Alice, Austin, Budapest discussed on The Autosport Podcast

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Reflect. Good, yeah, I mean, it's nice to have a few weeks if I need just be back and yeah, enjoy the moment a little bit, of course, yeah, it's one of those things that you obviously set out to achieve. So bit of relief more than anything else, but also, yeah, now that kind of feeling of, yeah, it's all kind of sunken, but focuses on now what's next? Yeah, and you said this felt harder for than 2019. Was that specifically because of the pressure posed by Alice with other reasons for that? Yeah, I think mainly, yeah, with Alice, I think, in the first season, I was always ahead in the championship and I was able to kind of manage the gap to behind, whereas this year every weekend, it was kind of going one way or the other between Allison and I it was very much yeah, one week we can all be ahead the next weekend should be ahead. So going into the last round. First time I've ever been equal on points with someone, definitely felt like I was being pushed a lot more. So yeah, I think it was a nice challenge to have in that sense and yeah, made me feel like I really had to make sure I was at the top of my game every weekend. Yeah, absolutely. It was great, great battle to watch all season. Were you feeling a lot of pressure going into that last weekend in Austin? Yeah, a little bit. I mean, I was but at the same time I felt pressure in every weekend because there's only 8 races, you know, if you make a mistake or, you know, if you have a bad weekend, then it can massively compromise your championship because there are so few. So yeah, I felt the pressure in every weekend, but it definitely felt like it came to a head at the last one and yeah, one of those three days were you just really had to deliver in that moment? Yeah. I mean, how would you rate your season overall? Pretty good, obviously, happy to round it off how we did in Austin, and then obviously when the championship. But yeah, there's moments I look back at and I think we could have done a lot better, I could have had a lot better definitely. So yeah, I'd say pretty good, but yeah, always looking for where you can improve and looking at things that could have been better, I think. Yeah. And what would you say those low points where you found things kind of tricky were? I think obviously a first race, although that was mainly out of our control. Yeah, that's not how I wanted to start the season at all. And then from there on in, there's just little things qualifying. I qualified that when it was because I made a mistake when I should have probably been on pole and yeah, there's a lot of little factors where, you know, I think I could have done a better job than I did. Yeah, no, of course. I mean, what were the high points for you then? Conversely, which were your favorite races? Where do you think you performed the best? I would say Budapest was a pretty good moment. I felt like I would bounce back from Silverstone I was a bit disappointed to a really good result in Budapest and then yeah, obviously the last weekend was the big highlight for me. Knowing when, you know, the stakes were as high as they were and yeah, with the extra race as well, that one felt like a highlight for me. Silverstone must have been incredible as well, home crowd, not quite post COVID, but getting there, how was that for you? Very cool, yeah. That was the race I would have loved to have won just because it was so yeah. So special to have a crowd like that there and the support we had as well. And also we raced before the Formula One qualifying session on a sprint race sorry on Saturday to the crowds are actually still there and yeah, that was a really cool moment. Yeah, definitely. And, you know, veloce, it wasn't an official team's championship, but veloce won the team's championship. How did the introduction of teams change the season for you? Was there a different set up to 2019? How did that affect you as a driver? Yeah, I mean, internally, it wasn't too different. You know, W series still run things so that, you know, you have your engineers and your mechanics that you're assigned. In 2019, we would swap those each weekend this year we kept them for the season. So it wasn't like a lot che themselves were running the cars. So operationally, it didn't change so much. But for me it did make a big difference because velocity like family to me. And I'm with them in extremey and yeah, in other roles and capacities as well. So yeah, to have been there in their support was a nice thing. And I'm happy that we could reward them with their first championship as well. You've got ties with them in other areas. Did having them behind you here as well, kind of boost your confidence do you think? Definitely. Yeah. I mean, yeah, I think a support good spot network is key and having the velocity guys there and their help and support throughout the whole season. And investor support because they have a team, so they also want to succeed. Yeah, they definitely make a big difference. And while I can't really see them on the race weekends because of the COVID bubbles, it's still nice to have just the velocity presence there and, you know, to feel that kind of support. Onto something a bit different. Michelle mouton, the rally legend, said recently that the FIA has proposed that the W series champion gets an F three seat. What are your thoughts on that? And how else do you think that that upwards progression can be improved helped? Yeah, I mean, I didn't actually know that. But that's really cool. I mean, for my side, what W series is done and how much it's helped me in my career is second to none. It's been huge, but unfortunately, to still keep progressing, yeah, F three, for example, requires even bigger budget than the prize money that we get through W series and yeah, even with that, trying to get into a team with it's been already such a saturated market is difficult. So to have that kind of obvious progression and route forwards would be huge, I think, for the championship. So amazingly that could be the case. But yeah, I think from my side, it's just trying to take every opportunity I can and yeah, as a result of the exposure deputy series has given me it's definitely easier I find to do that than before. Yeah, definitely. And array marti and irina Sudoku and the iron dames drivers Maya woke and Dorian pin are testing a three cars this weekend. Do you think that that's further evidence that W series is succeeding in its goal? Yeah, yeah, definitely. And those two for me are really good at the two W series drivers and the other two as well. A really good example is a really good up and coming drivers that they're much younger than even me. So yeah, they've got a great career opportunities ahead of them..

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