Silverstone, 20th April 2014 - The dramas of motor racing meant that Sean Gelael was disappointed to be denied the chance to turn his excellent pre-season testing form into stronger results in the first round of the FIA Formula 3 European Championship at Silverstone.
There were positives from a cold weekend in England, with Indonesian Sean racing his Jagonya Ayam with Carlin Dallara-Volkswagen to a strong 15th position in race one, and then setting lap times faster than many of those in the top 10 in the closing stages of race three.
But unfortunately, unexpected problems effectively ruled him out of races two and three before they had even begun.
The 17-year-old Gelael’s best grid position for the three races was 20th, with qualifying not going as planned. “The tyres are different this year,” he said, “and I adapted a little bit late to their characteristics in qualifying and did not get the best lap when I should have – by the time I did they were past their peak of performance.
“I set faster sector times on my sixth or seventh lap on the tyres, which is not ideal, as you really need to set your best time within three laps of them being fresh. Also, the Silverstone track surface is so abrasive – before, the tyres would last 13 laps, not just three!”
In the first race, Sean showed his undoubted prowess in finding gaps as the field jostles in the opening stages, and found himself in 14th position by the third lap.
He spent much of the race in a group fighting for the final point – for 10th place – but ahead of him Australian Mitch Gilbert was defending well and Gelael was just unable to find a way past. He then lost out on the final lap to another Australian, Spike Goddard, and had to settle for 15th at the chequered flag.
“We were quicker than Mitch but he did very good defending,” said Sean. “I tried to lunge a move on him a couple of times but he got us back, and in the end Spike got me as well – he was on a mission!”
The second race began with Gelael stalling on the grid, which left him well behind the field, although he was able to recover to 20th place.
“I had some problems with the brakes and clutch,” he said, “so then I stalled as the lights went out. But the speed of the car when I got going was not bad.”
The trouble began even earlier for race three, with a problem striking Sean before the formation lap, meaning the gearbox selected reverse instead of first. The mechanics did an excellent job to solve this, but by the time Gelael joined the race he was two laps behind.
Lapping the high-speed Silverstone circuit on his own, he showed very strong pace that was easily on the level of the points-scoring drivers.
“They worked on it really quickly, but obviously now we need to work out how and why it happened,” said Gelael. “While they did that we switched onto old tyres, deciding to save our fresh ones for free practice for the next round at Hockenheim, so with this in mind our pace was really OK.
“If I had started the race as I should have, with the new tyres on, we should have been in the top 12 no problem. The good thing is that we are always improving.”
The Jagonya Ayam with Carlin team got the season off to a fantastic start with Tom Blomqvist winning the first race at Silverstone after leading all the way from pole position. He then finished fourth and sixth in the other two races.
Antonio Giovinazzi qualified strongly and was in the points in two races, taking an eighth position before improving that to a fifth in race three. (ms/arl)
