2016 FIA F3 European Championship – Testing, Eriksson Completes Promising Test

Joel Eriksson Completes Promising Vallelunga est

Joel Eriksson continued to run strongly as the first official FIA F3 European Championship pre-season test came to a close at Vallelunga (Italy) on Friday.

After surprisingly topping the timesheets on his very first day of official F3 duty on Thursday, the Swedish rookie put in another solid day’s work with Team Motopark on Friday, ending up less than half a second adrift of the ultimate pace set by F3 sophomore Callum Ilott (Great Britain).

Eriksson logged the ninth quickest time overall across the two days, racking up an aggregate 110 laps around the 4.085 km circuit, and was the second-fastest rookie.

“It’s been a good test, really positive,” says Joel Eriksson. “I’ve learned a lot, which I do with every outing, and we’ve compared different set-ups that have given us a few things to think about. We appear to be in the game, which is encouraging to see at this early stage. This was an important step in my preparations for the new season and I’m pleased with what we’ve achieved here this week.”

The FIA F3 European Championship will next regroup at Circuit Paul Ricard in southern France, where one final day of pre-season testing is scheduled in for March 31. The 2016 curtain-raiser takes place at the same venue on April 1-3, immediately after the test.