Jordan's Track Talk

Tag: Gregoire Saucy

  • NEOM McLaren announce Rookies for Berlin

    NEOM McLaren announce Ugo Ugochukwu and Gregoire Saucy for the Berlin Rookie Test.

    Ugochukwu, from New York City, US, has had an impressive junior career to date and is currently a member of the McLaren Driver Development programme, having initially signed with the team in 2021.

    In his short career so far, he’s sealed the FIA OK-Junior European Karting Championship title, amongst other karting achievements.
    Moving up to single seaters, he finished his rookie season third overall and winning the Rookie trophy, and his second season as Italian Formula 4 vice champion and Euro 4 Champion, where he grabbed a total of 11 wins and 44 podiums to his name.

    This season he is competing in the Formula Regional European Championship and at selected rounds of the GB3 Championship, whilst continuing his progression with the McLaren Driver Development programme where he will be supported in his journey from junior motorsport to professional racing driver.
    Ugochukwu has already spent time in the Formula E simulator at the MTC as part of his current role.

    Gregoire Saucy, from Switzerland, began racing on his family kart track at three years old and quickly established himself as a talent, where he became the youngest licensed competitor at just seven years old.

    His early career saw him regularly on the podium throughout karting championships and in 2015 he progressed to single seaters, claiming his first title in the Formula Regional Championship in 2021.
    He currently competes in the FIA World Endurance Championship with United Autosports, in partnership with McLaren Motorsport.

    I’m looking forward to the Berlin Rookie Test in May with the NEOM McLaren Formula E Team. It’s an amazing opportunity to take the Nissan e-4ORCE 04 to track and I’m grateful to be given this chance through the McLaren Driver Development programme. I’m excited to learn and develop my driving further with a new category of car. I’ll be working closely with the great team at Bicester and MTC in the build-up, getting prepared for the test and making sure I’m as prepared as possible to help the team.
    Ugo on the news.

    I’m really excited to start this new challenge. It will be my first time in a Formula E car. I’ve been driving single seater cars up until last year, before changing direction for this season, competing in GT3 and LMP2, so it will be nice to step into a single seater again. I want to thank the NEOM McLaren team for this opportunity. I’m looking forward to discovering Formula E first hand. See you in Berlin.
    Saucy on the news.

    It’s great to see that Formula E is continuing to provide opportunities for talented drivers to show what they are capable of, by hosting another official rookie test this season. It is also a good way for us as teams to evaluate these drivers in the current GEN3 machinery. I’m especially excited about our line-up for this test; both Ugo and Grégoire have stood out in the categories they’ve competed in to date. I look forward to seeing them hit the track in Berlin.
    Ian James, Team Principal & Managing Director.

  • F3 – RND 6 – Day 1

    Free Practice-

    Gabriel Bortoleto hit the ground running in Spielberg, setting the track record with a 1:19.410 to top the free practice session for Trident.

    The Brazilian driver was 0.148s quicker than Jenzer Motorsport’s Taylor Barnad, while Gabriele Mini left it late to take third for Hitech Pulse-Eight.

    Once the tyre preparation laps were complete, Paul Aron set the initial benchmark to beat with a 1:21.998 on his first effort. The Estonian’s 1:21.205 was three-tenths quicker than PREMA Racing teammate Dino Beganovic, who had a heart-in-mouth moment shortly after.

    With just over 16 minutes remaining the red flags were out after Sebastian Montoya beached his Hitech car in the gravel trap on the outside of Turn 7.

    Once the session resumed with 12 minutes remaining, everyone returned to the track. ART Grand Prix’s Saucy was the first in the queue with prime track position and set a 1:20.306 for the rest to beat.

    Qualifying-

    ART Grand Prix’s Gregoire Saucy secured his first Formula 3 pole position in Spielberg after a dramatic qualifying session around the Red Bull Ring. PREMA Racing’s Paul Aron had ended the session fastest of all but dropped to P4 after exceeding track limits.

    His demotion moved Saucy up into P1 and PREMA teammate Dino Beganovic onto the front row. While Championship leader Gabriel Bortoleto secured third place in his Trudent.

    With patches of rain on the weather radars, everyone was out immediately at the green light. Caio Collet led the way as the rest jostled for Track position and the Van Amersfoort driver set the first time to beat.

    With 15 minutes gone, Beganovic headed up Aron, Gabriel Bortoleto, Josep Maria Marti and Gabriele Mini in the top five. After everyone returned to the pits to fit a fresh set of the soft Pirelli tyres, the track was busy once again with under 10 minutes remaining.

    There were improvements throughout the field, but nobody could leap ahead of either PREMA driver prior to the final two minutes of the session.

    The full top 10 are: P1: Saucy, P2: Beganovic, P3: Bortoleto, P4: Aron, P5: Collet, P6: O’Sullivan, P7: Colapinto, P8: Goethe, P9: Frederick and P10: Mansell.

  • Saucy sticks with ART

    ART Grand Prix have announced that Gregoire Saucy will be remaining with the team for the 2023 FIA Formula 3 season. The Swiss driver has been with the French team for the past three years, graduating to F3 this season and finishing 15th overall.

    Saucy has enjoyed success in the past with ART, securing the Formula Regional European Championship by Alpine in 2021 with eight race victories to his name.

    Prior to that title success, the 22 year-old competed in German Formula 4 and Toyota Racing Series before linking up with ART GP in FRECA.

    In 2023, I will celebrate my 4th anniversary with ART Grand Prix, a milestone I am very proud of. Knowing the team for this long is a plus because we know each other’s strengths and we know how to work on our weaknesses. I have already started on my mental and physical preparation so I can be ready for the first laps of 2023. I learnt a great deal in the first season of F3 and I will be using that to bring ART Grand Prix a second title, following the one in FRECA back in 2021. The Championship will be long and exciting, with new dates, and one of the keys will be to be consistent right from the onset. This is what we missed last season and I know that to achieve my title objective we will have to do what we did in 2021: score the maximum number of points when victory is not within our reach. I am very happy to continue working with ART Grand Prix and I can’t wait for the new season to start. I want to thank ART Grand Prix, Dominique Guenat, Richard Mille and my sponsors without whom this project would not have been possible.

    Gregoire Saucy on staying with ART.

    Grégoire has been a member of the ART Grand Prix family for three years and we could only congratulate ourselves on his personal and sporting qualities. In the wake of his title in the European Regional Formula by Alpine where he moved forward a step, he made a promising debut in Formula 3 by climbing onto the podium in Bahrain during his first weekend of racing in the series. Like the team, Grégoire has had his ups and downs, but he fought hard throughout the year and in 2023 his first year of experience in the discipline will be an asset to help him aim for regular victories.

    Sebastien Philippe, Team Principal.