Last season in the FIA Formula 3 Championship I had to deal with a loss of energy, feeling unwell, and I was losing lots of weight too. I managed OK in pre-season testing but, during the opening race weekend in Bahrain, I struggled. I had no strength to drive, and it was really hard. I was later diagnosed with Crohn’s disease, so withdrew from racing while I recovered and regained my fitness. Thankfully, that happened quite quickly, and I was able to come back at Silverstone in the middle of the season and finish in the top 10.
It was just before the last few rounds last year that we started exploring options for another team for the 2023 season, and decided we would go with MP Motorsport, who are a great team. They are proven race winners and I get on really well with all the engineers and mechanics, and there were a couple I knew from testing with MP at the end of 2020 too. There were still quite a lot of new people to get to know, but I get on well with my team-mates as well, and it’s full of really nice people. That’s good.
The first few rounds of this year were really difficult but, since the fourth weekend at Barcelona, we changed some things and it’s been going a lot better. Some weekends haven’t gone exactly to plan, but I’m consistently in the top 10 in qualifying and where I’d expect to be, whereas at the start of the year I was struggling a lot and wasn’t fast, so I’m happy that things have improved.
I also took part in the Formula E Rookie Test in Berlin earlier this year, with Envision Racing. It was really interesting and something very different to everything I’ve done before. I was there for the weekend watching and listening to the debriefs, and to see how a much bigger team works. You have 10 to 15 engineers just for two cars, so it was really good to be a part of a race weekend and then take part in the test.
Source: Autosport