Ugo Ugochukwu is hoping to bounce back from a difficult Spa-Francorchamps weekend as he heads into the Budapest Round of the FIA Formula 3 (F3) Championship with just one point separating him from Freddie Slater.
The Campos Racing driver had previously held an 18-point advantage over his championship rival, but a difficult weekend in Belgium saw Slater close the gap at the top of the Drivers’ Championship. They now sit on 104 and 103 points respectively.
With the next round not taking place until September, Ugochukwu was asked during the Virtual Media Roundtable, with Pit Debrief in attendance, how important a strong result in Budapest would be before the summer break.
“Yeah, of course. Of course, it’ll be nice to have a good result going into the summer break, would be a good way to end off this first part of the season. So yeah, we’ll see how it goes.
“Don’t have big expectations, try to have a bit cleaner of a Friday and a quali session because yeah, Spa was a bit messy. So it was unfortunate to not get any points there.
“But yeah, try to get back to our usual results and yeah, to have a good round here will be nice mentally going into the break.
Strong results since Round 1 in Melbourne
Ugochukwu has enjoyed a strong season so far, having established himself as one of the championship contenders from the opening round in Melbourne.
When asked to rate his season out of 10, the Campos Racing driver gave himself an 8 or 9, pointing to the consistency he has shown since the start of the campaign.
“Yeah, I mean, I would say like an 8 or a 9. It’s been an early strong year. I think the main thing is we started really well.
“We started on the front foot at the ground running at Melbourne, which was good. And we kept the consistency since then.
“So yeah, it’s really been the season you want to kind of mount that championship sack. But yeah, still the last few important bits to go. So we’ll try to end off well.”
Ugochukwu looking to bounce back after Spa-Francorchamps
With the championship battle now significantly closer heading into the final rounds, Pit Debrief asked him how important it would be to maintain his consistency as the fight for the title tightens.
Ugochukwu admitted that Spa-Francorchamps had been frustrating, but is now hoping to bounce back with a strong F3 Qualifying result in Budapest.
“It’s going to be really important, of course. I’ve been pretty on top of that until Spa. Spa was a bit frustrating to miss out on some important points.
“But it is what it is. Try to bounce back from that. Like I said, try to have a bit cleaner of a Friday.
“It’s really important in F3 [as it] really sets up the weekend. Don’t have too big expectations, but a nice quali inside the top three would be nice to set off the weekend and head into the summer break in a good position, still fighting for the championship.”
