Montagny quite pleased with the experience!

By role
July 4 2003

Frank Montagny had his debut of fire with the R23 today in front of the whole F1 paddock when he tested for two hours at Magny-Cours. He faced difficult conditions as his car experienced a problem and also rain hitted the session. He finished 6th today.

After the session Montagny was quite glad on his effort though he would have liked to have some extra time on the car in order to push further:

“I’m quite pleased after this first run in the car, and had a good time out there today. Circumstances weren’t ideal today, with the engine problem and the weather conditions, but I did my best. With an extra hour’s running, I think I could have adapted completely to running in the rain, but in the event, it was impossible. Nonetheless, it was a useful and enjoyable experience, and that’s perhaps the most important thing.” He said.

The tam was also happy on his performace. Pat Symonds said:

"Franck had a baptism of fire with an engine failure requiring him to swap to the T-car, and then some difficult running in extremely wet conditions. However, he came through it extremely well, providing us with useful data while setting impressive lap times for a first outing in the car.”

Frank Montagny currently leads the Telefonica World Series after having won 6 out of 8 races on a competitive series that is also raced by ex-Formula 1 drivers like Marc Gené or Enrique Bernoldi.