Marta García wrapped up her Formula Regional European Championship season with a top-20 finish at Monza, showing good racecraft in both wet and dry conditions as she prepares for a promising next chapter in her career.
Iron Dame Marta García completed her season in the Formula Regional European Championship with a top-20 finishes at Monza. García raced confidently in the season finale as she displayed speed and consistency in both wet and dry conditions. Her racecraft enabled her to move forward in both races and this will be encouraging as García looks ahead to the 2025 season.
García arrived at Monza fresh off her second victory of the year in the Ligier European Series. The Spanish driver has adapted superbly to endurance racing over the course of the year and as a result, she was rewarded with a test in an Iron Dames prepared Porsche 911 LMGT3 machine.
Now turning her attention back to the Formula Regional European Championship, Marta was looking to add to her two top-15 finishes so far this season. The Iron Dame had also scored four further top-20 results and was looking to end her debut campaign in the series on a high.
On-track action at Monza began on Thursday with a pre-event collective test where García completed 50 laps across the day, while setting the 26th fastest time in wet conditions. On Friday, the first of two test sessions was also held in wet conditions with Marta’s quickest lap of a 1:56.492 placing her 28th. The second session was held in drying conditions and this posed another challenge to the young driver with the Iron Dame ending the day in 26th position.
Qualifying was set to take place on Saturday morning with Marta drawn into Group A. Conditions were treacherous with persistent rain and standing water on track. Garcia had a spin at Ascari on the first lap of the session and as conditions deteriorated, the session was subsequently cancelled. Therefore, grid positions for race one were based on the fastest times set in the second test session with the Iron Dame lining up from 26th position.
"We had tests in very wet conditions, so we were learning and getting up to speed in the wet", García told us. "FP2 was a bit more in mixed conditions - the track was drying but we went on slicks. However it's been a bit messy and we didn't really have a clean lap with traffic", she added. "The problem with it was that with the cancelled qualifying those became the grid positions, and we started the first race in 26th place."
Track conditions remained wet for race one of the weekend and therefore the race got underway under the safety car. Starting from 26th, García made a clean start and although she lost out to Enzo Deligny at the Rettifilo, she was building up her confidence in the tough conditions.
Noah Stromsted then moved ahead with the Danish driver out of position in his RPM machine, before Marta settled into 28th position during the initial stages of the race.
García was improving her times and began applying pressure to Alex Sawer with the Vietnamese driver defending his position well.
On lap six, Nikita Bedrin then moved ahead before teammate Doriane Pin entered the pits, with García therefore remaining in 28th position. The battles in the midfield remained close and after Alessandro Giusti entered the pits and Giovanni Maschio went off-track, Marta was up to 26th. The Iron Dame then made a nice move on Sawer as she climbed into the top-25 for the first time in the race.
García’s pace in the closing stages was strong and by lap 12, she had moved ahead of both Nicola Lacorte and Romain Andriolo. The safety car was then deployed to retrieve Lacorte’s Trident machine with the race resuming for one final lap. Marta was able to take advantage of a number of incidents ahead of her and gained three further positions on the last lap to finish in 20th position to score her seventh top-20 result of the campaign.
Conditions remained challenging for the final qualifying session of the 2024 season which took place on Sunday morning. All drivers fitted the wet tyres and were looking to maximise their time in the fifteen-minutes available. García displayed good speed in the early part of the lap on her way to setting the 13th fastest time in Group A with a best lap of a 1:57.404.
"In the second qualifying it looked to be dry, but in the end it turned out to be wet again", Marta explained. "We had once again traffic in the final two laps and didn't get into the rhythm, although we were a little over a second from the top which wasn't so bad."
For the season finale, conditions were dry and therefore the slick tyres were required for just the second time all weekend. García lined up from 24th on the grid following a grid penalty ahead and did well to avoid damage at the Rettifilo chicane.
The Iron Dames driver completed lap one in 26th position and was now defending from both Edgar Pierre and Romain Andriolo. The pair of French drivers were able to move ahead, however Garcia overtook Nandhavud Bhirombhakdi, while Pierre received a five-second time penalty for a false start.
On lap three, Andriolo crashed and the safety car was required with Marta now back into 26th position. The Spanish driver was back inside the top-25 prior to the restart as Brando Badoer’s Van Amersfoort Racing machine received significant damage. A multi-car incident at the Rettifilo chicane then allowed García to take advantage and move into 22nd position. With three further cars requiring recovery, the safety car was deployed for the second time in the race.
García continued to climb the order on the restart with Trident driver Roman Bilinski pitting to replace his front wing. As lap nine progressed, Marta moved into the top-20 as contact between Ruiqi Liu and Doriane Pin saw Garcia’s Iron Dames teammate spin at the La Roggia chicane. Although the KIC Motorsport machine of Bhirombhakdi moved back ahead on lap 10, García held down a top-20 position as further incidents unfolded ahead.
At the La Roggia chicane, Pierre made contact with the wall and this left his RPM machine stranded on track. Exiting the first Lesmo corner, Liu then lost control and collected Bhirombhakdi with Marta smartly avoiding this incident ahead.
The ART Grand Prix machine of Yaroslav Veselaho was able to benefit from García’s loss of momentum, however the Iron Dame was still up to 19th prior to the red flag being thrown. However, a post-race penalty demoted Marta to 24th place to close-out her season.
It was action-packed final race in the Formula Regional European Championship for Garcia who closed out the season with an encouraging top-20 result. Marta drove smartly throughout the weekend and was rewarded as she benefited from a number of accidents around her.
"Race 2 was a bit eventful, with many crashes", the Spaniard summarized. "At the end you just have to keep it on track and not crash to move up. However with three safety cars it was impossible to move up in a 30 minute race."
"It was a bittersweet weekend, being the last Formula Regional round, and likely my last in single seaters, but I'm happy about everything I experienced and learnt."
The Iron Dames driver secured her seventh top-20 of the season and ended the year with just one retirement to her name as she maximised her track time. These skills will be important as García is set to likely continue her motorsport career in endurance racing while maintaining links to the inspirational Iron Dames outfit.
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