© Dutch Photo Agency
Charouz Racing System faced another unfortunate weekend at Budapest, where Round 6 of the FIA Formula 3 season took place. At the Hungaroring, in occasion of the home race for László Tóth, the Hungarian driver and his teammates Francesco Pizzi and Christian Mansell struggled with mixed weather conditions and some unlucky circumstances, that prevented the three from getting in the points despite a good pace.
Qualifying has once again been really tricky, also because of a red flag that denied the chance to set a better time in the last minutes of the session. The three found themselves starting from the back on a wet track where it’s already difficult to overtake even in normal conditions, making a comeback really unlikely.
Mansell, at his very first weekend in F3, got to learn about the car in the hardest way, but still managed to get to the chequered flag in both races (respectively in P22 and P23). Same for Pizzi, unable to express the potential of the car in the traffic and ending P21 on Saturday and P27 on Sunday. Tóth, who finished P26 in the Sprint Race, also had a bit of extra bad luck in the Feature Race, where an issue out of the team’s control caused a problem to his gearbox and forced him to retire.
Next on the calendar, after the three weeks long August break, will be Spa-Francorchamps, one of the most anticipated weekends of the season that will see the drivers fighting on the legendary Belgian track on 26-28 August.
Antonín Charouz, team owner
“This year thing are still not going our direction yet. Our drivers are giving their best every weekend, but some unlucky factors are making our life and theirs more complicated than expected. Too bad, considering that almost every time we have a much better pace than the results shows. This weekend has been particularly tricky because of the weather, so anyway it’s a positive thing that they all avoided crashes and big mistakes, learning more about how the car behaves in those conditions, it will be very useful in the future. Christian got off with a very positive debut as well, so we’re all looking at the positive and keep working for Spa after a deserved break”
László Tóth
“After Qualifying I was upset, because of the red flag and other circumstances that followed and disrupted my performance just three minutes before the end of the session. I think there was a lot more we could have done on Saturday as well, but sadly we had to gamble with the setup since we expected more rain, and it didn’t go our way because it dried up quickly towards the end. Then after the Feature Race I was really furious, because I had a good start and gained a lot of positions but then I started to have gearbox issues. I feel disappointed as I think we had the pace to do a lot better, but let’s keep working and look forward to the next round at Spa”.
Christian Mansell
“I was very excited on Friday, since it was my first ever qualification in F3. After the Sprint Race I was quite happy with it, I think we made good lap times and we learned quite a bit from the start to the finish and definitely found a decent balance towards the end of the race. I think we struggled at the start just because I never drove the car in the wet, but I was ok with the result. In the feature Race the balance of the car on the wet track was hard to manage, but as it dried up the car came to us a little bit. I moved forward a little bit, so I’m quite happy about my first F3 weekend and I’m really looking forward to Spa”.
Francesco Pizzi
“In Qualifying I wasn’t really satisfied with the car, then in the Sprint Race it was tough as we started from the back. The pace was really good, but we were stuck behind the traffic, which wasn’t ideal. We know we had the chance to finish in the top 15 because the performance was there. However, because of the rain, we just couldn’t make many more moves and we eventually finished the way we did. In the Feature Race I got caught in the group at the start, not recovering many positions, and then we made the switch to slicks but we were already almost a lap down. I lost time unlapping myself and that didn’t allow me to get in a better position. We’ll keep working during the break and we’ll arrive prepared at Spa”.
