Hockenheim, 25th April 2014 - Sean Gelael and his FIA Formula 3 European Championship rivals are pushing full steam ahead for the second round of the series, at the German Grand Prix circuit of Hockenheim.

After opening his season at Silverstone, Sean is hopeful of strong results with his JagonyaAyam with Carlin Dallara-Volkswagen.

And it is not just Gelael himself who is hopeful of a good performance, because every time he steps into the cockpit of his racing car he is carrying the hopes of the many people who give their all into optimising everything in such a professional sport.

There are three people whose 100 per cent focus is on Sean’s car – these are his race engineer from the JagonyaAyam with Carlin team, Spaniard Jose Lopez, his number one mechanic Joe Ssebakka and his number two mechanic Stephen Chiles.

To these you can add Mark Owen, who is chief engineer across the six-car Carlin team, team manager Gary Bonnor, plus two data engineers – one for the three-car JagonyaAyam line-up of Gelael, Antonio Giovinazzi and Tom Blomqvist, the other for the remaining Carlin trio of Jake Dennis, Jordan King and Ed Jones, and three ‘truckies’.

Gary Bonnor talks us through the other host of personnel who work across the whole Carlin operation, which also includes teams in the GP2 Series, the GP3 Series, the World Series by Renault and British Formula 3.

“There are two wind-tunnel guys, two full-time people in our composites department, a workshop manager, somebody responsible for buying in spare parts, plus two PR people and three in accounts. And, of course, Trevor Carlin, our boss!”

So you can see that at least 21 people are involved in putting Sean on the track and making him competitive – and this is just from the Carlin side of the operation. To this we then have to add those from his homeland in Indonesia who work night and day on making everything happen!

No wonder Formula 3 is such a professional sport, and Gary Bonnor for one loves it. “I first got to know Trevor when I started in 1994, and then when he set up his own racing team I joined him in 1998,” he says. “At first I was emptying the bins and making the tea! Then I became a number two mechanic and worked my way up.

“Formula 3 is where everything started for Carlin. It is a unique championship from a technical perspective in terms of being able to develop cars. And drivers at this level still need to learn so you are influential in their careers – I really like doing that.”

We will see if such dedication pays off at Hockenheim next weekend. Last year, as a rookie Gelael made good progress at this event, only to suffer a big crash in the final race when he was taken off by another driver’s mistake. He will definitely look to make amends this time! (ms/arl)