Martí will be expecting another strong run in Italy after scoring her third podium of the season two weeks ago. Lovinfosse and Cáceres will be also pushing for achieving top results in the all-female category
Mercantile Campos Racing will head to Italy for the fifth event of F1 Academy, which takes places at Monza in the frame of the World Endurance Championship. The Spanish-based racing team will enter their three Tatuus-Autotecnica machinery for Spaniard Nerea Martí, France’s Lola Lovinfosse and Uruguayan Maite Cáceres.
Mercantile Campos Racing and their drivers will be eying to continue the streak of positive results in the series. In the case of Martí, the Spanish female driver sits fourth in the standings on 96 points. Martí has scored points in all the previous rounds, including three podium finishes in Valencia, where she finished second twice at her home event, and Zandvoort. The driver of Mercantile Campos Racing stepped third onto the podium on Dutch soil two weeks ago.
Lovinfosse has also secured a podium result in the all-female category. The Frenchwoman will be another driver to follow in Italy as she will want to put herself in contention for more rostrums on the high-speed circuit. Uruguay’s Cáceres is making constant progress in F1 Academy. Her upward trend reached a new high at Zandvoort. There, Cáceres made it into the points for the very first time this season by finishing tenth.
Monza’s average speeds are extremely high and that’s why slipstreaming and teamwork are key particularly in qualifying in order to clock a competitive lap time. Therefore, engineers and mechanics tweak the cars for very low downforce levels in order to maximize top speed on the long straights of Monza.
Both free practice sessions will take place on Friday morning with both qualifying sessions on Saturday morning at 09:00 and 09:20. Race 1 is set to start at 12:55, with its usual length of 30 minutes. Later that day, Race 2 consisting of 20 minutes is scheduled at 18:40. Sunday’s Race 3, with its 30-minute format, will get underway at 09:00. All times CET.
Adrián Campos (Campos Racing Team Principal): “After securing another podium finish at Zandvoort recently, we all know how competitive is our package. Hopefully, we will able to add more podiums to our tally at Monza, a track we know pretty well. It’s a very fast circuit where qualifying session is important but not definitive. It’s all about management of slipstreaming in qualifying and even in the race. We are pushing for producing top results this weekend.”
Nerea Martí (Mercantile Campos Racing driver of F1 Academy): “I’m looking forward to competing on a new circuit like this, despite with very little track time ahead of races. But we have meticulously prepared the event with Mercantile Campos Racing, particularly working with the simulator and we are ready. I’m delighted to race in such an historic venue at Monza!”
