Saucy: Rookie results haven't shown our full potential

3 September 2022

Grégoire Saucy believes that his results so far in his rookie Formula 3 season haven’t fully shown what he’s capable of, but he’s determined to turn things around as the 2022 campaign edges ever closer to its conclusion.

A chaotic Qualifying session frustrated the Swiss driver’s chances of securing his best Friday result yet. Having looked to be in the fight at the top of the timing sheets throughout, the late session-ending red flag came two seconds too early for him and forced him to abandon his best attempt – a lap that had the potential to secure a top three start for the Feature Race for the first time.

Unsurprisingly, Saucy is irked to have missed out on the chance but is pleased to see that the work he and his ART Grand Prix team have done over the previous seven rounds is beginning to pay off behind the wheel.

“I’m feeling quite good because it's a, it's a first row for Saturday morning, but a bit of frustration because I missed two seconds before the red flag so it would have been P3. We knew then we had the pace. It's very important to have the pace, but there’s still a bit of frustration because when you can do P3 you want to do it.

“We’ve worked a lot with the team to try to give me some confidence in the car. I think I had confidence with the car, I was close to P3 but I’m still in the top 12. It’s always good to be in the top 12 because you have one chance to do a good race. Now I feel really confident to push the car for the last four races.”

Forced to settle for P11, Saturday’s Sprint Race provides Saucy with a window of opportunity. He’ll assume his spot on the reverse grid front row as he attempts to bring home his first podium since the Sakhir Feature Race.

With familiar company in the form of ART teammate Juan Manuel Correa alongside him, he expects that nailing his getaway at lights out will be key, considering that will be where most of the overtaking opportunities are around Zandvoort.

“I think when you start on the first row, you just want to do a good start and if you do a good start, you can try to do a good race. After that, I will be focusing on the front and just enjoy it because that’s the most important. We’ll see how it goes.

As the Championship approaches its final stretch with the penultimate round of the year, Saucy has looked back on a rollercoaster rookie campaign where he's struggled to secure only two points finishes.

He admits that things haven’t always gone according to plan. However, he’s determined to give it all he’s got in the final four races in Zandvoort and Monza.

"It hasn’t been a good season for me so far. It started well in Bahrain and the pace was really good in Imola, I was just a bit unlucky in the second to last corner. In the rest of the races, I was learning because we made some mistakes, and we just need to improve.

“Now we still have four more races, and I will try to do my best to show that we have the pace and that the results of the season didn’t show everything.”