A solid Formula 3 debut for Fabian Schiller at Silverstone
12. April 2015 Back to overview »

“Altogether, it was quite good. I have learned quite a lot and that was the main goal. Seeing that I was even able to challenge for a top ten finish and thus score championship points was the icing on the cake,” said Fabian Schiller after the season opening weekend of the 2015 FIA Formula 3 European Championship at the Silverstone Grand Prix circuit in the UK. Driving for British-based team, West-Tec F3, the 17-year-old German is competing in Formula 3 for the first time this year, having graduated from the ranks of the German Formula ADAC Masters series.

The 5.901 kilometres long Grand Prix circuit in Northamptonshire was unknown territory for Fabian Schiller. “Initially, I had to find my way at the track, but that worked out pretty quickly. The fact that we already had one day of testing on Tuesday prior to the event certainly helped. I was able to improve my performance over the course of the weekend.” In the field of 35 drivers, the German started off with 29th place in the first free practice session on Friday, followed by 25th position in second free practice. In qualifying for race one, he ended up 19th fastest.

Following rain showers on Saturday morning, the first race took place on a drying track, prompting the race director to send the field off after two laps behind the safety car. “It was still pretty challenging with wet patches in places, especially off the racing line,” Schiller said. Unlike several other drivers, who slid off and failed to make it to the finish line, Schiller kept his West-Tec Dallara F312-Mercedes on the asphalt, made up nine places and took the chequered flag in 16th place. Schiller: “Perhaps, we were running a little bit too much wing as we expected the track to be more wet than it actually was. That cost me some top speed on the straights, which is always an important factor at Silverstone.”

In qualifying for race two, the German secured himself his best starting grid position of the weekend in 13th place. In the race, this time in fully dry and sunny conditions, he soon found himself in the top ten and looked set to score his first championship points of the season. In the closing stages of the race, however, he got involved in a collision with an opponent and dropped back to finish eleventh. “Too bad, because I was even up in seventh place for a while and I could have scored points,” he said.

In 23rd place on the grid for race three, Schiller’s car had to be pushed off the grid as the ignition didn’t work properly prior to the start. Thus, the young German, a protégé of the Deutsche Post Speed Academy programme, was forced to start the race from the pitlane. “I was still able to make up a few positions, but the tyres degraded and that didn’t make things any easier,” he commented after taking the chequered flag in 25th place.

The next round takes the FIA Formula 3 European Championship field to the Hockenheimring Baden-Württemberg for a four day-event from 30 April till 3 May. “Hockenheim is a track that I know well, because I have raced there many times. There, I hope to build on everything I have learned here at Silverstone this weekend and perhaps I will be able to score my first points,” so Schiller.