SPEAKER_01 0:00

Big weekend for you. Is it the big 5-0 this weekend?

SPEAKER_00 0:03

Yes, race two this weekend, uh tomorrow, Sunday would be my 50th race start. So that's really really cool. I mean I don't feel like I've been in this championship very long, but I guess that just shows how many races we have over a weekend, doesn't it?

SPEAKER_01 0:14

Exactly. Tell me about free practice, you've just come in now, how did it feel out there?

SPEAKER_00 0:18

Yeah, car felt good. Um, you know, to be P4 I think it's quite good, so uh yeah, very happy. Um interestingly, we didn't find time on a soft tyre, which was very interesting. So we certainly looked through that, but it seems like a lot of other people didn't as well. So now I'm caught in this mill. Do I use a carryover set of softs for qualifying or a new set of mediums?

SPEAKER_01 0:34

That's right, yeah. You did see the S and M's going down. It was a mix, wasn't it? So tell me about thinking behind that.

SPEAKER_00 0:40

Yeah, so obviously this weekend we've got to run on the medium and the hard, so we get we get three sets of mediums and one set of hards. But qualifying choice of tyre is three, so we have brought some very good soft ties with us. Um in fact, we brought two sets of good side tires with us, and that was our first set. So that's basically what I go into qualifying with as a thought would be those ties. But yeah, we'll see how we go.

SPEAKER_01 1:09

And this car going round the we're at the um different layout here at Donnington. How does it suit that?

SPEAKER_00 1:15

Yeah, I think the two hair pins are only gonna help us, aren't they? Certainly, our traction out of those is very good. Um, helps mask a little bit of our straight line disadvantage. But the car also handles well at high speed, you know. Um obviously round here it's very much a front wheel drive circuit, more so because on the insides of the curbs the front wheel drive cars kick a whole load of kind of like dust and kind of dirt onto the racing line. That makes it very tricky for us. So that's more or less why it's a front wheel drive circuit. Other than that, I think it's fairly even, but let's hope we don't find any dirt on the uh on our best lapping qualifier later.

SPEAKER_01 1:43

And the car so what about you? Do you like this one? Is this one of your favourites?

SPEAKER_00 1:47

Yeah, I love it. I mean who doesn't love Dorrington Park, you know? Um, it used to always be a bit of a bogey track for me, but over the last year and a half I've worked quite hard on this circuit to make sure that actually now it is actually probably one of my strongest circuits now. So um yeah, I think I think it's good. I love it here. Um the crowd was always amazing, and we'll have some nice sunny weather tomorrow as well.

SPEAKER_01 2:04

Absolutely. Well, enjoy the last few hours of your forties and uh we'll celebrate the big 5 0 tomorrow. Congratulations, well done. Look, good luck in uh qualifying.

SPEAKER_00 2:12

Thank you. Yeah, it's great. A big 5 0 and not a grey hair in sight.

SPEAKER_01 2:15

Absolutely, perfect. Thank you, Charles, thank you.