Romeo One Racing's first race in the FSR World Series in Silverstone was not the smoothest of the rides but a great learning experience for its two drivers. Penalized by a bad start probably due to a lack of experience with these cars, Ventis Didrihsons and Peter Duivelaar nevetheless managed to find their groove and move their way up the field. Mechanical problems prevented Didrihsons to reach the finish line but Duivelaar finished 8th in what could have been a double top ten finish for ROR in its league debut.
Duivelaar is very thrilled about his new team and his participation in the league: "First of all I really want to thank Eric for giving me the oppurtunity to drive in this league. I had the goal to finish and if possible also in the top 10. I am happy with this result in my first race, as I know the level of the other drivers is very good. I am looking forward to my next race in FSR".
Ventis is equally happy to be here. Even though he funnily "felt like Karun Chandock's in his first F1 debut", he is confident that Peter and him will be able to build on this first experience to improve and get closer to the leaders over the next few races: "The race was great fun even if I did some silly mistakes like not adjusting engine boost at the start thus losing 7 positions. Obviously we were way off the leaders pace, but it’s good to see where we are and where to improve. I’m more than sure we will be back soon with some stronger performance. "
One of the first goals for the upcoming races is to improve starts, as both drivers struggled in that area, as Duivelaar describes it: "Somehow my start was really bad. I used the launch control, but for some reason I had too much wheelspin. As a result I was back in P20, and not far in front of me was my teammate Ventis." Hopefully, the rest of the race was more encouraging. "I stayed calm and after a couple of laps I had gained some positions and was now right behind Ventis. The gap between us was only about 3 seconds and that remained for a very long time the same. In the meanwhile we came closer to the other drivers in front and we gained some more places. In the last part of the race we were in position 9 and 10, so that would have been a very nice result for this first race, to finish with both cars in the top 10. But at the end Ventis unfortunately had to retire. In the last laps I managed to get 8th position as 1 driver had damage to his car."
With the help of his drivers' valuable feedback, Ross Grown and his team of engineers have already started on working on new evolutions to close the gap as quickly as possible with the leaders. The goal is to become soon competitive and integrate regularly the top 10. The next "rendez-vous" on the track is still a question mark as many of the drivers are on summer vacation.
