Rosin: “You can never rest in motorsport”

It was all change for PREMA at the start of the 2019 season, with a brand new Championship to get their teeth stuck into, having been one of the 10 teams elected into the newly formed FIA Formula 3. As European F3’s dominant force, hefty expectations rested on the shoulders of the Italian team, despite the lack of knowledge they (and everyone else) had of the new category.

New machinery, new tyres, and new regulations – Rene Rosin’s team were effectively starting from scratch in 2019 and yet, they were expected to be amongst the frontrunners in F3. They would also face arguably their toughest competitors to date in ART Grand Prix, who had dominated in GP3 Series.

Instead of faltering, they have thrived. Their form in the first two rounds was electric, with four wins from the opening four races, as Robert Shwartzman and Jehan Daruvala cleaned up. In his assessment, Rosin has downplayed their initial success, claiming they started “pretty well,” while highlighting the “big jump” from European F3.

“I think that we did quite a good job in testing,” he began. “We tried to learn about the new cars and everything as much as possible, because for us, it was a big jump from the previous generation into the new one.

“Straight away though, from the first test everything was working pretty well. So, we arrived at the first race quite confident, with three very good drivers who can adapt to the cars. We were a bit worried of tyre degradation of course, but it was less problematic than what we thought at the beginning.

“For us, it was a totally different type of car [from European F3]: different tyres and different power train, but on the other hand, it is much closer to F2. The concept of exploring the tyres in the opening one or two laps wasn’t previously a challenge because you had three, four or five laps to get it right. Here, that is not possible - you need to maximise the performance.

“What helped was that our drivers approached it in the right way and together with the team, I am satisfied with the job that they have done.”

Their success with the notoriously challenging Pirelli tyres proved crucial – it was a potential curveball that could have rendered their testing triumphs irrelevant. The settling-in period at ART was more problematic. As GP3’s leading outfit, they were expected to be as equally successful as PREMA, but so far, have been unable to match the Italian’s consistently, with their 147 points in 3rd place, dwarfed by PREMA’s 326 in 1st.

There has of course been the emergence of Hitech Grand Prix – PREMA’s counterparts from European F3 – and HWA RACELAB, who had enjoyed success in DTM and Formula E, but had no prior experience of the Formula 1 junior ladder.

“Testing is one thing, racing is another,” Rosin asserted. “We need to keep concentrating. The team and drivers are working pretty hard and even though we enjoyed some very good testing, we know the competition is very, very tight and the teams are very well prepared - ART, Hitech, Trident and all of the others, we need to get our heads down and keep working as we have done so far.

“I think that Jüri [Vips] at Hitech - who won with us in Formula 4 - is one of the most talented drivers that there is now in junior formula. Together with [Leonardo] Pulcini, there is a good compromise of speed and experience there. And, of course, ART - so far they haven’t achieved what they used to achieve, but I am expecting them to come back strongly in the second part of the season.”

Their winter recruitment drive was central to their early efforts, with Marcus Armstrong and Shwartzman both arriving as known quantities, having raced with PREMA the previous year, while Daruvala had testing experience with the Italian side under his belt, so also knew the team well.

Shwartzman in particular has led the charge – the Ferrari F1 junior tops the table with 124 points, five podiums and two wins. It’s a sizeable improvement from a mixed 2018 season, where he had to battle with teammates – and soon to be F2 drivers - Mick Schumacher and Guanyu Zhou. The Russian now appears more confident, composed and assured of himself.

“Robert is doing a very good job,” Rosin elated. “He feels much more comfortable with the car this year than last year. At the beginning [of last season], he was struggling a bit, but this year he was fast straight away and he is doing an amazing job. He just needs to keep his cool and think things through race-by-race, because the championship is still pretty long and the competition is very tight.”

Things have gotten a little tougher of late. Though their pace remains strong, others have caught up. After a poor opening two rounds, Hitech Grand Prix have accrued 133 points since then – just 30 short of PREMA, who have a solitary win since Round 2, thanks to Armstrong.

It’s left Rosin looking for that extra edge. He continued: “You can never rest, even if you have a good margin. In the Teams’ Championship, with all of the cars and all of the points available, it is quite easy to catch up. We need to concentrate and not think about what we have done in the past, instead looking forward to the future. You can never rest in motorsport: as soon as you rest, as soon as you start thinking that you are done, that is when you start failing.

“We always want to win, but you can't always win because the competition is very tight and very strong. So, we need to maximise the points as much as we can. We are here to win and we are here to fight, but if we are second in a race, I would prefer to stay in second than risk everything. For example, in Silverstone, we were not able to win a race, but we were still able to achieve the best result possible.”

Despite that last declaration, Rosin insists that he would not issue team orders, certainly not at this stage of the season, and certainly not when the three drivers are so close in the Championship. This came to head in Spielberg, when Shwartzman clumped the back of Armstrong chasing the lead and cost them a 1-2 finish.

“There are no team orders,” stressed the Team Principal. “Maybe later in the season, if only one is fighting for the Championship, but at the moment everything is open. What we ask of them is to battle fair and to try to bring home points. There was contact with each other, it’s true, but I think that they learned a lesson.

“The important thing is that they are free to battle and free to do what they want. Yes, we want the maximum amount of points possible for both themselves and for the team, but they will learn. They were close to each other again in Silverstone and nothing happened.”

That learning curve will continue for both the team and their young drivers, as we head into the final three rounds of 2019.