Crawford keen to kick on at ‘favourite track’

PREMA Racing’s Jak Crawford says he hopes competing at his favourite track this weekend will kick-start his sophomore season in Formula 3.

Crawford enters the second round of the season at Imola 10th in the Drivers’ Championship after bouncing back from a difficult Sprint Race in Bahrain to capture points in the Feature Race.

It is the first time that F3 has competed at Imola but Crawford can bring experience from those previous championships.

It also helps that the American has strong form around Imola, scoring eight podiums – three of them victories – from nine race starts in Italian Formula 4 and Euroformula Open.

“It’s my favourite track – I really love the track,” enthused Crawford. “I’m super excited to be at this track in this car for the first time, it should be really exciting.

“I like the super old-school race tracks, when they’re high-speed, with little-run off. You can use a lot of the kerbs and be a little brutal with the car. I like all of that. And I think when you like a track you normally do better at it.”

Crawford arrives at Imola off the back of Formula 3’s recent two-day test, at which he completed 130 laps of the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya.

“Testing went well, and I think we’ve improved as a team,” he said.

“We’ve been working a lot on Qualifying performance – as well as just my driving over a lap, and consistency. By the end of the test it was there, and I feel like we’ve made a step on the car and on my driving as well.”

Crawford is nonetheless not getting ahead of himself despite prior success at Imola.

“I wouldn’t say I’ve set myself a goal, since Bahrain didn’t go too well for me,” he admitted. “Obviously it’s just going to be a case of going out there, going racing, and hoping to get the best results possible.”