The Austrian races did not go as well as expected for Camara and Taponen, but the Scuderia Ferrari Driver Academy duo can fight back immediately in this weekend’s round at one of the classic tracks.

“It wasn’t an easy weekend,” was the opening remark from both Rafael Camara and Tuukka Taponen, looking back at the sixth round of the Formula 3 season in Spielberg, where they both suffered various problems which hampered their progress. Qualifying proved difficult, with Camara and Taponen ending up seventh and 20th respectively. Championship leader Rafael was naturally disappointed. “We were very quick in the first and second sectors, but we couldn’t match that in the final one,” commented the Brazilian. “The gap to pole (less than three tenths of a second) was small, but at this track that’s enough to drop you back to the fourth row of the grid.”

Sprint Race. Camara was sixth at the end of the opening lap, after which he was fighting for a long time in a pack just behind the leaders. On lap 9, he went off into a gravel trap at turn 4, rejoining ninth, which is where he finished. After the race, the team noticed the skid block under his car was damaged, probably as a result of going over a kerb. Taponen had been moving up the order, but after Christian Ho drove into him, his race ended in the gravel trap on the outside of turn 3. 

Feature Race. Tyre wear looked like being a key factor in the longer race. Camara got a great start, immediately moving up to fifth. He passed Brad Benavides on lap 3, then Noah Stromsted two laps later and Ugo Ugochukwu on lap 7 to take second place. He then set about chasing the leader Tsolov, but after a few laps, his lap times got slower. “Everyone was expecting a drop in tyre performance,” said Camara. “But I believe in my case, there was something else that led to a sudden loss of performance.” Rafael gradually dropped down the order, finishing the race in fifth place. Things were no better for Taponen, who struggled home in 20th place. “Right from free practice our pace wasn’t great, especially in the third sector,” he said. “In a 30 minute free practice session there isn’t much time to make any adjustments, we couldn’t check everything needed to sort out the problem. Qualifying did not go to plan and that compromised the outcome of the whole weekend.” Tuukka failed to score, while Camara’s upped his total to 117, thus maintaining a solid championship lead.

Back on track immediately. There is no break in the calendar with teams travelling straight from Austria to the UK, as the racing resumes this weekend at the historic Silverstone circuit, one of the highlights of the season. “This will be a new track for me,” commented Taponen, “but I can’t wait to get my race suit and helmet back on and get the weekend started. I’m sure we can get back to where we should be and I hope the problems we encountered in Spielberg are behind us. Silverstone is a very different type of track and it’s unlikely to be as hot as in Austria. I don’t know what sort of results we can expect, simply because I’ve never raced at this track, so I can’t wait.”

Programme

Friday

08.45 local (09.45 CEST) Free practice 45 minutes

14.00 (15.00 CEST) Qualifying 30 minutes

Saturday

09.15 (10.15 CEST) Sprint Race

Sunday 09.30 (10.30 CEST) Feature Race