Christian Mansell’s Monte Carlo weekend in his words

ART Grand Prix’s Christian Mansell endured an up and down weekend in Monte Carlo, which ultimately ended in a well-deserved podium and second-place finish in the Feature Race.

The Australian details how his weekend unfolded, how his Qualifying performance bodes well for the future and why he felt no pressure starting on the front row on Sunday.

PRACTICE – P6

“Well, we started on the medium tyre because it was actually dry for the first two push laps, and we had the Red Flag. Then we were going to try and box for the Softs but it started raining and then we boxed for the Wet tyres instead. Overall, it was quite bad, I think we were around the top five in Practice in the dry and then top three in the rain. So overall we had pretty decent pace, and I was feeling confident in the car.”

QUALIFYING – P2

“Moving on to Qualifying, being in Group B you think would help but unfortunately, because of the Red Flag, that upset the warm-up procedure. The tyres definitely put us on the backfoot, I'm sure that's why we weren't actually able to go any faster than Group A.

“When you don't have the proper warm-up procedure, it really doesn't help. I think overall, the pace in Group B, as far as everyone else was and even with that Red Flag in the end, I was still matching Dino’s pace and was gonna go faster in sector three.

“In myself, I know I was going to push harder, whether that would have ended heroically or not, we will never know. But I was feeling very, very comfortable. We were fastest in the Group, which was crazy. Starting on the front row is always nice. So, definitely I felt very happy with that.”

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“In the Sprint Race, not really a lot to speak about. I had a bit a poor start, but then I just came up to the top the hill, filled a gap that was there and then it wasn’t, and that was that really.”

FEATURE RACE – P2

“It almost helped waking up that early in the morning because it almost didn't give me time to be nervous at all. I was just focused on the driving. Sometimes when you have a race in the afternoon, you almost sit on it for the entire day. So, I literally just arrived, and I just felt like I had woken up and then jumped in the car.

“Then you have to wait in the pitlane for ages, so you’re sort of just chilling there and funnily enough, Gabriele and I were actually in the Alpine area in the F1 pitlane and we were just chatting as if it was a normal day, we were really unfazed. I think it was so early that we were basically just trying to wake up, but it was just a really calm, time for me.

“Then jumping in the car, I was feeling good, and I actually had a lot of confidence ahead of the start because I knew Gabriele actually had a fair bit of wheel spin from start last year and also from the Sprint Race. So, I was actually more worried about Luke because Luke had an awesome start in the Sprint Race.

“I was just quite happy; it was weird feeling. I wasn't that nervous. It felt a bit calmed by the fact that I knew that he could potentially make a mistake. So, I was almost like the adrenaline was revved up.

“Lights go out, I have a good start, bit side-by-side into T1 and Gabriele’s made sure that I didn't get any more alongside by closing that gap to the left-hand wall, which was fair enough, I would have done the same thing. Then I just piled on the pressure, tried my best, went to conserve, pushed again, conserve, push again, normal racing situation in Monaco. I was very, very calm in the car to be honest.

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“I was asking all the questions to the team about what Nikola was actually doing in the Sprint Race because obviously I didn't get to do that. I didn't know how to manage the tyres, so it was very similar to George Russell's 2020 Sakhir Grand Prix where he was asking the Mercedes engineers ‘how do I do this? How do I do the procedures?’

“So, it was very, very similar to that and was quite cool in a way. But then, managing the Safety Car restarts was another thing and I think Gabriele did really, really well, and then I also did really, really well to drop Luke as well. And from there, it was pretty much Monaco.”

UP NEXT - BARCELONA

“Honestly, we just feel like we can conquer the world at this point, because when we had the Medium tyre in Melbourne and Imola, we struggled to understand what we were doing. That was a real sort of head-scratching moment. Then, we bolt on the Soft tyre, we can bolt on the Hard and we can be massively competitive.

“So, at the moment, the only race I’m less looking forward to now is Spa. Until then, we're just gonna keep our heads down because we're very confident in our ability. At the moment I've obviously got a massive wave of confidence, which after a podium in Monaco I would say is fair enough. You’ve got to ride one when you get it. But I think for about Barcelona, it's just back to normal procedure. At the end of the day, Monaco is a very, very different track to Barcelona, so all you have to do is just try your best to maximise the package and that's sort of what I've been doing all year.”