HWA RACELAB celebrates first podium of the Formula 3 season

: on 09 August 2020

The strongest race weekend of the 2020 FIA Formula 3 Championship thus far was rewarded with a podium for HWA RACELAB in Silverstone. Jake Hughes (Great Britain) finished in second place on Saturday and picked up points on Sunday as well in seventh place. Enzo Fittipaldi (Brazil) missed out on finishing in the points after being awarded a penalty retroactively.

2^nd and 7^th place for Jake Hughes, 17^th and 17^th place for Enzo Fittipaldi, 26^th and 21^st place for Jack Doohan
Jake Hughes: “We laid a solid foundation for doing even better in the second half of the season.”
Enzo Fittipaldi: “The modifications had a positive effect.”
Jack Doohan: “We will take the positive aspects of this weekend.”
Thomas Strick: “This weekend was a real step forward.”

Silverstone, 09 August 2020 – It was already evident in qualifying that the HWA RACELAB team would be in with a good chance of finishing in the top spots at the second race weekend at the Silverstone Circuit. The three drivers had a strong pace and were up there driving for pole position. Jake Hughes (Great Britain) was on his way to setting the fastest time up to that point just a few minutes before the end of the session, when a red flag brought his fast lap to an end. Qualifying continued after a short interruption and Jake managed another very good lap, which saw him qualify in third on the grid.

From this promising position, he got off to a perfect start on Saturday, moving past the car ahead of him on the inside of the turn to take second place. Jake quickly went on to find his rhythm and drove a flawless race. Five laps before the end of the race, his tyres started to degrade slightly and Liam Lawson (Hitech Grand Prix) in third place closed the gap. This was when Jake drew on his experience at this level, pulling off skilful defence manoeuvres to fight off all of his rival’s attempts to overtake him, which saw him cross the finish line in second place. With this, the 26-year-old secured the first podium of the 2020 FIA Formula 3 Championship for HWA RACELAB. This was Jake’s fifth podium overall for the team from Affalterbach.

In slightly cooler weather conditions, the Brit started the race from ninth on the grid on Sunday, but moved up a place on the first lap. He made up another position after a safety car phase. He went on to be embroiled in exciting duels with his rivals. Jake continued to pile on the pressure up front and demonstrated his strong pace by getting the fastest race lap in the interim. From sixth place he dared another attacking move on the penultimate lap. This backfired and two of his pursuers made use of the room Jake temporarily left to move past him. However, Jake kept fighting down to the wire and seized seventh place on the final turn, which saw him pick up another four points in the championship standings.

Enzo Fittipaldi (Brazil) started the race weekend with his best qualifying performance to date. Just a few minutes before the end, he got the third-best time as it stood. After the session was interrupted he was unable to get another similar fast lap. But 13^th on the grid was still a good starting position for the first race on Saturday. Enzo initially dropped down two places at the start, but soon fought his way back into 14^th place. However, he started to have issues with his tyres in the middle of the race and Enzo dropped down into 19^th place. The grandson of two-time Formula 1 World Champion Emerson Fittipaldi ended up finishing the race in 17^th place.

Things went better for Enzo from the word go on Sunday. He overtook three rivals on the first lap, but the safety car put the brakes on his advance. When the race resumed, he set off on the attack again and moved into 13^th place on lap eight.

While his rivals made mistakes, Enzo focussed on his rhythm and kept working his way up the field. He moved ever closer to the points. On the penultimate lap, Enzo did indeed move up into tenth place and crossed the finish line in this position. However, the race officials decided that the 19-year-old gained an unfair advantage by coming off the track and issued Enzo with a 5-second penalty. This saw the man from Brazil classified in 17^th place.

Jack Doohan (Australia) started the race weekend with a convincing qualifying session. After an intermediate fastest lap, he ultimately qualified in seventh on the grid. The strong pace gave Jack reason to hope for a successful race on Saturday. But the 17-year-old was unlucky yet again the next day. His front wing was damaged on the second lap, which forced him to make a pit stop. Jack wasn’t able to do all that much from the back of the field. He couldn’t improve on position 26 on the day.

With a brilliant start, which saw him move up four positions, he showed his potential yet again on Sunday. But Jack made a mistake on the restart after the safety car phase that followed. He came off the track while attempting an overtaking manoeuvre, which saw him lose several positions. From this point on his goal was to focus throughout the rest of the race. He got back into his rhythm and crossed the finish line in 21^st place.

The FIA Formula 3 Championship continues with two races in Barcelona on 15th and 16th August.

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Quotes from the race weekend

Jake Hughes (26, Great Britain, car number 15), 2nd and 7th place
“That was our strongest weekend of the season so far. Not only because of the first podium, but also in terms of the number of points picked up. However, what I’m most pleased with is the improvement we made to the performance of the car. It was a huge leap forward. The car felt good right from the free practice session. We made a lot of changes compared with last week. We made use of the opportunity of driving here in Silverstone another time to analyse the tyre set-up in detail. It paid off. I’d like to thank the whole team for their hard work! We need to keep it up. Despite everything, there is still room to optimise the balance of the car. But we laid a solid foundation for doing even better in the second half of the season.”

Enzo Fittipaldi (19, Brazil, car number 14), 17th and 17th place
“The car felt much better on Sunday. We made a few modifications after the race on Saturday, which had a positive impact on the performance. There was a lot of action and lots of battles today. Even though we didn’t end up being rewarded with points, I can be positive looking ahead to Barcelona.”

Jack Doohan (17, Australia, car number 16), 26th and 21st place
“I made a mistake while attempting an overtaking manoeuvre after the safety car restart in the race on Sunday. I came off the track and the car switched to safety mode. I need to apologise to the team for that because we really did improve the car. Even after my trip off the track the pace was good, although I didn’t have any DRS available. We will take the positive aspects of this weekend with us to Barcelona.”

Thomas Strick, team principal HWA RACELAB
“This weekend was a real step forward. We drew the right conclusions from the first two races in Silverstone and improved our qualifying performance significantly by making a few changes. That was the basis for our podium. I’m delighted for Jake; the podium was long overdue for him. The way he defended second place over the final laps on Saturday shows his class. Overall, we have stabilised as a team. But we still need to make some further improvements to the car set-up. If we manage to take another step forward here, we could finish in the points with all three cars. That is our aim for Barcelona.”

Results 1st race, Saturday 08 August:
1. L. Sargeant PREMA Racing                           36:14.262
2. Jake Hughes HWA RACELAB                            36:15:814
17. Enzo Fittipaldi HWA RACELAB                            36:36.540
26. Jack Doohan HWA RACELAB 37:46.800

Results 2nd race, Sunday 09 August:
1. B. Viscaal MP Motorsport 40:32.362
7. Jake Hughes HWA RACELAB 40:43.104
17. Enzo Fittipaldi HWA RACELAB 40:58.708
21. Jack Doohan HWA RACELAB 41:00.153

About HWA AG
HWA AG is an independent, 360° engineering specialist in the fields of automobile racing and high-performance cars. Formed in 1998 by Hans Werner Aufrecht, the company is based in Affalterbach (Germany) and employs roughly 300 highly-qualified members of staff. HWA AG offers all its products and services under the motto ENGINEERING SPEED: The company’s objective is to develop the best possible, high-quality solutions, in order to get its partners and customers to their destination quicker. The portfolio of services ranges from designing all vehicle components to assembling complete cars, together with the relevant logistics, after-sales and support services.

About HWA RACELAB
HWA RACELAB is HWA AG’s operations team in motorsport. It brings together experienced specialists in high-quality race engineering and the associated services, in pursuit of success on the motorsport scene. HWA RACELAB entered Formula E as a new team in the 2018/19 season, adding a future-oriented string to HWA’s wealth of racetrack expertise. HWA RACELAB has also been competing in the FIA Formula 3 Championship since 2019 and will be appearing in the FIA Formula 2 Championship from 2020. With eleven Drivers’ titles and over 180 race wins as a works team for Mercedes-AMG in the DTM, the company is one of the most successful players in international motorsport. HWA RACELAB also draws on the company’s other core areas of expertise, such as the development, assembly and running of GT cars for customer racing, as well as the assembly of Formula 3 race engines.

Annette Hörsch
Media

Tel: +49 (0) 7144 8717 – 215
E-mail: a.hoersch@hwaag.com