SPEAKER_00 0:00

Well Aaron, two weeks away from the start of the twenty twenty six season, an exciting one in prospect for you, some changes.

SPEAKER_01 0:06

I think so. I think uh you know getting to join MB Motorsport and what laser tools do within this team is something that I'm so incredibly proud of. I've looked in from afar for I don't know how many years, so now to be the guy on the blue is pretty crazy. Uh feels a bit surreal, a bit of an imposter syndrome, but I think it's shaping up to be a great year for us.

SPEAKER_00 0:24

How much seat time have you had?

SPEAKER_01 0:26

We've had a lot of testing to be fair, and it's been going really well, which has been quite nice. You know, I feel like uh the car is right in the window, we've seen that this morning, we've seen that everywhere we've gone. So I feel like we've a real chance, and all you ever won this championship is to have a chance. Because if you're in the mix, you never know what could happen, especially now with 40 races. You know, you once you're in that mix, you have a fair old crack at it come to the end of the year.

SPEAKER_00 0:49

You mentioned the 40 races, which is uh taking account of the new qualifying format. You're smiling. Is that is that a suggestion you're a fan?

SPEAKER_01 0:56

Yeah, I think it's you know, change is always good. Do you know what I mean? Like it makes it exciting, and that's all you want is to have fun and do this. I'd love to do 50 races if we could. So to me, the more racing the better, and the more of a show we can put on, and I think it changes the landscape of the championship because yes, the racecraft is ne is how has always been important, but now it's probably more important. Even managing brakes and tires over the course of the year is gonna be mission critical to making sure you have a chance to come the end of the season.

SPEAKER_00 1:22

You had some frustrations last season, you also had some great performances. Let's not forget those. Um, what did you take away from from last season and mull over during the winter?

SPEAKER_01 1:31

You know, like yeah, there was trials and tribulations of last year, but that's anything. When you join a new team, you're gonna take a little while to gel and figure out what works and what necessarily doesn't work. I think everyone did a as good of a job as they could last year. So I feel now with the MB Motorsport tie-in, it allows us to level everything up, it allows us to push on that little bit more. But I feel like we learned where the strengths of the car were and potentially some of the weaknesses, and we've been able to like fine-tune that over this winter with Craig who's on my car, so that's allowed us to really uh elevate for our performance and hopefully, yeah, put us in a chance.

SPEAKER_00 2:04

You've always given 100% and you've always been incredibly positive whenever we've chatted. I remember one time up at Nock Hill it hadn't gone well for you, but you still were happy to talk it through. How much of that do you carry over from season to season? I mean, do you do you change as a driver? Do you approach in a different way each year?

SPEAKER_01 2:19

Like, Joe and I'd say, right, it takes the same amount of time to be difficult as it does to be nice. And for me, like I feel so privileged to be doing this that yeah, you can walk around with dragging your nuts on the ground, being angry at the whole situation, or you can just kind of count your blessings and you get to do this. Do you know? And I think like the mental landscape of it is very hard and challenging because some weekends will go your way and you could win two races. Other weekends you might have a drama and not able to get out into the grid for one of the races. You take the good with the bad, uh, and like to be honest, like how I conduct myself is not in a macho way. All I ever want is for my little ones to look at me and be proud of every everything I do and every decision I make, and that to me is kind of how I carry myself. So if Oakie comes over to me after a race and we've won, yeah, I'll be happy. If she comes over to the race after an engine's blown up, she should know no difference. Do you know that's the key to me?

SPEAKER_00 3:10

There's a number of variables uh this year. There's some new cars on the grid, new drivers on the grid, there's people changing seats, so we never know how it's going to pan out. On paper, though, if you look at the new qualifying format and the way the racing is going to happen, it could be one of the closest and most competitive seasons for a while.

SPEAKER_01 3:26

I think so. I think like it's a great time to now have to be with Laser Source Racing because I think this is going to be unbelievably competitive this year. And you're kind of making sure that every race weekend you can go to, you can finish in the top five. That's all you need over 40 races, and you'll be in with a chance to win this championship. Where in former years it wasn't that case. We just have to make sure we're always in that mix and always at the sharp end. I think we can do that. Is that your mark in the sand for at least the first half of the season to be in that top five consistently? I usually do the best that we can. Some weekends I think we'll have a package that will win, some weekends a package that will finish fifth. But you take the good with the bad, and I feel like if we're in and around that average of fifth, we'll have a very good chance to come back brands at the end of the year.

SPEAKER_00 4:09

This test day is very different to uh Croft, isn't it?

SPEAKER_01 4:12

Yeah, it feels like it feels like we're in a in a Mediterranean climate over here. It's quite nice.

SPEAKER_00 4:16

High track temperature, which means you get to test out uh the tyres as well. Have you have you done a rotation on the tyres?

SPEAKER_01 4:22

Yeah, so this is the first run, first hot weather test that we've done all year, which actually is probably one of the areas that we needed to focus on, so it couldn't have come at a better time. Because at the end of the day, it's going to be like this in June, July, maybe even in a couple of weeks. So we're probably learning more here than we have at summer rotor tests, which have all been eight, ten degrees. So, yeah, we're learning a lot on tire life and what we'll do. Um, and we'll do kind of a race run in this in the afternoon to make sure everything works over the course of the full distance. But I think we're um yeah, I think we're sitting sweet.

SPEAKER_00 4:52

I'm sensing that out of the box you're reasonably happy with the car.

SPEAKER_01 4:56

Yeah, exactly. It's right in the window. You know, uh you never know on these type of days, but you'd prefer to be at the sharp end rather than wondering how to get to the sharp end. So I think that's a positive.

SPEAKER_00 5:05

Chatting to some of the other drivers, there's a number of them are saying, Do you know what? I'd be happy if I got to that photograph at the end of the season where you're mathematically possible to be champion. Is is that an aspiration?

SPEAKER_01 5:15

Absolutely. Like it's something that I've kind of grown up wanting to do, do you know, and I think we have a chance this year, and it's my best chance yet. And that's all that's all I've ever wanted. And I'm so grateful for Mark and everyone at MB for giving me this opportunity to allow me to hopefully stretch my legs this year. Have a great season. Cool, appreciate it, thank you very much.