Caldwell “wasn’t going to give up without a fight” as he held off Martins to claim his maiden Formula 3 victory

The Prema Racing driver claimed that “Victor [Martins] would have done the same in my position” had roles been reversed as the two drivers battled it out for victory on the final lap of Formula 3’s second race.

Speaking exclusively to Prost International’s Cameron Anderson-Jones, race two winner Olli Caldwell, second-place Victor Martins and third-place Frederik Vesti shared their thoughts about the race.

Question to Caldwell and Martins – After seeing your competitors crash at turn one and two, when the two of you were battling for the lead did you have their collision in mind? Was the Championship in mind at this point?

Caldwell:

“Yeah, I mean we saw four people go out at turn one in the space of three or four laps, which is quite interesting.

“It’s definitely too early to think about the championship after two races so that wasn’t in my head. Victor [Martins] was very close to me on the second to last lap, I believe it was.

“I wasn’t going to give up without a fight and I think Victor [Martins] wasn’t either, he would have done the same in my position.

“I certainly gave him space while still pushing him on the edge and he did the same as well so I think we both learnt from the four people ahead of us not to do the same thing.”

Martins:

“Yeah, it was quite close even with Dennis [Hauger] and [Matteo] Nannini. When I saw that I just decided to move and I went on the left and I saw they were staying on the right.

“So I think it was a good decision from [Olli] Caldwell and myself. And after that, when you have this moment with two laps to go. In my head I’m not thinking about the championship at the moment.

“I’m there to show my potential and I knew I had the pace to maybe race on the last lap. I tried everything I could on my side.

“I think I just at one point I decided to go on the left because we were going to crash and that’s it, but I’m still pretty happy about it and about the result.`”

Question to all three drivers – Having completed two races with the redeveloped turn 10, as a driver how does it compare to the old layout? Do you think it promotes more overtaking/better racing?

Vesti:

“That is a good question, I think as a driver it is a different corner and it is completely different now.

“Does it make it easier to overtake? Not really, in an F3 car it is a bit difficult to follow in turn nine but we did see in the Regional race earlier, people doing moves around the outside.

“I think it is possible if you get close enough so you can do it on the inside with the DRS but you really need to be able to follow through turn nine.

“Maybe if the guy makes a mistake, then it is definitely possible to overtake. You can overtake on the inside and outside, so it is a bit easier to overtake now. It is at least harder to defend the corner.”

Caldwell:

“It’s a different style. It is very difficult to follow other cars through turn nine. You have to have a big pace or grip advantage.

“It is a different style of corner. Personally, I prefer it, it takes a little bit more out of the right-hand side tyres, which it didn’t use too.

“Yeah, I mean it would be hard to make a move there for sure, but yeah, it’s a good corner.”

Martins:

“On my side I like the new corner like [Olli] Caldwell said I think you cannot really do a move there but I have seen it done.

“I have seen and all the drivers that you can still be close to the car after that corner and still be there in sector 3, it is doing a different approach into turn 12.

“I think it is a bit different and it is more interesting.”

The drivers will now compete in the final race of the weekend on Sunday, it is the most important race of the weekend with a mandatory pitstop required from all 30 runners.

Caldwell will start from sixth on the grid while Martins starts from third. Vesti will be close behind in fifth as the trio of drivers are set to battle it out one more time in Barcelona.

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