Spaniard keeps the competition at bay in Spielberg, Austria as wellRaffaele Marciello from Italy is the fiercest rival at Red Bull RingYoung drivers learn the right way to handle the competition tyresIn Spielberg, Daniel Juncadella has defended his leading position in the Formula 3 Euro Series. At the Red Bull Ring this weekend, the Spaniard won one race and ended up seventh and eighth in the other two races. Thus, he extended his lead in the drivers’standings to six points over Italian Raffaele Marciello, who also scored one race win, but didn’t score as much as Juncadella with one eighth and one ninth place in the other two races. Juncadella’s compatriot Carlos Sainz jr. remains third in the championship standings, with Brit William Buller trailing him by only one point. The Formula 3 Euro Series is known to be a talent pool: exceptional drivers like Formula 1 World Champion Sebastian Vettel started their careers here. One of the keys to the success of the world’s strongest and toughest junior racing category is the fact that teams have a lot of opportunities to develop their cars. Together with their engineers and mechanics, drivers can adapt the cars to their driving style, changing suspension, chassis or brakes. Thus, the youngsters learn from the early stages how their machinery works.  

An important requirement for a successful career in motor racing is the right way to handle the tyres. Michael Eckert, race engineer at tyre manufacturer Hankook, who has been supporting the Formula 3 Euro Series with its Ventus Race tyres since the start of the season: “In qualifying, the young drivers have to get the tyre to work within one or two laps, in order to be one of the front runners. On the other hand, during the race, they shouldn’t drive too aggressively, in order to being able to increase the speed a little towards the end, if necessary.”In racing, the tyre pressure is playing a major role as well and can decide about victory or defeat. “Even minimal differences of only a few hundredths of a bar significantly change the handling when the set-up remains unchanged”, says Michael Eckert. The drivers can adapt the tyre pressure to their driving style and the characteristics of the race track. A particularity at Spielberg are the undulations with partly very bumpy braking zones after the downhill sections. Michael Eckert: “With a slightly lower pressure at the front, you can increase the contact surface of the tyres and thus enhance the braking power.”Thus, the young drivers in the Formula 3 Euro Series are learning that the air can also be a decisive factor for victory.