Photo: Formula Motorsport Ltd
FIA Formula 3 championship leader Luke Browning was pleased by the amount of knowledge he was able to gain from in-season testing at Barcelona.
The Hitech GP driver is currently tied on 37 points with Trident’s Leonardo Fornaroli at the top of the standings, and says he is “absolutely motivated and prepared” to battle for the F3 crown until the last lap of the season.
“You get such little track time in F3, such little track time,” the Williams junior emphasised to Formula Scout.
“Having these three days to really get closer with the team, get closer again with the people around me, to get more familiar around this circuit, it’s a big help. Because although you can say I’m in my second year, realistically the amount of actual time we have in the car is not so much.
“We can go to a race weekend and do four [flying] laps in free practice, four laps in qualifying and then two races. So, realistically, the amount that you learn in three days of testing is almost like it’s more than half a season’s worth for the amount of laps that we’ve done. I think we did 75 laps yesterday. It’s a hell of a lot to learned for the past three days.”
Browning clocked a total of 204 laps across the three days of running and set a fastest lap of 1m26.692s, third best overall and 0.046 seconds off Campos Racing’s pacesetter Mari Boya.
“We ended up being the quickest on the wet tyre in the morning, which was super strong,” the Briton reflected on the 20-plus laps he completed on grooved tyres – more than anyone else did in one run – in the final morning of testing.
“But I think you know what? We’re all so close in testing and everyone’s testing everything. So I’m sure there’s not too much to read into it. But of course, it’s a nice place to be. We’ve been consistently in the top three for every session, more or less, which is exactly where we want to be. So I’m super happy with where we are. How I’m performing consistently now, right at the top half of the grid or right in the front five of the grid consistently. That’s what we’re after. I think the team is doing a great job and hopefully when we come back here in five or six weeks time, we’ll see the benefits of it.”
Browning also acknowledged the championship is still long and he is not getting carried away by his early strong form in the first two rounds.
“We are leading the championship at the moment, but keeping a clear head and understanding that this championship is so up and down. And we’ll have our strong races. We’ll have our weak races. I’ll have things that happen outside of my control. And I’m going to try and maximise the stuff that’s inside it and hopefully when it comes the end of the season that will be enough.”