Minì: PREMA have already ‘found improvements’ after topping first day of testing

16 April 2024

Gabriele Minì was pleased with his and PREMA Racing’s performance but was not getting carried away despite being the fastest driver in both the morning and afternoon sessions on day one of in-season testing in Barcelona.

The Italian driver left it late in both segments to go to the top of the leaderboard, with his fastest time of the day, a 1:28.313, coming in the first session.

He followed that up with another strong performance in the afternoon, as this time a lap of 1:28.384 was enough to beat Campos Racing’s Mari Boya to top spot by over two-tenths.

Speaking after jumping out of the cockpit having completed 39 laps in the day, Minì said: “It was not too much of a busy day. We waited a bit in the morning, just going for two runs of two laps each. We only went with new tyres.

“It was pretty good, I felt pretty good with the car and also managed to set a decent lap, which was good enough for P1 in the morning. We had an opportunity to test many things today and I think we found some good improvements.

“Of course, coming into the afternoon we went in for fresh new tyres. We tried many things on the car and once again I think we have really good information taken from the first day, we were also on it pace wise, so it's quite a positive day.”

Minì was fastest in both the morning and afternoon on Day one in Barcelona

Explaining further about the experiments they tried with the car, Minì added: “We always try to improve our baseline setup and then we try to see if our configuration of the setup can work better.

“Of course, we cannot go into details but everybody, not only PREMA, but all the teams were trying many different things. Once again, I think we found some good solutions, we have good information and good things for the proper race weekends.

“Today we focused a lot on Qualifying simulations, like pretty much all the teams did, but the next two days will be to try to focus a lot more on race simulations and we will see how it goes.”

After two rounds of racing in 2024, Minì is one of three drivers – alongside Trident’s Leonardo Fornaroli and Campos Racing’s Oliver Goethe – who has scored points in all four races to start the year.

He explains how this has been part of a wider plan in his efforts to be more consistent in his second season in Formula 3. The Alpine Academy prospect is yet to score a victory this year however, although that does not concern him at the moment.

“Well of course you know it's just testing in the end,” said Minì when asked whether being fastest on day one gives him confidence going forward. “We know that anything can happen at any moment so being the quickest team in all the sessions by half a second doesn't change anything for the proper weekend.

Minì and Fornaroli are two of the three drivers who have scored points in every race so far this year

“You can be P1 in all the sessions and then be P5 on a proper weekend and then the overall result is bad even though you have been really quick. It's good to be fast, it's good to be P1 but it's not key.

“If you are, it's good, if you are not, it's not a problem, you work and you try to improve and you try to understand. The key will be to try and be as consistent as possible, which is what I am trying to do this season.

“Last year, my first win came in the third round in Monaco. This season, even though I don't have a win yet, I have a podium and have got points in all the races which is what we are trying to aim for. So, I think we have to keep going like this, we have a few things we can improve and then I think the first win can come.”

As for his plans for the last two days in Barcelona, Minì said: “Once again, we will try a lot of different things. It's good for us as drivers to keep on training and good for the team to try the stuff you wouldn't try on a normal race weekend.

“So, that will be to find a better solution or to try and understand how things work even better. We know PREMA already have a good baseline but if we work, we can always find a better solution and it's the same thing for our driving.”