Destination Donington as CDR aims for third BRDC British F3 win of the season

Chris Dittmann Racing’s BRDC British F3 team returns to action this weekend at Donington Park (11-12 July), with another triple header of races for drivers Ayrton Simmons and Max Marzorati.

The Tewkesbury-based squad is looking for a third win of the season so far, having tasted the victory champagne at both Brands Hatch and Silverstone in Britain’s leading single-seater racing category.

CDR are the only team this season to have won at both venues raced at this year, and did so last time out at Silverstone with Simmons, despite a transmission issue that has been traced back to his round two accident at the season opening event.

With that fixed and further buoyed by the race-leading form shown by Marzorati in the third race last time out, Team Principal Chris Dittmann is confident of a strong weekend at the famous East Midlands venue.

He said: “We’ve worked hard back at base to establish the cause of Ayrton’s car issues at Silverstone, and now know it was internal damage to the differential after the Brands accident.

“It’s the sort of thing that’s impossible to diagnose over a race weekend, but once we stripped the gearbox down we found the issue and now we’re in full attack mode for Donington. We know that Ayrton will be at the front throughout the weekend, while Max has raced at the circuit more times than anywhere else in his F3 career so far, so has a prime opportunity to show the progress he’s made that’s gone unrewarded so far.”

Simmons said: “I’m very happy that it’s race week again, purely because we weren’t able to show our true pace at Silverstone. I’m glad that it’s quite a quick turnaround for us to prove that we are as quick as we were at Brands. This is an opportunity for us to bounce back as a team and I’m really looking forward to it. I’ve never had a pole position at Donington or a race win, I’ve had a few podiums, so I’m looking to grab my first victory and my first pole too. That would be a great start to the weekend for sure.”

Marzorati said: “Taking the positives from the pace that we were able to show at the start of race three at Silverstone, we approach Donington with the optimism of delivering a strong result. I said last time out that if you no longer go for a gap, you’re no longer a racing driver, and of course Donington was the scene of Senna’s legendary performance in 1993. So while aiming for a strong result, I hope to do so by trying to emulate Senna’s fighting spirit from that weekend!”

The weekend starts with testing on both Thursday and Friday. Qualifying on Saturday starts at 11.00 before the first race at 14.20. The two Sunday contests will start at 10.15 and 15.40 and will be broadcast live online.