Post-Qualifying Press Conference Round 1

FIA Formula 3: Welcome to Melbourne, where it's time for the press conference with the top three qualifiers for the season-opening FIA Formula 3 Qualifying session. In third place we have Théophile Nael for Van Amersfoort Racing. Second is Noah Stromsted for TRIDENT, and on Pole Position is Rafael Câmara, also for TRIDENT. Rafa congratulations, fastest in Practice, and then Pole Position, that must be pretty much the perfect day for you?

Rafeal Câmara: “Yeah, I couldn't ask for more. I think it was a really good start for the championship. Obviously still a long way to go. Always nice to be in P1 but still two races to go, Saturday and Sunday, and obviously just the first race of the Championship. So we keep focusing, head down and keep pushing and working hard.”

FIA Formula 3: You did go for an early lap there before the expected late rush, or maybe a late lap to have clear track in the middle of the session. Was that a tactic in case of red flags like we got at the end?

Câmara: To be honest, we followed our program that we had discussed before, and then only for the last run we went a bit earlier. We were doing ‘out, push’ because we didn't have enough time because of the Red Flag. But aside from that, it was pretty smooth. Just in the first push we had some traffic in the last sector, but apart from that, it was pretty smooth.

FIA Formula 3: Speaking about how smoothly today's gone, two P1’s, how excited are you for the rest of the weekend based on the pace you've shown? Câmara: Very excited for tomorrow, starting from P12 will be not easy race. I just need to be consistent, calm, don't be too aggressive, because it’s a long way to go. So I just want to score points for the races and be there. It's always nice to win, but sometimes better to finish a bit behind rather than crash. So for the moment, I will just keep it clean and focus for this long championship.

FIA Formula 3: Well, congratulations. Good job on today's qualifying. Noah, P2 for you behind your teammate, and you were quick throughout today's running as well. Are you happy with that qualifying result?

Noah Stromsted: Yeah, it's been good, especially for the team, one-two, the work they've done over the winter - it's been amazing. The car today was really good, also in Free Practice. It's a great result for me, but especially for the team.

FIA Formula 3: Well, speaking about the team and the approach, you also went for your quickest lap at the same sort of time that Rafa did, and it looked like that gave you a bit more of a clear track. How happy are you with the way the team is operating so far, working with them?

Noah Stromsted: It was a very good Qualifying session. In the second attempt we did, where we did our fastest time, there was no traffic, so the team handled it very well to get a clean lap.

FIA Formula 3: And obviously we've only seen one Practice session and then Qualifying, which was interrupted by a lot of Red Flags. Are you confident in the race pace that you think you have going into the next two days? Or is that a big unknown with the weather forecast we have? Noah Stromsted: Well, for sure, it's a bit of an unknown, as we are running the Medium tyres here. We have never tested these tyres in a long run. On Sunday, it could look like there might be a bit of rain, but we'll just have to adapt and do our best.

FIA Formula 3: Well, congratulations and well done today, Théo, thanks for waiting, third place for you as it stands, but the incident with the blower late on I'm sure will be looked into. Just talk us through what happened there.

Théophile Nael: Well, to be honest, I don't know yet. I didn't watch the images with the team. So, yeah, I didn't have time to discuss

FIA Formula 3: Well, for now, your pace does put you in the top three. Just how did the day go up to that point?

Théophile Nael: Well, extremely happy. The team did a really good job in Free Practice. The pace was really good. I didn't manage to do a clean lap. But anyway, we stayed focused for the quali and it worked very well.

FIA Formula 3: Top three in that session, how much have you learned, not only from today, but also from testing as well with the new car? And how much do you still feel there is to understand?

Théophile Nael: Well, I think there is still a lot to understand with this car, especially race pace like Noah said, we didn't have time to test with Medium tyres, so it will be full discovery tomorrow. Obviously, it should be raining on Sunday, so let's see. We are still working, we are still learning as well the car, so tomorrow is going to be a tough day.

FIA Formula 3: Thank you, well done for today.