Câmara confident TRIDENT can be ‘strong’ in Silverstone after learning experience in Spielberg

It was a double point-scoring weekend in Spielberg for Rafael Câmara, and while the TRIDENT driver admitted they were not at their best, he was keen to take the positives going to Silverstone.

Starting in seventh on Sunday, a good start had the Brazilian running in fourth, before overtakes on Noah Stromsted and Ugo Ugochukwu put him second behind Nikola Tsolov on Lap 7 of 26.

Câmara ran in that position for much of the race before being overtaken by Martinius Stenshorne on Lap 19, and he lost further places to Tim Tramnitz, Mari Boya and Ugochukwu.

READ MORE: Tsolov disqualified from Spielberg Feature Race

The Championship leader crossed the line in P6 before Nikola Tsolov’s post-race disqualification promoted him up to fifth, giving him a second points finish of the weekend after taking P9 in the Sprint.

Reflecting on Round 6 in Spielberg, Câmara said: “It was not the weekend we expected. In the Sprint Race, from my side it was not very good, but I was able to reset well and do a good race today.

“Unfortunately, we don't really understand what exactly the problem was, we had this massive drop at the end. Even for myself, I was not pushing that much. We will understand it for Silverstone, learn the mistakes from the weekend and come back stronger.

“We need to understand what happened, quickly and then move on. There's no logic in staying sad about today, we have plenty of races to go, so we can still go back for what we can do and have some good results.”

Qualifying seventh in Spielberg was Câmara’s second lowest starting position of the season – following his P8 in Monte Carlo. The TRIDENT rookie only completed one push lap on his second set of tyres during the session.

When asked why that was, the Scuderia Ferrari Driver Academy talent explained what happened, but that he was also not too disappointed with the outcome.

READ MORE: Laurens van Hoepen disqualified from Spielberg Feature Race

“I did the first push, and then I did a small mistake in T1,” explained Câmara. “So I decided to abort it and then after I went on the sausage kerb, and I started to feel like the rear left was an issue.

“But also from my side, I didn't position myself well for the last push, so I started very close to another car. The lap I did was not bad, I was just alone, so we were missing the tow.

“For me, I finished quali quite calm with the result, because here is a track where you can do plenty of overtakes. I just think we need to understand the race pace.”

Câmara’s 12 points scored in Spielberg is his second lowest return of the season, following his four in Monte Carlo, yet still, he is taking the positives forward to Round 7 in Silverstone.

“There’s always some positive things,” he said. “Without this maybe we wouldn't have seen certain things to learn, but we are always working hard to see what we can do better and for sure there are positives.

Round 6 Feature Race: Thoughts from the Top 3

“From my side, I was quite happy with the race we did today, so we can be strong going forward. Also, in quali, it was just details, and some stuff that I can do better from my side, and with the team, we can see that and be strong for Silverstone.”

Câmara was speaking prior to Tsolov’s post-race disqualification, with that knowledge that his Championship lead was down to one point.

However, his lead is now 24 points, but even with the change, Câmara still has no intention of focusing on the title picture.

“There are still eight races, four rounds, and plenty of points to play for,” he continued. “I think we have been strong, I think we just need to focus on our job and see where we can end up.

FEATURE RACE: Tsolov puts Championship lead in his sights with dominant victory

“I think I just need to focus on things that are in my control. I’ll try to go with the team and look what we can do better. I think if you are starting to think about the Championship, you get to overthinking, so I just focus on the moment.

“I think we are going to be strong for Silverstone, we have always been strong, so learn from the things we did this weekend and move on.”