BARCELONA, Spain (9 May 2021) – Jak Crawford’s first weekend in FIA Formula 3 competition proved to be a valuable learning experience, with the 16-year-old Houston driver gaining positions in all three of the season’s opening races at Circuit de Catalunya.
The Red Bull Junior Team driver, making his FIA Formula 3 debut for Hitech Grand Prix, finished 13th and ninth in Saturday’s two events before placing 18th in Sunday’s finale.
A strategy miscue in Friday’s qualifying came back to plague Crawford all weekend. With most of the teams opting to use three sets of tires in qualifying, Hitech elected to use two sets for the session to save one new set to utilize in race action.
Crawford was first driver to set a flying lap in qualifying, immediately going quicker than his best time in practice. As time wound down, Crawford stayed out while the bulk of the field made a third stop for new tires, and picked up speed for their final laps. Crawford also turned in his best lap at the end, but it was only good for 20th overall.
“We made a bad decision with the amount of tires that we ran,” Crawford said. “We were back in 20th, which wasn’t that good.”
Starting 20th for Race 1, Crawford gained two positions on the opening lap and then patiently worked his way up through the field. He took 13th with five laps remaining, and held that position as a race-ending caution impeded his forward progress. The 2021 F3 format sees the top 12 finishers from Race 1 inverted for the Race 2 start, with Crawford narrowly missing out on a shot at starting from pole with his 13th place result.
“The race was quite good,” he said. “It was probably my best race of the weekend. I made some good overtakes and gained seven spots. Finishing 13th was a bit of a shame, because the top 12 got reversed for the second race. I think I was only two laps away from the pole position for Race 2, but then there was a safety car.”
Under the new qualifying format, Enzo Fittipaldi – who finished just ahead of Crawford – started on the pole for Race 2, with Crawford 13th. He took 12th at the start and moved up to a ninth-place finish.
“For Race 2, there was a bit of mayhem, a lot of carnage going on, but I kept it clean,” Crawford said. “There was definitely an opportunity to get two more places, but unfortunately with all the battling all I did, I lost the DRS. That allowed me to get passed on the straights, which cost me two positions. But I’m still happy to finish ninth, and that allowed me to get some points.”
For Sunday’s Race 3, the field was set by original qualifying times, putting Crawford again in 20th, and he lost two positions on the opening lap.
“I had a good start, but then I got boxed in and had nowhere to go,” he explained. “Then later on the first lap there was an incident in front of me, and that allowed me to get passed by three people. That defined my race, as it took me a few laps to get back by them.”
He made an excellent pass on Lap 10, going deep to the inside and touching the grass in Turn 1 to pass two cars to gain 19th. Running 3.4-seconds behind Fittipaldi, Crawford quickly narrowed that gap and passed the Brazilian with two laps remaining.
“Once I got by them, I was running the quickest on the track when I was running in free air,” Crawford said. “Overall, the weekend was not that great, but there were a lot of positives with the racing. I think all three races were pretty good, even though they had some bad parts in them. Next time, we need to work on nailing the qualifying.”
Crawford will have little chance to rest following his busy weekend. He heads to Jerez in Spain for a two-day F3 test on Wednesday, and then travels to Circuit Paul Ricard in France for the second round of Euroformula Open Championship competition which takes place next weekend.
The next round for F3 will be June 24-26 at Le Castellet in France. The seven-weekend season concludes Oct 21-23 at Austin’s Circuit of The Americas.
