Sakhir and Melbourne performance give MP ‘confidence’ heading to Europe says Dorsman

6 May 2024

MP Motorsport Team Principal Sander Dorsman is encouraged by the performances of his three rookie drivers so far this season and believes this puts them in a good position heading to more familiar European tracks this month.

MP are one of two teams – alongside Jenzer Motorsport – to field an all-rookie line-up in 2024, with Tim Tramnitz, Alex Dunne and Kacper Sztuka all making their debuts in Formula 3.

All three drivers faced the task of learning two tracks they had never previously been to in Bahrain and Melbourne to start the year. However, Tramnitz finished on the podium in the Sakhir Feature Race, while Dunne scored points in the same event.

Round 2 in Melbourne was not as successful with Dunne’s P7 in the Sprint Race their only points from the weekend. However, Dorsman put that down to their collective struggles in Qualifying, with all three cars lining up outside of the top 15 at Albert Park.

“Obviously we have three rookie drivers this year,” explained Dorsman. “So, let's say with F3 starting in Bahrain and Melbourne its obviously all new territory for them, so it's never super easy for rookies to start.

“For sure if you have an experienced driver that knows Melbourne it's always a bit of an advantage, but I would say apart from that if you looked at Bahrain, we had quite a good weekend.

Tramnitz finished on the podium in his debut Feature Race in Bahrain for MP

“Tim did an amazing job and Alex had a bit of bad luck in quali but amazing pace in the race and Kacper didn't have a great quali in Bahrain but overall, the weekend was pretty good. In Melbourne, we just had a not so good quali, but the race pace was great again.

“So, it's all about making sure we do a better job in quali to be much more at the front, to make our life a bit easier. Obviously now we go back to Europe and to circuits that the guys know from their previous years in junior categories, so at least that whole track knowledge thing is out of the equation, so the main focus must be to have a better quali.”

Asked whether his approach as team leader changes with three rookie drivers, Dorsman responded: “To be honest I think it’s more for the engineers. Obviously in race events, you have a bit of limited mileage, so we only had three days of testing before round one which was also a new track for them in Bahrain.

“So, you are obviously a bit on the back foot compared to some drivers that already did one or perhaps even two full seasons, they know the car by heart, they know the tracks, they know the tyres, so obviously you're a bit behind in driver knowledge from the experience.

“But I would say experience you gain comes from just doing it. It will need some time but at least it's nice to have the in-season test in Barcelona, after two rounds you have the opportunity to have three test days where you can do much more mileage and work together with the driver.

“Heading to Imola it's known territory and, in the meantime, they gained some experience with their first race weekends in F3, they know how it works, they know where their weaknesses are and during the test we worked on that and hopefully we can be better.”

Speaking of last month’s in-season test in Barcelona, MP’s focus centred around getting their drivers more comfortable in the car while also improving their Qualifying performance.

Dorsman is confident his rookies will perform well in Europe

Dorsman is confident that they have improved in that regard, however, with the teams having had these current F3 cars for six seasons, he does not expect anyone to make major gains in pace.

“For sure we will improve,” declared Dorsman. “I hope it will be drastic because that means that hopefully we will be on pole. I am pretty sure we will be able to do better, but at least the good thing is now the upcoming tracks they know those tracks so that's already a step forward.

“To be honest, we are on the sixth year of this car, and I doubt a lot of teams will suddenly find in Imola a major setup improvement from the test. So, I think it's rather together with the drivers learning the cars, the procedures, and gaining experience and going together like that.”

Imola will kick off eight rounds of racing set to take place across Europe and Dorsman says confidence is high within him and MP that they can have success over the next few months.

“I think to be honest if you look at the race pace in Bahrain and Melbourne it was very strong so that gives us a confidence boost,” he added. “So, I think that we need to make sure we have a good quali and ideally have three cars in the top 10 and then anything is possible.

“The guys showed they had amazing pace in the race, so for the team and the drivers for sure that confidence is there.”