Nov
1
Jack Harvey: end of season blog
It’s strange to think that the 2011 British F3 season is already over. Where did the time go?! It’s been a real rollercoaster but we finished the year on a high with five podiums in five races and can be really proud of our achievements.
The last four race weekends saw us travel to Spa, Rockingham, Donington and finally one of my favourite circuits on the calendar: Silverstone.
We headed to Spa full of confidence off the back of my debut win at the Nurburgring and another podium finish at Paul Ricard. We had a really tough first half of the year, but things started to turn around for us following the win in Germany and we were determined to make the most of the momentum for the closing races.
I raced at Spa last year in Formula BMW and it is one of the ‘greats,’ a genuinely demanding track with one of motorsport’s best corners in Eau Rouge. The grids for the races in Spa were bugger than usual as we were joined by competitors from the Formula Three International Trophy. We had a decent qualifying session that saw me line up in P7 for race one and from there I was able to fight my way through the pack to another podium finish. Races two and three were a little trickier, but I was still able to pick up a haul of Championship points with fifth and sixth place finishes.
Next up it was time to return to the UK for the final three race weekends of the season. We headed to Rockingham first where I continued my run of podium finishes with a fourth in succession! After all the problems at the start of the year it was a fantastic feeling for the whole team to be standing up on that podium race after race. We always knew we had the pace to qualify well and finish in the top three, so it was hugely satisfying to have put the problems to one side and be bringing home strong results.
After a month’s break in the season it was then time to go to Donington for the penultimate race weekend of the year. Here we had the best qualifying of the season, lining up in P2 and on the front row of the grid. Qualifying has been incredibly close this year and this weekend was no exception as I missed out on pole by just seven hundredths of a second!
Donington was one of those weekends where you taste the highs and the lows of motorsport. In race one I secured yet another podium finish that moved me up the Championship standings, but in race three, whilst running in P2, we had an issue with the car and I was forced to retire – so disappointing! But despite the disappointment of not being able to come away with two podium finishes there were a lot of positives to take from the weekend, namely that we had the pace to be consistently running in the top four. We have come incredibly far as a team since the start of the season. To be recording our fifth podium in as many races showed we were running at the top on a regular basis and was a really strong end to the year.
The final race weekend took place at Silverstone. It is one of my favourite tracks and I had been looking forward to competing there all season. We took part in a test just prior to the race weekend and were regularly running in the top three so headed into the event feeling confident of securing at least a couple more podium finishes.
The weekend started off really strongly with us running in the top three during free practice. Qualifying however was an entirely different situation. We had issues with tyre pressure that meant I wasn’t able to get sufficient heat into the rubber, which in turn meant we were off the pace and qualified in ninth. I was gutted as we had the pace to be in the top three and I knew we faced an uphill struggle to record some decent point finishes in the races.
Despite the difficulties at Silverstone, I was still able to finish my rookie year in the Championship ninth overall. We would loved to have ended on a high at the last race weekend but sometimes things are out of your control and the results prior to Silverstone were a brilliant end to the season.
It’s only been a couple of weeks since the final race of 2011 but we’re already back into testing for next season – it really never stops in motorsport! There will be some time off for me over Christmas but apart from that it’s non-stop testing and training. Looking back, I’ve really enjoyed my year in British F3 and now look forward to seeing what 2012 will bring…
Follow Jack on Twitter @jack_harvey42
www.jackharveyracing.com