The sixth stage of the European F3 was disputed last weekend in Zandvoort – The Netherlands
After the inedited experience of testing the current season’s F1 car, the Brazilian pilot from Belo Horizonte, Sérgio Sette Câmara (Red Bull | Petrobrás | Cemig | Mercantil do Brasil), embarked to Zandvoort, in the Netherlands, where he participated in the sixth round of the European F3 Championship.
Excited by the experience in the middle of the week, the pilot landed in the Dutch coast with the main purpose of adding the largest possible number of points in the three stages of the Championship to be played there.
With the always competent support from the Motopark Academy technical team, the pilot entered the track on Friday morning happy to be one of his main tracks in the world. “Apart from Macao, which is a street circuit, Zandvoort without doubt is my favorite track. The track is very fast, we drive with the maximum level of downforce and I am sure that we have a set to achieve significant results in the round “, commented the pilot a few minutes before the free practice sessions.
Sergio in fact was right and, in the two free sessions, he managed a sensational performance. In both sessions he led most of the time and, in the second one, he managed to finish in second place, behind only of the current leader of the Championship.
Excited, the pilot from Minas Gerais left for the taking of times. In the first session, the Motopark team bet on an audacious tuning, which proved to be inefficient and, as a result, the four team’s cars had bad performances. However, the worst was yet to come. In the second session, with the tuning that had been very good in the practices, Sette Câmara secured the second and fourth positions for the races two and three. However, a piece of asphalt flew into another competitor’s car and hit the airbox of car # 9. So, after technical verification, the commissioners disqualified the Brazilian driver forcing him to start in the last position in both races.
Resigned, the pilot departed for the races. On the first of them, after a good start, he managed to stay in the 11th position. During the race, however, even with a car faster than those of his competitors, he failed to overcome the opponents. Due to the characteristics of the track, the maximum downforce level causes cars to lose aerodynamic force when they are in a vacuum making, thus, overtakings almost impossible. Therefore, in the first race Sette Câmara ended in the 11th position, in the 17th position in the 2nd race and in the 15th place in the 3rd race.
“It was a terrible result, especially after having a good performance during the practice sessions. Our car was excellent and, with the crackle that occurred on air intake, I wouldn’t have had any gain. But, rules are rules. It was the first weekend of the year in which I did not score. We will continue to work seeking for victories”, commented the 18-year-old pilot.
The European F3 season continues in two weeks, in the traditional Spa-Francorchamps race track, in Belgium, for races 19, 20 and 21.