In the first of a series of exclusive Carlin Motorsport columns Trevor Carlin comments from Oulton Park on a busy season in Formula 3, notching up a century of wins and dipping a toe into F1 waters…
We’re reasonably happy with our performance this weekend, quite glad to get a third and a fourth. Just a bit disappointed with our race pace. Overall I think we know what the problem was, I think it’s basically a grip issue which we can sort out and hopefully improve the car for the next session. I don’t think we are going to necessarily win the next race but we will be a lot closer on lap times.
I think it’s a mistake that we weren’t here at Oulton last year and it’s Jonathan Palmer who has done a great job with the circuits, some people don’t like his style and his attitude but anyone who does the kind of work he’s been doing deserves a pat on the back and we’re chuffed to bits to be back here, a real drivers circuit.
We’ve nearly got twenty-five percent of the grid again and if you can’t beat them by speed, beat them by numbers I say! We’ve got Ollie Jarvis, Autosport Award winner, he’s been showing some brilliant speed, y’know he’s a rookie and he finished his first ever F3 race in third so I’m really pleased. We’ve got Keiko back who is improving and learning and Ricardo in the Scholarship and with these two we’ve got a fair bit of work to do to sort them out but they’re responding and everyone has different ways of getting to their performance pinnacle.
I think the reason we had Mercedes first and second is really nothing to do with the engine, the engine is an important part but that isn’t the sole reason. Double R have done a brilliant job over the winter with their chassis and if you look at qualifying it’s pretty much Double R and Carlin dominating the top eight in qualifying and I think it’s down to the teams and the set ups – if Double R had a Mugen they still would have won today.
