Guest Column
It was a special Spa-Francorchamps weekend for Callum Voisin and his Rodin Motorsport team, as a first Pole Position turned into a maiden Formula 3 victory in the Feature Race.
The Briton has been in splendid form in the second half of the season and continued that in phenomenal style in Belgium. Luckily, we were able to get a detailed account of Voisin’s weekend from the man himself.
“Practice was pretty difficult to be fair. Obviously, mixed conditions, started off on Wets, and everybody went to slicks towards the end, but I was fairly confident. I think the car was good in all conditions I just made a few mistakes, pushed a little bit too hard in some areas but I know where to work on and stuff which is good for Quali. Obviously lap time wise it was not too representative because I got track limits, but it was a decent Practice in terms of learning.”
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“Quali was very good, it was mega. After the first set I think I was P10 or P11, so not too bad and to be honest I was roughly where I thought I would be. But then after the second set at the end I knew where I needed to improve, a lot of it was in the second sector because I made a few mistakes there but, in the end, we nailed it. It was all in the first lap, the second push on those tyres didn't really hang on, they were probably two or three tenths adrift, so when they said I'm on pole it was a nice feeling. It wasn't guaranteed as of yet but when we had the whole back log in the second lap, I think it was pretty much done.”
“It was good, obviously extremely tricky. Very similar to FP in terms of wet to dry, everyone starting on slicks because it's the preferred tyre over a long run, so the start was extremely difficult, everybody is tippy toeing around, especially going through Eau Rouge in the wet on slicks was difficult.
"But we just kept our cool, we had a little bit of understeer in the car so I couldn't really make anything happen and go forward but we kept it on track, didn't make any track limits and that kind of paid off in the end. I finished P11 on track and P7 after penalties. To be honest I was just staying out of trouble and keeping it on track, and we got rewarded for it. Obviously, I knew the big one is tomorrow.”
Sam Waple: Voisin victory down to pure performance gains
“That was pretty special, very special. Again, it wasn't easy. Much drier compared to yesterday but at the same time still wet in a few places, notably Turn 1, Turn 5, going down the hill, Turn 9 was quite wet still, so that was very difficult. It was all about getting the tyre switched on and being the most aggressive, the most confident in those conditions because there is only really one line, so I think we did that pretty well. I made a mistake into Turn 1 on Lap 2 after I made a nice gap, locked up completely and went straight on.
“Luckily I got the cut back naturally because I was accelerating earlier and got a very good exit so managed to get just about back in front and then with the Safety Cars, half of it was planning the restart and making sure I got enough of a gap after Turn 1 so that I wasn't really pressurised into T5, which was tough.
“The first was really good, second one was decent, and the last one was tough because there was only so many ways you can go about it, I was running out of ideas. It was difficult but I just about hung on, towards the end I felt quicker than Sebastián behind so I knew as long as I was ahead on track, I should be okay, especially the second sector felt very good. It was definitely tough but coming over the line first, this time with no penalty, touch wood, it's an amazing feeling and the first win for these guys ever, they thoroughly deserve it.”
“I think we are on a roll. We've got good form, the improvements that we have made over the last four of five rounds has been insane. So, more of the same really. I'd love to have another win, but wins don't come around every time. I just want to keep building on this and qualify in the top 10, top 12 again, have good clean races and obviously in Monza anything can happen in the races. So, just another clean weekend, end it on a high and then we will look forward to next year.”