Round 5 Post Sprint Race press conference

FIA Formula 3: Welcome everyone to today's FIA Formula 3 press conference following a thrilling sprint race here at Silverstone and joining us P3 from Campos Racing, it's Théophile Naël. In second place is Yevan David from AIX Racing and also from Campos capturing his second F3 win, it's Ugo Ugochukwu. Ugo, congratulations, a very dominant win, 17 seconds, your gap to everyone else.  Is that one of your best drives ever?

Ugo Ugochukwu: Yeah, definitely it was a really strong race for us. The first part of the race was about managing the pace, managing the tyres and then I think when the others started to jump off my pace stayed really consistent and every lap I was feeling super good out there, just kind of feeling in the zone. So, really good, it was good to score some points today but more than that, the pace was really strong which fills us for a lot of confidence going into tomorrow, obviously starting just outside the points to kind of come through and yeah, kind of recover the not ideal quali.

FIA Formula 3: When you say management, is that part of the setup the team put on the car for this particular weekend?

Ugochukwu: Hard to say. Overall yesterday both in FP and quali I wasn't feeling super comfortable, struggling a little bit overall but today I felt much better and that showed as well on the pace side of things. Like I said, I think that kind of gives us the peace of mind for tomorrow that we have strong pace and hopefully can, come through the field well, just like Théo did today and score some big points.

FIA Formula 3: Speaking about tomorrow, do you think that's possible starting from where you're starting from for tomorrow?

Ugochukwu: Yeah, definitely. I think Théo made sure that that was possible today, finishing up here on the podium from P11 so, I'm going to try my best starting P12. The main thing is going to be trying to score a lot of points, if we can get anything more than that, that would just be a bonus. 

FIA Formula 3: Congratulations. Yevan, coming to you, congrats, first Sri Lankan driver onto the podium, how does that feel?

Yevan David: Yeah, honestly, that was the first thing I was thinking. I've been representing Sri Lanka for a long time and just to see the flag up on the podium was just such a surreal feeling, I knew it was possible in the coming future but this soon was a bit of a surprise to me, to be honest, so it's just a huge feeling for me and honestly, I'm very proud of my country and myself.

FIA Formula 3: You've been on it all weekend long, coming off your best qualifying result of the season, were you expecting podium or were you expecting more like a win?

David: Yeah, I was expecting to be in the reverse grid in qualifying, so just aiming for the top 10, it hasn't been the smoothest sailing season for us but already in practise, I saw that something clicked and we had that potential for qualifying and then definitely, I always wanted to go for the win today. Unfortunately, Ugo was a lot quicker, and we need to look into that for tomorrow but still very happy with the podium. I think we can really keep the spirits up in the team and then tomorrow, it's going to be a lot more of a difficult race for us to finish in the top five or top three, starting from P11 but I think anything is possible at Silverstone, as we saw today, there was a lot of people climbing their way through the field and there's a lot of overtaking opportunities.

FIA Formula 3: There's a lot going on behind you towards the end of this race, just how tense were those last few laps for yourself?

David: Yeah, I was just trying to keep in my head, keep my feet on the ground, just think lap by lap, corner by corner and not think about the result and just basically driving in my mirrors. Honestly, there was a lot of chaos behind me. I was surprised that Théo actually came out in P3 because I was just defending from the TRIDENTs for the last eight laps or something but honestly, I love these types of races. Of course, when I'm the one overtaking, it's more exciting but it's super exciting so I'm looking forward to it tomorrow as well. 

FIA Formula 3: Congratulations, great drive out there, Théophile, coming to you, also congratulations coming from P11 to P3, I mean, where did that come from?

Théophile Nael: Well, first, really good start, then managing a bit the tyres and then I saw that mid-race the pace was really good so I started to push step by step and at the end of the race, I managed to take the opportunities that was ahead of me. So super happy, I think it's a good point and a good confidence for tomorrow.

FIA Formula 3: You had De Palo and David fighting just in front of you, can you take me through that final pass for the podium?

Nael: Yeah, I saw that coming into the second to last corner. It wasn't possible to make an overtake there so I just stayed very patient and Yevan defended really well, he stopped Matteo quite well so yeah, I had the opportunity to overtake him in the last corner.

FIA Formula 3: How much management were you having to do with the tyre throughout the race there because it looked like you were pretty much flat out for the entire thing?

Nael: It looks like I was flat but I mean, it wasn't in the bad, I was on the right lines every time, I wasn't in the dirty places the whole race so I think this helped quite a lot for my tyres but because the guys ahead were fighting like crazy, going on the grass, going on the dirty place so yeah, I think that for me was a bit lucky but yeah, I think I managed well the tyres anyway.