Double R Racing’s FIA Formula 3 European Championship rookies Matt Solomon and Nicolas Pohler took away a lot of positivity from the season-opening event at Silverstone Grand Prix Circuit over the weekend, 11th/12th April, with both drivers making strong progress throughout the race meeting.
With the championship marking a huge step-up in competitiveness for the newcomers, Solomon and Pohler each posted three race finishes with the latter taking a best result of 24th place in round two while Solomon matched that in race three.
“This was always going to be a big challenge, a huge step up for Matt and Nici, but they did a good job and, most importantly, got the race mileage under their belts with three finishes each”, reflected Double R team principal Anthony ‘Boyo’ Hieatt, “There’s a lot we can take away from this weekend and that’s what it’s all about, making progress at each event and gradually moving up the grid.”
While the Northamptonshire skies were bright and sunny ahead of round one on Saturday morning, track conditions were particularly slippery offline following earlier rain – Solomon lined-up on the 14th row of the grid and Pohler on row 17.
Both of the Double R newcomers made clean starts and prior to the emergence of the Safety Car on lap three Solomon had climbed into 26th position with Pohler in 31st, the latter having been as high as 28th a lap earlier.
After the re-start, Solomon and Pohler made good progress prior to a second Safety Car period and the they ultimately ended their first FIA Formula 3 European Championship race in 25th and 27th place respectively.
Round two on Saturday afternoon took place in dry but breezy conditions and no sooner had the race started than the Safety Car was required following a multi-car tangle at Turn Three, an incident which Solomon was unfortunately caught-up in.
Although managing to make it back to the pits, the Hong Kong racer dropped a lap behind the leaders by the time he returned to the track but he confirmed his excellent race pace during his recovery with a time of 1m53.767 seconds – matching some of the best lap times in the top 10.
Pohler, meanwhile, moved up from 33rd on the grid into 26th after negotiating his way through the incident ahead on lap one and despite slipping back a few places as the race wore on, the German was able to climb through to 24th before the finish.Round three was the highlight for Solomon for the most part, beginning with a great climb up the order from 26th on the grid into the top 20 on the opening lap. Following an early Safety Car period, Solomon continued to make up ground and was as high as 18th before mid-distance.
Unfortunately, though, an excursion during a second Safety Car period late-on dropped the Double R racer to an eventual finish of 24th place – a frustrating way to end the weekend but many positives to take away.
For team-mate Pohler, he too made the most of the first lap to rise from 33rd on the grid into 28th position and although slipping back a couple of places around the mid-point he maintained focus and recovered to 26th position before the chequered flag on lap 18.
Rounds four, five and six of the FIA Formula 3 European Championship will take place over the weekend 2nd/3rd May at Hockenheim in Germany, in support of the DTM touring car series. Double R’s busy start to the racing season, though, will continue next weekend, 18th/19th April, at Donington Park in the UK for the second event of the MSA Formula campaign.
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