Jonathan Legris made an immediate impression on Team West-Tec in testing at Valencia's Circuit Ricardo Tormo before Christmas, and is now hoping to secure himself a seat in the squad's Spanish F3 line-up for 2008.
Although still struggling to pull together the financial package that would guarantee that he could graduate from Formula BMW for 2008, the Briton is keen to step up to F3 and felt that his outing at the circuit where he starred in last month's FBMW World Finals was a good starting point.
"Unfortunately, we were only in the B Class car due to finances, but it was a great test and we were one of the fastest in the wet and the dry," he told
Crash.net.
"I'd been in an F3 car before as I'd tested with Planet Racing, although that was only a few laps around
Silverstone, and did a race out in Asia, in a similar 1998 car with the same H-pattern box, but it was still a really good productive test."
That previous experience meant that the step up from the FBMW he has campaigned for Motaworld this season was not as big as it might have otherwise been, and Legris quickly got to grips with the West-Tec machine that took Christian Ebbesvik to the 2007 B Class title.
"You notice the immediate power that you have - where the FBMW revs very highly, the F3 has the power range right at the bottom of the revs, so it was brilliant to be able to use that," he reflected, "Other than that, you notice the braking forces, as you're braking at the same point as you do in the FBMW but from 20mph faster. Since I knew the circuit, though everything was pretty normal.
"Obviously, I knew where the corners were but I had no idea, first time out, where the braking points or turning points were. Having said that, I found them within a couple of laps, to be honest. Because it was wet, I had a lot of confidence and was able to pick my way around, while, in the dry, it was so similar to the F
BMW, that it was quite easy to get used to."
