The seventh race weekend of the 2015 FIA Formula 3 European Championship took the teams and drivers to Zandvoort in The Netherlands. Considered as a real drivers’ circuit with many mid-fast and fast corners, blind crests and plenty of undulation, the former Grand Prix track is very popular among the competitors. For Fabian Schiller, driving for British team, West-Tec F3, the weekend started in a rather difficult way, but in the third and final race of the meeting, he showed really good progress. At a circuit where overtaking is traditionally difficult in a Formula 3 car, the German driver made up no less than eight positions to finish 13th, his best score of the meeting. In the first and second race, the protégé of the Deutsche Post Speed Academy had finished 25th.

“Zandvoort is a track that I like, but I suppose most of the drivers say that,” Fabian Schiller starts his review of the weekend. “It is an ‘old-school circuit’, with gravel traps and Armco barriers quite close to the track, so there is little room for mistakes. But that is the challenge, that is something special about Zandvoort, plus the location in the dunes on the North Sea coast, of course.”

In free practice on Friday morning, Schiller was classified 17th of the 34 drivers. “Free practice was quite okay, but later on in qualifying, when temperatures were higher and it was really hot, we were struggling much more.” Over the season, it has become clear that high temperatures have a negative effect on the handling of Schiller’s Dallara Formula 3 chassis. “At Zandvoort, we had the same problem again. I had the impression that I was going quite fast, but we lacked at least one second. Especially the rear axle caused some problems, the car suddenly produced a lot of oversteer, which was difficult to handle. That didn’t help my confidence either.” In the two qualifying sessions, Schiller ended up in the lower midfield.

“For the first race, we decided to make a big change on the set-up of the car. That already cured some of the problems, but not entirely, so we made more changes and made the set-up of the rear wheels stiffer. That worked out quite well,” Schiller said. Although his pair of 25th-place finishes in the first two races didn’t really reflect the progress, his lap times were considerably faster than before, which made the German driver quite happy. After the first two races in hot conditions on Saturday, it was considerably cooler for the third race of the weekend on Sunday morning. In that race, Schiller was able to show his racing skills as he worked his way up from 21st on the grid to finish 13th. “I really had a good time in the car. I was able to fight for positions, to overtake other drivers and that is what it is all about,” he commented afterwards with a smile on his face. “I hope that some of the problems have been cured now, but I am confident that we have made a big step forward.”

The next FIA Formula 3 European Championship weekend will take place at the Red Bull Ring in Austria, July 31st till August 2nd.