Quaife-Hobbs (left )
shares tips with Fenestraz(^24) 1 AUGUST 2019
isappointment is par for
the course for a racing
driver. For every victory
and championship triumph,
there are many more frustrating weekends
that fail to live up to expectation or result
in heart-breaking near-misses. And for
young single-seater drivers dreaming of
Formula 1 superstardom, the prospect of
being dropped by an academy scheme –
widely seen as the direct route to the
top – is perhaps the ultimate setback.
But how a driver responds when met
with these adverse conditions can be
the making of them, as proven by Alex
Albon’s rise from being dropped by Red
Bull after one year in Formula Renault to
now fl ourishing at Toro Rosso. Knuckle
down, show an aptitude for continued
self-improvement, and results – and
opportunities – will usually follow.
Having failed to reach the target
set by Renault of fi nishing in the top
three of last year’s FIA European Formula 3
championship, the momentum that had
been building behind Sacha Fenestraz
was abruptly derailed as the Franco-
Argentinian was cut from its Academy.
Fenestraz, the brother-in-law of Toyota
LMP1 driver Jose Maria Lopez, was
only 11th in the standings with Carlin,
D
TURNING A DISASTER
INTO A TRIUMPH
Being dropped by an F1 junior scheme would be curtains for many
young hopefuls, but Sacha Fenestraz has responded in the
most convincing way possible since moving to Japan
BY JAMES NEWBOLD
173 points behind third-placed Robert
Shwartzman, who he had comfortably
beaten to the previous year’s Formula
Renault Eurocup title. A reversed-grid
win at Pau and pole at Silverstone were
rare highlights in a year that he describes
as “the worst of my career”.
He was also unable to score points in
a four-race GP3 cameo with Arden and his
confi dence took a beating as he struggled
to live up to the expectation of succeeding
2017 F3 champion Lando Norris, a member
of the same ADD Management stable. But
fi nishing third in Macau on Yokohama
rubber, rather than the Hankooks used
in Europe, showed an impressive blend
of pace and maturity that hinted he was
not to be written off just yet.
After consulting with compatriots Loic
Duval and Benoit Treluyer about turning
his back on Europe in favour of Japan,
Fenestraz took the plunge and signed up
with crack F3 squad Motopark – which has
entered into a technical partnership with
local outfi t B-Max – and added a parallel
programme in Super GT with a Kondo
Racing Nissan GT-R in the GT300 class.
“For two or three weeks it was a bit hard
but in the end it was done, I couldn’t go
back to the beginning of the year so I just
continued to do my stuff ,” Fenestraz says
of Renault’s decision. “The only choice I
had [in Europe] was in the new F3, which is
very expensive and unfortunately not a lot
of driving, so we decided to come to Japan.
Now I’m enjoying my racing again and I’m
driving almost every weekend, where
if I had stayed in Europe I would be
driving once a month maybe.
“It’s a very strong level in F3, Team
TOM’S is a bit like the Japanese Prema
so we’ve got a lot of work to do to beat
them. They know the tracks very well
compared to us European guys.”
Sure enough, with so much learning to
pack into a short space of time, simulation
has been a vital asset for Fenestraz. He has
a Pro-Sim unit built by GP2 race winner
Adrian Quaife-Hobbs in his Tokyo
apartment, complete with an accurate F3
model they developed together, which he
uses to conduct pre-event testing. But,
instead of trying to exactly correlate
set-up as in F1 simulators, it’s more about
repetition of the core skills – braking,
steering and throttle application – needed
to extract the best from any car and
building familiarity with a group of circuits
that are all new to him, alternating between
nailing the lap time on a single fl yer and
maintaining performance over a race stint.
The hard work has paid off handsomely.
He made the best possible start to his
Japanese F3 campaign with a debut victory
at Suzuka and hasn’t looked back. Adapting
quickly to the all-new selection of tracks,
the 20-year-old leads the championship
with six wins from 15 races so far –
including a hat-trick in wet/dry conditions
at Autopolis, where he qualifi ed over a
“It’s a very strong level in F3, TOM’S is like the
Japanese Prema so we’ve got a lot of work to do”
MAUGER