Ushijima's Guest Column: Time to show what I'm made of

5 July 2022

Reece Ushijima was on pole for the Sprint Race and scored his first Formula 3 podium on Saturday. He followed it up with another top 10 finish on a hugely successful weekend for the Van Amersfoort Racing driver.

We handed the Guest Column responsibilities over to the Japanese-American driver following the fourth round in Silverstone and he gave his view on a promising weekend in the 2022 season for him.

ONE GOOD POINT - ON THE PODIUM

The podium is probably my highlight of the weekend. Race 2 wasn’t bad from my side, bit of a poor start but still, to come in the top 10 in the Feature Race is nice. Battling at the front with some really good guys, especially the Championship leader, I was really happy. Not only to have a good race but to also show my skills on the big stage, which was nice.

ONE BAD POINT - RACE START IN THE FEATURE

My start in Race 2. I was a bit out of place and that caused me to go back to P15, but fortunately I picked up a couple of positions in the Feature Race and managed to get back into the top 10.

I’d also say Qualifying a little bit. I expected myself to be around the top eight. We were a little bit limited with our balance across the weekend. The team as a whole struggled a little bit across the weekend, but they worked really well to get back to where we needed it, and it was there in the Sprint and the Feature. In F3 it’s very hard to overtake with the level of competition as it is. We really gained back the positions we lost in Qualifying.

WHAT I LEARNED - RACING AT THE SHARP END

A lot! Racing at the front was really beneficial to my learning experience, not only starting procedures from the front row and when you have all that stress on you. But also, how the guys at the front race. There’s a big difference in the mental attitude I have to say.

Unfortunately, I’ve been involved in a couple incidents at the start of the year which caused me to not be where I wanted to be, but now I’m racing with the guys at the front it’s really mentally demanding. You have to think about everything that’s going on. Throughout the race I was trying to keep a gap to (Victor) Martins just so I could catch him in the last laps. But I also had to keep an eye on my mirrors because (Isack) Hadjar was coming at Kush (Maini) pretty fast even when he was in P3. I had to watch all the time and maintain a gap while his pace was really strong in that race.

I couldn’t really hold him back but nevertheless, through the whole race there wasn’t one time I felt out of place or felt scared. I was really happy with and that’s a testament to the work the team and I have put in. I was really happy to race at the front and hopefully from now on it becomes a regular thing.

FANS MIGHT HAVE MISSED - FRIENDS IN THE GRANDSTANDS

The interesting thing is I got to stay at home. I live in Oxford so it wasn’t too far of a trip for me. In terms of a funny thing, I had a lot of my friends in the grandstand. I moved here when I was 15 to pursue racing from Japan and the States. So I had a couple of friends here and it was really cool to have them send photos around and I’d go on my Instagram or their Snapchat and see them and be like ‘oh yeah, I know that guy!’ It was really cool. Both a humbling experience and one that puts things into perspective. I was fortunate enough to even be able to drive on an F1 weekend and on top of that, to do it in front of my friends and people I know, that’s something special to my heart. I’m really fortunate to be in that position.

NEXT UP - SPIELBERG

We don’t really have much time in between. Not even a week, just three days and we’re off to Austria. I’ve done one test day around there and I know a lot of the guys on the grid have raced there previously. So it’s not going to be easy but I have full faith in the team that the car’s going to be there and all I have to focus on is getting Qualifying right and that stems from doing the basics right in Practice and then in Quali.

Now that I have a bit of experience and getting what I need to do a bit right – I think my Qualifying sessions from the beginning of the year weren’t the best, I’d mess up this corner here or there. I think Silverstone was a good Qualifying session. I think on both sets I did the job, not the job to be on pole but enough to be in the top 12 which in my rookie season and at that point, I was very happy with. Now that I’ve got that out the way, I’d like to be consistently in the top 12 and top 10, just so I can be there to compete in both races.

You saw what Jonny Edgar did this weekend. If you’re in the top 15 then it’s possible for you to come through the field. Also respect to him for coming back and doing what he did. When I saw him coming past, in my head I was thinking ‘Oh yeah that kid has something’. I don’t like to set too many numerical goals, but now that I’ve experienced it, I’d like to be up there fighting at least in one of the races. Austria is always an interesting race with the nature of the track and DRS. I think if I’m in that top 12 or top 10, I can do something in both the races. That’s what I’m aiming for and we’ll see.