At precisely seventeen minutes past ten this morning, Royal Phoenix Motorsport revealed their challenger for the 2024 Formula Virtual World Championship. Phoenix launched the PX7 in an online event streamed via social media. The launch event began with Team Principal Alex Easton sharing his thoughts on the upcoming season, before Technical Director Gary Haythornthwaite, Will Taylor, Ott Eskola, James Thompson and Chloe King all spoke. Alex Easton [Phoenix Motorsport Team Principal/Founder]: “Welcome everyone, thank you for joining us today as we launch our car for this season – the PX7. It feels like the winter break has absolutely flown by but here we are, preparing to begin our seventh season in Formula Virtual. It’s an absolute pleasure to have retained both Will and Ott for a second season together. They worked perfectly as a partnership last season and it was a no-brainer to keep them for 2024 – Will’s third season with us and Ott’s second. Keeping JT was crucial, as ever, and it’ll be fantastic to have Chloe joining him on reserve driver duties this year. Looking ahead, I think we’d be kidding ourselves if we thought this coming season will be anything other than challenging – new regulations always provide the opportunity for someone to get it bang on and get the jump on the others but we’ve opted to play it safe, which ensures we haven’t overspent on developing the car but unfortunately will probably see us drop down the pecking order. Nonetheless, we’re all thrilled to have made it through another winter and we can’t wait to see what the new season brings.” Gary Haythornthwaite [Phoenix Motorsport Technical Director]: “Designing the PX7 has been a real challenge for everyone at Phoenix, with the complex new regulations, but we hope we can at least be competitive and avoid dropping into Pre-Qualifying. I’m confident that myself and Andy [Dwyer, Phoenix Motorsport Chief Designer], along with our brilliant little team, have done a solid job with the new car and I believe we’ve got a good baseline to start with which should allow for marginal gains in the short term and large gains over the course of this set of technical regulations.” Will Taylor [Phoenix Motorsport #41]: “I really am so happy to be staying here at Phoenix for another season, everyone is brilliant and the entire dynamic works perfectly for me. It’s no secret that, with age and family commitments, my work/life balance is something I need to think about more and more – but that fits in perfectly with how Alex and the guys here go about things. But, of course, giving my all in Formula Virtual remains my priority and I feel fantastic – I’ve worked on myself a lot since the end of last season and I feel ready to push on in 2024.” Ott Eskola [Phoenix Motorsport #42]: “For sure I’m looking forward this year. 2023 was okay but I want more – we see where the car is after the test.” James Thompson [Phoenix Motorsport Reserve]: “This season’s going to be really interesting, with the new cars, so it’s going to be hard for us but I do think the guys have come up with a decent car to be fair. We’ve put in countless hours in the simulator but, at the end of the day, all that really counts is how the car performs when it’s actually out there on track – pre-season testing is gonna be busy but so important. I’m really excited about getting at least two races this year, as well as plenty of Friday sessions, I can’t wait to get back behind the wheel in a competitive race!” Chloe King [Phoenix Motorsport Reserve]: “This season is huge for me; my first season properly involved with the FV race team on a regular basis. I’ve been with Phoenix for the last three years so I already feel like I’ve been here for ages, but since coming back after Christmas it’s really felt like I’m a proper part of the main team now, it’s an amazing feeling! I’m really looking forward to spending so much of the year in the FV paddock shadowing JT and the others, as well as competing in my final season of VWRS where I truly believe I can fight for that top spot!” Following a short break, where an advert for Royal Blondes products played, the four drivers pulled the cover off to reveal the new car and livery as ‘This Is the One’ by The Stone Roses played. Alex Easton [Phoenix Motorsport Team Principal/Founder]: “There we are then, the PX7. Obviously, we’ve already spoke about the car itself but as for the livery, we’re all really pleased with how we’ve managed to fit it onto the new generation of cars relatively seamlessly. A feature we’re particularly proud of is the honeycomb design which becomes part of the regular livery due to it being so popular with the fans when it made its debut on last year’s special World Bee Day livery. Every single sponsor and all of our technical partners have signed an extension with Phoenix for another year which shows a huge amount of faith in the team. Thank you to Royal Blondes, Platinum Estate, V Foods, Beeline, Jacksons Barometrics, Flame, T&T Welding, Vibrant Boards, and TMF Advisory for sponsoring us once again. Thank you also to STOP-Tech, EnviroMat, Crown Logistics, Goodyear and of course Wilson Oils for supplying the team for 2024.” With the reveal of the PX7, Phoenix became the fourth team to show off their 2024 challenger. With eleven teams yet to reveal theirs, all eyes now turn to SRT’s scheduled launch date of next Sunday, 18th February.
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