The Brazilian driver was second fastest after three days of testing at Paul Ricard in France.
Since last Tuesday (6) until yesterday afternoon (8) the Paul Ricard Autodrome in the south of France has received the drivers and teams of the F2 World Championship for the first round of the 2018 pre-season.
All 20 cars that will compete in the Championship were on the track. In all, six free sessions were held – two per day. One of the great forces of international motorsport, the British Carlin / McLaren Junior, brought to the track the British driver Lando Noris and the Brasilian driver Sérgio Sette Câmara (YOUSE | BMG | CCR | CEMIG | GASMIG) who is the only Brazilian driver to compete in the Championship.
After a quick set up test of the car at Magny Cours, also in France, at the end of last month, this was the first opportunity the drivers had to meet the new Dallara F-2. The car is equipped with the modern Mechacrome V6 engine that has no less than 620 HP.
The Paul Ricard track was introduced in the calendar this season and will host the fifth round of the Championship in the second half of June, and points will be earned for the ninth and tenth stages. Sette Câmara, who had never driven an F2 car at this circuit, took full advantage of his experience on the track and completed 194 laps, reaching a total of more than 1,100 km during the three days of testing.
Starting his second season in the F2 World Championship, Sette Câmara is beginning his work with the Carlin team. After a good year in 2017, with a lot of growth and expressive results in the second semester, the new team presented itself to the Brazilian as the best way to follow in his search of victories.
WHAT THE TESTS WERE LIKE
After a few sessions in simulators and several hours of planning with the English engineers and technicians, Sérgio arrived on the track knowing exactly what his role would be in each one of the sessions.
The first concern was the assembly conference of the car and then the team went on to do all the tests planned for the driver. Starting with a qualifying scenario, going through pit stops, followed by fast laps and even a race simulation. Everything was executed and then analyzed with great discretion by the driver and his engineers.
Out of the six training sessions, Sérgio was always among the fastest. At the time of seeking the limit of the equipment and the track, the young man from Belo Horizonte showed all his potential and his car’s. With a lap set at 1m42s387, he got the second fastest time out of the six sessions. With this mark, he was only one tenth behind the time set by his teammate.
“I am very pleased with the beginning of the work here in France. Above all, our car performed very well in the different situations of the track and of the equipment set-up. Both Lando and I were extremely fast and even in the racing simulations, the car was very stable. Two weeks from now we will be in Bahrain and it will certainly be three more days of hard work to get everything ready for the start of the Championship, “concluded the 19-year-old.