Arden Motorsport return to competition in the FormulaRegional European Championship by Alpine at the Red Bull Ring, Austria thisweekend (11-12 September).
Headline results in Europe’s premier single-make singleseater category have been tough to come by in recent rounds for theBanbury-based team, but the ‘Red Arrows’ – Finland’s William Alatalo, Britain’sAlex Quinn and Nicola Marinangeli of Italy – head to Spielberg with renewedoptimism.
Alatalo has led the line for the trio recently, including abrace of points finishes last time out at Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps. He nowsits just seven points shy of Quinn in the overall standings, with the pairundoubtedly aiming to add to their three podium finishes thus far in 2021 thistime out.
For Marinangeli, the trip to the fast, flowing 2.6-mileAustrian venue represents another opportunity to break into the points-payingpositions and reward his pace, having fallen just shy on several occasions so farthis season in a highly competitive field.
And, with just 13 markers separating Arden from a top-threespot in the Teams’ stakes, every point counts between now and the end of theseason in October.
Having successfully completed two productive pre-event testdays, Arden’s trio will now gear up for qualifying at 08:20 (BST) on Saturday,ahead of the opening race at 12:35 later that afternoon.
That format is repeated once again on Sunday at 07:30 and11:50 respectively, with live coverage of all weekend sessions available viathe championship’s YouTube channel and social media platforms.
Ben Salter, Arden Formula Regional Team Manager said:
“It’s been quite a while since we’ve raced in the FormulaRegional European Championship by Alpine, so everybody in the team is eager toget back to the action at the Red Bull Ring this weekend.
“It would be fair to say we’ve had solid pace and severalheadline results so far this season, now the key word for us is consistency.
“Qualifying well is a key first step, and from there we’lltake the weekend one session at a time. We’ve still got plenty to compete forin the second half of the season, so it’s really important we put the hard workin this weekend and kickstart that process.”
William Alatalo (#8) said:
“It was a frustrating trip to Spa-Francorchamps last timeout, but we’ve had several weeks to process that, learn from it and come backstronger, so the objective is to be back fighting at the front at the Red BullRing.
“Testing has been positive, but the key thing now is totranslate that across to our qualifying performance. From there, we know we canrace, and our pace over longer runs is strong, so the ingredients are there fora successful weekend.”
Nicola Marinangeli (#14) said:
“Of course, the aim for me this weekend is to continuemoving forward through the field. Our pace has been really positive lately, butwe’ve had a lot of bad luck, so hopefully we can avoid that this weekend.
“I’m feeling very confident and happy in the car, so I’m lookingforward to a good weekend of racing on a really enjoyable circuit.”
Alex Quinn (#21) said:
“After such a long break, I’m really pleased to be back inthe car this weekend. We’ve got four events left, so the aim for me is to endthe season on a high note, starting with the Red Bull Ring this weekend.
“The team have been working really hard behind-the-scenesand I feel good in the preparation I’ve done, so there’s every opportunity herefor us to have a good weekend.”