Santiago Ramos, who secured pole position at last year’s Formula 3 Imola Grand Prix Qualifying session, delivered a strong performance once again by finishing second in this year’s Qualifying. Earlier in the day, he had placed only P20 during practice. Nevertheless, he made significant gains at the Autodromo Internazionale Enzo e Dino Ferrari and ultimately crossed the line with a lap time of 1:32.442, placing him P2. This result is particularly crucial as Ramos aims to add valuable points to his championship campaign, having already claimed victory in the Sprint Race in Melbourne earlier this season.
Ramos “surprised” by his pace in F3 Qualifying
When asked about his emotions following the session, Ramos expressed genuine surprise at the competitiveness of his Van Amersfoort Racing machine.
“Yeah, to be honest, I was not really expecting it. Last year, more or less the same situation. I was not expecting to be this fast.”
“Like you say, it’s a track I really like. I really enjoy driving since I came to Europe for the first time. So yeah, quite happy with the result.”
“I think even that the team result was not the one we were expecting, I think it’s not bad.”
While technical issues hampered Ramos during practice, he believes the team resolved them enough in time for Qualifying.
“I had some issues with the car in the pre-practice. We were struggling. We couldn’t find what was exactly happening with the car.”
“It was quite strange what it was doing. We couldn’t predict what was going to happen in qualifying. Obviously, we went out with the best mentality and hoping the problem was not there anymore.”
“We managed to put the first lap together and it was decent. And then in the second attempt, we had the problem again. So obviously, we were quite worried about it in the third set.”
Would Ramos have had pole position by the red flag?
Ramos addressed speculation regarding whether the red flag cost him a chance at pole. He clarified that ongoing issues with the car forced him to abort his second flying lap, and he focused primarily on salvaging a clean third run.
“No [I didn’t believe he was on pole], because at that stage, I was struggling with my car. I had my problems. It was just after I put the second set of tyres.”
“So I had to abort that lap anyways because I knew we were in trouble with that problem. I knew that most likely the session was going to restart. And I was really worried about having the issue again in the third attempt.”
He shared the importance of ensuring the issue wouldn’t happen again, by even avoiding some curves and coming away with a solid 3rd lap to take him to P2.
“We knew we had to try to reduce the chances of having it again. So I was avoiding some curves and trying to keep the car on the black part, like they say. And yeah, at the end, it was a solid lap.”
Will Trident being in P1 and P3 have an effect on Ramos?
Ramos was asked whether his previous experience with Trident would benefit him, as Rafael Câmara and Noah Strømsted (placing P1 and P3 respectively) are current drivers for the team he previously raced with.
“So the only thing I can say is I’ve been in their position. I’ve had the talks that Giacomo has before the races, the pre-events, so more or less I can try to figure out what they’re going to say, what they’re going to try and do.”
“I think it’s going to be a bit tough, especially in the future race, unless there are many safety cars, but who knows. But yeah, I think it’s going to be also about the tyre management.“
“We had some issues, but I learned important stuff. Obviously, you know, we’re trying to maximise the result and we’re going for the win. I’ll try to do whatever I can to my favour and obviously using the experience from Trident last year, all the information I have from this track and everything we did, and try to apply it on Sunday and Saturday.”
Pushing to the limits while staying out of trouble on track
As many drivers struggled to keep their cars on track during the previous session, Ramos was asked by Pit Debrief how he managed to push to the limits, while staying out of trouble in Qualifying.
“Yeah, I think it was similar to last year, honestly. I think the track limits in this track are mostly if you go off the track, so you end up in the grass or in the gravel, but it’s not nice, obviously. But as a driver, in case you miss one corner, I don’t think this is one of the kind of tracks you can recover in the next one.”
“So for sure you need to be careful to keep the car on track, keep the car on the limits. And yeah, I think it was good. Just trying to push without over-pushing, let’s say.”
Sim work and preparation matching the real world behaviour on track today
When asked whether the Simulator training had helped Ramos achieve P2 for todays F3 Qualifying in Imola, he had this to say.
“I think for me it’s different because I had to adapt, you know, I was used to driving the Simulator for long and then changing teams and not much preparation prior to the pre-season test in Barcelona. From there we had to start working on the model in the Simulator because like they say, it’s a completely brand new car so we had to try to make it as close to reality and I think it’s working quite well at the moment. I would say that the preparation went well for Melbourne.”
Ramos on the way up after a tumultuous past in Formula 3
Ramos has had highs and low in his start over the last couple of years in Formula 3. More notably, he came away with a podium last year and the Sprint win earlier this season in Melbourne. He highlighted the importance of not only the work the drivers do, but that the teams do week in and week out to ensure that he is more consistent with race weekends.
“So I think, you know, being a driver involves many things. It’s not sometimes just the work we do, it’s the work all the team does. We win and we lose together and then there’s sometimes also there is mechanical things that can go wrong.”
So I have a couple of those. I hope it’s over. We had it today.
“Luckily, we were able to overcome those in qualifying and managed to put a strong result. But I think as long as we can keep this preparation in the simulator with the team, with the pre-events. I’m trying to apply the mistakes I did last year because I already did some mistakes and I know where I had to improve from last year.”
Last years experience from the Imola GP will be highly beneficial for tyre degredation leading into the race
While responding to a question from Pit Debrief, Ramos mentioned that the “experience he had from last years race” will be beneficial to understand tyre degradation leading into the Sprint Race and Feature Race this weekend.
“Yeah, I think after the experience I had from last year, I know that there is a bit of degradation. Obviously, the car changed, the tyres changed, but I’m expecting some, honestly, for Sunday. So we need to try to predict in which direction is it going, oversteer, understeer, or not that much.
“It’s going to be useful to have a sprint race just to get an idea of how bad it is and how much we need to react to it for Sunday. I’m still confident. I know that I’m quite good at managing tyres and all that.”
Ramos concluded, “We just need to see tomorrow. And then from there, we will really realise how bad it will be for Sunday.”
