Round 6 Post Qualifying Press Conference

FIA Formula 3: Hello and welcome to the Press Conference of the top three qualifiers for the FIA Formula 3 Championship in Spielberg. In third place we have Tim Tramnitz from MP Motorsport, in second we have Arvid Lindblad from PREMA Racing and taking his first pole in FIA Formula 3 is Luke Browning from Hitech Pulse-Eight. It’s your first Pole Position, does it feel like it has been a long time coming?

Luke Browning: Yeah, I think there might have been a few places where we could have been Pole Position but just didn’t quite strike the lap or go for it at the end. I think with Formula 3 it’s very easy to mess up and find yourself outside of the Top 12. Sometimes being a little bit more conservative, like for example in Barcelona. I think we would have been right there, we were a half a tenth off. It wasn’t amazing but it was safe. Here was a place where I put it all on the line. It was rewarded, I knew it was going to be tough and I would have to have to push on in the second sector without a tow. It paid off. Hitech did a great job. It’s really great to have all the mentorship of Williams Racing behind me. I am looking forward to putting it all together in the race.

FIA Formula 3: You mentioned not having a tow, was that planned? Did you want clear air or was track position not ideal for you in that final run?

Browning: I think no one wants to be at the front in Spielberg Qualifying, hence the massive train in warm up. It got to the point where I came in T9, a message came over the radio my engineer said, ‘Right mate, you’ve got to go now’ and I just thought okay, head down. I could not believe it when I looked up at the screen after coming across the line. I think that shows all the hard work we have been doing back at the factory. I think the consistency in Qualifying is really paying off for us.

FIA Formula 3: You clearly have a quick car in clean air, last time you started on the front row in Bahrain you went on to win, how confident are you that you can repeat that here?

Browning: It’s going to be tough. It’s probably the place where it is historically least important to have Pole Position but equally you could not be in the better place. We will see what the race pace is like. We have tried to understand the degradation on the Soft tyre as much as possible. I think it’s going to be a tough graining phase. Being out front in the cool air might help me.

FIA Formula 3: Arvid P2 for you again in Qualifying, matching Barcelona, do you feel like you are it a bit of a groove at the moment?

Arvid Lindblad: I think it is hard to say. Qualifying pace has definitely been strong in the last couple of races. It’s my second front row back-to-back as you say so really happy with that. We will see. I am taking it race by race. Hopefully try to keep up this strong Qualifying form for the coming Feature Race.

FIA Formula 3: You also won Sunday’s race from the front row in Spain. What sort of confidence have you come into this weekend with?

Lindblad: On the back of a really good weekend in Barcelona I have a lot of confidence. I am aware the weekend here is very different. The circuit is different, it is a different tyre compound. The way the race will pan out will be different. There’s a lot of passing opportunities. It is a different style of race to Barcelona. We will have to be on top of the differences. So, I have confidence, but I am also aware that it is a very different weekend.

FIA Formula 3: What are you looking to learn from tomorrow that could help you on Sunday starting from the front?

Lindblad: The Soft tyre has proven to have quite high degradation. We will have to manage that. We have a good opportunity to learn for Sunday tomorrow. Obviously being a bit further back but it is still a good opportunity to learn. We will see, I think degradation is going to be a big factor but also passing being quite easy with three DRS zones. We will see what happens.

FIA Formula 3: Tim thanks for waiting, your best qualifying result of the season, how pleased are you with how the session went from your perspective?

Tim Tramnitz: I was quite happy to finally get everything together in Qualifying. I struggled a little bit for consistency in the past qualifying sessions. It’s good to get on top of that and to finally extract a good performance. The other two guys have already said that the racing is different here so it will be interesting with a lot of overtakes. The race pace is very important here as well.

FIA Formula 3: Your race pace has been strong but as you say you haven’t always put it together in qualifying, is that an area you have been focusing on?

Tramnitz: It was one of the bigger things to focus on for me. The race pace was always quite decent. We managed to fight our way up in Barcelona as well. Just finally good to have a good qualifying.

FIA Formula 3: You have moved forward in every race except one from your starting position. Is that something that shows you have pace to challenge for the win on Sunday?

Tramnitz: Overtaking is possible here for sure, our race pace has been strong so far. So, the statistics also shows that probably there is some room for improvement in qualifying. We were always quite strong in the fight and good on tyre management. Of course, when you start from the top 3 it is always possible to win the race.

FIA Formula 3: Luke just returning to you, looking ahead to tomorrow’s race, both guys have said overtaking is possible, do you think you can be aggressive, or will you just try to keep your nose clean and pick up a few points?

Browning: Yeah, I will see. I think when you get into T1 and you’re three wide or probably four wide even into T3, I think last year I got taken out from behind twice so I think trying to avoid that will be the main goal.

FIA Formula 3: Congratulations to everyone, well done today.