Hungaroring, Budapest, 27th July 2015 - Indonesia’s Sean Gelael made an encouraging debut in the GP2 Series at the Hungaroring, finishing 18th on his first race in the Formula 1-support series.
The 18-year-old Gelael, who is already racing with the Jagonya Ayam with Carlin team in the Formula Renault 3.5 Series, has added a programme of GP2 races with Carlin as he bids to gain experience for the future.
It is always very difficult coming into a new series partway through the season, as the other competitors are fully up to speed – and some of them are even in their fifth season in GP2. But Sean, the youngest driver in the field, showed good credentials that will allow him to progress as he builds his experience.
Furthermore, Gelael had never even tested a GP2 car before free practice started at the Hungarian Grand Prix circuit. He had to pit for adjustments during the session. “I had an issue with my feet overstepping the pedals, and that led to a lot of balance issues,” said Sean, who is very tall and therefore it takes more work to fit him in the car. “That meant the first part of the session was not very good. Once they had changed things it was a lot better but the tyres had gone off so I could not push to find the limits.
“So because of that I was still learning where the limits were in qualifying. The fact that I ended up just four tenths off my team-mate Julian Leal was very encouraging, especially as potentially I could have had the same time if I had put everything together.”
In race one, Gelael stalled at the start of the green-flag lap so he started the race from the pits. From that point on he ran strongly, and was able to leapfrog other cars around the time of the pit stops to take a strong finishing position of 18th.
The second race saw Sean lose some positions on the first lap, but he recovered during the race, setting strong lap times again, and was able to pass other drivers who had overused their tyres late in the race to claim 20th.
“The pace in the first race was very good,” he said. “I was able to stretch my run on the softer option tyres to lap 15, which is a very long time on those tyres so that is very positive. Then I jumped some positions and had very good pace in the end of the race.
“In race two I did not preload the car enough on the clutch so I made a bad start. I got up to 18th by Turn 2, but then I was too cautious and lost places. At the Hungaroring, really all the places are made on the first lap so that was frustrating, although I was able to overtake about three late in the race when their tyres went off.
“Overall it was a positive start for my GP2 career. The Pirelli tyres are really different to what I am used to so that provides a challenge, but I am quite happy with overall performance – just not with my starts!”
There is now a one-month gap before Sean’s next race outing in the GP2 round supporting the Belgian Grand Prix at Spa, beginning a hectic run of late-season GP2 and FR3.5 action: “It will be good to dial everything down, because racing can be frantic, especially as it will be non-stop from then on!” (ms/arl)
