Team Principal Campos Jr says pace is there after bad luck halts Sakhir progress

4 March 2024

Campos Racing left the season opening weekend in Sakhir slightly disappointed, with Team Principal Adrián Campos Jr frustrated by their low Qualifying positions. However, he was keen to also look at the positives, highlighting their strong race pace.

With Mari Boya qualifying in 15th ahead of Oliver Goethe down in 17th and Sebastián Montoya in 29th, the Campos trio had their work cut out for them ahead of both races in Bahrain.

The situation unfortunately worsened for the team when Boya sustained a puncture on the second lap after battling with ART Grand Prix driver Laurens van Hoepen.

The Spaniard was forced to come into the pitlane and while he did return to the track, he crossed the line in 29th. This result meant Boya did not add to the three points he scored in the Sprint Race when he finished eighth.

But Campos Jr was looking at the positives, revealing that Boya’s pace at the back showed the team what was capable if they keep things clean.

“It's not the weekend that we expected,” stated Campos Jr. “We just had bad luck in Qualifying and then we had to move up in both races and an incident with Mari Boya didn't allow us to score a lot of points on Sunday.

“So, when he was recovering through the field, we saw a lot of pace and we believe that we will be back in the top spots in the next races.”

Boya was forced to pit after suffering a puncture early on in the Feature Race

On the other hand, Goethe was able to score points in both races, finishing ninth in the Sprint Race before placing 10th in the Feature. But according to his Team Boss, a higher starting position next time is necessary, especially when it comes to looking after his tyres.

“For Ollie it was very difficult because of the Qualifying. Starting P17 in both races, he wanted to score points in both races, but it was difficult because at the end you need to save tyres.

“When you make up so many positions, later your tyres are quite bad. He did his best, but I think at the end he maximised what he could do, especially taking into account his Qualifying.”

As for Montoya he followed up his 18th place finish in the Sprint dash by going one better to 17th in the Feature Race. An effort to be proud of considering his limited running in pre-season testing due to an illness.

“For Sebastián it was a very difficult weekend for him,” Campos’ eponymous Team Principal said. “He didn't manage to do the three days of testing because he was sick so he couldn't do a lot of laps.

Montoya came through the field in both races after lining up at the back of the grid

“Then arriving here, and racing against everyone else that had been doing all the testing was very difficult. Also, in Qualifying he got the lap deleted and had to start from the back of the grid. He also made a lot of positions in the race but still not where we want to see our cars.”

HIGHLIGHTS: Browning resists Mansell pressure for Sakhir Feature Race win

The team like the rest of their nine rivals now have a couple of weeks of preparation ahead of them before going to Melbourne for the second round of the 2024 Formula 3 season.

Looking ahead to the event, Campos Jr reflected: “If we have a clean weekend we will be up there, we will be fighting for the podiums in all the races. We need to work on our Qualifying, to qualify better because in our race pace we are already very strong.”