Novalak keen to use ‘less stressful’ 2021 calendar to his advantage

Trident’s Clément Novalak is looking forward to a less hectic schedule in 2021, hopeful that the additional time between rounds will give the team the time to improve and adapt – a luxury no one had during the intense nine-race, 11-week 2020 F3 campaign.

“It will be less stressful from a driver’s point of view,” Novalak said of the 2021 calendar. “Even though we don’t do such a huge amount of running, it does get pretty physically tiring.

“Three weekends on the bounce doesn’t give you much time to think about how to improve on the previous weekend. Whereas, we should have more time to refresh and reflect between each round this season. That should mean that we can keep consistently doing the job, which is what you need for a championship run.”

Switching Carlin Buzz Racing for race-winners Trident, the 2020 podium finisher feels he is entering his second season at this level better for the experience of an up-and-down rookie campaign, and he is confident he can continue to grow in the arms of Trident.

“Overall, I think it was a really positive experience, and I think that I can take a lot of the mistakes from last year to improve and also a lot of the good stuff as well and bring that into this year.

“Trident was the best fit for me, not just on a pure performance side of things, but to grow as a driver as well. We were quick last year in testing and I think that’s obviously a positive.”

Topping the opening morning of testing earlier this month at Spielberg, Novalak enjoyed a productive return to the car with Trident. The Italian outfit – who won three times last season and finished as runners up to PREMA Racing in the Teams’ Championship – have opted for an experience line-up this year, signing David Schumacher and Jack Doohan, and Novalak says he’s excited to work alongside the pair of them.

“It has been good during testing: we have been doing different things and trying to improve the car together,” he continued. “We are all trying to improve ourselves as well, so it is good to have drivers who can push you, especially on the data side of things because you can learn a lot from that.

“I have always embraced having new teammates because you can learn one thing from one guy and then another thing from a different driver. It is good to have two new teammates this year and I am looking forward to racing with them.”