Hockenheim, 5th May 2013 - Indonesian youngster Sean Gelael had a tough weekend in the latest round of the FIA Formula 3 European Championship at Hockenheim, which ended with a big accident for which he was entirely blameless.
The ferociously competitive series, which had 29 drivers all battling it out at the German Formula 1 track, features very little room for manoeuvre. Sixteen-year-old Sean was at the back of a big group when contact was made in front of him. That sent Israeli driver Roy Nissany into the barriers and, as Nissany bounced back onto the track, Gelael tried to take avoiding action but could not miss him.
“Roy hit the wall and came back onto the track,” said Sean. “I couldn’t tell whether the car would stop or not, and then it spun again and hit my car. It’s a shame, because I really wanted to push in that race and I had just won a battle with Mitchell Gilbert [Nissany’s Australian team-mate].”
Still, at least Gelael finished the other two races in his Double R Racing Dallara-Mercedes race car. In the first race he made a superb start in wet conditions to get up to 20th position, but a trip through the gravel trap with a few laps remaining relegated him to a finishing position of 21st.
In the second race, he overtook Dubai racer Ed Jones and Colombian team-mate Tatiana Calderon as he made up ground, but then a spin dropped him back. Running on his own, Sean then set lap times that were competitive with the midfield runners.
“I started off the weekend not knowing anything about Hockenheim,” he said, “and after three weeks out of the car I was a bit rusty. The first race wasn’t too bad and then in the second I was really getting my confidence back, and I was able to give some good feedback to the Double R engineers.
“In that second race I really got to grips with the car and the circuit. The balance of the car wasn’t very good, with a lot of oversteer [where the car slides from the back] but I had some good battles.
“I just need to gain experience, and this weekend will certainly help me when we come back to Hockenheim towards the end of the season.”
Double R Racing team principal Anthony ‘Boyo’ Hieatt, who is also Sean’s engineer, added: “None of our three drivers knew the circuit so obviously we were on the back foot. We were experimenting with car set-up all the time but gave Sean his new set of tyres for the third race, so we expected some good things. He was going well but then he got taken out.
“This is such a tough environment to learn in, but he is still making good progress.”
The next round is back on Double R’s home ground, in the UK, at Brands Hatch on 18th and 19th May, where Gelael will be hoping to making further inroads among this incredibly tightly-bunched field.But first? “I have to go back to school in Indonesia to take some exams!”
