Interview
ART targeting better consistency after ‘nice start’ to 2024 says Philippe
ART Grand Prix Team Principal Sébastien Philippe is pleased with how his side have started the season but is keen to see them improve on their performance in the second half of the year.
The French outfit have achieved a podium finish in three out of the opening four rounds so far in 2024, with the exception coming at Round 3 in Imola.
This leaves them third in the Constructors’ Standings and Philippe believes it leaves them in a good place heading into the rest of the year.
“It's going okay,” said Philippe. “It's not too bad - we always hope for better, but we have been missing a bit of consistency sometimes. Imola was a bit difficult but globally it's a nice start and we’re in a place where we can move forward.”
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ART were able to bounce back from Imola with a victory in the Monte Carlo Sprint Race thanks to Nikola Tsolov’s maiden F3 win, while Christian Mansell finished second in the Feature.
To go alongside that, Laurens van Hoepen joined Tsolov on the podium when he placed third in the Saturday event – giving the Dutch rookie his third trip to the rostrum this season.
Looking back on that weekend and with the statistic that four out of their six podiums this year have come in Sprint Races, Philippe says his drivers are showing good potential, but wants them to transfer that form to the Feature.
“Of course we had a difficult start to the season with Nikola,” said Philippe. “So, hopefully this win in Monaco will help him to get back some confidence and bring him back where he deserves to be because for sure.
“We have been missing a bit of performance at the beginning of the year for different reasons though the three of them have been able to show good potential with us.
“Now we still need to improve a bit more to be in a better position, especially for the Feature Race, even if Christian did a very good job in Monaco, we just need to bring more consistency in what we are doing.”
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But how do ART go about improving that consistency? Well, Philippe says it is not about one single thing, it’s about looking at the complete picture.
“To improve the package performance,” said Philippe. “To be a bit more opportunistic sometimes in Quali because again with the number of cars at the same moment you need to have a clear lap at a good moment because sometimes a small mistake can be very costly.
“So, it's just about being better in all details, it's not one specific point. We need to fine tune everything to be a bit more opportunistic in order to step up a little bit in Quali to have a better start position in races for the three of them.
“We have Christian who has been strong in Monaco. Even if Nikola and Laurens did a good Sprint Race, Quali could have been a bit better by doing a good lap at a good moment. But again, it's a good start of the season, we just need to step up a little bit in order to fight in the top three and four.”
ART’s 85 points leaves them tied with Campos Racing, while Hitech Pulse-Eight are in fifth on 78. Those three teams trail leaders PREMA Racing and second placed Trident, and while he is looking forward to the battles to come, Philippe says though there is no goal as of now with the Championship.
“We will try,” says Philippe when asked about chasing down PREMA and Trident. “But you know Hitech is also doing a very good job with Luke Browning, we will start a very important phase of the season with five races in six weekends.
“So, we need to be ready from Barcelona and keep the momentum in order to score big points during the summer. We will work hard after there is no specific objective right now, it's just to be a hundred percent in each area because it is small details that make big differences.”