Chambers delighted with Campos’ progress in Qatar testing as team forced to ‘start from scratch’

Chloe Chambers’ experience of in-season testing in Qatar got off to a less than ideal start, but the Haas driver was delighted to bounce back and put the preparation setbacks behind her.

The devastating floods that took place in Valencia at the end of October meant that the Campos Racing team were unable have simulator time back at their base ahead of the three days of testing.

Consequently, Chambers and her teammates spent the early phase of testing learning the layout and basics around the Lusail International Circuit, whilst their rivals focused on fine-tuning their setups.

Left at a disadvantage, Chambers admitted that the setbacks were tough to deal with, but she was satisfied by how the team overcame them.

“We’ve made really good progress during the test,” she explained. “After the first day, we were sitting around the top 10 or just outside the top 10. Yesterday, we were just within the top 10 and then today, to have two top fives in the last couple of sessions was really good, especially since we didn’t get to do any sim prep due to the flooding in Valencia.

“It was really a week of starting from scratch and I think that put us on the backfoot in the beginning. But overall, as a team, I think we made some really good progress and now we just have to finish up those last little bits during the race weekend.”

Their ability to make up lost ground was clear to see on the timing sheets. After finishing the opening session in P12 — 1.4s off the leading pace — the gap steadily closed up across the following five sessions and Chambers ended Day 3 in fourth, three tenths adrift of Doriane Pin’s fastest lap.

When asked about the challenges the lack of simulator time posed, she said: “I’ve always done sim prep before every event this year, so I didn’t know how much to expect us to be behind by. But obviously, it turned out to be a little bit more than I had expected.

“I think overall, we were able to make up for it a bit. We were really lucky that we had a test ahead of this because, had this been the race weekend, I think it would have been a bit of a different story and it would have been a lot higher stress situation.

READ MORE: Pin fastest of all on final day of Qatar testing

“Now I think we can go into the race weekend feeling pretty confident. Of course, now we're going to go back and do some more sim prep well ahead of the last two rounds, but I think now we're in a much better place than we were earlier on in the week.”

She added: “Right now, we’re pretty strong on Qualifying pace. We only did one race run because we were trying to do a lot of performance runs to get the balance right. I think not having that simulator prep had hindered that a little bit.

“Originally, our plan was to do two race runs, maybe even a third shorter long run. In that one race run, we did definitely learn quite a bit. Honestly, I think our race pace will be good, but it’s a whole different story on an F1 weekend with the F1 rubber and all the different classes that are here (…) to help rubber in the track a bit. During this test, it’s just us, so it’ll be a whole different story next time.”

With testing in Qatar and Abu Dhabi in the books and her spirits lifted ahead of the final two rounds, Chambers is geared up to fight her way back onto the podium for the first time since Round 3 in Barcelona.

“I’m feeling pretty confident honestly, seeing how much we were able to progress during the test,” she asserted. “I’m very proud of the team and everybody for really sticking to it, especially after the first day.

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“We were about a second and a half off on the first day, so we all left the track not feeling great, but we really turned it around. I think that’s a big testament to how well the team works together and is able to learn off of each other.

“My expectation for the end of the year is hopefully a podium. I think a podium for the end of the year would be really nice, especially since it's going to be my last two races with the MoneyGram Haas F1 Team. I'd like to do as well as I can, hopefully even a win — that would be the ideal situation.

“Looking at it realistically because we started off on the back foot a bit here at the test, we're still playing catch up a bit. We'll see, honestly, I don't know!”