Arthur Pic heads to Motorland Aragon this weekend eager to maintain his strong start to the 2013 Formula Renault 3.5 campaign.
The 21-year-old sits fourth in the Formula 1 feeder categorys standings ahead of round two in Spain following his pair of astonishing comeback drives at Monza a fortnight ago where the Frenchman charged from 22nd and 16th to finish sixth and fourth respectively.
Now the championship moves on to Motorland Aragon in north-eastern Spain where Pic and his AV Formula squad are hoping to build on those confidence-inspiring results.
And if statistics are anything to go by then theres every chance he will be able to do just that. Pic currently holds the outright lap record over the 5.344km FIA-sanctioned configuration, claimed pole position for both races last season and counts Aragon amongst his favourite circuits.
I really enjoy racing at Motorland and its somewhere that I have always been fast, probably because it suits my driving style, confirms Arthur. Following my race performances at Monza we have a clear objective to score a pair of podium finishes and bag another solid points haul.
Obviously our qualifying sessions didnt go to plan in Monza, but at least the weekend demonstrated that if we secure a good grid position then our race pace is quick enough to challenge for victories, especially at a place like Motorland, which is one of my favourite tracks. Theres also a lot of confidence in the team following the opening round and that can make a big difference.
Qualifying has always been one of Pics strongest suits and the youngster doesnt expect a repeat of the difficulties the team experienced in Italy.
The differences between our performance in qualifying and the races were enormous because of the different weather conditions, Arthur explains. This is the teams first season in Formula Renault 3.5 and didnt have anywhere near the same amount of wet weather data as our rivals. But the dry conditions in both races allowed us to show our true potential. While Im not expecting it to rain at Motorland this weekend, we have been honing the set-up back at the factory since Monza and now have a better understanding.
As well as working hard to develop the car, last week Pic travelled to Le Mans where a physical and mental workshop for members of the FFSAs French Circuit Team put him and fellow FR3.5 driver Norman Nato through their paces.
It was a really interesting and useful couple of days. We did some bio-informal activities (those linked to the management of reaction times and their endurance, sensory memory, central and peripheral vision, etc) and a timing and mental imagery workshop (the process of mentally retracing a set route at the same speed as when unimpaired) before learning to adapt our driving styles and maintain the cars continuous balance on a gravel circuit. It was a lot of fun and should actually help my approach to racing single-seaters in the wet.
Motorland Aragon timetable*
Friday 26 April:
Free Practice 1: 10:40 11:40
Free Practice 2: 15:10 16:10
Saturday 27 April:
Qualifying (Race 1): 09:50 10:20
Race 1: 14:30 (44 minutes +1 lap)
Sunday 28 April:
Qualifying (Race 2): 09:50 10:20
Race 2: 14:30 (44 minutes +1 lap)
*All times local
