Novinky

Filip Salaquarda opened his account winning his first three points in this year’s World Series by Renault 3.5. He finished a strong eighth in the only race in Monte Carlo, Monaco where the event was held as part of the Formula One Grand Prix weekend.

Even so, the Prague-based driver, defending the colours of the ISR Racing team, was not completely satisfied: “Qualifying was not running the way I imagined it. I always ruined the middle sector a bit on the laps when I had a clear road up ahead.” All the same, Salaquarda took a promising seventh on the starting grid. His new team-mate, Alexander Rossi of the USA, was even two places better though he had a minor accident at Massanet.

“It was a weekend to remember”, says ISR Racing team principal Igor Salaquarda analyzing the second round of the World Series by Renault 3.5 at Spa-Francorchamps, Belgium with the benefit of hindsight. No surprise about that. It's not often that a team finds itself dead broke one day, and climbs the top step on the podium the next.

Saturday was really a failure for the two ISR drivers, Filip Salaquarda and Esteban Guerrieri of Argentina. Filip could not run any fast lap during qualifying because the session was constantly suspended with red flags. Eventually, he had to content himself with his position at the tail end of the starting grid. Guerrieri fared even worse fighting against time. He locked his front wheels at the least convenient place, at the steep downhill approach to the Rivage passage. “We’d had a bit trouble with brake warming since Friday. In a bid to get rid of this problem, Esteban adjusted braking effect distribution to both axles. But this was not a lucky decision. Besides, he was too close to the dirty edge of the track at the crucial moment so he was unable to avert an accident”, explains Igor Salaquarda. Although the car did not seem to be heavily damaged at first sight, a detailed check made by his mechanics revealed that the steering gear was damaged. Unfortunately, there was not enough time to repair the car by the race start. Neither could Filip Salaquarda get a break from bad luck. A hose leading from gearbox to cooler burst on his car during the war-up lap. “Such a petty connecting piece failed. Nothing was apparent while I was driving. But as soon as I stopped on the starting grid, oil leaking onto the exhaust pipe burst into flames. Luckily, the fire was quickly extinguished and so it didn’t damage the engine”, Filip Salaquarda recalls the dramatic moments.

The Sunday qualifying was marked by Filip’s continued suffering. There was no way for him to hit a relatively light-traffic lap and, above all, not under yellow flags. Esteban was a tad luckier even though his 12^th grid position did not promise miracles.

However, it was an unpredictable weather typical of the Ardennes that came into play. As the drivers were on the way to the grid, it began to drizzle. After a hurried consultation and especially a fleeting glance at the overcast sky, a decision was made to change to wet tyres. This action was subsequently taken by most rivals, but they forgot to follow the time…

During the warm-up lap, a torrential rain came down even turning into a hailstorm for a while. This is why the start was logically postponed. However, the ISR mechanics did not laze about during this idle period: “We finished adjusting the car to a wet race. This is not easy even under normal conditions while now the boys had to work in torrential conditions. Yet, they handled their task perfectly”, says Igor Salaquarda.

In the first phase, Guerrieri was lying between the first and second dozens while Salaquarda was slowly moving up: “I overtook Kunimoto, but it was a great adventure. The cars running ahead of me raised clouds of water fog, which meant that I had to run virtually without seeing anything every now and then. As I’d failed to make it to the finish three times before, I wanted to nurse it home at all costs this time. Eventually, I did it.” It’s a shame there was a misunderstanding during Salaquarda’s pitstop when Guerrieri’s tyres had been prepared for Filip (each driver has his own set, and these sets cannot be interchanged even within the team). Waiting for the proper tyres, the Czech driver dropped from twelfth to the final fifteenth position.

However, the pitstops had a positive effect on the ISR team as well: “We kept an eye on our rivals in order to know when they would change their tyres. All of them did it very early. That’s why we kept both of our drivers on the track as long as possible. Having a clear road ahead, Esteban recorded one fastest lap after another”, says Igor Salaquarda revealing the secret of their sensational triumph. And there was one more factor playing into the hands of the team based at Čestlice near Prague. In a total of ten (!) cases during the above-mentioned tyre changing before the start, the mechanics were in contravention of clause prohibiting any work on the cars later than three minutes before the cars leave for the warm-up lap. The drivers involved, most of which had taken up the top positions on the grid, had to take their drive through penalties. To his amazement, Guerrieri suddenly appeared in the lead. He stayed in the leading position without difficulty until the chequered flag fell. “It was a very difficult race. You had to concentrate as much as possible all the time. As soon as I learned that ten cars had to drive through the pitlane as punishment, I pushed as hard as I could. As I saw the pit board showing P1, I was surprised, but happy. It’s an excellent result for ISR. We’re a new team, and we’ve really deserved this victory”, the winner said immediately after the awards ceremony.