British karting sensation Robert Foster-Jones is gearing up to be a leading contender on his car-racing debut this weekend.
The 19-year-old from Southend in Essex is already setting testing times among the front-running Formula Renault UK drivers, and looks likely to be among the leading group this coming Saturday (October 31) in the opening round of the Winter Series at Snetterton in Norfolk.
Foster-Jones, who dramatically clinched the British KF1 Kart Championship less than two weeks ago, did not start his Formula Renault testing programme with multiple-champion team Manor Competition until seven days ago at Pembrey in Wales.
Today (Wednesday) at Snetterton, he was within a couple of tenths of a second of the fastest driver on old tyres.
Manor team chief Tony Shaw, who engineered Kimi Raikkonen and Lewis Hamilton to the 2000 and ’03 Formula Renault UK titles, said: “We’re keeping our powder dry with Robert and for now the important thing is to learn technique, so we’re just using very old tyres. I can’t wait to see what he does on new rubber!
“He’s a dream to work with - very determined, very good with the data analysis and has strong team-mates to push him, not that he needs much encouragement in that area! So far he shows the same level of understanding of the car as the top drivers we’ve run in the past. He just needs to learn certain techniques that are different from karting, and it takes time for those to become embedded, whether that be Robert Foster-Jones or Lewis Hamilton.”
Foster-Jones said: “It’s extremely hard to go in and win straight away against experienced drivers, but it’s not completely out of the question. Having said that, I’d be really pleased with a top-five finish.
“I’m probably doing a bit better than I thought I would. I’ve just got to concentrate on high-speed turns and staying on the brakes into slower corners. And the Manor team are brilliant. Tony and the guys are very enthusiastic and I have to say my mechanic Dave Ball is Dave ‘on the Ball’! I’m really pleased with how it’s going so far.”
Robert Foster-Jones is one of the first drivers to be signed to Accelerate Driver Development, a race-driver-management stable created by Formula Woman founder Graeme Glew, Essentially Group Chairman John Byfield (the former manager of Jenson Button who built Essentially into a thriving, global sports-management company) and Keiran Crawley (the UK importer for Zanardi Karts and Lewis Hamilton’s former karting mechanic).
