A difficult weekend for Fabian Schiller in Styria
03. August 2015 Zurück zur Artikelübersicht »

“Difficult.” That was the word German race driver, Fabian Schiller, used to describe the eighth race weekend of the 2015 FIA Formula 3 European Championship at the Red Bull Ring in Styria. 19th place in the first race of the triple-header meeting was the best result for the driver of the West-Tec F3 team, a protégé of the Deutsche Post Speed Academy talent programme. Technical problems in qualifying for the second and third race of the weekend were mirrored in positions towards the back of the starting grid and the race results were similar: 27th place in the second race and 28th place in the third race. “It just didn’t work out,” Schiller commented.

The Red Bull Ring, beautifully located amidst the rolling hills of the Austrian province of Styria, wasn’t uncharted territory to Fabian Schiller as he had already raced there before in lower categories. Accordingly, he had high hopes coming to Austria, eager to add some good results to his tally. In free practice, he ended up 32nd in the first and 17th in the second session. His 17th place was quite a promising result with a view on qualifying, later in the afternoon, and Schiller indeed managed to build on this result by posting the 19th time in the field of 34 drivers. “That wasn’t too bad,” he said afterwards. The German’s hopes of doing better in second qualifying, used to determine the starting grid positions for the second and third race of the weekend, were blown by a technical issue with his car. “There was a problem with the brakes, the rear wheels locked up every time I braked and, of course, that didn’t help in getting fast lap times in,” Schiller said. Thus handicapped, he qualified 27th for race two and 28th for race three.

Saturday was a sunny affair at Spielberg and Schiller was eager to make most of his starting grid position in the first race. However, this was to no avail as he already dropped back four to five places at the start because he had to avoid a car of another competitor that got in his way. After that, he still managed to make up some positions and was up in 19th place again as the chequered flag came out. “I had a particularly nice battle with Maximilian Günther, which was not just for track position, but also a little bit about becoming the best-placed German and the best-placed Deutsche Post Speed Academy driver in the field,” said Schiller, who indeed managed to cross the finish line ahead of his rival.

 

In race two, Schiller managed to make up some positions and was around 20th place, but then another driver, who had missed his braking point before the first corner, ran into the back of his car and tapped him into a spin. Schiller only finished 27th as a result. Unlike the previous day, the third race of the meeting took place in pouring rain, which was the reason that the race was first postponed by over 90 minutes and then got underway behind the safety car. The race was held in the presence of Hollywood actors Catherine Zeta-Jones and Michael Douglas, who had come to Austria to attend the event. “Visibility was almost zero because of the spray. The visor of my helmet even fogged up on the formation lap,” Schiller reported afterwards. After two laps behind the safety car, the race was red-flagged and then restarted after the safety car again 20 minutes later, but again to no avail. After another two laps behind the safety car, the clerk of the course decided to call it a day. “Absolutely the right decision, no doubt about it,” Schiller said. “We could hardly see anything.”

After a summer break of over four weeks, FIA Formula 3 European Championship action continues with two days of testing at the Portimao circuit in the Portuguese Algarve region in the first week of September, followed by a race meeting at the same venue from September 4-6 on the support package of the Blancpain GT Sprint Series.