by Russell Atkins
Ultimate Motorsport’s venture into the British F3 International Series may be a bold one, but there is a wealth of knowledge behind the scenes at the ambitious young outfit, and a particularly potent secret weapon in the shape of Esteban Guerrieri.
The 22-year-old competed last year in the F3 Euroseries, clinching an impressive fourth place in the end-of-season drivers’ standings with two victories and a brace of pole positions to his credit along the way. Here the Argentine explains how he believes he can now put his undisputed talent and experience to good use in 2007 as he bids to drive Ultimate up the grid in its maiden campaign…
Q:
Esteban, first of all how excited are you about the season ahead?
Esteban Guerrieri:
There’s quite a lot of excitement in every part of the team, though we must put a lot of work in and be realistic about the fact it’s not going to be a game. It’s going to be a very hard job to do, but I’m sure everybody has the same mindset.
Q:
2007 will be your third year in F3. You raced in the F3 Euroseries last year – how tough was that, and how pleased were you with the way the season went?
EG:
Last year was an up-and-down season. I was with a great team in Manor Motorsport. We were super-strong at the beginning when we were beating ASM. Then some situations made the championship a bit more complicated and we lost ground, but we caught up again by the end of the season. I enjoyed it a lot though, and I learned so much from the team. My goal had been to win the championship but overall it was an excellent experience.
Q:
You say you learned a lot last year. You must feel stronger going into the upcoming campaign with all that extra experience under your belt now?
EG:
Yes. Every day I’m becoming more mature. We have here a working plan and everybody has a really tough programme. Everybody has their own commitments; mine are to train very hard both physically and mentally and to motivate and push everybody to reach the top. At the end of the day the most important thing is to get the whole group working together properly. We are going to do as much work as we can, and if we do that the results will come little by little for sure.
Q:
What was it that made you choose to join Ultimate Motorsport in the first place?
EG:
The challenge of a new experience and to start from nowhere – from a chassis that has never been racing before – by putting a big effort into every single detail. The only initial issue we had was maybe people seeing things in different ways, but when I first came to the team I realised there was a lot of commitment which gives a big boost to the atmosphere. I’m really pleased to be here.
Q:
As you say, the Mygale chassis the team will be running this year has not been raced before. How difficult do you think it will be for Mygale to compete against Dallara, who have pretty much won everything in F3 recently?
