Guest Column
Nerea Martí’s Miami Weekend Round-Up: Always searching for improvement
Two years on from scoring a podium in Miami, Nerea Martí returned to battle it out on the American streets, hungry for more success in her sophomore F1 ACADEMY campaign.
With her previous track knowledge giving her an idea of what to expect, the Tommy Hilfiger driver hit the ground running in both Free Practice sessions. However, a disappointing Qualifying put her on the back foot and whilst a solid Race 1 brought her a big haul of points, she couldn’t quite keep up the pace in Race 2.
Reflecting on Round 2, Martí delved into how her weekend unfolded and discussed how she’s constantly striving for progress, even when events aren’t unfolding in her favour.
PRACTICE 1 – P4
“I’m really excited to be back here in Miami. I love Miami! I feel good because I already have confidence here and I know the track. But to honest, in W Series I was on track three times for 30 minutes, so knowing the track is obviously an advantage, but we did not have too much time on track.
“So, I’m already still improving and it’s also a different car. It’s an amazing track and I was on the podium here. I started on pole, but then I stalled — so I hope to do the same, the pole not the stall. I got P2 here, so let’s keep the same things going.
“FP1 was good because we were improving my driving and also in the car, but we didn’t put everything together. I did a lot of mistakes with my driving because I was trying too hard.”
PRACTICE 2 – P3
“In FP2, we put everything together. We need to keep working because we have some tenths to find, but it was much better. I stopped running a bit before, so the other drivers did a few more laps, so they improved at the end.
"When I stopped, the times were really close, so I have a good feeling. I hope to keep improving somethings than I need work on and let’s put everything together for tomorrow to try and take pole.
“The most important things I learnt from FP1 to FP2 was the braking and the handling in the car. We had crazy oversteer, I think everyone did because I watched F1TV and I saw everyone fighting with the cars. So, I focused on braking and then having confidence with the walls. At this track, it’s easy to miss the apex and waste a lot of time because the straights are super long and you need to keep the inside and brake as late as possible.
“I’m feeling good, I’m happy, I feel confident. I just need to put everything together and manage Qualifying because it’s easy to see some fluctuation. So, we need to manage it the best way possible, but I have confidence."
QUALIFYING – P6 (FOR RACE 1) & P5 (FOR RACE 2)
“After Qualifying, I was a bit sad because we wanted more, but anyways we were there. It was amazing to be with Kendall Jenner and Tommy Hilfiger (yesterday). I was really excited to meet them, to take some pictures and speak a bit. It’s an amazing opportunity from Tommy Hilfiger.
"Kendall and I were speaking about the drivers and the Tommy Hilfiger car, that is amazing. Also, she told me that she was going to do a hot lap with Lewis Hamilton, so I told her that she’s going to enjoy it.”
RACE 1 – P4
“I had crazy pace. It was amazing, but I did a lot of mistakes when overtaking and managing the race. I had enough pace to get P2 and I was P4 at the end, but it was not a good race for me.”
READ MORE: Schreiner satisfied by Race 2 improvements but fell short of pre-weekend targets
RACE 2 – P7
“I was really motivated because I wanted to improve the things that I had learnt yesterday, but we didn’t have any pace. We were super slow, like one second slower than in Race 1 and compared to the other drivers, so it was too much.
“I was just trying to manage improving the things that I did wrong yesterday and, in some ways, I was better. I’m happy for this part because I am improving and learning more about my driving, but we didn’t have any pace.
“It was a really, really tough race for me. I was struggling a lot; I was fighting all the time with the car. P7 was the result in the end, but we need to analyse what happened in the second race, try to analyse everything with the team at the workshop and put a solution together for the next round.”
NEXT TIME OUT – FIGHTING FOR VICTORY IN FRONT OF HER BARCELONA HOME CROWD
“The next round will be in Barcelona. I’m really excited, it’s a home race for me and the team. I will be super happy to be there in front of all the fans and in front of all the Spanish people, it will be really amazing — I can’t wait to be there.
“I want to be in the front. Of course, I want to be at the top, it’s always the goal and we will work to be there because we didn’t have the pace in the race today. Normally, we have the pace and the speed, so we just need to put everything together to try to win.”