September 26, 2021

Objective Achieved! Juan Manuel Fought Again Despite Issues with His Car

FIA Formula 3
2021 Season
Sochi Autodrom

Juan Manuel's great success in this last race of the 2021 FIA Formula 3 Season was to be able to say, OBJECTIVE ACHIEVED!

To be the driver again, recover his best level, the sportsman almost in top form and the human being, was the objective of this year of transition in F3, and the last race of the season showed that all this has been achieved thanks to the effort, tenacity, passion, without forgetting the care of the medical team coordinated by Xavi Martos in Barcelona, who have made this "miracle" possible, which today has been shown on track.

As a driver who aims for more every day, Juan Manuel was not satisfied with the way the race went, but while the driver was at his best this season, the car was not so good and an increasing oversteer kept him away from podium positions, which was Juan Manuel's goal.

Finishing eleventh did not leave him with a good taste, especially after the best qualifying result of the year, but we could see the best Juan Manuel of the year, fighting and defending his position against the best drivers in the category, even when it was with means that were not up to expectations.

After the suspension of the second race on Saturday due to rain, F3 resumed the action with the third race on dry tarmac. Juan Manuel started from fifth and made a good start, keeping his position for the first four laps, in the wake of his teammate Frederik Vesti and leading a large and very combative group, which had a clear advantage over Juan Manuel by using the DRS, He started to have a lot of stability problems in the car, with an oversteer that punished his tyres and made him slow down a lot, and that, together with the DRS of those who came from behind, made him lose positions gradually until he was 11th, losing the point awarded by the tenth position in the last few meters of the race.

The positive side of the weekend was having a qualifying session that left him in the top five and defending his position during the first few laps, until the car's problems started. He was seen fighting with the best, defending his position and we have to keep the image of a Juan Manuel in top form and fighting for top positions, which was the main goal this.


This is how Juan Manuel saw his race:

"It wasn’t the race we expected. The car had balance problems, which we already had during the first race on Friday and which we couldn’t solve, but it was even worse. From the first lap I had a lot of oversteer and it was a very difficult race. I tried every possible manoeuvre to defend my fifth position, but it was impossible to fend off all those guys who came with better pace and DRS.
After I was fourth on the first lap I tried everything, I fought with everything, but in the end I couldn't get into the points as I would have liked in this last race of the season. Now it's time to think about next year, to prepare for next season and to be much stronger than this year".