Round 5 Post Qualifying Press Conference

FIA Formula 3: Welcome everyone to today's FIA Formula 3 press conference following qualifying here at Silverstone. Joining us P3 from PREMA Racing is Louis Sharp in second place, from Campos Racing it's Théophile Naël, and from TRIDENT, capturing his first F3 pole position, it's Freddie Slater. Freddie, congratulations. First career F3 pole how does that feel?

Freddie Slater: It feels good. Actually to get it here at Silverstone a home race for me. I only live 50, 45 minutes from here. So it’s very, very special to finally get that pole position. I think it's been coming for quite a while, it was just about stringing all the pieces together. The team have done an amazing job of putting all the pieces together, especially on this sort of track. It's very difficult, a mixture of high and low speed, very windy, very hot in that qualifying session. So it made it very difficult compared to practise. But to walk away with a pole position is mega and should be good fun on Sunday.

FIA Formula 3: Following practice into quali, did you feel like you were confident enough that you actually had the car underneath you to capture pole?

Slater: Yeah, for sure. I think after practice was really positive. I think we had a really good session, but then qualifying was completely different. The trackers had F1 on track, F2, then the wind was a lot different, much hotter, completely changed all the variables, let's say. But I think we managed it well, adapted well and did the job in the end.

FIA Formula 3: Can you take me through that pole lap for you? Because it looked like you were on the limit out there?

Slater: Yeah, for sure. And I think we all know who we're racing against and we know we need to be on the limit to be on pole position or at the front. So I knew it was very important to maximise the job in every corner and then just try and string out everything I could and be on the limit of the tyre grip and see where we ended up at the end. It was a little bit loose in a few places and a little bit sketchy, but that's how it is sometimes.

FIA Formula 3: What does this mean to do this in front of your home crowd?

Slater: It's super special. The support I've had this weekend is incredible. There's been so much shouting, cheering for me, and it's very special to have everyone supporting me and especially bringing in a nice pole position to all the fans is a nice gift for them. So hopefully we can reward them on Sunday.

FIA Formula 3: Congratulations, Theo coming to you. Can you just take me through your last push run there? It looked like it was really on the edge.

Théophile Naël: Yeah, it was on the edge. But to be honest, I kept it easy because the two first runs, I did track limits. So yeah, my last lap was fast, but clean at the same time. Maybe I was one or two tens off in the lap, but still very happy with this P2.

FIA Formula 3: You know there could be some more time left on the table there. Do you have an idea of where you may have left some on the table?

Nael: Yeah, for sure. T3, the first sector and a bit on the last sector, but I took it easy to avoid track limits. Yeah, but I think that was a good lap to be in the front row.

FIA Formula 3: Coming out of practice and then into quali, were you feeling quite confident with the car you had?

Nael: Yeah, like Freddie said, the wind changed a lot. So all the references had to change as well. But I mean, the car was really good in Free practice. We improved a bit for qualifying, but yeah, the team did a really good job. So yeah, happy, happy with this P2.

FIA Formula 3: Congrats on the P2. Louis, coming to you, this is a personal best for you. Take me through your lap. How did it go?

Louis Sharp: I’m really happy to convert. I think so far this year, qualifying has been a bit of a challenge for us. I think we've shown really good race pace, but qualifying has kind of been the area to work on. So going into this weekend, I was really focused on maximising the job, which I think we were able to do today. So that was a good lap. I think, as the other boys said, the track changed so much from practise with the wind and the grip conditions and obviously the hotter temperatures. So my first push was maybe a little bit off. So I think it was just about kind of resetting and retaking the references and kind of taking the next two laps step by step and not trying to overcomplicate things. And in the end, I think the last lap was a really strong lap. I think on my side, I did a decent job. And I think for the team as well, it's nice to be able to convert a result for them because we haven't really been able to maximise that on Friday this year.

FIA Formula 3: Did you find that the wind was a problem for yourself at all out there?

Sharp: Yeah, definitely. It definitely changed, I think, you know, during the session as well. I think this track is quite open, so it can be quite gusty as well. So even from lap to lap, sometimes you can have big differences. So it's all about adapting, you know, in the moment, trying to feel what the car's doing, what the wind's doing, which can be difficult. But it's just about trying to adapt on the fly and not have too many, you know, kind of hard set references because you need to be open to the changing conditions.

FIA Formula 3: Thank you for that, Louis.