Driver Database News

Nathan Morcom showed plenty of fighting spirit in an uncompetitive car in the opening round of this year’s F2000 Championship Series at Virginia International Raceway.

The young Sydney driver shrugged off handling and mechanical problems with his Rondo-DPO RFR in practice and qualifying to charge from the rear of the 32-car field to 15th in Saturday’s first race.

His effort earned him the ‘Hard Charger’ award for the race.

Continued set-up problems with the RFR during Sunday’s qualifying for the second race again put Morcom in the back half of the field.

From 19th starting position he passed a handful of drivers on the first lap, but he was punted off the track at the beginning of the second lap.

The car’s suspension was damaged in the incident, putting Morcom out of the race.

Van Diemen driver Robert La Rocca dominated the round by winning from pole position and setting the fastest lap in both races.

Morcom will return to Australia for his next event, the first round of the Australian Production Car Endurance Championship, at Phillip Island on April 28-29.

He is scheduled to drive the Rondo-DPO BMW 335i in the six-hour race with Chaz Mostert, hoping to repeat their win in the final round of last year’s APCEC at Eastern Creek in December.

Photo by Dennis Valet.

Felix Rosenqvist is set to expand his Formula 3 commitments for 2012, with the 20-year-old Swede joining the revived FIA European Formula 3 Championship in addition to his Formula 3 Euro Series assault. The European Formula 3 Championship originally took place between 1975-1984, and has been reintroduced to the sport ahead of the new campaign as a means by international motor racing governing body, the FIA, to further strengthen the category. The European Championship will run over ten weekends, eight of which will take place in conjunction with Formula 3 Euro Series events and the other two being contested within the framework of the British F3 Series. The winner of the FIA European Formula 3 Championship will be rewarded with a test in Formula 1.

“It’s a good feeling to be able to double up this year and get the chance of racing in an official European Championship,” says Felix Rosenqvist. “From a practical point of view, this doesn’t change too much in my 2012 programme, and the vast majority of the FIA European Formula 3 Championship races will be run together with Formula 3 Euro Series. The FIA has come up with a concept that enables the teams and drivers to dovetail their campaigns, and this will undoubtedly stimulate very tough competition. I’m definitely looking forward to it.”

Despite its races being synchronised with Formula 3 Euro Series and British F3 events, the FIA European Formula 3 Championship will hold status as a separate series with its own, standalone points’ structure. Unlike in Formula 3 Euro Series – where each round consists of three points-paying races – only one or two selected races at each of the meetings will count towards the FIA European Formula 3 Championship. Forming the backbone of the European Championship, Formula 3 Euro Series in itself has also attracted an increasing number of drivers ahead of the new season, which kicks off at Hockenheim next weekend. The official entry list will be made available at www.felixracing.se once it is published by the FIA.

The 2012 FIA European Formula 3 champion receives a Formula 1 test session with Ferrari, and the most successful drivers will also be invited to try out both DTM and Formula 2 machinery.

Chipping Norton racer, Alice Powell, will be moving up to the GP3 Series this season with Status Grand Prix after securing sponsorship. The 19-year-old is moving up to the Formula One support series after three seasons racing in the UK in the Formula Renault 2.0 category in conjunction with Manor Competition, which included winning the BARC F.Renault title in 2010.

Alice had her first ever test in the 280bhp Turbo charged car last week, and is now preparing for the first race, which is in Barcelona on the 12/13 May.

Commenting on the signing, Alice said “I am delighted to sign with Status for this year’s GP3 Series. Huge thanks to everyone who has helped me to get on the grid, including Immun’Age, Sidvin, Silverstone-Hotels.com, IWI Watches and hearingprotection.co.uk. I have only had one test in the car, so I will be the least experienced driver, in terms of seat time in the car, but I am going to give it everything to get some good results this year”

Status GP team principle Teddy Yip added: “Alice comes to Status GP will an excellent pedigree in karting and junior single-seaters. We’ve already seen she has good ability as well as an excellent approach and a strong grounding from her past single-seater experience. She is an excellent addition to the team.”

All GP3 races will be shown LIVE on the Sky Sports F1 Channel, as well as on over 30 channels across the world. The 2012 GP3 Series title will be fought out at eight Formula One Grand Prix across Europe, including the new addition of a round at the Monaco Grand Prix.

Photo by GP3 Media Service.

Adrian Quaife-Hobbs took his fifth consecutive podium finish with second place in the opening round of the AutoGP World Series at Marrakech on Saturday. A close-fought fourth place in the second race on Sunday earns the Tonbridge racer a 29-point championship lead after six rounds.

Marking his first time at the African track, Quaife-Hobbs was quickly on the pace, posting the fastest time in the final practice ahead of Friday afternoon’s qualifying session. After starting well and looking good for a repeat of his pole starts of the opening two rounds, red flags proved troublesome for the BRDC Rising Star. Fastest in each individual sector, Adrian was nonetheless unable to capitalise on his pace, as three times his flying lap was ended prematurely relegating him to the third row for race one.

The opening race on Saturday was a nail-biting affair right to the flag, the young Briton losing out by only 0.186 of a second after five frantic wheel-to-wheel racing laps. The race started well for the 21 year-old, with a storming getaway putting him third off the line.

However the supersoft tyres quickly began to cause problems for Adrian, so another early pit stop strategy by the SuperNova team came on lap four. The team once again did a sterling job to turn the 550bhp, Zytek V8-engined Lola round quickly, allowing Adrian to resume in third place with the lead two drivers yet to stop for tyres.

By lap 13 all the field had taken their mandatory tyre change, but a slow stop for the early race leader Pal Varhaug saw him exit in third place, with Adrian now in a good position to challenge new leader Sergio Campana. The fight for victory proved highly entertaining with Quaife-Hobbs piling on the pressure over the final three laps. The pair went side-by-side several times, but without the benefit of overboost Adrian was just unable to make the move stick, trailing the eventual winner by less than two tenths of a second at the finish.

Race two had Quaife-Hobbs start from seventh, and by lap three he was up to sixth before making his pit stop a lap later. Rejoining in fifth place, Adrian was well-placed to take up the battle for the final podium spot, joining Varhaug and Giacomo Ricci in the fight for third place.

Ricci tried to pass Varhaug on lap 18, but had to back off which allowed Adrian to make the most of the opportunity, with a brilliant move around the outside at Turn 3. Steadily applying pressure to Varhaug at the last chicane on the final lap, Adrian eventually got on the inside, for third place.

They both braked as late as possible but Adrian locked up, pitching his car sideways and into the kerb, while Varhaug cut the chicane. Quaife-Hobbs consequently got a bad exit from the corner, allowing Ricci to pass him. Varhaug crossed the line in third place ahead of Ricci and Quaife-Hobbs, but after the race was penalised 25 seconds for cutting the chicane, dropping him to seventh and giving Adrian fourth.

“We knew that from fifth on the grid a good start was needed for any chance of a podium finish, and luckily I got away well,” said Adrian. “My first laps were difficult; we opted to start on very old tyres and that meant that I lost five seconds to Campana before my stop. Once I changed to new softs, I knew I really had to push. I did it, and if it wasn’t for Spavone, who made me lose at least a couple of seconds cutting the chicane when I had already gone through, I think that I would have gone past him when he pitted. Instead, I was right on his gearbox when he came out of the pit-lane.

“In the first couple of laps I tried to understand if he was leaving some gaps, but when I saw that he was struggling with traction I decided to attack. I tried as hard as I could without risking crashing and one time I did manage to get onto Sergio’s inside, but he had some power-boost to spare and was able to get ahead. I had used all mine in the first part of the race, and so there was nothing I could do.

“Race two was equally exciting particularly towards the end when I started to close on Varhaug. On the final lap I thought it was possible to get fourth, but I locked up and had a bad exit from the chicane allowing Ricci to get me. But overall it’s been a good weekend. I got the second biggest points haul from the weekend, we are only into the third event with four still to go, so I just want to concentrate on winning races. Everybody can still be a title contender at this stage, so winning is the best thing you can do to keep your rivals at bay.”

Quaife-Hobbs, who remains the only driver to have secured two series wins courtesy of victory in Monza and Valencia, will resume his bid for honours in Hungaroring, Hungary over the weekend of 5/6 May.

For more information click onto www.quaifehobbs.com and follow the latest news and live timings on www.autogp.org and www.supernova-racing.com with live twitter feeds.

Double R Racing endured a challenging visit to Monza in Italy over the weekend, 14th/15th April, for the second event of the 2012 Cooper Tires British Formula 3 International Series – although there was plenty of cheer for first time National Class winner Duvashen Padayachee in round five.

The poor conditions wreaked havoc during the three races with the opening encounter, round four, bizarrely starting from pitlane while rounds five and six both began behind the Safety Car due to the persistent rainfall.

Malaysian driver Fahmi Ilyas had been the quickest of the Woking squad’s drivers in both the wet and dry free practice sessions on Friday, 13th April, but during qualifying on Saturday, 14th April, Geoff Uhrhane turned the tables to lap quicker than his team-mate to post the 11th fastest time.

Ilyas was unable to show his true pace after an unfortunate excursion into the gravel at Ascari on his 10th lap of the session, ending the run with the 12th quickest time, while Duvashen Padayachee was second fastest in the National Class.

Nobody could have predicted the incredibly odd start to the first race – with the cars lined-up on the grid ahead of the formation lap, light rain turned into something more intense and officials opted to declare a wet race.

With all of the slick-shod cars duty-bound to proceed onto the green flag lap, rather than forming back up for the race start at the end of the lap everyone dived into the pits so the encounter actually ended-up starting from the pitlane.

Double R did a fantastic job to get Ilyas’ Dallara-Mercedes onto treaded rubber and away to line-up second in the queue while Padayachee was 13th, just behind National Class rival Spike Goddard. For the unfortunate Uhrhane, a stuck rear wheel cost the Australian a lot of time stranded in the pit-box but the team did manage to eventually free the offending rim.

Ilyas managed to hold on to second place for the first four laps in the slippery conditions but he then began to slide down the order to an eventual finish of ninth. Uhrhane had a huge amount of work in front of him to recover anything at all but he did record a finish in 13th overall, three laps down.

Padayachee ran second in the National Class for almost the entire race with his best performance yet in his first year of Formula 3 action. Keeping class points leader Goddard under pressure, the Double R man seized his chance on the final lap to momentarily grab the lead but an attempted go at re-taking the position by Goddard resulted in contact and an enforced retirement for Padayachee.

“Race one was pretty bizarre to say the least”, said team principal Anthony ‘Boyo’ Hieatt, “The boys did a great job to get Fahmi’s car turned around and onto the wets in second place but his lack of running in the wet meant he fell back unfortunately after a few laps – it’s all experience though.

“Duvashen had a great drive, no question, but he and Spike [Goddard] had a coming together after Duvashen had taken the class lead and that was that. We were all desperately disappointed for Geoff, there were big problems getting the rear wheel off in the pits and that ended his chances.”

First National win for Padayachee…
For Sunday morning’s fifth round, the Safety Car led the field away due to treacherously bad conditions with Ilyas second on the ‘reverse grid’, Uhrhane in 12th position and Padayachee in 13th place. Racing proper began on lap three but Ilyas unfortunately tumbled down the order after a moment and eventually finished in 10th position.

Uhrhane, meanwhile, took a steady 11th place finish with compatriot Padayachee driving well once again to this time claim his maiden National Class victory. Dealing admirably with the rain-soaked track, he finished the 20-minute encounter just nine seconds shy of team-mate Uhrhane.

Round six, the ‘feature race’, also started under Safety Car conditions with Uhrhane leading Ilyas in the fight for 11th place. Running very close together for the first few laps, on the seventh tour it became a little too close for comfort when Ilyas mistakenly hit the rear of the sister Dallara.

Uhrhane was forced into a disappointing retirement while Ilyas was subsequently handed a drive-through penalty for his part in the incident. Even so, the Malaysian managed to finish in 10th place to secure his third top 10 of the weekend while Padayachee notched-up another finish in 12th position.

“It’s not been a great weekend, obviously, but Geoff did as good a job as he could have with the very limited experience he’s got in F3”, added Hieatt, “Fahmi didn’t have his best weekend unfortunately, the race three incident wasn’t what any of us wanted to see but he’ll learn from it.

“The high-point was Duvashen winning the National Class for the first time, he did a good job in such difficult conditions and that should give him more confidence. We’re looking forward to the break in the calendar now – we can crack on with some proper development of the new car and also get out there for some proper testing to get the guys more up to speed.”

With the first two back-to-back weekends of British F3 racing concluded, there is now a four week break in the 2012 calendar with Pau street circuit in France set to host the third event of the year, the Grand Prix of Pau, over the weekend 12th/13th May.

2012 Cooper Tires British Formula 3 International Series Driver Standings (after Rd6):
11th Fahmi Ilyas, 13pts; 12th Geoff Uhrhane, 3pts

2012 Cooper Tires British Formula 3 International Series ‘National Class’ Standings (after Rd6):
2nd Duvashen Padayachee, 82pts

Photo by Jakob Ebrey Photography.

The Campos Racing´s Argentinean driver, after another good start overtaking some cars, had tyres issues and then a slow pit stop which prevented him to repeat as good results as in Valencia.

Facu Regalia hasn´t had an easy race in Marrakech today. After his retirement during yesterday´s race, Campos Racing´s driver was aiming to gain the maximum number of places to score points for the overall classification of the Auto GP. And at the beginning race two was quite positive for his team and himself, because “I overtook some cars. Starting from the 15 place on the starting grid, I have overtaken no less than five cars and then two more on the outside. When I was in 9 place, I pushed quite hard but then I´ve had problems with my tyres and, in addition, my singleseater was suffering from severe understeer today”.

Then, when he pitted on sixth lap, his mechanics had problems to change a wheel losing over ten additional seconds. “The race started well for us, despite my car today wasn´t the best possible. However our problem during pit stop finished our options to complete a good result. After my pit stop, I have had a good race pace, recovering around two seconds per lap with drivers ahead but this compound doesn´t last for many laps. At the end my tyres were struggling with graining and my only chance was to finish the race”, Regalia explained after a finish in 10.

Regalia, second placed in Valencia, had a very different meeting in Morocco, because “everything began in a wrong way on Friday. Then my spin yesterday when I hit the wall and almost no chances for today´s race. In my opinion yesterday a podium finish wasn´t out of reach and today I could have scored points for the overall classification. But this is racing. Next meeting for us in the Auto GP will in Hungary next month, but before I have to make my debut in European F3 Open”, Regalia said while thinking in Formula 3 racing, his next step in two weeks time.

To follow everything concerning Facu´s career in motorsport, please check his profiles on Facebook and Twitter: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Facu-Regalia-2010/286971396026 and @facuregalia.

Having taken his first ever British F3 win yesterday, Carlin’s Carlos Sainz Jr took victory again today, at a rain soaked Monza circuit in Italy. The 17 year-old Spaniard was unchallenged in his Volkswagen powered Carlin machine throughout the 40 minute Feature race, which was started behind the safety car. Jazeman Jaafar finished fourth, Harry Tincknell was sixth and Jack Harvey was eighth. Harvey and Pietro Fantin took second and third respectively in the morning’s Sprint race.

Sunday’s Sprint race turned out to be something of a wash out, after wet conditions meant the drivers started the 20 minute race behind the safety car. With the top 10 finishers from race one reversed, Fortec’s Felix Serralles lined up on pole with Harvey the top Carlin starter in third place.

Harvey was on a charge and was soon up to second place by lap four. By the time the drivers completed lap six, Fantin had moved up to fourth ahead of Jaafar in fifth, Sainz was eighth and Tincknell ninth. Fantin was on the move on lap seven, passing McBride for third place. With few laps of racing action in the 20 minute Sprint, the order remained unchanged to the chequered flag, with Harvey and Fantin making it a double podium for Carlin in second and third respectively. Jaafar took points for fifth, race one winner Sainz was eighth and Tincknell ninth.

With the rain refusing to ease, race three of the weekend also started behind the safety car, with pole sitter Sainz leading the field. After one lap in safety car conditions the racing began in earnest on lap two, with Sainz making the most of good visibility at the front to pull out an early gap. Behind him, Jaafar had moved up to fourth place while Fantin, Harvey and Tincknell were all fighting for seventh.

The team mates raced cleanly and closely, with Harvey passing Fantin for seventh on lap seven. Fantin disappeared from the timing screens shortly after however, when an electrical problem possibly caused by the torrential rain ended what had otherwise strong weekend for the Brazilian.

At the front, Sainz was controlling the race and had pulled out a gap of nearly nine seconds at the half way point.

Pushing hard to pass Pipo Derani, Harvey was closing the gap to the Fortec driver. Team mate Tincknell passed the Racing Steps man on lap 13 however, briefly taking seventh at the chicane, but gave the position back a lap later in order to avoid a possibly penalty.

By lap 16, Sainz had increased his lead to nearly 16 seconds, with Jaafar holding station in fourth. Behind the leaders Harvey was again piling pressure on Derani and was all over the Fortec man’s rear wing.

On Monza’s long straights the order remained changeable however, and Tincknell passed Harvey for seventh on lap 18, and Derani a lap later to make a superb late dash for sixth place. Harvey was able to take the chequered flag in eighth. At the front, Jaafar just missed out on the podium in fourth, while Sainz romped home with a 16.7 second lead to take his second victory of the weekend.

A delighted Sainz said, “The car was perfect today, so a big thank you to the team. The conditions were very tricky today, but I just focused on my own race and not making any mistakes this afternoon and pulled out a gap bit by bit. It’s been a fantastic weekend, and to take two races wins at such an important circuit as Monza in such challenging conditions means a lot.”

Trevor Carlin added, “Carlos drove a perfect race this afternoon, he didn’t make a single mistake in very difficult conditions. All five drivers have shown a very high standard of driving today, despite the weather, and Harry’s overtaking manoeuvres at the end of the race were fantastic to watch. Once again the team have done a great job to take five podiums from nine this weekend. There is still a lot of work to do however, and we will all be working extremely hard in the next few weeks as we prepare for the next round in Pau.”

The Cooper Tires British F3 International Series continues at the street circuit of Pau on 12th May.

Carlin’s Carlos Sainz Jr stormed to his first victory in the Cooper Tires British F3 International Series today, in an eventful opening race at the Monza circuit in Italy. The Red Bull Junior emerged from the pits first after the entire field pitted for wet weather tyres after the green flag lap and was unchallenged to the chequered flag. Jazeman Jaafar claimed another podium in third place, while Jack Harvey was fifth and Pietro Fantin was seventh. Harry Tincknell was unable to finish after running wide over the kerbs.

With the grid for today’s race set by the second fastest laps in qualifying yesterday, Sainz Jr lined up second, with Tincknell sixth, Jaafar seventh, Harvey eighth and Fantin ninth. All the drivers were on slick tyres, despite very light rain over the circuit..

Grid positions soon became irrelevant however, when heavy rain on the green flag lap prompted the entire field to dive into the pits for wet tyres. Following some great work by the Carlin crew, Sainz emerged from the pits first and took the early lead, with team mate Fantin moving all the way up to third.

Sainz wasted no time in building up a gap from second placed man and Double R driver Fahmi Ilyas. Fortec’s pole sitter Pipo Derani found some pace on lap three as he passed Fantin for third, and then Ilyas for second in an attempt to catch Sainz. The F3 rookie was setting the pace however, and had built up a gap of 4.3 seconds by lap four.

Behind the leaders the action continued in an eventful race which saw plenty of overtaking. PETRONAS backed man Jaafar was up to fourth place on lap six having been six on lap one, while Oulton Park race winner Harvey had climbed to eighth. Jaafar continued to push hard and passed team mate Fantin for third a lap later, while Harvey had passed Ilyas for sixth.

Harvey soon found himself defending from Hannes van Asseldonk who found a way past on lap eight to relegate the Racing Steps man to seventh. Carlin man Tincknell was also enjoying a busy race and was involved in a close battle with team mate Fantin for fourth. The British racer moved up to fourth on lap 10, but Fantin claimed the place back a lap later. With both drivers fighting hard for position, Tincknell made a rare mistake and ran wide over the kerbs and sustained a bent pushrod, sending him into the gravel and out of the race.

At the front, Sainz had increased his lead to 6.6 seconds from Derani while Jaafar was still third and Harvey was fifth having passed Fantin, who was fighting hard to maintain position.

At the chequered flag, Sainz took his first Formula 3 victory by nearly 10 seconds, while Jaafar made it a double podium for Carlin in third. Harvey took solid points for fifth, while Fantin crossed the line in seventh.

Reflecting on his race, Sainz said, “It’s always special to take your first win in a series, especially as I said before at a historic circuit like Monza. There was very light rain at the start and we thought we might have to stop for wet tyres but then it started to rain more on the green flag lap which made conditions really tricky. The team did a great job on the pit stop; it was perfect and got me out of the pit lane first.

“From the start I was focusing on looking after the tyres and being patient with them and building out a gap little by little. I had one scary moment on lap 4, but with so many breaking points it is easy to make a mistake here. To score my first F3 win in these conditions feels really great.”

The Campos Racing´s driver, after making a good start overtaking three rivals on lap one, lost control of his car and collided with the wall at an early stage of the race.

Facu Regalia didn´t have an easy Saturday´s race in Marrakech, where is held the third meeting of 2012 season for Auto GP. Campos Racing´s driver, who was 9 on the starting grid after a troublesome qualifying session yesterday due to mistake with tyre strategy, felt confident at the start with his chances for a good result. And the race started quite well when lights went off. A good start coming from this young Argentinean driver who overtook no less than three cars on lap one. Regalia explained that “I made a good start, overtaking three rivals, to be P6 at the end of lap 1. But Chris van der Drift was in front of me, and his race pace wasn´t the pace, so my aim was to overtake him as soon as possible because other rivals were making a gap ahead”.

However, problems begun to appear while trying an overtaking manoeuvre on van der Drift, a well-experienced driver, due to low grip levels. “I overtook him but sadly yellow flags were waved so I was forced to give him back my fifth place to avoid a penalty. I was in his slipstream again very soon and I overtook him but, sadly, while speeding up my car spun. I hit the wall and my race was over on lap 3. It was my mistake because I wasn´t expecting that oversteer from my car there. Now it´s time to learn about it. I feel upset because I think a top-4 finish was quite possible with chances for podium even. Tomorrow it´s going to be hard but, once again, I will try to complete a good race”, Argentinean driver explained at the end.

Tomorrow´s race starts at 15,30 (CET) and it will be broadcasted by Eurosport 2 live.

To follow everything concerning Facu´s career in motorsport, please check his profiles on Facebook and Twitter: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Facu-Regalia-2010/286971396026 and @facuregalia.

Carlos Sainz Jr has stormed to his first British F3 pole position in a tense qualifying session in Monza this morning. The Red Bull Junior was competitive throughout the session, but waited until the final minutes to post a time that could not be beaten. Team mate Pietro Fantin was the next highest Carlin runner in sixth, with Harry Tincknell seventh, Jazeman Jaafar eighth and Jack Harvey ninth.

Following mixed conditions in free practice yesterday, conditions were damp as the second qualifying session of the season got underway in Monza this morning. The track soon began to dry however, as the F3 cars began the fight for pole position.

Current championship leader Harvey was quickest on his first flying lap, until several other drivers lowered the benchmark. Jaafar was also on the pace and was third quickest five minutes into the session.

At the half way point the Carlin men were closely matched, with Sainz third, Jaafar fourth, Harvey fifth, Tincknell sixth and Fantin seventh. Sainz continued to push and set the quickest middle sector of all to improve to second, only 0.005 seconds behind provisional pole man Fortec’s Pipo Derani.

With 10 minutes to go, all five Carlin drivers were back out on fresh rubber for a second assault on pole. With five minutes to go, Sainz was third but was still improving. The Spanish racer took provisional pole with only a few minutes to go, although was soon relegated to second as Felix Serralles went quicker. Sainz responded with just over one minute to go with a 1.46.575, a time that would remain unbeaten in the final seconds.

“I’m really happy to secure pole at such a special circuit,” said Sainz. “We spent quite a long time last night thinking about changes to our set-up which have taken us in the right direction so a great job by the team. Qualifying went smoothly for us; it was a little damp at the beginning but as it dried out the car got better and better.

“For sure the Fortec cars are fast on the straights so it will be a tough race, but we are very quick in the high speed corners. It is a question of getting the right balance on the car and that is something we will work on ahead of the first race.”

Race one will get underway later today at 15.00 local time.