Vidales targeting Qualifying improvements after failing to capitalise on Campos’ podium potential

4 July 2022

David Vidales was pleased to have made up for lost ground in the Feature Race but says he’s disappointed that an underwhelming performance in Qualifying held him back from maximising Campos Racing’s promising race pace to get himself in the mix for the podium.

Starting in P13 at Silverstone, Vidales lost out to Trident’s Jonny Edgar on the opening lap. However, moving back into the points in P9 at the chequered flag proved to be a source of encouragement for the Spanish driver.

“It was a good race I think from my side and the whole team,” he remarked. “We made a bad start, I had a problem with the clutch so that compromised our first laps a bit, which are pretty important to gain some positions. We lost some positions but the pace was really good so we managed to overtake on track, which I think shows our strong pace.

“On the last lap I tried to go for the fastest lap and we got very close, even without DRS. Here, the DRS is so powerful and still to be only one tenth from the fastest lap means we’ve got really good pace.

“I'm happy with it because we still got two points but to be honest, I think the potential was very good and seeing our pace, we could have fought for podiums or top five if we had done a better Qualifying – that’s going to be our focus for the next race.”

All things considered, picking up points on his first visit to the daring Silverstone circuit wasn’t a bad result for the 20-year-old. Scoring points in each of the first four rounds, Vidales is one of the most consistent performers on the grid and is the only Campos driver so far to have finished within the top 10.

It’s that consistency that has left him optimistic for the future. Nevertheless, he admits he’s got work to do to break into the top 10 and be in the fight up front on a more regular basis, starting with addressing his and Campos’ weakness with one lap pace.

“We are doing a really good job because every race we are taking steps forward and the gap to first is always decreasing. We are doing the right things. The pace especially in the races is getting much better, and in Qualifying everything is so close, one tenth makes a big difference, we were one tenth from P5.

“Considering I’ve never driven on this track before, after the second race I felt a bit more comfortable and probably if we did have Qualifying on Sunday, I would have had that one tenth that puts you in the top positions. Those small details just make your weekend completely different so that’s where we need to keep working because if we get that tenth, we’ll be fighting for podiums."

Unfortunately, he’ll have very little time to rest and reset, as the Formula 3 action resumes in Spielberg next Friday and Vidales says he’s thrilled to be returning to the Red Bull Ring. He’s hoping that a returning to familiar surroundings might help him in his journey back on to the podium.

“It’s good because we’ve been really fast here so it’s good to keep the momentum going. Maybe in some of the races where we struggled a bit more, we had more things to analyse during the break with the engineers and see where we could improve. But now, we have everything pretty clear – the procedures and everything, how the tyres work - the important bits.

“I want to go back racing and get back in the car because I think we still have a margin and the potential is incredible. The red Bull Ring is a track that I know and have raced at already, so that’s probably an advantage compared to last weekend. I really love racing there. It’s a very cool track.

"Qualifying is going to be very close, maybe even closer than here because the track is short so all the small details are going to make even more of a difference.”