John N
Thoughts from Vidales, Crawford, and Collet
FIA Formula 3: Congratulations to the top three finishers. Caio Collet for MP Motorsport, in third place. Jak Crawford for PREMA Racing and winning the first F3 race of the weekend, David Vidales for Campos. Tell us what this means to you and your team?
David Vidales: Well, it’s a special place to win my first F3 race. For the team and me, it’s the first win of the year and to win it here at home is incredible. You c see all the people supporting, the grandstands were full of people with the Spanish flag, and after the race, you could see the atmosphere was great. So that gave me an extra push to hold off Jak, who was coming pretty fast. I’m super happy to do the win here, the first win, and hopefully, we can get many more.
FIA Formula 3: You started on pole, and you won the race, but as you say, Jak did come pretty close at one point. Can you talk us through that incident at Turn 1? Can we call it an incident?
Vidales: Well, I managed to hold the first position since the beginning of the race. It was a good start, I had a good pace the first laps, and then Jak was coming pretty fast. After two laps, he managed to make me defend the position. I wouldn’t call it an incident because we didn’t touch it at all, but it was hard racing, which is what we want. In the first corner, he went to the outside. He was still not side-by-side on braking, so I just tried to do my line and brake as late as possible but still without touching him and pushing him off track. I was also trying to do my best to hold the car without having snaps because the track was quite tricky because of the heat and everything. I tried my best, and it worked, and the pace, in the end, was enough to hold him back.
FIA Formula 3: Finally, what did you learn in the race today that will help you in the longer Feature Race tomorrow?
Vidales: Every time I jump in the car, I learn new things for myself and the team. It’s a learning process. Since day one, we haven’t stopped learning, and this shows all the progress we have made and that we understand our weak points. So today’s job will always be to analyze everything from the race. We understood the degradation and how the tires behave in 20 laps with this heat, which is important to understand at this track. So for sure, this will help us better understand how to manage the race for tomorrow and make it a good race.
FIA Formula 3: Many congratulations to you; well done. Jak coming to you, third on the grid to second, is a good result, but can we start by talking through those moments when you got very close to David?
Jak Crawford: I was in the DRS and I wanted the win badly, it was one of my first chances, and I think we broke a little early, so I released the brake a bit and tried to be on the outside. I ran out of the road, and if I had tried, we would have crashed so. I was trying to go for the win. Maybe I could have been a bit more patient, but yeah.
FIA Formula 3: Hard, fair, racing. Is that how you saw that?
Crawford: There are always two opinions, I think. Let’s just say it was racing.
FIA Formula 3: Looking at the positives, this is your third consecutive podium of the season. So you and the car are proving very quick?
Crawford: It’s not great when you get the Sprint Race podium because that means you didn’t usually qualify as high as you wanted to, but I’m pleased with the consistency we’ve been showing the past couple of races, and, hopefully, we can get a podium tomorrow as well!
FIA Formula 3: Good luck with that, Caio, coming to you. Great race from you. Talk us through that move on Juan Manuel Correa for the final podium place with just a couple of laps to go?
Caio Collet: I think he’s one of the guys I don’t want to take the podium away from; he deserves it quite a lot. When I saw him P3, I felt a little bad, but I knew I had to go for it because we are racing drivers. The first time it didn’t work out. I didn’t expect him to brake that late, and it was fair racing, but I didn’t expect it. So I prepared a lot the second time and made sure I was close enough to overtake him without any risk, and it happened. It’s quite a good race, and it’s nice to be back on the podium.
FIA Formula 3: It’s been a difficult start of the season for you, so how much of a boost is this podium for you?
Collet: It’s a relief for the team and me. The first two rounds were a mess. We didn’t finish half of it. It’s a booster for the team and me, but we need to stay here and keep pushing for the rest of the season.
FIA Formula 3: Good luck with that, thank you.
