Artline Engineering believe they are on the right track as they attempt to take on Dallara in the FIA European Formula 3 Championship despite running at the back of the field during their debut weekend at the Nurburgring last weekend.
The team gave a debut to their ArtTech P315 in Germany with Latvian Harald Schlegelmilch behind the wheel, and gradually improved as weekend went on, cutting the gap from 1.2s to 0.3s from the slowest Dallara between first practice and the final race, and initially struggled to get to the desired tyre temperature to be able to be more competitive.
The Russian outfit had tested its car extensively before its debut but on a track with temperatures regularly over 40 degrees, but the Nurburgring was much lower, with temperatures dropping as low as 14 degrees on Sunday.
“If our expectation was to be in the top 10, we would be disappointed,” said Artline’s Egor Nazarov to Autosport. “But if it is to try out the car, to understand it, then not.
“Now we have to understand how the other teams work. They have got their tyres to working temperatures, but they have done a lot of work on modifying their cars.
“There is a saying by a politician who said, ‘Now we are trailing behind by 50 years, but we have to run this distance in 10 years otherwise they will destroy us, and that is what we will do.'”
The team are set to increase their presence to two cars during the season finale, with Schlegelmilch set to be joined by a yet-to-be-announced team-mate.
