One of the fastest cars in pre–season testing for the British Formula Three championship is one that is not even certain to compete in the series, and that's the Lola-Dome F106 at the hands of Danny Watts.
Crash.net caught up with Danny at the media test day at
Brands Hatch to have a chat about the car and his prospects of being on the F3 grid during the season.
“We were obviously quickest at
Oulton Park two weeks ago and that was a great place to start from to work on here," Danny said, "To be quickest throughout the whole session then end up in third position was good. We've got a whole lot of development work done with the car and it's put us in great stead.”
So how does Danny find the role of being a development driver for a company with such a proud motorsport heritage as Lola?
“It's interesting. It's certainly a good challenge driving a new car. Last year, it was Adam Carroll then, here at Brands for the last round, Robbie Kerr - and they had a struggle. But the Lola people have been working really hard over the winter and they've come up with some new parts and developments for it. We've put them on the car and everything we do to it makes a difference - we're always going forward at the moment.
"It's a brilliant challenge for me and it's great to have a British driver in a British car with a British team, trying to usurp the Italian Dallara chassis.”
Nothing was confirmed for Danny last week at Brands, so what did he see in his future?
“We're out tomorrow morning at
Donington, and that will be our final test before everyone goes to the first race. But, as it stands at the moment, we're not going to the first race,” he said at the Kent circuit.
“We're all working hard together to try to achieve the budget required to make it out but, as we speak, right now, this second, we're not going to be there at the first round.”
For most drivers the hardest part of being a racing driver is raising the required budget, as Danny explains.
“You're climbing a Mount Everest in a pair of sandals!”
“We've been working hard, I've been working absolutely flat out since getting back from Macau and Korea to try to raise a budget, but the higher you get up the ladder, the harder it gets and the higher the budget that's required.
