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aspect in any business. Obviously, we
had a pretty clear idea of where to go
with the set-up, and we built on that,
developing it even further. So we found
ourselves with some good settings and a
great amount of performance".
How was it to drive such a different
car? Judging from the outside it
seems time hasn't passed and you
quickly got back to speed...
“Luckily I'm serving as an instructor for
Siegfried Stohr's driving school. That
means spending from 60 to 80 days per
year on-track. So I haven't raced, but this
kind of activity enabled me to improve
my car control and my knowledge of
vehicle dynamics. I also understood
many other things that I had based on
instinct in the past and I'm faster than I
ever was. As you can see, the break
didn't penalize me at all”.
After Imola, the season took the right
turn as you became one of the main
character of the series.
“After the race in Imola, it came the one
in Austria and in qualifying we scored the
second fastest laptime.
Then, Saturday evening we had a
scrutineering check and we committed a
rookie mistake in putting the car back
together. During the race, I couldn't do
more than a top-5 finish.
Then, we managed to win the second
race. But even with that, we realized that
we were still missing something in terms
of set-up”.
Then you lined-up in Adria...
“That was a game-changer We turned
the car around and finally got the right
set-up. That race also started the duel
with Nogues. It's been an hard-fought
confrontation that I haven't seen in any
series. This excess conditioned Race 2,
when we made contact together. Then it
went a little too far and we went to
Monza with the same feeling. The
northern Italian track is somehow
strange, and it can become quite
surprising in terms of the results even if
you haven't a perfect car. Many drivers
cut the chicane during the last lap and I
paid the price of that. I quickly found
myself at the back. Well, whatever”.
After Mugello, the title seem to have
slipped away a little...
“I always start to win the races, and the
more you win, the more you get closer
to the title. I want to stay calm. My
career won't change, but it's clear that
having a title looking while back to my
history would be pretty cool. It will be
incredibly difficult, but we do all we
can. This team is sensational. The guys
are phenomenal and it would be great
to hand them a title at the end of the
year. As of now, it's really, really
difficult to even think about that. But
they say... never say never!”
er say never”
