Marco Rodriguez
Team Manager
Question: How was the tests on the new F312?
Marco Rodriguez: The 2012 launch of the season started with a very tough challenge for us, since we received the new F-312 very late and with a lot of spare parts arriving in small doses. This made all the teams work day and night in order to start testing the cars a minimum before the first Grand Prix.
Q: Tell us more about your technical team?
M.R. : We have a lot of hope in this season since I believe that we have been able to select very good professionals, some of whom I have been working all my life, and others who just joined the team and have a very high level. Sincerely, I think that since I was in F3 Racing Teams in 2005-2006, I never had a team and a structure at this level.
Q: What about the pilots?
M.R. : I also have a very good feeling about our pilots. Matteo is a fantastic guy, a young pilot who knows quite well what he wants and works really hard to be the best. Noel Jammal is the talent in its purest form and must fight to get the victory. My main concern now is to make the New F312 reliable and to find the best settings to open the way to our pilots to deliver their best on the track.
In the COPA category, the situation is similar to the Class A championship. Alex Toril is our first pilot, because despite his 15 years, he's surprising us every day. He arrived at the end of the 2011 season with the doubt of testing with schools team , and after several tests with the F-Tatuus 1.6 and with the supervision of his coach Marco Barba, we decided to give him his chances on the F3. Since that moment he kept improving and surprising us.
Shane Morris story is a bit different: this 21 years old American, arrived joined the team in February 2012, while convalescing after a serious health issue. Although he arrived without prior experience in car racing, he improved a lot after thorough training with our pilots coach, Alvaro Barba. We he will make his debut in the second Grand Prix of the season, in Germany (Nuburgring).
And lastly, Moisés Soriano, who is the most awarded pilot from the karting school Profiltek-Circuit and who will just have 6 hours to test the F-308 prior to his unexpected debut in Portugal. This is a great opportunity for a young driver, and we hope that he will cease this chance to show us the talent he demonstrated in Karting. Initially, it was planned that Moises would test the old F-306 in the free practice, thanks to the support of Banco Santander and the Circuit de Valencia.
Q: Who's going to be racing on the F312?
M.R. : After a very complete pre-season, where the Libanese-Valencian team made several tests, in addition to the two winter series of Portimao and Paul Ricard, the time has finally arrived to release the new car which will compete in the absolute category during the 3 coming years.
Noel Jammal, who has completed a pre-season on a very high physical fitness, will be responsible to put on the track the new car of the team. Matteo Beretta, aged 18, and with just 1 year of experience with the formula cars, will be in charge of the 2nd F312, which will be assembled the night before the race due to the late arrival of several parts of the car.
Q: Did you have time to do pre-season tests with the F312 depsite recieving the car very late?
M.R : The team made a hard and intensive work (almost day and night lately) with the objective of making at least 6 days test with the new car before the beginning of the Championship in Portimao during the last week of April.
Q: Tell us more about Alex and shane?
M.R. : At the same time, during those testing days, new tyres were tested , with the revelation of this pre-season, Alexander Toril, 15 years old, who is demonstrating an unexpected driving and maturity level, which make us believe he could dispute the victory in the COPA category in this championship.
Moreover the American pilot Shane Morris will continue to work, with the purpose of improving his recent driving qualities in order to be in optimal conditions for his first race. “
