Jordan's Track Talk

Tag: Testing

  • F3 Barcelona Testing

    The past few days, Formula 3 have been testing in Barcelona at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya for their second and final in season test of the year. Formula 2 had spent three days laying down rubber in mostly cold conditions before F3 hit the track on Friday.

    Day 1-

    David Schumacher had arrived as a late replacement for Ayrton Simmons for Charouz, the German driver needed a seat fitting before getting out onto track, he managed eight laps towards the end of the session as he looked to get back up to speed with F3 machinery.

    When the laps started flowing, Zane Maloney set the benchmark at 1:33.926 before his teammate, Stanek broke the 1m 33s barrier with a 1:32.678. Isack Hadjar was one of two stoppages, with the driver coming to a stop at Turn 2 in the middle of the session. ART Grand Prix’s Matteo Nannini was the other, stopping at Turn 10.

    In between the two red flag, Nannini’s teammate Saucy set the quickest time of the morning, with a 1:32.247. Colapinto completed the most mileage in the morning with 49 laps in total.

    Onto the afternoon session, all 30 drivers made a swift exit from the pitlane when the light went green and got stuck into the long runs. MP Motorsport’s Caio Collet set the benchmark at 1:34.465, before it was replaced by Hadjar at the midway point.

    Smolyar dropped a 1:33.342 to steal the top spot of Collet again pushing him to second, Stanek put in a late lap of a 1:33.642. It was Franco Colapinto who completed the most laps in the afternoon session, adding 54 to his 49 he already done in the morning.

    Day 2-

    It was a busy final morning, as many of the drivers got stuck into some qualifying simulations. Gregoire Saucy set the marker at 1:32.109 for ART GP. Collet then drooped a 1:31.507 to put himself top of the standings.

    Coalpinto’s one lap speed was shown once again, as the Round 1 pole sitter made the top three for the second day in a row. The Argentine was the busiest man for the third session in a row adding a further 51 laps to his tally from Day 1.

    HiTech’s rookie, Isack Hadjar was another one impressing as his short run speed put him up to 4th and just over three tenths off P1. Tridents, Roman Stanek completed the top five.

    The field dedicated the afternoons running to race simulations, with Jenzer heading out as soon as the lights went green. Alatalo set the benchmark at 1:34.488 before they were joined by the ever-busy Van Amersfoort Racing trio. When the remainder of the grid left the pits to head out on track, Marti jumped to second for Campos.

    Villagomez, ended the afternoon session with the highest lap count, completing 58 tours of the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya. He also spent the majority of the session in third but was bumped down to fourth by Ferrari junior Leclerc, who couldn’t quite beat the 1m 35s barrier.

    Formula 3 doesn’t have to wait long till there back on track, as Round 2 starts in Imola on Friday the 22nd of April.

  • JMC to not test in Barcelona

    Juan Manuel Correa, will not be taking part in the Formula 3 test in Barcelona this week after a metatarsal fracture on his left foot, his participation in Imola for Round 2 is also at risk.

    Correa, was in pain during the whole two day F3 testing at Jerez last week, even being forced to cut short his running on the second day as the pain became unbearable.

    His ability to brake was unsurprisingly impaired, particularly in the dry conditions of the test’s second day when he could only manage 47 laps in total.

    Entering his second season in F3 with ART Grand Prix after his comeback after he sustain injuries whilst racing in Formula 2 at Spain in 2019, Correa qualified and finished in fourth position in the feature race in Bahrain, despite the pain that he was in.

    After the Barcelona test, Correa was due to make his European Le Mans Series debut at Paul Ricard this weekend for Prema’s new LMP2 team alongside Louis Deletraz and Ferdinand Habsburg, which he will also have to miss.

    I couldn’t drive too much unfortunately because I have still a bit of an issue with the leg from the race in Bahrain. In the last race of the weekend, I got some inflammation in the tendons in the left foot and it still hasn’t recovered so I’m in quite a bit of pain when I drive.I was actually lucky that it rained all day yesterday because it’s softer on the brake. Ever since Bahrain, we’ve been working mainly on trying to reduce that but it’s still not perfect. The whole left foot has a lot of inflammation. And the nerves have gotten inflammated. Everything at the end goes back to that [the Spa crash] and both to my physical limitations, especially the ones I had last year, and that I’m having now which I was not expecting to have this year. It is a very frustrating to be in that position right now.

    Juan Manuel Correa, talking at Testing in Jerez.

    We did an MRI scan yesterday night (Thursday), got the results today (Friday) and there is indeed a stress fracture there. The doctors have recommended a couple of weeks rest. Lets see how it heals itself, how the pain improves. We are going to try to push the recovery to be able to do the Imola race but nothing is guaranteed.

    Correa took to social media at the weekend, with a video message.

    Absolutely gutted for him, it seems like just as things were getting good for him something like this happens! But health always comes first, so its the right decision for him to sit out of testing in Barcelona. Hopefully we see Correa back on track in Imola!

  • Barcelona F2 Testing

    This weekend we have had the F2 cars back on track at Barcelona for some more testing, once again it was split into morning and afternoon sessions with a total of 18 hours of track time across the weekend.

    Day 1- A bit of a foggy start to the morning session, with teams letting the drivers out for an install lap. Campos shot out on track as soon as it was clear, followed by MP Motorsport however MP didn’t get to set a competitive time as Carlin’s Jehan Daruvala stopped at turn 1 which brought out the first red flag of the weekend. Following the first red flag there was then another as Piastri stopped at turn 3 but he did manage to set a good time overall. After having two cars back in the garage safely Lungaard headed out onto the circuit and posted the quickest time of the morning setting a time of 1:29.606. The morning session finished with Lundgaard at the top with a 1:29.594, followed by Drugovich with a 1:29.772, then followed Vips with a 1:29.988.

    Once the afternoon session got the green light MP were the first team to get back onto the track, with both drivers getting a fast run out of the way. Verschoor charged his way to the top of the table after his fifth lap and then was backed up by his teammate Zendeli. A little while later Zendeli lost control of his MP and managed to tag the barrier… There was then another red flag shortly after this as Nissany lost control at Turn 9 and touched the wall too. Lundgaard was the one to bump Verschoor down to P2 with a lap time of 1:29.827, Verschoor ended up with a 1:30.165 and was very closely followed by Theo Pourchaire with a 1:30.167.

    Day 2- The morning session of Day 2 was the opportune time for some Qualifying simulations, with fresh hard tyres on, the field quickly went out to get a feel for the circuit with Zendeli setting an early pace of 1:29.440. He was shortly knocked down the order after Boschung went two tenths quicker. Half way through the session you saw the teams switching to the mediums however their runs were halted as Nissany spun at Turn 3 and found himself stuck in gravel which brung out a red flag. The session ended with Verschoor on top with a 1:28.280 then followed by Ralph Boschung with a 1:28.474 and then Felipe Drugovich with a 1:28.544.

    The afternoon session is more based on the longer runs to gather data, so to start the session off, Petecof got things under way with a 1:30.684. There were three disruptions in this session with Deledda spinning at turns 12 and 1, and Shwartzman stopped at turn 3. Once things got restarted again the Charouz Racing System pair went first and second with Beckamnn having a 1:29.384 and Samaia with a 1:29.510. Verschoor then made it to P3 with a 1:29.951 and that finished up the second day.

    Day 3- The last day of testing wasn’t as bright as the second day, which led to us seeing some rain at the end of the first session. The field headed out at the earliest opportunity with them switching to their final set of mediums. Their was a brief stoppage which we saw HWA Racelab’s spun at the first turn which brought out a red flag. Action soon resumed, with Drugovich taking control, he was the first the driver to break the 1m 28s barrier for the first time in Barcelona with a 1:27.945. Lundgaard was next to follow, he took a qualifying simulation however he couldn’t nail all three sectors, he managed P2 with a 1:28.285. Lundgaard wasn’t at P2 for long as Piastri came out on fresh medium tyres and set a 1:28.105.

    The afternoon session got underway and the long runs soon started, the HWA Racelab duo set the benchmark times leading with 1:30.346 and 1:32.183. There was a brief stoppage in the opening hour of the session as Lawson touched the wall at Turn 5. He managed to get back out there but then came to halt between turns 8 and 9 with 15 minutes to go. There was a third red flag of the afternoon for Verschoor who stopped at turn 7. The top 3 for the end of the session were Viscaal with a 1:30.280, Nannini with a 1:30.346 and Sato with a 1:30.943.

    In my opinion I believe HiTech, MP Motorsport are strong and so is Lundgaard, all of them seemed to be consistent over the weekend whilst doing simulations and tests. I’m looking forward to the next race weekend and its in Monaco on the 22nd of May.