Round 8 Post Sprint Race Press Conference

FIA Formula 3: Good morning from Spa and you are joining us for the press conference for the top three finishers from today’s FIA Formula 3 Sprint Race. In third place we have Charlie Wurz for TRIDENT, second is Ugo Ugochukwu for PREMA Racing and your race winner is Noah Stromsted, also for TRIDENT. Noah, congratulations, your first win in Formula 3, just how special does that feel?

Noah Stromsted: It’s very nice to win here in Spa, especially after the last couple of weekends we have had. We have struggled with race pace and today I think our pace was amazing. I managed to pull a gap and kind of control it from there. We had the pace to control it, if I wanted to go faster or if I wanted to go a bit slower. Today was very good.

FIA Formula 3: You got past Freddie Slater for the lead pretty early on. When did you know you had the car to dominate that race?

Stromsted: To be honest, from Lap 1 or Lap 2, I thought I would just stay behind and save my tyres with the DRS but I felt I had a lot more pace, so I decided to go by. I went pushing for a bit to try and drop him from the DRS and it worked. From there, I just had the pace all the way through.

FIA Formula 3: It might be wet tomorrow, but if it is dry what does your pace today say for your chances in the Feature Race?

Stromsted: I think it looks quite good. If it’s the same conditions to be honest. But tomorrow obviously I start further down, and people are for sure going to improve for tomorrow. We have to do the same.

FIA Formula 3: Congratulations on a great drive today. Ugo, P2 for you today. Officially your first podium, how pleased are you to hit back so soon after what happened in Austria?

Ugo Ugochukwu: Really happy of course. I was a little bit disappointed with quali yesterday. P6, I thought there was a bit more in it, but really happy we are able to show it today. The pace was really good, I was able to pick them off one by one and make my way to P2, so really happy. I think the last few weekends we have been in a good way in terms of race pace and quali pace, so it’s really good to finally get the podium and pick up more good points.

FIA Formula 3: It looked like quite a hectic start and the pace seemed to fluctuate a little bit behind Noah. Was it tricky to keep everything consistent?

Ugochukwu: It was really tricky towards the end with tyres. There was a lot of deg, I’m sure everyone had a lot graining, so it was just about managing that. But I think ultimately, I was just trying to manage my pace behind to P3, and I was able to keep quite consistent pace to the end. I think it was good. Even no Safety Cars, that is what made it really tricky, trying to manage the tyres through sector two was really tricky. Pushing a lot at the beginning obviously didn’t help because I had to overtake a lot of people, but I thought track position would have been more important and to think about the tyres a bit later on.

FIA Formula 3: Your form has been very good. Do you feel like a race win is coming soon?

Ugochukwu: Yeah, definitely. I think being consistently at the front is firstly really important. It’s not always easy to get it right in this Championship. But I am sure we will be on the pace in the last few rounds and hopefully we can just get ourselves in a little bit better quali position to really attack in the Feature Race.

FIA Formula 3: Great stuff, thank you. Charlie, on to you, thanks for waiting. Your first podium, you must be delighted?

Charlie Wurz: Yeah, finally to get a podium is nice. To be honest it was not my best race. I didn’t manage the tyres great, because we were expecting… it’s been quite common to have a Safety Car in Spa, so I pushed quite more than I would have liked and struggled with some graining. But to still be rewarded with a podium is good, and I think finally to get the ball rolling, a bit late in the Championship but hopefully we can keep this momentum. Tomorrow is going to be a bit chaotic but let’s hope to capitalise on that starting from P9. In the end, happy with that, and looking forward to the next races.

FIA Formula 3: When you got to P3, we heard the team encouraging you, how much pressure did you feel from Nikola in those final few laps?

Wurz: When I overtook Freddie, I had the option to try and get into the DRS of Ugo. But I made a small mistake that cost me those few tenths I needed, and that’s a bit frustrating from my side to make a mistake like that. But other than that, Nikola was coming very fast at the end, but I knew I just had to do to the maximum I could with the tyres I had at that point and that’s what I did and I kept the position. I could have made it easier but it was all under control.

FIA Formula 3: How special is it to get your first podium of the season here at such an iconic track like Spa?

Wurz: It’s a really cool track to drive at, racing is fun. Slipstream games are always fun, and you have to be smart as well, so that’s cool. Obviously, I would have liked to have had it earlier in the season, but you don’t get everything in life. Happy with that and happy to do it in a place like this.

FIA Formula 3: Congratulations well done.