After a positive weekend at Snetterton last time out, Chris Dittmann Racing returned to action at Thruxton for a second time this season, for rounds 22, 23 and 24 of the F4 British Championship at the weekend (27/28 August).
The team welcomed back GB4 driver Jack Sherwood after an impressive performance on his championship debut at Snetterton, where he broke into the top ten in race three, alongside young Indian driver Divy Nandan.
With an incredibly closely packed grid, and only six tenths covering the ten quickest cars, qualifying would be another opportunity for the two young racers to find their feet in the car. Jack closed out the session 15th fastest, with Divy just behind in 16th, where the pair would line up for all three races.
Heading out for race one around the high-speed circuit was a daunting task for the newcomers with far less experience in the car than the rest of the grid. After recovering from an unfortunate start in which he stalled on the grid, it was a quiet race for Divy. The Indian racer made up places into 14th after contact between Eduardo Coseteng and Oliver Gray brought out the Safety Car on lap four, where he crossed the line to bring home his best result yet in the championship . Up ahead, team-mate Jack had avoided drama to gain three places into 12th before conceding a position to Noah Lisle in the closing laps of the race and finishing 13th.
Improving on his start for race two, Divy swapped positions with Jack to go into 15th as the Leicestershire-based youngster struggled to get up to pace on the opening few laps. Finding it difficult to follow in dirty air in race one, the teenager applied lessons learnt and got his head down, eventually retaking the position from Divy and later Daniel Mavlyutov. With two cars retiring ahead with tyre issues, the pair sailed through to take the flag in 13th and 15th to round out a busy Saturday.
With Sunday afternoon running behind schedule due to incidents in earlier contests, race three would run to a reduced time of 15 minutes. Both Jack and Divy made decent starts to maintain positions, before Mavlyutov made a move to pass the Indian teenager. The Safety Car was deployed after Noah Lisle was sent into the barrier, which ate into the already reduced running time, leaving only two laps of racing. With action resuming, Jack was up into 11th and Divy 14th before Gray came back into play after he took avoiding action from Lisle, dropping Divy down into 15th where he would finish. It was 11th on the road for Jack as he crossed the line just four tenths outside the top ten.
Overall, it was another positive outing for Chris Dittmann Racing, where the team’s focus on driver development was again exemplified in the progression of the two young drivers. There is now a four week break for the F4 British Championship, before racing resumes at Silverstone on the weekend of September 24/25.
Jack Sherwood, #78
G1 – 15, R1 – 13
G2 – 15, R2 – 13
G3 – 15, R3 – 11
Championship: 17 (7 points)
“We struggled a bit in qualifying. Theoretically, if I put together all my sectors, it wasn’t too bad, but I just over drove it a bit and struggled to put those sectors together. That hindered us for race one. We struggled for pace as it’s new to me to be driving under the dirty air, and I over compensated. The car was mega but I just struggled with finding pace in myself. We didn’t get close to anyone after the first few laps, so I was sat there by myself for a bit, but overall, it was good to get more seat time and learn more about the car.
“Race two was a big positive compared to race one. We had a tricky start, and the first few laps weren’t so good, but after that I just got my head down. We got caught behind one of the Virtuosi cars and I struggled to get past. All the cars are so close, and around here, exits are so important, so as soon as you get caught in that dirty air, it’s a big factor. If you don’t get past a car within the first few laps of being stuck behind them, the front tyres just drop away. Overall, I felt improvements from race one.
“Race three wasn’t too bad. I got a medium start, it wasn’t too good, wasn’t too bad, so I settled into the rhythm, and then the Safety Car came out and took away a lot of the race, and a lot of opportunity to make progress. Overall, I’ve learned a lot over the weekend.The team have really helped me over the weekend, and you can see that from the improvements we’ve made every time we go out. With more mileage and testing in the car, I think we would be there.”
Divy Nandan, #55
G1 – 16, R1 – 14
G2 – 16, R2 – 15
G3 – 16, R3 – 15
Championship: 18 (2 points)
“Qualifying went well, I made personal improvements, but positioning-wise I was a bit disappointed with where we ended up. On the second run everyone massively improved, but I was still steadily improving and couldn’t quite extract all of it after being blocked on my fastest lap. Overall, it was a positive qualifying, and I can be happy about the improvements I made.
“Race one, for me was a big ask as I’ve never been here and it’s very fast. I was disappointed with my start because I stalled again, which is not what you want. I recovered well and managed to make a move past Mavlyutov. I was making small mistakes, but I’ll take what I’ve learned and apply it in the next races.
“In race two, I had a good start, but I was pushing a bit too hard. I made a mistake into the last corner and went wide to avoid contact. After that I was trying to get back on the pace as much as possible. A big positive to take is that I was quite quick and consistent. We got within two or three tenths of the leaders, so that’s a big step, and I’m happy with how much I’ve been learning.
“To be honest, there wasn’t any racing in race three because we only got three or four laps. I didn’t really have the confidence because the car felt pretty loose due to different tyre sets and I just couldn’t optimise the potential we had. I’m a bit disappointed that I gave up a place that I shouldn’t have, but I think I can take a lot of positives from this weekend because from Snetterton it was a big bounce back. Despite race three disappointment, I’m happy about the weekend because I closed the gap a lot to the leaders in the second race and in general the pace is good. Hopefully, next time we can attack even more.”
