ART Grand Prix: ‘Lessons from 2025 helped strong start in Melbourne’

ART Grand Prix enjoyed a much stronger start to the new campaign than they endured one year ago, as the French outfit earned four top six finishes across the opening two races.

Rookies Taito Kato and Maciej Gladysz were able to accumulate plenty of points to open the team’s account for 2026, with the former earning a podium in his maiden Feature Race with third position.

Speaking after the weekend, Team Principal Sébastien Philippe analysed the team’s start and said that there was plenty to be happy with. However, he also noted that there’s work still to do in order to capitalise on their early momentum.

“It was a much better position this year, especially taking into consideration that our three drivers were rookies this year,” he said. “They didn't know the track, which was quite a big disadvantage compared to the drivers who were there one year ago.

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“Fortunately, we had a smooth Free Practice without too many Red Flags and that allowed us to build up the laps which definitely helped to put our drivers in a position to be able to qualify well.

“I think both Taito and Maciej delivered strong pace in quali because they are still very young and have very little experience. Unfortunately for Kanato, quali didn't go his way for different reasons but I think his pace was much better than what he was able to show in quali.

“But we all know that if you miss out in quali and are out of the top 12, your weekend starts to become very, very difficult. But at the end of the day, I think it was a strong first weekend, especially compared to last year where we messed up completely.”

Philippe believes there’s more to come from both the team overall and his drivers, and he underlined how both Kato and Gladysz were able to perform despite their relative inexperience.

“It shows you that they are capable of doing it. Both didn't carry too much expectation - I pushed them not to have too much because, again, both of them are very young. They spent only one year in the previous category. They are very talented, but experience is something important.

“So, to get consistency, you need experience. I think the talent is there, and I think we provided them a car that meant they were able to deliver. And they did. So now they need to build on results. Consistency is the key to make small steps.”

Looking back to the trials of one year ago when they left Melbourne with just two points scored, the ART team boss says that after working hard to learn lessons from the difficult early phase of 2025, the results are improving.

“12 months ago, we arrived with a completely new car to understand. We were doing a small amount of testing before the first race in Australia. So it meant that we went in a bit blind and you have to take some risks in terms of setup.

“We now know that clearly, we made a few mistakes one year ago in Melbourne and we were not going to repeat them. So I think we were working throughout 2025 in order to understand the new car better and better.

“When you get it right, everything gets easier. But when you get it wrong, you need to find out why and to understand why you went wrong.

“We didn't repeat the same mistakes as last year in Melbourne. I think we have a better understanding of the car. I’m staying cautious, because small little things could have changed the weekend completely, but we understand better the car than last year.

“I’m sure every other team will be saying the same. You can clearly see that the gaps are so small, but I prefer to start the season like we did this year. It puts us in a much better mindset and we’re much more confident than last year moving forward.”