Oliver Goethe’s Imola Weekend in his Words

Round 4 of the 2024 season in Imola proved to be a successful one for Campos Racing’s Oliver Goethe. The German driver scored two podiums finish including a first victory of the year in the Sprint Race.

It’s a weekend that lifts him into the top five of the Drivers’ Championship and just as importantly, sends a message to his fellow title rivals.

FREE PRACTICE – P1

“Free Practice was really good. I was P1 with a nice gap as well, so the pace right from the get-go was amazing, and it was looking good for quali. The test was really strong in Barcelona, in general it's been really good at the European tracks, like the post-season test last year. So, we were all confident going into this weekend for sure.”

IMOLA ANALYSIS: How Trident sealed an historic 1-2-3 in Qualifying

QUALIFYING – P7

“Qualifying was probably the weaker part of the weekend. I qualified seventh in the end but there was potential for a lot more. It was quite a messy and chaotic session. Campos were at the back of the pitlane, and everyone was waiting a lot in the last couple of corners, so I think that compromised the tyres a bit and I also got traffic on one of my quick laps.

“It was quite a scrappy session but, in the end, it meant that I would start in a decent position for both races, and it turned out all okay again. It's a fun track to drive when everything is going right but it wasn't so fun to drive on the second set in Qualifying when there was all this chaos going on because I knew I had the pace to be at the top.

READ MORE: Boya ‘super proud’ after fighting through the field to score points in Imola Feature Race

“I didn't want anything to mess that up, so it was a bit stressful. I didn't know if my lap was good enough to be in the top 10 or top 12 for at least the reverse grid positions. But in the end because of our strong pace, we sort of got away with it and it turned out to be a decent lap.”

SPRINT RACE – P1

“Yeah, the Sprint Race was amazing. I started sixth and I had a really good start and first lap, and I managed to go to third. From then on, it was just pretty much Safety Cars all race. I managed to get P2 of Tim Tramnitz once we had a few laps in a row and I managed to pass him.

“I was struggling to pass Noel León but in the end with the VSC, I reacted really quickly to the green light and finally got the win. It was quite okay managing my restarts in general, I didn't have much of an attack from behind so I could just focus forward on Tim and managed to pass him and at the end with the Virtual Safety Car restart I managed to pass Noel as well.

“Initially I thought I had won the race and then during my in lap I was told I had a penalty. Obviously in the back of my mind I knew I hadn't done anything wrong, and I knew it could still change after because what I did was correct looking at the regulations.

“After the race they analysed the data and everything else and they could to see if what I had done was okay and looking at the regulations it was all okay. It got confirmed quite late but that whole time leading up to it I still believed I had won the race, so I was kind of just waiting for them to overrule it.”

FEATURE RACE – P2

“The Feature Race was also really good. There was no Safety Cars in this one, so it was quite a different style of race to the first one. A lot to do with managing tyres and it was not full attack like the first one. The first half of the race I was pushing a lot to gain positions. Obviously starting from P7 I knew I should have been higher up, and I was fighting really hard to gain positions and it worked out but then I struggled with my tyres a bit earlier than everyone as a result.

READ MORE: Round 3 Post-Feature Race Thoughts from the Top 3

“I lost the lead to Sami Meguetounif and then I was trying to defend my second place which I managed to do. The second half of the race was really a struggle but in general I was really happy with how it worked out. It's really difficult to manage the tyres and defend position.

“It’s a similar story to Melbourne where the tyres dropped off a lot, so it's really crucial to manage them well because you can make such a big difference in the last part of the race, no matter how you do at the start. It's tricky to manage especially when you are struggling more than the guys around you, but I kept my head cool and kept calm to not make the situation worse and it worked out all okay in the end.

“It's been a huge weekend for me. Looking at the Championship I wasn’t in the top 10 before this round despite finishing in the top 10 in every race but was always on the worse end of the top 10. This weekend was huge for me in terms of the Championship. It puts me back in with the top guys in the title fight and that was the goal, and I will try to do the same in Monaco to close that gap even more.”

NEXT UP – MONTE CARLO

“I'm really looking forward to Monaco. It's such a special track for us drivers I really can't wait to start in Free Practice and just get that experience again of driving around there. I'm really confident the pace can be good as well there, of course it's a very different track but I believe we can definitely make it work and I'll just do the best I can.”