Will | Will Langhorne

Will Monaco Race Report

Last weekend was a great opportunity for me to finally get into International F3000. No testing, just right into a race. It is not the way you would choose your first opportunity but you need to take every chance you can. I can’t say enough about how professional and supportive the BCN team was. I was very impressed with the range of F1 experience there is in the team. With the odds stacked against my last minute entry they were nothing but supportive even when I kissed some Armco in qualifying.

Gladly, my mistake in qualifying and lack of pace in the race falls square on my shoulders. I know I have a front running team and car and with a little seat time we will be on it. I know the team is a front running effort and I hope to continue with BCN so that we may progress to the pointy end of the grid.

In the beginning of practice I was comfortable getting to know the car and track but in the second half of practice when I started to try to drive the car too hard the car let me know. The F3000 car has a very specific way it wants to be driven, end of story.

In qualifying I abandoned my first qualifying attempt as the track was blocked by a car in the wall. I pitted expecting it to take a while for the track to clear. I should have kept going. On my next attempt I pushed very hard in the swimming pool section on the curbs. Over the second curb the car stepped out and I brushed the wall and damaged my rear wing. My mistake, I got out of the car and didn’t realize the car was fine until the marshals had pulled it over the wall. Lesson learned. I should have gotten myself back to the pits for a new rear wing. Rear wings are not always quickly replaceable on cars. Not the case here.

In the race I had an okay start, the car slightly to the left and in front of me dove to the inside of the first corner apex. I followed as I couldn’t see much when the car crossed my path and what I did see wasn’t a great sight picture. In the driver meeting it seemed that we were fine to do this as long as we didn’t gain an advantage, not so…drive through penalty for me and four other guys. About lap 14 I began to realize that I was really not close enough to the wheel and had a substantial lack of leverage on the wheel. At this point I needed to bring it home, learn from every lap and make sure I was on track to learn from every lap. P10

Lessons learned; if the track is blocked it will be cleaned up by the time you get back around, not like in the States, the new F3000 car is a fantastic piece but it wants to be driven how it wants to be driven, Make sure everything you own “HOMOLOGATED?” Or in English, approved by the FIA. I don’t think my dogs are homologated!? I’ll work on that.

A very special thanks to my good friend Townsend Bell for lending me his helmet at the eleventh hour so that I could race. My Simpson helmets I brought are not… HOMOLOGATED.