Hitech Happy with Silverstone F3 Debut

10 March 2008

British Formula 3 Champions Hitech Racing took to the track again on Thursday at the official media launch of the British Formula 3 International Series on Silverstone’s International circuit. The confirmed line-up of rapid Austrian Walter Grubmüller and rising British star Max Chilton joined the rest of the 25-car field for three hours of running around the 2.25 mile circuit and wound up fifth and eighth quickest after a trouble-free run.

With just two weeks to go before the first round, at Oulton Park on Easter Monday, the Buckingham-based team set up by David Hayle continued its pre-event testing at the Northamptonshire track on Friday. However heavy traffic made things difficult to set any competitive laps.

Both Walter and Max were about to make their respective runs on new tyres when the red lights interrupted due to an oil spillage which covered 30% of the race track and rendered the remaining track time impossible to improve their lap times.

The team will now join the rest of the series regulars at Oulton Park this Wednesday, their final outing before the official test at the Cheshire track on March 21 prior to Saturday’s qualifying and Monday’s two races.

“We had a good run with no problems but sadly were unable to get any real clear space for setting any quick laps,” said Team Principal David Hayle. “However once again both Max and Walter showed great maturity and an ever-improving turn of speed and I’m very happy with both of their performances, our first time in the new cars on our home circuit.

“It’s only testing though and the real test of where we are at will come in the qualifying for the opening two rounds on Easter Saturday. Walter raced there with us last year so benefits from a little circuit knowledge. Although Max has not raced there in F3 before as he was too young to race last season, we have two opportunities to get him acclimatised to the intricacies of the demanding track and hopefully that will be enough.”

MPR Associates

See 2008 series calendar for British F3 Championship

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