Sean Walkinshaw rounded-off his 2012 track activity with a highly promising European Formula 3 Open winter test outing at Valencia in Spain this week – the 19-year-old ending the three-day run as the fastest of the ‘Copa’ class drivers.
Marking the Chipping Norton racer’s first appearance with Team West-Tec since confirming his F3 graduation earlier this month, Sean delivered an impressive performance throughout the test and rounded out his final run on Thursday, 20th December, with the quickest time of 1m29.4 seconds.
At the wheel of the very same Dallara F308 he will race in the Copa class of the pan-European series next year, the teenager worked closely with his driver coach Jack Harvey – the reigning British F3 Champion – and the West-Tec race engineers, importantly making significant improvements across the three days.
In addition to being a true front-runner in his class, Sean was also 12th quickest overall in a field featuring a large quantity of the faster 2012 specification Dallaras from a variety of national and European championships.
Posting a best lap of 1m30.950 seconds on Monday, 17th December, the Oxfordshire driver ended the first day around 0.7 seconds shy of the lead Copa runner before then slicing a full second off that time on Tuesday, 18th December, to lap with a quickest of 1m29.952 seconds – closing to within only 0.3 seconds of the outright class pace.
After a day out of the car, the Gloucester Rugby-supported racer returned to the cockpit on Thursday, 20th December, and steered his Toyota-powered Dallara around the four kilometre Ricardo Tormo Circuit with his fastest lap of the three days, 1m29.4 seconds, to brilliantly top the class timesheets.
“I’ve really enjoyed this week, it was fantastic being back in the F3 car and great to be working with the West-Tec guys and, of course, Jack”, commented Sean, “We made some really good progress, getting quicker and quicker each day, and I definitely improved my technique as well which was one of the main aims before we went to Spain.
“The F3 is so much fun to drive, especially the speed you can carry through the corners compared to the cars I’ve been racing this year in the UK. Being able to learn so much from a driver like Jack is a massive bonus to my preparations for next year and to end the test fastest has been a good, positive way to end 2012.”
With more testing to follow in the New Year, Sean’s first race action in the European F3 Open will come with the 2013 Winter Series which begins over the weekend 15th/16th February at Paul Ricard in southern France. The second and final event of the Winter Series will be held at Jerez in Spain on 1st/2nd March. Paul Ricard then hosts the main championship curtain-raiser at the end of April.