Press
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October 10, 2019

Conditions play a part as Arden continue points-scoring form at Hockenheim

Banbury-based outfit's Formula Renault team show their quality out in Germany.
Press
|
|
October 10, 2019

Conditions play a part as Arden continue points-scoring form at Hockenheim

Banbury-based outfit's Formula Renault team show their quality out in Germany.

Arden Motorsport’s Formula Renault Eurocup showed their class in the dry, but struggled in the wet-weather conditions on a mixed weekend at Hockenheim, Germany.

The Banbury-based outfit arrived in Baden-Wurttemberg in regular podium-contending form and bolstered by the return of Sebastian Fernandez to the #33 car.

Tricky conditions in qualifying left the trio on the fringes of the top ten, but they worked well to move through the pack together and register a triple-points finish in the opening race, Fernandez leading home Pasma and Bird in sixth, eighth and ninth respectively.

That performance highlighted the recent strength of the team’s package in the dry conditions; the final contest around the 2.8-mile circuit would be a little tougher.

The team still made progress through the midfield in the wet, with Pasma claiming a solitary point in tenth; Bird ran just behind until an unlucky spin two laps from home and eventually finished P16 ahead of Fernandez.

Despite some frustration, the team will now re-group, assess and look to end the season on a high at Yas Marina, Abu Dhabi, on 25-27 October.

Ben Salter, Arden Formula Renault Team Manager said:
“Overall, I think the team, car and drivers performed well over the weekend. Patrik drove really well in the mixed conditions considering it’s his first time at the circuit; likewise Sebastian and Frank, who adapted really well.

“There is a little bit of time to find in the wet, but I think our performance in the opening race proved again we’ve got one of the quickest packages in the field at the moment.

“We’ll go back to base now, re-group and then get ready to end the season on the front foot at Abu Dhabi.”



Patrik Pasma (#31) said:
“It was a pretty difficult and wet weekend for us. I think we’re definitely one of the fastest teams on the grid in the dry – which we showed in Race 1!

“In the wet, though, we’re struggling a little bit as a team, so we need to analyse what went wrong and come back stronger… I don’t think rain will be a problem in Abu Dhabi!”



Frank Bird (#32) said:
“It wasn’t a bad weekend at Hockenheim; Race 1 was really good with a battle all the way through with my team mates, finishing in ninth.

“Race 2 was very wet and we had decent pace, which was a bit of a surprise because we had been struggling all weekend in those conditions but we got up to P11 from P17 on the grid and then spun with two laps to go.

“I think we’ll take that after a difficult practice. Now it’s time for one last push for Abu Dhabi in two weeks!”



Sebastian Fernandez (#33) said:
“In general the weekend didn't go as expected. From the beginning we lacked speed from both myself and the car in wet conditions.

"Although many changes were made we could never really find the optimum, we struggled to much on traction and general grip. We could not find a way to carry speed in the corners.

"Dry conditions were very different, it took us some time to get going in Race 1 but after the car felt very good overall, balance was good. We have good pace on dry but on wet we need to work more in both the car and driving."

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