Doohan working with Trident to ‘equal and overhaul’ any final advantages PREMA may have over them

Having taken the fight to reigning champions PREMA in the opening round of the season, Jack Doohan is hoping that the two-day test in Jerez can help the team to “equal and overcome” any advantages that the Italian team may still have over them.

Finishing as the fastest driver in both the morning and the afternoon stints on Day 1, Doohan carried over his strong form from Round 1, where he finished 0.006s off pole and clinched his first Formula 3 podium in Race 3.

Arriving in Jerez just two days on from the opening round, Doohan believes the team can only get stronger.

“It was a bonus to end quickest on Day 1, but that obviously isn’t what we came here for,” said Doohan. “From Barcelona, it’s clear that we have quite solid one lap pace. I am happy with where I am with the team and I think we’ve taken further steps forward with this great team behind me and a solid car.

“We can take new leaps from here and hopefully this continues. If PREMA do still have a little bit of an advantage over us in any areas, maybe we can keep working to equal and overhaul them and bring a solid fight to the championship.

“I think for the engineers and team managers, they were fresh off the bat from Barcelona, so there were things straight away that they wanted to look at. When we have a big gap, these guys are constantly working, they have constantly got new ideas, new ideas, new ideas. With a two-day time frame between events, it was like ‘okay, I have thought of this and I want to test this.”

Doohan doesn’t envisage an ‘action-packed’ Day 2 in Jerez, despite it being the final day of testing before the end of the season.

A busy four-week period, which included a pre-season test in Barcelona and the opening round, as well as the two-day test in Jerez, has put Trident in great shape, he feels.

“Testing is testing, there’s no reward for it, so we’ll just keep going with our own programme, whether we’re quickest or 20th,” continued Doohan. “We know what we want to be do, and afterwards, it will be about putting it all into play when the next race weekend comes in Le Castellet.

“This was a good opportunity fresh off the bat to test things, especially in hotter conditions. We know from here that it is only going to get hotter, which is going to be harder on the tyres and on the car itself.

“We’ve got a plan, but we’ve had quite a lot of track time in the past three, four weeks anyway, so I don’t think it will be too action packed.”