Mar
29
Hi guys, and welcome to my first blog here on Motors TV to fill you in on my season racing in the Cooper Tires British F3 International Series.
The 2011 campaign will be my second in British F3 and for the new season, I’m switching teams from Hitech Racing to Fortec, the team that finished third in the standings last year with Oli Webb.
I had some good races against Oli in 2010 in my debut season, although for me, 2010 was a season of highs and lows. It was a difficult year, but I certainly learnt a lot from it and will now go into the new season in a stronger position. I know now how important it is to try and stay out front so that I can leave any trouble there is on track well behind me.
When the chequered flag dropped on the final race of 2010, I had a number of options available to me for 2011. I could have stayed with Hitech for another season or could have moved to Carlin, but in the end I elected to switch to Fortec.
I know the guys there and have a good relationship with them having tested their car back in 2009 as I worked towards making my F3 debut, and I also drove for Fortec in Formula BMW earlier in my career; although that was with a different team of people running under the same name.
We were able to do some good testing together before Christmas and then took part in the end of season event in Macau. Although the end result there wasn’t what I was hoping for, I got good experience of working with the team in a race weekend environment, which will only help when my 2011 season gets underway. It also gave me extra time working with my engineer who is also from Northern Ireland. That will be a help for me during the season I we can understand each other fully and I know there will be nothing lost in translation anywhere as we can recognise each other’s accent!
Joining Fortec, I know I am joining a team that can win races, as Oli showed last year on his way to third in the standings. This season, the team has a totally new driver line-up in myself, Lucas Foresti and Harry Tincknell. They are both good guys and have also shown they are quick on track. Like me, Lucas is in his second season in F3 and although it can be hard to understand him sometimes with him being from Brazil, he is a good driver. Harry is coming up from Formula Renault but I know him well from the MSA’s Team UK programme and the three of us are getting on really well together.
Being part of Team UK for a second season this year is fantastic for my career and it is always great when people can notice your talent. Team UK has been a big boost to my career over the past twelve months thanks to the opportunity it has given me to work with people like David Brabham and Robert Reid, who have years of experience that they can pass on. There are so many things that we do within the Team UK programme that are helping us to develop as drivers and although it has helped me to improve, there is always further improvements that can be made so I’m looking forward to working with the MSA again this year.
David in particular is a wily old fox who has been in the same position as many of us on the programme before, so to be able to get advice from him is a massive help. He can tell us what we need to focus on and give us extra knowledge that will help us to improve as drivers. At the end of the day, he went us the motorsport ladder to F1 and has been hugely successful in sportscar racing, so he is the ideal person for us to learn from.
Back to the job at hand however, and we are continuing to prepare for the opening round of the season at Monza. It’s an event I’m really looking forward to as, even though I have raced there before in Formula BMW, it will be a totally different challenge in an F3 car. I tested there before Christmas and it went well so I’m really looking forward to getting 2011 underway in Italy before we then return for the first race on British soil at Oulton Park the following weekend.
I have no doubt that the biggest opposition is going to come from Carlin as they have won the title for the last few years and have a strong line-up of six drivers, but there is no-one who wants to take the title away from them this season than me.
The whole team at Fortec is determined to do exactly the same and we are all working hard to make sure we are in a position where we are fighting for the championship when it gets towards the end of the season.
Until next time,
Will
