Interview
Parra credits Campos’ unity for Barcelona triumph as she hunts down Standings lead
Team Manager Gabriela Parra was full of praise for her Campos Racing team’s performance across Round 3 in Barcelona after the Spanish outfit secured one win and two podiums at their home event.
Chloe Chambers qualified on the front row for the first time, missing out on either pole by less than a tenth, with Nerea Martí close behind in third and fourth. Both achieved silverware in the opening race, with Chambers putting on a masterful showing to take her maiden F1 ACADEMY victory in Race 2.
Overall, Campos were team to beat across the weekend, scoring a total of 71 points and their Team Manager was delighted by what they had achieved in front of their compatriots.
“I’m feeling amazing!” Parra elated. “We tried to maximise as much as we could during this weekend. It's always nice to have good results when you're at your home race in front of the crowd that is cheering you. To have grabbed Chloe’s first win and then Nerea and Chloe’s podium was amazing, so feeling on a high.”
Asked whether she thought a win could’ve been on the cards for them ahead of the weekend, she replied: “It was a thought that we had right before arriving here. The girls were preparing quite a lot during the pre-event time. Then, we knew for sure that we would fight hard with Abbi (Pulling) because she’s doing strong performances as well. We always come with hunger before our race weekend, so it was a chance and we took it.
“It was a mixed feeling. You always want to have a good gap to the one behind you, but then also, you want to be safe just in case something happens. You might have a Safety Car and then you need to have enough tyres to prepare for a restart.
“That’s what we were always trying to tell her on the radio, that she should manage the gap and that’s what she did perfectly. Just trying to build up that gap, managing the pace to keep Abbi behind and secure the win for us.”
After podiums in Jeddah and Miami, alongside their strong pace in-season testing, there were signs that even more was to come from Campos. However, making good on their potential isn’t always as easy as it looks and Parra credits the Spanish squad’s teamwork and their trio of Chambers, Martí and Carrie Schreiner’s work ethics for driving them forward.
“The initial part is just the team that we are,” she said. “We are a really strong team, we are quite together and we are working closely and harder. Every time we are trying to push harder in the preparations for every event and we’re pushing harder with the girls as well. I think the individual work from every part of the team has made us grow and given us success.
“When you have a strong line-up, it’s really good because every single driver wants to be the first one all the time. It just helps you to push yourself every time and they are competitive by nature, so they are always pushing each other on and off-track.
“They are always trying to cheer on the other ones, but at the same time, trying to put some pressure. It’s amazing that we can have a good level inside of the team that makes all the drivers grow.”
After finishing bottom of the Teams’ Standings in 2023, Campos now sit second, 23 points behind leaders Rodin Motorsport. In addition, they are the only team to have two drivers inside the top six, with Chambers in third — tied with Doriane Pin on 81 points — and Martí in fourth on 63.
Reaching their initial benchmark before they hit the halfway mark, Parra is confident that they’ve got what it takes to bring the fight to Abbi Pulling and Rodin as they head to another returning venue in Zandvoort.
“That’s what we’re going for now,” Parra said. “The target of the weekend was to overtake into P2 of the Teams’ Standings and that’s what we did. Now we need to grab more points. Zandvoort — it is the next target and then we will go for it.
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“Nothing is decided. The best thing is to keep the momentum, try to take everything that we learned from here and what we have been doing. Now we have a month and a half off where we can think about the things that were not in place. Then, just prepare better and better so we can challenge the leaders in the Standings.
“We should review a bit more on what our next target is and then we’ll start doing all the things to prepare. Try to predict what could the weekend be like over there. It’s quite different to what we had last year. We will see, going into the weekend with F1 and being in the summer as we were last year. We could have a good hype, and definitely go for another win!”