Maloney says his one-lap pace in F3 is a result of his winter training programme

At both testing and in the opening round at Sakhir, Zane Maloney’s one-lap pace has shone through as a strength of the Trident rookie’s, but he says that wasn’t the case in Formula Regional last season, revealing the work he put in over winter to improve his Qualifying.

After topping Day 1 of pre-season testing, Maloney was one of four rookies to Qualify in the top seven in Sakhir and the Barbadian has continued that trend so far at in-season testing, regularly placing himself in the top 10 of sessions.

Discussing his newfound short-run speed, Maloney said: “Last year, that was the main thing that I wanted to work on. I was always very fast in the races in Formula Regional, but the one-lap, Quali pace wasn’t quite there from my side in that car.

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“I worked really hard over winter on improving my Quali pace so that I could be up there straight away (in Formula 3). We were seventh in Bahrain, which isn’t too bad, and the Quali pace has looked very good throughout testing.

“We had a very good test in Jerez, we were always in the top five, and again in Barcelona. We've been working very well with the team: I feel at home, and it feels like a family. I’m confident that I’ve improved from last year quite a bit as a driver, so if I can keep moving forward like this throughout the season, then we’ll be in a good place.”

With just over a week until the second round at Imola, the 18-year-old won’t have to wait long to put his experiences from the two tests into practice.

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Although Maloney was unfortunate to retire from the Sakhir Feature Race, he had taken fourth in the Sprint, only narrowly missing out on a podium, and he’s hoping to put that right in the next couple of events.

“It’s been amazing so far,” Maloney said. “Generally, the first round went better than I thought it. I went in with no expectations and we came out with a P4. If we had finished the Feature Race, then I think we'd have been up there in the top five and up there in the Championship.

“It has been a step up for me, but I got on it straight away. The tyres are the main thing, and I am doing a lot better job now than I was in Bahrain, so that's a positive. Moving on to Imola, it does look very good for us, I just need to keep focused - I am looking forward to trying to get that Barbados flag on the top step as always.”