Dutch Photo Agency
The 2022 FIA Formula 3 season has hit its turning point and is still proving to be a tricky one for Charouz Racing System. At Red Bull Ring, the Czech squad proved one more time to have the potential for a pretty good race pace but struggled once again in Qualifying and started the two races in a far from ideal place.
Francesco Pizzi, qualified P24, did a good job in the Sprint Race, recovering from there and getting the chequered flag in P15. Good recovery also for László Tóth, started P29 and finished P22, and Zdenek Chovanec, who closed in P26 after a problem out of the team’s control during the Qualifying session forced him to start from the last place on the grid.
The Feature Race on Sunday was a bit trickier, with the rain that fell on the Austrian track up until mid-race and the asphalt getting drier in the last laps. Tóth was able to put up a good recovery, gaining ten positions and finishing P19 , while Pizzi and Chovanec got themselves engaged in a close battle that led to a couple of contacts, with the second crash that saw the Italian rookie able to continue and finish P22 and his teammate forced to retire his car.
The FIA Formula 3 season will continue on July 29-31 at the Hungaroring, before the summer break will lead towards the three final rounds of the championship in September.
Antonín Charouz, team owner
“Another tough weekend, but we keep working on the good basis we’re laying race after race. We’re still trying to find the pace on Friday, which is very important in order to get the most out of the speed we can deliver in the rest of the weekend. Our drivers showed that we have the potential, so we just need to put the last pieces together. I’m sorry about the contacts between Francesco and Zdenek in the Feature Race, which maybe could have been avoided but I’m sure they learned the lesson and they’ll remember it for the future. Now let’s keep working for the next one in Budapest”.
László Tóth
“It was a decent weekend all in all, especially on Sunday, although it was really tricky with a lot of rain. We managed to improve quite a bit in the races compared to where we started. I think we had a good pace and the results will come if we keep working in the right direction. We keep improving and we’ll be ready for Hungaroring”.
Zdenek Chovanec
“After a difficult Qualifying we improved and we managed to have a decent race pace. Unfortunately I made a little mistake in the Sprint Race and the Feature Race was a bit messy with the wet track, but in the end I must say it was a quite good weekend”.
Francesco Pizzi
“The weekend didn’t start well on Friday, we’ve had a few problems in Qualifying but in the Sprint Race we made it up to P15, I struggled a bit in the last laps and had to defend but I managed to keep the position. In the Feature Race it wasn’t easy to get the tyres up to the ideal temperature in the first laps, then towards the end it got messier and I’m gutted for what happened with the contacts, but we’ll come back stronger for the next race”.
