Last Sunday Max raced for the first time at the legendary Monza Formula 1 circuit in Italy. It was his first races entered in the Championship Class of the British F3 International Series, and he very nearly came away with two points scoring drives in his Dallara Mercedes Benz.

Sunday’s two races were held in blistering heat and humidity and were a real test of skill and stamina for the 16 year old as he came to terms with Europe’s fastest motor racing circuit, reaching speeds well over 150mph. Beating many more experienced and older drivers in the Championship, Max finished 13th and 16th out of the 34 car field, but it could have been even better.

With only one 45 minute free practice session on Saturday morning, Max had little time to learn the Monza circuit before the afternoon’s two qualifying sessions. One of the keys to a fast lap time at Monza is to get a ‘tow’ off of another car and take advantage of the slipstream down the long straights. Max had never experienced this before and found little to help him. Lapping by himself for most of the first session, he still managed a lap time good enough to put him 19th overall.

The second qualifying session brought frustration, as a misfire, later traced to a broken electrical connection, curtailed Max’s running to a handful of laps and meant he couldn’t match his earlier performance. He ended up 22nd overall, but was still fairly pleased with his first day’s experience of Monza;

“I obviously wanted to qualify higher up the grid, but there was nothing I could do about the car in the second session. Every time I’ve gone out I’ve gone quicker and found things out about the track, but it is a really hard circuit to get used to and I didn’t get a tow from anyone. I’m looking forward to the race though because the car is really good to drive.”

Sunday morning’s first race was early, but the temperature was still creeping up into the 30 degrees as Max lined his Lego Batman sponsored Dallara up on the grid. He got a good start and with the usual first corner incidents removing a couple of the front runners, Max ended the first lap in 16th place. For the remainder of the race he got his head down and using the slipstream to good effect now, he gained places quite rapidly. Going into the last of the 16 laps of racing Max was in 12th place and right on the back of local Italian driver Matteo Chinosi. Right behind Max though was one of the championship favourites Stephen Jelley, recovering from an earlier spin and he got a tow past Max on the run down to the Ascari chicane. Max tried to follow him through past Chinosi, but the Italian blocked him and Max crossed the line in 13th place, just missing out on the points.

“That was a really enjoyable race, lots of overtaking. It was quite difficult because every time I got past someone they then had the chance to tow back past me, so I had to work hard to keep the places.”

Chinosi was to be a major factor in the second race as well, when he knocked Max off through the gravel at the Parabolica Curve when the pair were battling over 11th place. Max had made a tremendous start and again avoided the cars colliding at the first chicane. At the end of the first lap he had jumped from his 22nd place at the start to be 16th and he was flying. Again getting to grips well with the art of slipstreaming down Monza’s ultra-fast straights, he gained places quickly and by lap 10 was battling with the aforementioned Chinosi. Max explained what then happened;

“We were side by side going into the Parabolica and there was no problem, we could both just hold our line but he decided to squeeze me on the outside of the corner. I had nowhere to go, either we locked wheels or I had to move left. He kept coming over and I ended up going through the gravel at over 100mph. Luckily, the car skidded over the top of the gravel and I managed to keep it pointing in the right direction. I can’t repeat what I said to him after the race, but I was really mad, he was an idiot to do that and cost me a good result.”

It cost Max five places as he scrabbled back onto the track and with his car undamaged, carried on to finish the race in 16th place. He had recorded his fastest lap time of the whole weekend in this second race and would certainly have finished in the points, a fantastic performance for his first ever visit to Monza.

The next event for Max is at his local track, Brands Hatch and he hopes to do well at a circuit he has raced at many times. The two races will be held over the weekend of 14th and 15th July.