Reddy targeting podiums after summer break reset
Rising Indian racer Tarun Reddy believes the two-month summer break in the EuroFormula Open offers him an opportunity get his campaign back on track.
Tarun Reddy, Carlin
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Reddy turned up at the first round of the season in Portugal without any testing, having signed a last-minute deal with renowned British squad Carlin.
While the 18-year-old managed to qualify and finish inside the top 10 in the opening round, results in the first half of the year have generally been underwhelming. After four rounds, he sits 12th in the championship with a pair of sixth place results being the highlight.
Reddy cites lack of testing and setup issues as the two prime reasons behind his lack of pace so far.
“The first few rounds were very difficult,” Reddy told Motorsport.com. “When you go into a top level championship in Europe, when you’re not in the car for five months and your competition has been testing almost every week since the start of the year, it was not going to be easy.
“And the second factor has been the setup of the car. In such a high level F3 series, all the factors have to be working for you to be competitively racing at the front. We’ve struggled to put the car in the window and get the tyres to work the way I would like them to.”
Targeting podiums
Now that Reddy has got to grips with the Dallara F312, the Carlin driver is confident enough to be in contention for podium finishes in the latter part of the year.
“We’ve got two months off. It’s a fair amount of time between the fourth and fifth rounds in Silverstone,” Reddy said on an optimistic note. “So, it’s a good amount of time to prepare. It should be a good second half of the season.”
He added: “I’m definitely aiming for podiums now. It’s quite a realistic target. My pace has been improving, my pace has been quite strong in testing. Now, it’s quite realistic to aim for podiums.
“I’m quite far back in the championship. Let’s take it race weekend by race weekend.
“Hopefully I’m back in the championship towards the end of the season. But realistically, a couple of podiums, maybe a win, will be quite satisfying.”
Motorsport.com says...
It is a well-known fact that testing plays a crucial role in motorsport. Often, well-funded drivers in junior series are able to steal a march on their rivals with an extensive pre-season testing programme.
Delays in securing a drive for the new season clearly put Reddy on the backfoot, but there’s no reason to believe why he can’t resurge in the second half of the year.
Reddy is a proven race winner and one of India’s next F1 bets, alongside Jehan Daruvala and Arjun Maini.
One only needs to look at his performance in the highly-competitive British F3 championship - where he finished sixth in the standings with four podiums to his name - to have a fair idea of his calibre.
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