LE CASTELLET - After an eventful weekend at Le Mans, we were determined to make a comeback at Paul Ricard / Le Castellet. The week started with 2 collective testing sessions, during which we utilized the opportunity to get more hours in the car for both Pieder and myself. However, we faced challenges throughout the sessions as we struggled to find the right setup for the track, which required a delicate balance of downforce without compromising lap times on the long straight. Despite these struggles, we noticed some improvements and knew there was still room for progress.
Moving on to Friday, we had our typical sessions with FP1 and FP2 on the schedule. Although we felt better than in the previous sessions, we continued to grapple with finding the ideal setup, especially with the hot and changing track temperatures later in the evening. Nevertheless, we remained optimistic and believed we could reach our desired performance level by race day. We analyzed the data in the evening and prepared ourselves for a challenging Saturday.
On Saturday Pieder, my bronze teammate was obliged to qualify our car for the race later that day, the team did a great job by avoiding any traffic on Pieder’s lap. P15 was the result, not where we would have wanted to be in the previous races but with the feeling we had this weekend we could we satisfied. After a small rest throughout the afternoon Pieder took the start in our 1h50m race. He stayed out of trouble and avoided the incidents around him brilliantly and solidified his position up to P12. With penalties being served ahead of us we even got up into the points paying position of P10. We kept this position after our pitstop and driver change during a FCY. I fought as hard as I could to keep this position for the rest of the race but trough mix of different circumstance I struggled way more with the pace than I had done throughout the whole weekend and even the season. I couldn’t hold the pace I could during the practices sessions and just struggled to much with the car in the medium to slow speed corners. A real shame, with the pace I had during the previous sessions I definitely could have fought for P10 or better.
Big thanks to the Haegeli by T2 racing team that put us on all the right calls at the right moment and helped Pieder and myself throughout a weekend in which it was difficult for us to get to grips with the car.
Now it’s time to focus on the next one after I’ve had a small rest to recover from last weeks tough weekend. My next one is probably my favourite of the season: the 24 hours of Zolder. Where I’ll be driving for Rofix in the TB Class, we have a competitive car and are aiming for victory in our class. I hope to see you all at there during the 26-27/08 weekend.
