News

15 Sep 09

Adrien Tambay’s Portimao weekend

F3 Euro Series racer Adrien Tambay and his ART Grand Prix team mates guessed appeared once again in the British F3 series, travelling last weekend to the Algarve and the Portimao venue for the penultimate round of the junior championship.

“We lost a lot of track time in free practice as we had to deal with a few teething  problems,” said the Gravity driver. “The car’s engine  was also changed between the two sessions so we only started to look at all the relevant data on Friday evening.”

A thorough analysis of the young Frenchman’s telemetry provided an insight into the areas where time could be made up. “The information indicated that I was evidently carrying too much momentum into the slow corners and that hampered my speed on the exits and on the following straights. The Cooper tires are quite different from the Kuhmos we use in the Euro Series, offering a lot more traction while our usual rubber provides a better turn-in level of grip. I struggled a bit in Q1 to get everything together as there was a lack of time but in Q2, my understanding of the tires improved. I was even 4^th at one point in the session on fresh rubber but then overdid it a bit, with a tendency once again to carry too much speed into the corners. That put me back into P17 in the end.”

Adrien Tambay enjoyed a rapid getaway at the start of the first race, getting the better of many in the opening laps to propel himself up into 8^th position before a safety car was deployed to clear up the chaos caused by a scattered field when Bottas was collected by Sam Bird on lap 3. “I was really getting to grips with the car and the tires, and was hoping to gain a few more spots, but then, a slight contact with Boyd damaged my right rear wheel which affected the car’s balance, especially under braking. I was then left to defend my 8^th place for the rest of the race.”

In the second race, Tambay got caught out by the tricky hand brake on the Dallara Mercedes, which stalled on the grid. “It was a stupid mistake,” admitted Adrien. “By the time I got going, the whole field had passed !”  From 29^th, the ART GP driver just put his head down and stormed up the field, passing cars on every lap and eventually crossing the finishing line in 10^th position !  “In spite of a catastrophic start, the race went well, with some very good laps, and with all the traffic I had to deal with there was no moment of respite. In the final results, I eventually finished 8^th as both Gutierrez and Buzaid were later slapped with a 10-second penalty by race officials.”

There’s no doubt that Tambay’s progress will see him racing at the front sooner rather than later, and perhaps even next weekend when the F3 Euro Series resumes in Barcelona.