STEP Motorsports talents are ready to kick off the season in Nordic 4 after a spring filled with preparatory work.
Preparations have dominated the team’s work, which, in addition to four training days at Circuito de Calafat in Spain, has had a number of training days in Denmark leading up to the season. With the driver lineup settled well in advance, there has been room for thoroughness:
-This is the first time we have managed to have the drivers in place early enough to carry out a serious spring program. It has meant a lot of work in the workshop, but in return, we have four drivers who already feel at home with the cars and the team, says team manager Morten Dons, who this week concluded preparations with two training days at Padborg Park.
One might therefore think that there are sky-high expectations for this weekend’s race at the Sønderjylland racetrack. With such thorough preparations, results should surely follow?
-I have great confidence that all four drivers are capable of driving the cars at a reasonable pace and without making noticeable mistakes. That said, our drivers are with us to develop, and even the best training days do not prepare you for holding your position on the starting grid and waiting for the red lights to go out. For us, this is just a new phase of the drivers’ development, so there is definitely room for mistakes—as long as we can learn from them, he says.
Mathias Bjerre Jakobsen raced the entire last season in the series and has now switched to STEP Motorsport, while Lærke Rønn Sørensen participated in the second half of the season and thus also brings her share of experience. Meanwhile, both Sebastian Bach and Emily Cotty have yet to start in a race—and experience from karting is only partially useful in a formula car:
-If there aren’t some extra nerves in their first formula race, I would argue that something is wrong. The plan is for us as a team to take care of everything and help the drivers approach the task with focus, even though butterflies are fluttering in their stomachs, says Morten Dons, who looks forward to getting the first status on the drivers’ development:
-This weekend’s race will give us a starting point for what the drivers need to work on moving forward. We have a good handle on their driving technique and how they can improve here, but now many more elements come into play as they can measure themselves against each other and the rest of the field in real competition. I am incredibly excited to get all four through the first race weekend successfully, and I know that both they and everyone on the team are fully prepared.
The races in Nordic 4 will be streamed live on the YouTube channel Dansk Motorsport Live.
