Round 8 Post Qualifying Press Conference

FIA Formula 3: Welcome back to Spa and the Press Conference for the top three qualifiers for the FIA Formula 3 Feature Race this weekend. In third place we have Callum Voisin from Rodin Motorsport, in second is Rafael Câmara for TRIDENT and starting from Pole Position on Sunday is Brad Benavides for AIX Racing. Brad, congratulations, your first pole in Formula 3, how special does that feel?

Brad Benavides: I never really expected to come in here and do that, but in all fairness, it is only one up on Austria. But, as I said last time I never really approach races with expectations, but this is definitely a good shocker, so I expect the unexpected.

FIA Formula 3: You mentioned Austria, you qualified second at the Red Bull Ring, pole here, you must be enjoying qualifying at the moment?

Benavides: Qualifying here was really hectic. I was P17 after the first run, and then I had really good tow, and that obviously put me in contention today, but fun, I would not put it as fun, because I was a bit stressed, I was thinking there is no way I am qualifying 17th again. But thankfully, I had a really good tow and made it happen. But not very fun. It was just a good accomplishment.

FIA Formula 3: I can tell when you started the lap that go Pole Position you were 24th, so it’s an even bigger jump. You mentioned Austria, you scored points, but I am sure it didn’t go as you’d hoped from the front row in the Feature Race. What did you learn from that race and what are you targeting this time around?

Benavides: We went on the triple tyre strategy for quali and everyone else was on used and I was on fresh and in terms of the first five laps, it made a difference then and that is when I lost all the positions. When I was sort of settling into a rhythm, in the DRS train, I was out of the points. It's a completely different scenario, this track, completely different nature and will just look into it and focus.

FIA Formula 3: Congratulations once again, Rafa, on to you now, a front row start, are you satisfied with P2 today?

Rafael Câmara: I think it was a good lap. In the end we managed a very tricky quali, especially the traffic here, you need to make sure you are in a nice position and I think both laps I was able to manage myself in a good position to have a little bit of a tow and have a clean sector two because if you are too close you can lose a bit of performance. I am happy with the result, I think it’s a good place to start for the races, here in Spa, in the races, you can play quite a lot. So it’s a good start for the weekend, but still a lot to play for and we will see how we go.

FIA Formula 3: You were in the mix throughout that qualifying session, but just how nervous were you starting that final run when you were told you might have had a lap time deleted and you saw the traffic in front of you?

Câmara: I just thought it was over basically. The second push we had a big drop, so even if I had a massive tow, in sector two you would lose so much that you could not compensate. I knew basically it was over. I tried too but with the mess in front, it was impossible to open the lap in a nice place, already in T5 I got traffic and I needed to back off. But then luckily, they opened the radio and said that the lap was back, so I was more and more calm.

FIA Formula 3: Just looking at the way the weekends have been going, you still have a strong Championship lead, but you have had a couple of tricky rounds in terms of results. So how keen are you to get a good result on Sunday?

Câmara: The result will be the same, focus on what we are doing, maximise the things in our control, prepare tomorrow for the Sprint Race, here also the weather is always changing, so we need to make sure we are prepared for both conditions, and we will just see with the team, look where we can do a good job in the races, tyre management, and maximise things.

FIA Formula 3: Thank you. Callum, thank you for waiting. It was a really good lap from you for P3 today, your best qualifying performance since Bahrain. Just how good was that final push lap that you got in?

Callum Voisin: It felt very good. It’s nice to be back in the top three after a bit of a break. I mean it was pretty hectic, usual Spa type qualifying pretty much a complete re-run on last year. But it ended up well. It was a bit of a shame that our first set was not very good, I need to look into what happened, but for sure with so many cars on track, the warmup is very much compromised, so the team did a really good job, put me in a good space for the second set and we delivered the lap. I’m happy.

FIA Formula 3: Brad mentioned how stressful it was during that Qualifying session. Are you able to enjoy it when you’re out there on low fuel and new tyres, or is there just too much going on?

Voisin: There is a lot going on, there is a lot of pressure. Your inner self wants to win and get pole in this instance, but you can always enjoy it. It’s a pleasure to always drive this track, especially in these high downforce cars, it’s amazing. There is a lot of pressure and it’s difficult to sometimes enjoy it but when you look back you realise you are very lucky.

FIA Formula 3: You guys had to wait a long time to get your qualifying in, but you seem to have a trend at the moment of having one really strong qualifying and one tricky one. It’s alternating, is there any reason for that?

Voisin: No. Honestly this season as a whole to be honest has been extremely frustrating. When I look back at it, so much has not gone our way. I have noticed this trend that you just said, but honestly, it’s nothing to do with anything, with me, the team or whatever. Unfortunately, we have had a lot not go our way, so it’s nice to be back, back at the front, that’s where we should be, so looking forward to doing that for the rest of the season.

FIA Formula 3: Thank you very much.