Tauranga’s 17 year old racecar driver Richie Stanaway made his European debut yesterday (Saturday 23) at Nurburgring.
Driving for Ma-Con in the ADAC Formula Masters series, he had previously stunned everyone by setting new lap records at the four circuits he had tested on. In practice prior to the Nurburg race he was the quickest driver.
Qualifying.
Given his rookie status, his team made the decision to send him out at the rear of the field for qualifying. Richie battled through the slower drivers on track to qualify 3rd in race 1. He was disappointed not to have a clear track to repeat his practice day times. During the second qualifying session he was comfortably fastest in the wet but was again held up by slower cars on the drying track at the end resulting 5th on the grid for race 2.
Race 1.
Richie made a superb start and was 2nd into turn 1 – where he was hit and turned around by an overambitious following driver. He recovered, with steering damage, to continue in 13th place.
In the most thrilling demonstration of the weekend Richie battled back up to 4th. There were 15 passes in the whole event – Richie made 10 of them. As a result he dominated the television coverage and became an instant celebrity. Unfortunately during a pass for 3rd he touched the other car and was given a drive through penalty. This was very contentious and not at all popular with the spectators or media. One commentator suggested on air that this penalty would not have been given if he was a ‘little more German’. He finally finished 13th – but the hero of the race.
Race 2.
In anticipation of better grip on a warmer track, Richie’s team made some alterations to the car setup. Both he and his team mate subsequently found the cars very difficult to drive. Given his morning experience Richie made a safe start and was 6th out of turn 1.
Battling a difficult car he moved up throughout the race to finish 4th. (The handling problems caused his team mate to crash.) Richie says, “My team had hoped for a top 10 finish but I personally wanted to win. Given the difficult qualifying sessions I am very happy to be in the top 5 for race 2 and I’m a bit overwhelmed by the attention generated during Race 1. The European scene is certainly an eye opener for a young Kiwi”.
Team Ma-Con say, “We are very happy with Richie’s performance this weekend. From practice we discovered that he is an outstanding talent but we also considered he had never competed at this level before. Our caution was unjustified, he was outstanding all weekend. We’re looking forward to the next race”.
Following the event Richie was approached by numerous influential people on the European motorsport scene and complimented for his effort and obvious skill. The Chairman of German Television Network RTL made a point of meeting Richie and telling him that he provided exactly what the fans and sponsors were looking for.
Richie’s next race is at Sachsenring on September 19.