a couple of poor races but we never let it affect us, in fact the worst point last season was probably the day after the Malaysian V-Prix, there were quite a few sore heads! In all seriousness, there were probably only a couple of times that we as a team felt a little low; the first was when we got the official confirmation that Westwood weren’t gonna be able to see the season out. That one was rough as they were really up there as some of the best guys in the paddock, right from Harry downwards throughout the team. Sergio was understandably gutted too, not only was his future hanging in the balance but he had a lot of good friends in that team – thankfully he and Harry still go to ‘El pub’ together along with a few of the other guys and girls from there! The second low was the split with Judd which was just before Hockenheim; we absolutely loved working with them and really thought we were embarking on a long term future with them, but a couple of things changed and I think the engine rule change for 2019 was a bit too much for them.. but as I said at the time, it was a parting rather than a split, we’ll still be sending Christmas cards to each other! FVTV: Great stuff! Now, onto the coming season; with pre-season testing looming, we’re yet to see your 2019 challenger, is there a delay at all? And what are your expectations for this season? AE: I’d be lying if I said we were right on track. There’ve been a few disruptions over the last few months which resulted in our development being pushed back, but we’ll be there in Estoril. I think, now more than ever, pre-season testing is huge for a lot of the teams with the tyre changes and also – for the teams around the lower midfield – the addition of Q1, as I believe is the official title. We really need as much running on the tyres as we can possibly get to work them right out, and if you’re in a position for whatever reason where you miss out on running, it could seriously hinder you more than ever before. In terms of expectations, first things first we’ll be looking at our pace compared to 2018, because first and foremost you need to make progress year on year, if possible. Realistically, we’re all expecting a much tougher second season – quite a few things fell our way in our debut season and we were fortunate that we had quite a gap to the teams behind our little battle. This season will be incredibly competitive with the amount of teams and drivers all pushing for those highly sought-after twenty-six grid slots, which excites me no end. As much as the addition of Q1 will put teams under pressure and inevitably bring grief to those who miss out, I firmly believe that the battles at the back will now have infinitely more importance and instead of the guys at the back just making up the numbers, they’re going to be in a hugely important battle of their own which I’m sure will encapsulate the attention of viewers at home. As for whether we’ll be involved in that battle? We hope not, but if we are you can rest assured that we’ll work our socks off to get out of it and regardless, enjoy every minute of it as usual! FVTV: What about your driver line up? How do you see the season going for Alvarez and Xylander? AE: Off the top of my head, I reckon we’ve got the joint least experienced driver line up along with Meteor – with Sergio entering his second season and Thierry debuting in FV this year. But we’re extremely happy to have such young and exciting talent in our team, these guys are the future of the sport. Sergio has to adapt to take on the role of team leader and he had the perfect example of how to lead a team last season in Carson - Sergio learnt a lot from Carson and I fully expect him to help Thierry find his feet as he had to at the start of last year. Thierry is a great addition to our team and he’s such a confident young man, it’s very easy to forget that he’s still a teenager! Then, of course, we still have James [Thompson] with us as our reserve driver and general joker around the place, and we also have our two new DS Performance Young Driver Academy members; Ethan [Matthews] and Daniel [Zientek] who will both be competing in VWRS with Johnstone Race Engineering and Signature Performance respectively. FVTV: VWRS certainly will be great to watch this year, it’s absolutely packed with talent throughout the field isn’t it? Anyway, I know you’re busy, so I won’t keep you too much longer but I’ve been requested to ask what the livery’s going to be like this year. Will it be a total change with the DS and Ecotricity deals? AE: I suppose I should really tell you to wait until the launch, but that’s not my style. We built an identity that the fans got used to and I have actually seen a fair few burgundy and yellow caps about - especially around Manchester – so no, it won’t be a total change. Of course, we won’t have all of our sponsors from last year and we’ve got some new additions – most notably Ecotricity – but it’s really just an evolution of our identity I’d say. What I can tell you, though, is that Anxiety UK will be on the car to add to the current campaign that Downton kicked off in FV to bring more awareness to mental health issues. 21% of Britons are currently affected by anxiety and one in six adults have experienced some form of neurotic health problem in the previous week. One in ten people are likely to have a disabling anxiety disorder at some stage in their life. I find that absolutely staggering, when you hear the figures like that. So yeah, I think even if the Formula Virtual community can really make a difference to anyone at all who may have been suffering, or even just helps to spread the word, then it’ll be a success. Another new addition to this year’s car will be the Manchester bee. Anywhere you go now in Manchester you see the bee; whether it’s on a bin, a street sweeper, various little statues, people’s car stickers or tattoos – it’s everywhere. It’s been a symbol of our great city for a long time now, but it really ramped up after that waste of air decided to blow up the Manchester Arena. The whole city really came together more than ever after that and, as a team incredibly proud to be from here, we think it makes absolute sense for the bee to be present on our car. FVTV: That’s fantastic, it’s great to see so many teams getting involved with the mental health battle and I look forward to seeing the bee on your car too. Okay Alex, thank you so much for your time, it’s been great talking to you. Best of luck for this season. Above: Anxiety UK logo, the latest in a series of charitable organisations to link up with a Formula Virtual team to raise awareness.
Below: The Manchester worker bee, which will be present on the DS Phoenix cars from 2019 onwards.
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