Aurelia Nobels hopes to rediscover the form she showed during the recent GB3 European rounds when the championship heads to Donington Park this weekend.
The Hillspeed driver endured a difficult Silverstone weekend last month after making significant progress at the Hungaroring and Red Bull Ring. However, she left the British Grand Prix venue encouraged by her pace during the final race despite starting from the pit lane.
Nobels believes that performance demonstrated the potential available if she and Hillspeed can maximise the weekend at Donington, where the 19-year-old targets a return to the top 10 and further championship points.
Silverstone pace offers encouragement despite difficult weekend
Silverstone provided Nobels with fewer rewards than the previous two rounds, but the Brazilian found an important positive during the reversed-grid finale.
Starting Race 3 from the pit lane left her with little opportunity to fight for a significant finishing position. However, the clear air allowed Nobels to assess her underlying pace, and she felt capable of matching drivers much further towards the front.
“I had the pace of the top five [in the final race] and I felt really good with the car,” she said to GB3. “We are going to focus and work as a team to come back stronger at Donington, because we know we have the pace to be in the top eight and have shown that in the last few rounds.”
That performance gave Nobels something positive to carry away from a challenging weekend. More importantly, it reinforced the progress Hillspeed had already demonstrated during the championship’s flyaway events.
Budapest and Spielberg underline recent progress
Nobels produced her strongest results of the season during consecutive rounds at the Hungaroring and Red Bull Ring.
She secured a season-best eighth place in Race 2 in Budapest before matching that result one week later during the reversed-grid contest at Spielberg. Those finishes provided tangible rewards for a period in which her Qualifying performances had also improved considerably.
Nobels lined up on either the sixth or seventh row for every race across the two weekends, giving herself much stronger opportunities to compete inside the points. She also came close to securing reversed-grid pole, underlining how much more competitive she had become as the season progressed.
Silverstone interrupted that run of results, but Nobels remains confident the underlying performance has not disappeared.
Donington offers chance to return to top 10
The sixth round takes GB3 back to Donington Park, where Nobels already has experience in the current Tatuus MSV GB3-025.
She finished 12th and 13th on the combined classifications during pre-season testing at the circuit, providing Hillspeed with an early baseline that the team has continued to develop throughout the campaign.
Since then, Nobels has accumulated significant additional mileage and worked extensively with Hillspeed away from the circuit as she attempts to convert her recent improvements into another strong weekend.
“It was a decent test at Donington when we were there at the beginning of the season,” she said. “We have worked hard on the sim with the team and will try to get back to the top 10.”
Her recent performances suggest that target is achievable. The principal challenge will be putting together a complete weekend, particularly in Qualifying, where the tight margins across the GB3 field can dramatically influence each driver’s prospects.
Nobels sets sights higher than top 10
While returning to the top 10 represents the immediate objective, Nobels believes she can aim higher if she maximises her performance.
Her eighth-place finishes in Hungary and Austria have already shown she can score strongly, while the race pace demonstrated from the pit lane at Silverstone increased her confidence that a top-five finish could become achievable.
“I want to be there and score good points,” she continued. “I know that if I put everything together in qualifying, I can start in the top eight and manage even finish the races in the top five, we just need to maximise everything.”
That places particular importance on Saturday’s Qualifying sessions. Starting further forward would allow Nobels to use the race pace she has demonstrated recently without needing to recover through a tightly packed midfield.
After Silverstone failed to deliver the results her recent progress suggested were possible, Donington provides an immediate opportunity to respond. With improved Qualifying form, encouraging long-run pace and extensive simulator preparation behind her, Nobels heads into Round 6 aiming to convert those gains into her strongest GB3 weekend yet.
