‘Super-excited’ Seb on track to be among title contenders
A TOP-FIVE placing in testing at Rockingham this week has left Seb Priaulx delighted with his prospects for his first British Formula 4 season.
They 17-year-old Guernsey driver is competing for Arden Motorsport, who had the fastest on show on Tuesday with Norwegian Dennis Hauger topping the time-sheets in the free practice sessions, and Priaulx is confident of challenging at the front of the grid.
‘We are pretty good and competitive – we have got a good team at Arden and I’ve got a couple of good Red Bull teammates. They are quick,’ he said.
‘Overall, it’s going to be a competitive year and I expect we will be running up at the front, that’s certainly the plan – the plan is always to win.
‘If everything goes to plan, we have a good car, nothing is stopping us having a good year.’
Although the young Sarnian added a note of caution about reading too much into the times clocked in testing, saying that ‘you don’t always get the maximum out of the car, you don’t know what other people are doing’, his optimism is obvious.
‘Overall, I’m super-excited – we’ve got a competitive car,’ he said.
Priaulx, who is the son of three-time world champion Andy, revealed that the F4 cars are hitting top speeds of around 140mph.
‘If we didn’t have any aero we’d probably go a lot quicker and it is probably as quick as dad’s Ford GT around the corners,’ said the lad who has only recently passed his driving test.
‘This is a good 30 seconds [a lap] quicker than Ginetta was.
‘Around Brands Hatch Indy, which is a small circuit, it’s about 10sec. quicker, but somewhere like Snetterton it’s a good 30 to 40 sec. faster.
‘It’s the quickest on the TOCA package, it’s quicker than Touring Cars.’
When looking at possible challengers for the top honours this year, his teammate Hauger ranks highly on the list.
‘Jamie Caroline, who won in Formula 4 last year, has moved to the American F4 series, which has something to do with Mazda,’ Priaulx said.
‘Mainly my team-mate Dennis Hauger, he’s Norwegian and really quick.
‘We’ve been having some good battles – I’d be quicker than him, he’s been quicker than me. He’s keeping me on my toes.
‘It’s going to be pretty close between me and him.’
More in Thursday's Guernsey Press.
