John Edwards:
The past couple years have had a lot of unexpected turns. I was supposed to be karting in Europe, and then one driver got released, so I moved up to replace him at a very young age. I was the youngest driver in the series by a couple of years. It was a pretty steep learning curve. I started off at the back, worked my way forward. By the end, I won a race in the North European Championship. I was honestly expecting to be in another year of Formula Renault just because of my age, where I had been so far. I was really ecstatic to hear that I was going to be with Forsythe because obviously driving the same car for two years, you're not going to learn much about the car in the third year. To hop into a car that has so much downforce, with a team that teaches you everything you need to know, it's great because, again, it's another really a steep learning curve. In only four days, I've learned really just so much. The Forsythe programme has really helped us both.
MC:
John, obviously you're probably used to being the youngest driver in many of the series you've competed in. You'll be the youngest guy, 16 years old, when the season starts in 2007 with Forsythe. Any pressure knowing that you're the youngest guy out there going against some veteran guys who have been in Atlantics for a few years?
JE:
No. I mean, it doesn't really matter if I'm 15 or 18 or something. There are still going to be veteran guys that have had more experience in the car. That's always going to happen no matter how old you are. We're just going to have to work to overcome that. I think we've got a great package for next year. Obviously, the team has a lot of experience. Even already just in the first test, we had the new Cooper tyres. They didn't know anything about that. They're systematic about working, figuring out what works on the new tire. I can tell that they know how to evaluate everything. I know they're helping me a lot to make my driving better, as well.
Q:
John Brunner, you sort of touched on it a bit. Obviously, these are two very, in the big scheme of things, young guys. Last year, you had a very young guy in Richard Philippe on the Atlantic team. Is there anything special about the approach you take with 'young drivers', or do you treat them as racing drivers and expect them to behave accordingly?
JB:
I think, with Richard, and with John and Robert, we have the same thing. Yes, they're young, but you approach them the exact same way that you would a veteran in the car. These guys are young in age, like I said, but they're not young in experience in the race car. On track, it's really no different than dealing with any other driver. Outside of the car, sometimes it can get interesting. But that's what makes it fun. I know what to expect with these two this year from working with Richard last year. We'll see if it's similar, but I expect it to be similar. There's no issues when it comes to the actual job performance. Your issues turn out to be things like they're not old enough to rent cars, they have trouble checking into hotel rooms and things like that. Those are the issues that are different than having some of the older drivers.
Q:
John, obviously you've been racing in Europe for a couple of years. Robert, you've had experience at least in the Formula BMW World Run-Offs. It's long been observed that there's different standards of racing in Europe versus North America. Traditionally, people see the European style of racing much more aggressive than what happens in North America. At the same time, last year's Atlantics saw quite a few sort of international drivers in the series from beyond North America. How do you think your experience in Europe is going to help you racing in 2007 in Atlantics?
JE:
Obviously, you're right. Europe is perceived as being a lot more aggressive. I think it is. I think they sort of allow more aggressive blocking rules
et cetera. That doesn't in any way take away from the competition. Obviously, the Atlantic Series has incredible competition. It's a great car, a great series. The series organisers are just doing their job, trying to make sure it's as safe and fair as possible. That's really the only difference is that they probably have more strict rules about things such as blocking or aggressive styles.
Q:
Robert?
RW:
For me, because I've been racing in North America all my life, I really have limited European driving experience, to say the least. But from what I've gathered from the European driving, it's pretty much what John said. When it comes to overtaking, everyone does it exactly the same. In the end, the goal is just to get by the guy. In European driving, they seem to make it a lot harder to get by them because with the blocking rules they have in Europe, seems like they don't even have a rule of no blocking in Europe [
laughter]. Coming from the BMW Championship, the blocking rules are sort of similar to the Atlantic - you're not allowed to. The only difference is in
BMW, with the USA Championship, you're allowed to change your line down the straightaway where, with the Atlantics, I'm pretty sure you're not allowed to. It's going to be a little bit of an adjustment. I think like any driver, it's very easy to adapt to anything.
