Interview
‘One of our weakest weekends out of the way’ – Race winner Palmowski expecting greater things as Campos reflect on Shanghai success
Alisha Palmowski is predicting that greater things are to come for Campos Racing after the team's trio delivered three pieces of silverware in Shanghai. That success saw the outfit score a 50-point haul to propel them to the top of the Teams' Standings.
Palmowski might have led teammate Chloe Chambers in a Campos 1-2 in Race 1, but she was less at ease behind the wheel for the rolling start in Race 2. Wheel spin out of Turn 14 seemed to exaggerate a difficult start for the Red Bull Racing driver, who lost P5 to Kick Sauber’s Emma Felbermayr in the latter stages.
“We were immediately on the backfoot with a rolling start,” explained Palmowski. “I was looking forward to the standing start which would have given us the best opportunity to try and make up positions at the start of the race.
“From the very start, we just struggled with a change in balance in the car. There was a lot more understeer and some wheel spin. As a result of that, we suffered from quite a lot of degradation on the front left, which my pace was struggling more and more towards the end, so not at all what we wanted.”
With only one Free Practice session to play with in Jeddah, Palmowski identified her ability to adapt to track evolution as her biggest weakness but feels that Shanghai should be her lowest point, despite the Race 1 victory.
“I’m used to, in the UK, going out day-to-day, session-to-session and the track being exactly the same. There’s no difference, whereas now when you go out after Formula 1 have been out and laid rubber down, the track feels like a completely different circuit.
“I need to work on how quickly I can adapt to the changes in Qualifying, I know I need to make progress there. Also, tyre management in general. I think it was exaggerated today with the balance of the car (…) but tyre management with the hot temperatures is something that’s completely new to me.”
She added: “I do feel like Jeddah will be a circuit that will suit me better. I’ve always really enjoyed it since it’s been on the F1 calendar and playing it on the F1 game. When I heard it (Shanghai) was on the calendar, I think I knew this was going to be a weak track for us.
“As a team, I’ve got strong teammates and really happy that we’ve all had a relatively successful weekend. It’s great to compare data with Chloe and Rafa to see how we can all bounce off each other and improve. We’re in a good position and I think this will be one of our weakest weekends out of the way.”
In terms of overall points, the Spanish squad’s efforts were headed by Chambers — their only second-year driver — who claimed back-to-back podium finishes. Seizing a P3 finish with a move on Alba Larsen on the penultimate lap, the Red Bull Ford driver acknowledged how the rolling start left her unable to bring herself into the battle for the lead between eventual winner Doriane Pin and Maya Weug.
“It made it a little bit messy at the start,” she explained. “It made it a little bit more difficult to make positions right off the jump, so I had to work a little bit more throughout the race for it.
“Overall, it was really nice to see the way that I was able to handle the tyres and especially in the dirty air, which is where you kill the tyres the most. I wasn’t losing too much time at the end of the race to those in front, so it’s pretty positive. I think tyre management will come into play at a lot of the other tracks that we go to as well.”
Reflecting on the battle with Larsen, she commented: “Honestly, I was just trying to put pressure on her a little bit. She’s a rookie, so I don’t really know how the rookies all race, so I try to take it a little bit more cautiously with them because it’s new territory for me and them. Alba raced me really clean, it was just about forcing her into a mistake.”
Although her race pace remains strong, Chambers admitted that Qualifying was continuing to hold her back as she looks to close the seven-point gap to Standings leader Pin.
“Third in the Standings after the first race weekend is really manageable,” she said. “I had two pretty good races moving up from where I started from, so I can be happy with that. In the future, I’d like to qualify better, this is kind of a broken record now. I’m feeling pretty confident that our Qualifying performance can be really good. This weekend, it was just a case of bad luck rather than driver error or setup error.”
Completing the trio, Rafaela Ferreira was handed two grid penalties for causing a collision with Lia Block in Practice. Yet the Racing Bulls driver overcame the setbacks to finish her debut weekend comfortably inside the points in both races.
“We didn’t start in a really good position,” she admitted. “We didn’t do Free Practice and I think this was a little bit bad for us, mainly for Qualifying as I could not qualify in a good position when I was expecting the top-10.
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“I think we did really good recovery races. We finished Race 1 in P5 and Race 2 in P8, so it was really good to get points in the first round. I’m feeling prepared for Jeddah and the testing is going to be really useful for me because I’ve never raced before on a street circuit and never drove in the evening when it’s dark. So, it’s going to be a little different and challenging, but I’m confident as this round was really good for us.”