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With just one race left of the 2023 F3 season, Jenzer Motorsport is flying on cloud nine after a double podium finish in Spa.
The team has gone from enduring a slow start to the season, to enjoying back-to-back podiums. Points were picked up sporadically in the first half of the season. The first three rounds saw Jenzer bag two points total after Taylor Barnard took P9 in Melbourne. A bigger haul of points came in round four. Barcelona – the fifth round of the season – saw Jenzer bag five more points across the race weekend.
This spell of back-to-back points was soon after followed by a two-race drought. But the standings table doesn’t reflect the full story of Jenzer’s performance. The team lost out, on each occasion, by a hair’s breadth.
Austria was a near miss, the team coming tantalisingly close to points. Drivers Taylor Barnard and Nikita Bedrin fell just short of that crucial tenth-place finish, coming P12 and P13 respectively in the feature race.
Silverstone equally had its ups and downs. Alex García placed P11 in the sprint race — again, on the very precipice of points. Barnard, meanwhile, spent much of the sprint race in contention for a podium finish, before rainy conditions turned his fortunes around. A spin saw the Brit finish his home sprint race in P30.
These close calls were succeeded by an unleashing of potential, as Bedrin took to the third step of the podium in Hungary’s sprint race. With eight more points under its belt, the team then headed to Belgium…
Success in Spa
Jenzer was a team on fire in Spa. It returned to the sprint race podium, with Taylor Barnard finishing second.
But the good results didn’t stop there.
Barnard bested Saturday’s result by going on to win the feature race on Sunday. Joining Barnard on the podium was Bedrin in third place. García was only one position behind, finishing P4 after battling with Bedrin for the podium. Spa was a resounding success for the team, and a contrast to its results in the earlier stages of the season. Bagging 52 points total on Sunday, Jenzer leapt up to sixth in the Team Standings, bypassing ART Grand Prix and Van Amersfoort Racing.
FormulaNerds spoke to Nikita Bedrin and Alex García, who shared their view on the team’s success in Belgium. García described the feeling as “amazing”, stating that it was “really good to see the team succeed”. The Mexican driver was happy for his teammates, even despite narrowly missing out on the podium himself.
“For sure I would have liked the podium, but we’re still happy for the team,” stated García. “Amazing points, you know we scored a lot of points in just one race, that’s really amazing for the team.”
Reflecting on the driving force behind the result in Spa, Bedrin was quick to pay credit to the team. “I think both the team and drivers done their job properly, especially doing the correct tyre choice in the last race,” he said. “Of course, the driver had to do the job to finish on the podium, but without a good enough car you can’t do that.”
García echoed the sentiments of his teammate, attributing the uptick in Jenzer’s performance to “the hard work from the team”. The result in Spa seemed to have been a long time coming, as García opened up on the team’s arduous journey to the top step of the podium.
“We’ve done a lot of hard work, the team, in simulators, with the engineers, working most of the days to just perform better in the drivers, and also trying to do a better job in the car,” continued García. “That’s what we have been doing mostly since the first race, from Bahrain.” He added:
“We have been trying to do better because we knew we were not the best but we knew we could be the best if we work hard and we put all our effort in.”
“These results, it didn’t come because of luck,” stated García. “Maybe some people will say so, but I don’t think so. It came because of hard work, and really the team did an amazing job with the car. All weekend long, it was feeling incredible. I just want to say thank you to Jenzer.”
Lessons learned
With the season approaching its final round, Bedrin and García took a moment to reflect on all that they’d learned throughout the year. For all three Jenzer drivers, the 2023 season has been their rookie year in the championship. It’s been a year of learning and development for the drivers, made more fruitful by the team’s recent success.
“Me as a driver, I have learnt so many things, especially tyre management,” shared Bedrin. “It is really tricky, and you have to manage to whole race. I also learnt that in quali mainly you only have one lap, so you have to give it everything and if you do a mistake the week can become much more difficult.”
Bedrin highlighted qualifying as an area of particular improvement. “From the team side we also improved a lot,” continued Bedrin. “Especially our quali pace got much better.”
For García, a major learning from this season has been that “with hard work everything is possible”. Equally, García has found that good results are “all about communication and right decisions, and making our best effort every time we go to the track.”
Looking ahead
The F3 drivers take on the temple of speed next, as the teams head to Monza for the final round of the season. The summer break provided everyone with the opportunity to rest and recuperate. Jenzer, however, takes to Italy still riding the high of its result in Belgium.
“It was a great feeling going to the summer break with a result like that, so we have a good mindset coming to Monza,” Bedrin said. “But of course we still work hard during the break. For sure all the team was happy with a double podium, and a podium the week before.”
That success proved a great source of motivation for the team, shared García. “I think this result motivated us more than ever, to work as hard as possible this summer break, me and my team,” he said. “And I think my teammates too are working hard as possible on the gym, on the simulator. We’re doing everything we can so we can repeat it in Monza.”
“I’m really looking forward to Monza,” added Bedrin. “I think we can for sure have a great result there. And for the next season too.”
Alex García shares the aspirations of his teammate, in his hopes that Jenzer will be able to carry momentum forwards into Monza and beyond. “I know its gonna be hard but nothing is impossible,” said García. “So let’s just keep going.”
Featured Image Credit: Formula Scout