2016 FIA F3 European Championship – Strong Run for Eriksson

Joel Eriksson completes strong test ahead of Budapest F3 round

Joel Eriksson got preparations for this weekend’s FIA Formula 3 European Championship round in Hungary off to a strong start in official testing on Wednesday.

Having scored a podium on his F3 debut in France three weeks ago, 17-year-old Eriksson went sixth fastest at Budapest’s Hungaroring today as championship organisers staged a day of pre-event testing at the Formula 1 circuit. The Swede wound up 0.630 seconds adrift of the ultimate pace, and just two tenths off third-placed George Russell (sixth overall in the FIA F3 European Championship in 2015).

The test marked Eriksson’s first-ever acquaintance with the 4.381 km Hungaroring, which will host round two of the campaign this coming weekend.

“It’s been a good day,” says Joel Eriksson. “It was particularly important since I’d never driven here before, and I have to say the track is great fun. It’s just been resurfaced, which affects the car and the set-up, and we’ve learned a lot today. I was on a really good lap towards the end but had to abort it because of a red flag, but it doesn’t really matter at the moment – the weekend is what’s important. I’ve got a good feeling and the entire team is extremely motivated to build on the results we had in France.”

Eriksson heads into the Budapest weekend holding fifth in the overall championship standings, ten points from second place and 29 shy of early leader Nick Cassidy (New Zealand). Eriksson also heads the rookie classification, ten points clear of Ferrari protégé and Team Motopark colleague Guan Yu Zhou.