Mari Boya: Home points a platform to build from for the rest of 2023

4 June 2023

Mari Boya made it two Spanish drivers in the points on Sunday in the Feature Race. The MP Motorsport driver secured P6 on home soil, a result he was satisfied with even if he was targeting more.

It was back-to-back points finishes for him also, his first of the 2023 campaign. The Spaniard was very happy to have opened his account for the season. He said it was a learning weekend, nailing his start technique and hopes this weekend’s progress can propel him on to better results for the remainder of the year.

“This has given me a lot of confidence. I wasn’t happy with the start procedure, and I’ve really understood the specific technique I need to use to perform good. Also, our pace was good and Qualifying at the front helped us in terms of scoring points, which we did this weekend.

“After this result, with the potential we have, and if I can fix Qualifying, I think I can start fighting for podiums and race wins. I will try my best to achieve this and it’s a long season. If we have a good weekend, we can score good results. We will try to work to the maximum to achieve that.”

Boya went one place better than in the Sprint Race on Saturday, but he wasn’t totally happy with the way his race unfolded. In the Sprint, Boya said he had a car underneath him that allowed him to fight and pressure those ahead throughout.

On Sunday though, he believes that more points were on offer. The MP driver was disappointed with his opening lap and says it took him out of podium contention.

“Yesterday it was a bit harder for me because it was my first time starting at the front. The first lap especially, I lost all ability to fight for the podium places. To be honest, I had a better car yesterday than today. Yesterday I was able to put a lot of pressure on the cars in front. Today I started eighth and after a good start, overtaking Taylor Barnard towards the end of the race, but I was struggling a bit more than yesterday. Because of that, I couldn’t put pressure on at the end of the race which was a bit of a surprise. It was a bit unlucky, but we can live with the result.

“Before the weekend started, my target was to have a much better Qualifying because I always had good potential but never in Qualifying. I haven’t had the result that showed our potential, but in the races, we’ve been super fast. But when you start at the back, you can’t finish in the top 10 like in Melbourne. Here it was a shame because arriving at the second to last corner, I lost a lot of time on my fastest lap, we saw on the data that it was more than possible that I could’ve been P2.

“I’m still happy because the target was to be inside the top 12 on the reverse grid and even with the mistake, we were P8. I’m super happy with the performance of the car, but slightly annoyed by a mistake that has never happened to me before. It is what it is, the race was good for the points which is most important.

Reflecting on his home race weekend though, Boya paid tribute to the legion of Spanish fans that supported him and Feature Race winner, Josep María Martí.

Looking ahead to Round 6, Boya says that MP can deliver stronger results around tracks the team expects to go well at. Before the paddock reconvenes in Spielberg at the end of the month, the Spaniard says he will be working hard on the simulator in order to build on his Barcelona race weekend.

“This weekend for sure I enjoyed a lot. Since the first days I spent in the fanzone, it was full of Spanish people. Obviously, they’re supporting Fernando Alonso since he’s doing such a good year, but it helps us Spanish Formula 3 drivers starting to be known. I’m super proud of the crowd and looking around the track, it was full of people supporting us so it was very beautiful.

“The next month will be quite busy. I’ll try to prepare with the team on the sim. There are some tracks that I’ve already raced at in other categories so I’m looking forward to it. Also, the team I think will have a car working very good around the tracks coming up so we can get a good result. I can’t wait to be back in the car.”