"Unfortunately, due to the heat and the track evolution we went in the wrong direction with set up, and we struggled as a result which compromised our whole weekend." - Alpine Academy driver Sophia Floersch faced a challenging FIA F3 weekend at the Hungaroring due to a difficult qualifying session and a lack of overtaking opportunities, but gained valuable experience as she looks forward to returning to Spa, one year after scoring her first points.
Alpine Academy driver Sophia Floersch returned to FIA Formula 3 action at the Hungaroring where she achieved a best result of 23rd. It was a challenging weekend for Floersch after a disrupted qualifying and session prevented the Van Amersfoort Racing driver from achieving her one-lap potential. Overtaking proved challenging throughout both races with Floersch securing a pair of top-25 results while gaining valuable experience during the course of the event.
Overtaking proved challenging throughout both races with Floersch securing a pair of top-25 results while gaining valuable experience during the course of the event.
Racing at the Hungaroring provided the perfect opportunity for Floersch to bounce back following an unfortunate previous meeting at Silverstone. Having never finished outside the top-20 in a FIA Formula 3 race at this venue prior to the weekend, the Alpine Academy driver was looking to continue her good form at the challenging, high-speed circuit.
Since competing at Silverstone, Floersch has tested in FIA Formula 2 machinery, while also driving a modern F1 car for the first time during demonstration runs at the Goodwood Festival of Speed.
The first on-track action at the Hungaroring took place on Saturday morning with hot conditions for the sole free practice session. With the high ambient temperatures, the majority of drivers chose not to turn laps during the first half of practice. Floersch and her Van Amersfoort Racing teammates took to the circuit with a little under half of the session completed and Sophia’s first flying lap was her quickest of the entire session. Showing excellent speed in sector one especially, Floersch ended practice in 20th position, just a quarter of a second away from the top-10.
Qualifying was held in the hottest conditions of the entire weekend and therefore maintaining a good car balance was challenging. On the first of three runs made by the Alpine Academy driver, Sophia had a single-car spin and although no damage was caused to the car, the tyres were unable to be used for a flying lap.
Less than two-thirds of the FIA Formula 3 drivers had a representative time on the board at the halfway point of the session, underlining the challenging conditions. Floersch negotiated a significant amount of traffic on her second run and was able to set a lap time of 1:35.851.
Extracting peak performance from the Pirelli tyre and matching this to a suitable car balance was still difficult for Sophia as qualifying progressed. On the final run of the session, Floersch had set a personal best middle sector but she was unable to finish her lap as the red flag was displayed and as a result, she qualified in 28th position.
“Hungaroring is an incredible track which is always fun to drive", Sophia commented. "Our weekend started off quite good with Free Practice. We had the speed and I felt confident going into Qualifying", she explained. "Unfortunately, due to the heat and the track evolution we went in the wrong direction with set up, and we struggled as a result which compromised our whole weekend."
Floersch lined up 24th on the grid for the opening race of the weekend courtesy of multiple grid penalties for her rivals. Track conditions were significantly cooler in comparison to qualifying and therefore this affected car setup as well as the nature of the racing. After an aborted start due to the Rodin Motorsport car of Joseph Loake being out of position, the race distance was reduced to 18 laps.
Sophia made a good start and improved her position through the opening turns, before an action-packed middle sector saw her take avoiding action. Floersch was forced onto the runoff area on the exit of turn 9 when Matias Zagazeta had suspension damage and was driving slowly on the racing line. As a result, the Van Amersfoort Racing driver slipped back to 24th position at the conclusion of the opening lap.
Sophia then lost out to the MP Motorsport machine of Alex Dunne on lap two, while Joshua Dufek also moved ahead before the virtual safety car was deployed to retrieve Zagazeta’s stricken car.
When the racing resumed, Floersch was able to move back into 24th following a puncture for Santiago Ramos and front wing damage for Nikola Tsolov. This forced both drivers into the pitlane, with Loake also requiring a trip through the pits following his out of position start. Now in 23rd position, Sophia had Dufek ahead of her and although overtaking was proving extremely difficult, she was applying pressure to her rival.
The race entered a stalemate phase during the middle portion as the majority of the drivers were in a DRS train and with tyre degradation low, completing overtaking manoeuvres was a challenge.
On lap 11, Dufek fell out of DRS range of the car ahead and therefore Floersch was able to close in. However, maintaining a close gap to the car ahead was difficult through the high-speed middle sector and this prevented a number of moves from being made. The low tyre degradation was also a factor and this was highlighted on lap 15 as Sophia set her personal best lap of the race. Starting the final lap just three tenths of a second behind Dufek, the AIX Racing driver defended his position well with Floersch taking the checkered flag in 23rd position.
The second race of the weekend got underway on Sunday morning with Floersch lining up from 27th position on the grid. It was a strong start for the Alpine Academy driver who ended the opening lap in 24th after a close battle with Campos Racing’s Sebastian Montoya. After losing out to Montoya and Joshua Dufek on lap two, a recovering Tim Tramnitz moved ahead on lap three with Floersch now focusing forward.
Dufek was now ahead and Sophia was pushing hard to remain within DRS range of the AIX Racing driver. Overtaking was still challenging in race two of the weekend, however the increased race distance led to slightly higher tyre wear and therefore a greater number of battles took place throughout the field.
Into the second half of the contest, the gap between Floersch and Dufek hovered at around half a second, before the Alpine Academy driver cut the deficit to three tenths of a second on lap 19.
With three laps remaining, an incident between Arvid Lindblad and Matias Zagazeta led to the safety car being deployed as both cars required recovery. This promoted Floersch to 25th position, however the safety car remained on-track for the remainder of the race which meant that no further racing laps were able to be completed.
A penalty for Sophia’s Van Amersfoort Racing teammate Tommy Smith resulted in Floersch being classified in 24th position, later promoted to 23rd, to end a challenging weekend at the Hungaroring.
"Overtaking is challenging at Hungaroring which meant that our results were fixed for the weekend", Floersch added, stressing how the qualifying run severely influenced the remainder of the race meeting.
Nevertheless, the Alpine Academy driver completed a clean weekend of racing and although not achieving the ultimate results, Floersch was able to bank vital experience to carry forward into the final two rounds of the season. Sophia has fond memories of Spa-Francorchamps after her historic points scoring finish last year and she will be looking to replicate this when the FIA Formula 3 Championship returns in less than a weeks’ time.
"Spa-Francorchamps is next up this weekend. I am very much looking forward to it and I hope that we can maximise everything this time around.”
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