Collective testing

The circuit at Silverstone was still slightly damp when the Eurocup Formula Renault 2.0 drivers took to the track for the day’s first session of collective testing. A few drivers opted for wet tyres, but slicks very quickly proved to be the better choice.

The drivers thus started to come back into the pits to change tyres and the name of leader was changing practically every minute as a result. With a lap in 1’47’’967, Luciano Bacheta (Epsilon Sport) was the first driver to get close to the time set by Antonio Felix da Costa in the opening session.

Luciano Bacheta: “I wasn’t there in Hungary so it’s good to get things underway again on the right foot. I actually live not far from here, but in fact I don’t know the circuit very well, as I have had very little chance to drive here. It’s good to be up there with the leaders today, the car is running well and I hope we can get a result here this weekend.”

Race 1.
After realising that the car wasn't going to be the most competitive after the 2 qualifying sessions, I was looking forward to the challenges that the race would throw at me. We were even testing different things on the lap to the grid, in preparation for my next race at Le Mans.

I had a decent start but there wasn't anywhere for me to go, Silverstone is very hard to pass on, especially for me as I was far back on the grid due to pace and not misfortune. I managed to pass one person on lap two into priory. And stayed in 16th until the end of the race. I enjoyed the race as I didn't have to defend too much and was constantly attacking, we also gathered some good data to improve the car for race 2.

Race 2.
Again I had a good start, but with a wall of cars ahead of me I couldn't go anywhere. We improved the car again, so I was really giving the guys ahead a hurry up, and pushed a few into mistakes. Near the end of the race I had an opportunity to overtake for 13th position, we were side by side on the straight, but the other driver just drove into me, giving himself a puncture, and me a broken front wing, causing me to lose a lot of front down force. On the next lap, I dropped back 3 places due to the lack of grip, but frustratingly on the same lap, 4 people had crashed out, if this incident had not happened I could have got one or two points. Even so, I was happier that we were able to improve the car.

I was happy with my performance over the weekend, as I was fast on Friday and felt like I got the most I could get out of the car on all 3 days. I will carry on working hard with the team to improve the car for the remainder of the season.

Notes to Editors
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