Tim Tramnitz had a good weekend at the F3 Austrian GP, with a strong P6 in the Sprint Race and an incredible P2 in the Feature Race.
The MP Motorsport driver had a disappointing Qualifying, ending up in P17, but managed two incredible drives in the Sprint and Feature Race to maximise points from the Round.
Tramnitz finished ahead of Rafael Câmara in both races, bringing the gap in the Drivers’ Championship down to 24 points. Câmara had a tough weekend, while Nikola Tsolov was disqualified following the Feature Race, having crossed the line in P1.
Speaking to the media, the German praised the progress made by him and his team, but emphasised that his performances in Qualifying need to improve.
On the incredible drive in the Feature Race
While Tramnitz believed he could get a strong result from the Feature Race, he did not think he was going to place as high.
“Anything is possible. For me I would have been satisfied with a top five finish. But when the podium is just there, you try to get that little extra out of it.”
He later added: “I said to myself why shouldn’t it be possible, and just went for it.”
Satisfied with race strategy and management at Spielberg
Although critical of his performance in Qualifying, Tramnitz was quick to praise the race strategy and the tweaks the team made between Friday and Saturday.
“[I] didn’t really have the confidence on the brakes, here in quali, struggled a bit. So we made some changes to the brake system which helped.”
On the impact of DRS around the Red Bull Ring, he added: “What’s also important and quite difficult on this track is the DRS management in general. So coming from the race yesterday where it was possible to get some learnings from the race, I think we executed quite well today and were clever in terms of using the DRS.”
Plenty of critique for his Qualifying performance
Throughout the questions asked to Tramnitz, he continually mentioned his dissatisfaction with his own performances in qualifying. The German believes that his race pace is strong, and now qualifying needs work to maximise results.
“We seem to have the race pace all the time, I just need to have my quali sorted. That’s the main focus for the next rounds, because I feel like we are always quick [in the races]. It’s just the Friday we need to get sorted.”
On trying to resolve the Friday issues for future rounds, Tranmitz thinks progress is already being made.
“I think there are already a few things that worked out quite fell even though we couldn’t show it on Friday.
“It’s just missing it a little bit in the final run, where there is the opportunity to get this little extra. I have so far struggled a little bit to get it out of the car, but for sure it’s possible.”
With Silverstone next weekend, Tramnitz is reserved about his hopes: “Silverstone is not one of the tracks I know best. But, it’s a track I enjoy driving.”
