Interview
‘We’ve made baby steps’ - Anagnostiadis vows to push on after progress in Miami
Aiva Anagnostiadis might not have added any points on the board in Miami, but the TAG Heuer driver reckons there were more positives to her performance than the results themselves show.
It’s no secret that Anagnostiadis and her Hitech TGR team have been playing catch-up to the rest of the field across the first three rounds, with a solitary point in Race 1 their only fruitful result so far.
Miami started in much the same vein, with the Australian finishing bottom of the timing sheets across FP1, FP2 and Qualifying, but she survived a frenetic Race 1 unscathed to finish in P14.
Denied the chance to make more progress up the order after the postponement of Race 2, Anagnostiadis lamented the rain’s unfortunate timing for costing her a shot at moving up the order from the outset in Qualifying.
“I think there was a bit of a miscommunication on the radio,” she noted. “We thought it was going to stop raining and by the time we had already set up a gap in position, we’d come around the third Sector and it was wet. It was a bit disappointing not being able to get a lap in.
“In Race 1, we made up positions, a lot of people ended up off the track. Pace was actually a lot better than the last two rounds and from Practice we closed the gap quite a bit, so we were kind of happy with that (…) We’ve made baby steps this round and then we take what we’ve learnt to Montreal and keep going.”
A tough run has seen Anagnostiadis drop to 14th in the Standings, whilst Hitech TGR remain last of the six teams, four points behind ART Grand Prix.
With no testing prior to racing in Miami or next time out in Montreal, the 17-year-old is keenly aware of the uphill battle she’ll once again face but is determined to make whatever inroads she can.
“This is probably my first proper series ever in F4, so we’re still trying to take in every round and take back what we need to work on,” she explained. “We’ve made progress in that first race, so if we can take it, do sim work and work as hard as we possibly can to attract that. We’re not going to have the testing (beforehand), it’s going to be like this so we need to develop over the next couple of weeks that we have over the break and get a full push for that.”