Interview
He has gone from strength-to-strength so far during the 2022 campaign and Kaylen Frederick was delighted to see his perseverance rewarded with fifth in a tricky Sprint Race – the best finish of his Formula 3 career to date.
After overtaking Trident’s Roman Stanek at the start, the race seemed to be a relatively quiet affair for the American driver. He kept himself out of trouble in less-than-ideal weather conditions and added six points to his tally, boosting him up to ninth in the Drivers’ Championship. Yet despite the positive result, Frederick admitted there were still a few things that needed to be ironed out.
“The weekend’s gone pretty well for us so far. Happy with the Qualifying pace. We’re lacking a little bit in a couple of areas which is fine, I think we made up for it a little bit in the race. I had a good start, made up a position off the line, just didn’t have the pace in some areas – so obviously need to work on that.”
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“It was a little bit tricky with the wind but we were fairly comfortable in the high-speed areas, it was more the lower speed parts we were struggling with. Overall, I think we had a pretty good package, but I need to make a couple more tweaks for the car.”
It was not a bad day in the office for Hitech Grand Prix, as teammate Isack Hadjar took the victory with a bold overtake on the penultimate lap. Their strong performance came as no surprise to Frederick, noting their previous performance at their home circuit over F3's past two visits here.
In 2019, they secured pole position alongside taking both Sprint and Feature victories. Last time out in 2020, an early overtake allowed Liam Lawson to snatch the win in the opening race.
READ MORE: SPRINT RACE: Hadjar leaves it late to snatch victory from Martins
With a package that is well-adapted to many of Silverstone’s toughest areas and one that has shown form in the preceding races, Frederick’s optimistic about his chances of moving up the order throughout the 22-lap race – all the way to a maiden F3 podium.
“Hopefully I’ll get that podium! We’ll see what we can get out of the car and we’ll obviously make some changes for the Feature Race. A longer race as well, so if we’ve got the pace then there’s a bit more time to make it work for us.”