From Zolder to Brazil with Atech Reid GP
28/07/2011
You can almost relive the excitement of Zolder when you talk to Atech Reid GP´s team principal Anthony Reid about the event, and after the teams Frederic Vervisch took victory in the Super Final, it´s perhaps easy to understand why.
“It was a fantastic weekend for us, I really thought that the boys did a great job getting four cars through to the Super Final. Obviously Frederic (Vervisch) drove exceptionally well. We have hedged our bets with him this year and he´s paying us back now. Zolder was a really, really good effort by everyone on the team.”
Reid, a very shrewd judge of racing drivers, rates Vervisch as a driver to keep an eye on. “Frederic was recommended to us by one of our engineers who ran with him in the German F3 Championship. So at the back-end of last season we gave him a shot, and he proved his worth and now he´s come back with the backing from Luxembourg this year.”
“I think that Frederic will be a strong contender for the championship, I´m convinced that the guy will go all the way and win it.”
Vervisch´s only noticeable ´moment´ at the weekend came in the Super Final, with the race seemingly won, he slowed to such an extent that he came under intense pressure from John Martin and Neel Jani. “That was a team call, we told him to back off a bit when the rain came, we didn´t want him to slip in the wet. We thought that if he backed off then he´d be more than capable of going forward again, so we told him to take it easy for the last lap or two.”
One of the big talking points before Zolder was the arrival of Mikhail Aleshin, the reigning World Series champion, to the team. Rated one of the top young drivers in the world, he came into the series with a big reputation. “Mikhail is undoubtedly a great addition to the team and he showed a great deal of promise at Zolder, and there´s no reason why he can´t go all the way to the end of the season as well. To get into the Super Final in his very first event is no mean achievement.”
Reid is convinced that the ultra-tight schedule of Sunday´s brings team-work to the fore and that brings out the best in Atech Reid. “It was the normal hectic race-day, really frantic, it´s really tight getting things through the new format. It´s effectively three races in two and a half hours and the guys now are really up with it, they know what they are doing and they all do it really well.”
“There was a fantastic crowd at Zolder, just like there was at Assen; both of these promoters do a great job. So it´s next stop Brazil, fantastic! We have lots of contacts and friends there and they, just like the rest of the Atech Reid team, are all really looking forward to it. We want to show them what Superleague Formula is all about.”
Reid, a very shrewd judge of racing drivers, rates Vervisch as a driver to keep an eye on. “Frederic was recommended to us by one of our engineers who ran with him in the German F3 Championship. So at the back-end of last season we gave him a shot, and he proved his worth and now he´s come back with the backing from Luxembourg this year.”
“I think that Frederic will be a strong contender for the championship, I´m convinced that the guy will go all the way and win it.”
Vervisch´s only noticeable ´moment´ at the weekend came in the Super Final, with the race seemingly won, he slowed to such an extent that he came under intense pressure from John Martin and Neel Jani. “That was a team call, we told him to back off a bit when the rain came, we didn´t want him to slip in the wet. We thought that if he backed off then he´d be more than capable of going forward again, so we told him to take it easy for the last lap or two.”
One of the big talking points before Zolder was the arrival of Mikhail Aleshin, the reigning World Series champion, to the team. Rated one of the top young drivers in the world, he came into the series with a big reputation. “Mikhail is undoubtedly a great addition to the team and he showed a great deal of promise at Zolder, and there´s no reason why he can´t go all the way to the end of the season as well. To get into the Super Final in his very first event is no mean achievement.”
Reid is convinced that the ultra-tight schedule of Sunday´s brings team-work to the fore and that brings out the best in Atech Reid. “It was the normal hectic race-day, really frantic, it´s really tight getting things through the new format. It´s effectively three races in two and a half hours and the guys now are really up with it, they know what they are doing and they all do it really well.”
“There was a fantastic crowd at Zolder, just like there was at Assen; both of these promoters do a great job. So it´s next stop Brazil, fantastic! We have lots of contacts and friends there and they, just like the rest of the Atech Reid team, are all really looking forward to it. We want to show them what Superleague Formula is all about.”
