Interview
Huntingford praises Felbermayr’s hard work in stellar weekend for Rodin
Rodin Motorsport Team Principal Benn Huntingford had nothing but good things to say about Emma Felbermayr’s performance in Shanghai, with the 19-year-old instrumental in taking the squad to the top of the Teams’ Standings.
The Audi driver kicked off her second year in the series in fine form by converting P3 in Qualifying to a Race 1 podium and Race 2 victory, securing more points than any other competitor over the weekend.
In the reverse grid race, Felbermayr survived a near-miss with Ferrari’s Alba Larsen and went on the attack on the final lap, snatching third place from Rafaela Ferreira. She then took advantage of another mistake by Larsen in Race 2, inheriting the lead when the Dane went wide on the Safety Car restart.
Reflecting on her double podium finish, Huntingford said: “Obviously this is Emma’s second year so she’s been to the circuits before, and I think that really shows in the way that she’s approaching it.
“She’s been working really hard over the winter with her racing and her driving, doing a lot on the simulator and stuff like that. It’s all come good. We’re really happy with everything we’ve achieved over the weekend. We worked quite hard at the test when we were out here earlier this month.
“We worked through lots of things with the drivers, with different set-ups and different approaches for Qualifying and the races. That’s worked out really well for us over the course of the weekend.”
There were promising signs from the remaining Rodin drivers too, with Ella Lloyd bouncing back from an underwhelming Qualifying to claim points in both races. The McLaren driver improved from P10 to P7 in Race 1, before going even further in Sunday’s event to cross the line in fifth place.
Meanwhile, rookie Ella Stevens stayed out of trouble on her second weekend competing in single-seaters and qualified just 0.005s slower than Lloyd. Although she didn’t score – taking P11 and P12 across the two races – Huntingford labelled it a strong start for the 19-year-old.
“It’s a difficult weekend here with the way the circuit is – lots of challenging corners and lots to learn for somebody doing their first race weekend, but I think she’s done an amazing job to be where she was,” he said. “She dropped back a little bit yesterday in Race 1 but managed to fight her way back through to where she started.”