Lenny Ried continues to accumulate experience and makes comebacks in the two races held.
The heavy rain forced the race direction to cancel the test scheduled for Saturday.
The Formula Winter Series closes its calendar at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, and the Spanish team is now ready for the new Spanish Formula 4 season, which will begin on May 10 at the Circuit de Navarra.“This preseason has been very important for the preparation of the drivers for the 2024 Formula 4 campaign. We are looking forward to continuing to see how they progress and demonstrate their full potential,” says Jaime Serrano, CEO of Monlau Motul.
“Lenny is always very competitive in the race. He has pace, and all that remains is to squeeze the maximum performance out of one lap to put the driver and car where they deserve. The work of the mechanics and engineers has been, once again, impeccable,” says David Simón, Team Manager of the team.
Monlau Motul Technical School concluded the Formula 4 Winter Series at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, a preparatory competition in which both the only driver participating with the team’s colors in the meeting, Lenny Ried, and the team of mechanics and engineers returned to demonstrate its progression and reliability. This closes the official preparation for the 2024 season of the Spanish F4, which will start in May in Navarra.
The Spanish team arrived at its home race with the aim of continuing to gain experience and grow to face the regular season in the best possible way. Lenny Ried, who was in charge of taking the wheel of Monlau Motul’s Tatuus-Abarth, maintained the tone of his previous participations, with outstanding comebacks in all the scoring events.
Rain was the protagonist on Saturday. The difficulty of going out to Q1 made the race management make the decision to use free practice to constitute the starting grid for the first race. However, the strong waterspouts that fell on the track led to the final cancellation of the celebration and the reduction of the program to a double event on Sunday with the same format: 30 minutes plus one lap.
The team’s main obstacle during Sunday was the qualifying session, which placed Ried very far back on the starting grid, forcing him to approach the races, once again, to the comeback. The two best laps of this Q2, held on wet asphalt, determined the starting order of the two rounds of the day, and placed the driver Monlau Motul in 24th (1:58.525) and 29th (1:56.758) positions, respectively. .
When the time for the first race arrived, the German driver managed to overtake numerous rivals until he crossed the finish line in 18th position. Now, a penalty imposed for exceeding the track limits made him fall back to 27th place. In the second test of the program, marked by contacts on the track and safety car neutralizations, Ried rose to 22nd place, once again demonstrating his competitiveness. However, a contact with a rival caused him to lose some positions, which he then managed to recover again until he saw the checkered flag in 24th place.
At the close of the meeting, David Simón , Team Manager of Monlau Motul, highlighted Ried’s race pace:“He has suffered incidents in the two races held, but in both he has managed to make up positions. He has pace, and all that remains is to squeeze the maximum performance out of the car in one lap to put the driver and car where they deserve, because Lenny always shows himself to be competitive in the race. On the other hand, the work of the mechanics and engineers has been, once again, impeccable, and we have not recorded any incidents in all of the Winter Series, so we are very happy.”
Jaime Serrano , CEO of Monlau Motorsport, valued the work done by the team: “This preseason has been very important for the preparation of drivers and technical staff for the 2024 season of Spanish Formula 4. Four meetings and a total of eleven races have been completed, a fact that gives a notable background to the entire group. Now comes the moment of truth, and we are looking forward to continuing to see how they progress and demonstrate their full potential.”
The Winter Series now passes the baton to the 2024 campaign of the Spanish Formula 4, which will start on May 10 at the Navarra Circuit.
