Interview
PREMA Racing continued on as they started in FIA Formula 3, winning the 100th race in the Championship’s history 99 on from taking victory in the very first back in 2019.
This time it was rookie Arvid Lindblad that secured top honours for the team, overtaking pole-sitter Christian Mansell en route to a comfortable victory in the end.
Team Principal Rene Rosin was full of praise for the Red Bull Junior Team driver afterwards, applauding his decisive overtake in the beginning of the race that laid the foundations to his Feature Race success.
“Arvid did a great job all weekend,” Rosin began. “It started in Qualifying, and he managed pretty well getting P2 in the end. In the Feature, he managed things really well. He was P2 in the opening laps but then we saw that he could attack Mansell, and then we said if you have the pace, go for it and build a gap.
“From then on, everything came a bit easier to him. Clean air in front so you don’t struggle as much as when you’re stuck in the back of the pack, and he did an amazing job.”
Rosin’s effusive praise of Lindblad was also part of his highlighting their current performance levels, with the team taking Feature Race victory in three of the last four events between all three drivers.
With the rounds coming up fast across the next month, the PREMA team boss says that it is crucial to the team’s title hopes in 2024 that they continue their performances across the next three race weekends.
“We have to remember that he’s come from Formula 4, so the jump is so big, but he’s doing step-by-step, an amazing job. He’s always improving, always there and talking with the engineers to get as much information as possible.
READ MORE: FEATURE RACE: Lindblad overcomes Mansell to win 100th Formula 3 race in Barcelona
“He deserved that win, and he did an amazing job. We don’t need to forget what happened, but we need to focus forward on Spielberg and Silverstone back-to-back, and then Budapest-Spa.
“This is a fundamental part of the season where we have to perform. We have all three drivers in the top five and we can really push for the Championship and score the most amount of points as possible.”
While Lindblad was victorious in Barcelona, teammates Dino Beganovic and Gabriele Minì endured a more difficult weekend comparatively.
The Swede was able to recover to the points on Sunday though Minì was battling understeer throughout that prevented him from making more of an impact says Rosin.
He added that the team would be taking the lessons from a tricky weekend in Spain and applying them to the upcoming rounds of Spielberg and Silverstone.
“Everything was set in Qualifying. It wasn’t the best session for Gabriele, he did a mistake on the final set, and it wasn’t the easiest for Dino either. Dino managed points, even if it’s not much but the pack is quite close. Gabriele struggled with understeer, but we have to learn from these mistakes, move forward and remember we have all three cars fighting for the Championship. That’s something we need to ensure we keep up.
“We need to concentrate race-by-race and maximise the result and try to do better than the others. Every race and every moment, we have to be at the top of our game, that’s our focus going forward.”