following frustrating European F3 finale

 •Highly-rated California native’s pace unrewarded at Hockenheim•Second-fastest lap time indicative of ‘missed opportunity’•Jagonya Ayam with Carlin ace eager to sign off in style in Macau

Gustavo Menezes is ready to ‘take the next step’ in his burgeoning motorsport career after wrapping up his sophomore FIA Formula 3 European Championship campaign at Hockenheim – and even if the results did not fall his way, he nonetheless left nobody in any doubt about his scintillating raw speed. Having tallied a brace of top ten finishes at the popular and demanding German Grand Prix circuit at the beginning of the season, Menezes returned with ‘unfinished business’, but mechanical woes in the first qualifying session and balance issues in the next consigned the talented young American to just 15th, 18th and 18th on the starting grid for the three encounters amongst the 33 high-calibre protagonists. Undeterred, he produced a feisty and opportunistic opening lap in the curtain-raiser, artfully avoiding and taking advantage of the various shenanigans kicking off around him to advance into the points in ninth. He was primed to pounce on the driver ahead in eighth when news filtered down that he had been administered a drive-through penalty for a jump-start – a misdemeanour that he vehemently refuted. That relegated Menezes to the back of the pack, from where he ably underlined his overtaking prowess by scything through to 20th at the chequered flag. Moreover, he demonstrated what might have been by posting the second-fastest lap time along the way in a field composed of the indisputable crème de la crème of up-and-coming open-wheel stars, with European F3 widely regarded as the toughest junior single-seater series on the planet In the weekend’s second outing, the 20-year-old Californian made early progress before settling into a gaggle of cars scrapping over the lower points-paying positions. With a brace of safety car interventions disrupting the flow and reducing the number of racing laps, 12th place was a very respectable outcome. Dense fog deferred the start of the following day’s finale, and on a damp track, Menezes plumped for wet-weather tyres. Unfortunately, the interruption meant the surface dried out rather more rapidly than anticipated, and during the first of four safety car periods, the Williams-Harfield Sports Group protégé – in company with many of his similarly-shod rivals – elected to bring his #4 Jagonya Ayam with Carlin-prepared, Volkswagen-powered Dallara into the pits to switch over to slicks. Once the flurry of stops had shaken out, Menezes worked his way up to 12th, only for an over-ambitious adversary to force him wide and send him tumbling down the classification again. Recovering to 13th at the flag, he annexed the same position in the end-of-season standings. As he looks back upon a campaign that yielded highs and lows, 12 points finishes – three of them inside the top five – and one fastest lap in the fiercely-contested championship, he admits to mixed emotions but knows he can take a great deal of positives moving forward.“It was a shame to end the season how we did,” acknowledged the former Jim Russell Driver Scholarship Award winner. “I absolutely ragged the car in the first qualifying session. It was depressing to wind up so far down the grid, because there was literally nothing more I could have got out of it. The entire team seemed to be struggling and we subsequently discovered what the problem was, so we made some changes for the next session to try to compensate but we went the wrong way and that upset the balance.“We reverted to our standard set-up for the races, and in the first one, I managed to manoeuvre around the incidents on the opening lap. We had great pace and I was excited about going on the attack, so it was massively disappointing to then be given a penalty for what I really didn’t consider a jump-start. When the lights came on, I had put the car in gear and it crept by perhaps a centimetre. I immediately stopped it and there was no benefit at all, but that was the decision they took and it destroyed my chances.“I was extremely quick fighting back through the pack – even when overtaking – which was encouraging and frustrating all at once, as being mired in traffic, I couldn’t make proper use of the speed we had. I was pleased with how I drove after the penalty – we were passing other drivers left, right and centre – but having had a top five car underneath us, it was pretty dispiriting to finish where we did.“In race two, I picked up a bent toe-link in the suspension from touching wheels with somebody else early on; that left me battling understeer, and we spent most of the time stuck in a tight cluster of cars from which it was difficult to break free.“Then in race three, I was one of the first drivers to opt for wet tyres, but the start delay gave the fog time to lift and the sun came out, which meant the track dried a lot sooner than we’d been expecting. We had no alternative but to pit for slicks and the team did a phenomenal job, which helped me to make up some places. I had got as far as 12th and was within touching distance of the points when another driver lunged me and ran me right off the track, costing me all the ground I had gained.“Ultimately, it was a gamble going for the wets – sometimes you get it right, sometimes you don’t. It didn’t pay off on this occasion, but with nothing to lose from where we were starting, it was worth a shot. Overall, the weekend was a missed opportunity and fairly reflective of our season as a whole. We haven’t had the results we’ve wanted or that our pace has deserved, but I’ve learned a lot and improved as a driver and I’ve really enjoyed the experience with Carlin – they’re a fantastic bunch of guys and it’s been a great ride.“I feel ready to take the next step in my career now, but before that, there is still one more F3 weekend to run next month in Macau, which for me is a very special circuit. Hopefully I can go out with a bang before turning the page and writing the next chapter...”