Interview
Pirro concedes ‘you always want more’ despite positive weekend in Zandvoort for PREMA
Team Manager Goffredo Pirro believes that PREMA Racing’s trio of drivers had a satisfactory weekend in Zandvoort but asserted that they can aim for even better results in the remaining two rounds.
Thanks to Nina Gademan’s maiden victory, Doriane Pin’s podium finish and Tina Hausmann’s P5 in Race 2, the Italian squad have further opened up the gap to Campos Racing in the Teams’ Standings, increasing it to 45 points.
Nevertheless, Pirro was quick to admit that they could have achieved an even stronger performance as he targeted greater consistency in preparation for the season slowly wrapping up in Singapore and Las Vegas.
Asked whether he was happy with the general performance, he said: “Happy, yes. Let’s say satisfied. It’s a positive weekend — we scored a lot of points and we extended our lead in the Teams’ Standings, which is important for us as a team.
“However, you always want more. One win is good, two wins would have been great. It’s been a solid weekend overall so we can be happy, but we can look for more.”
As well as consolidating PREMA’s lead, the round in Zandvoort also saw Pin maintain an advantage over Maya Weug in the Drivers’ Standings with a 20-point lead heading into Singapore, which Pirro is eager to continue throughout the final two race weekends.
Praising the Mercedes driver, he said: “She’s built this lead on consistency and a little bit of good fortune as well with issues for competitors. We’ve been good enough so far to avoid them, and she’s been able to bring home every result that she can. At the end of the day, that’s all you can do.
“In the next rounds, we need to remain competitive, which is something that from a team’s perspective, we need to work on hard. From her perspective, she needs to just hit her marks, drive well and do what she can. If she can finish P2, she has to finish P2; if she can win, she has to win. That’s how we’re going to get to the end of the season.”
The weekend’s main highlight for the team was arguably Alpine driver Gademan’s magnificent Race 1 win, which fell at her home circuit on her 22nd birthday and gave her redemption for the victories she missed out on in Shanghai and Montreal.
“She got a bit of bad luck but it doesn’t take away from the work that she’s put in,” Pirro concluded, speaking about the car problem she suffered earlier in the season. “Of course, bringing the trophy home is something more.
“I trust that this isn’t going to change her mindset a lot. She’s already working hard, she doesn’t need to do much more. She just needs to keep on going and it’s just going to work out for her as time goes on.”
Next time out sees PREMA return to Singapore, a track they scored four podiums at with Pin and Maya Weug last season. Determined to keep the team’s momentum going, Pirro is prepared to make the most of whatever comes their way.
“It’s got some corner profiles that we’ve been good at so far, but every track is different, every track’s a challenge,” he explained. “In F1 ACADEMY, the races are quite unpredictable, whether it be weather, Safety Cars, whatever it is.
“We’ve had everything happen so far. We have to just stay on it and make sure we’re making the right calls, adapt in the right way and keep on the road that we’ve been going on so far.”