Rodin Carlin’s Callum Voisin extended his championship lead in every race at Brands Hatch last time out, and the British-Swiss contender is looking to add further victories to his tally as he bids to wrap up the title.
Voisin’s first win of the season in the second race of the weekend came after a run of eight podiums from the first 16 races of the year, and has now led the championship since the end of the Silverstone round at the end of July.
His victory, added to three secured in 2022, didn’t come easy though, as he had to fend off the attentions of nearest title rival Joseph Loake, with the JHR driver running him close on the opening lap. Voisin reckons it’s now looking like a fight between himself and Loake for the championship, but isn’t discounting the other contenders still in contention, with several also entering a decent run of form.
“It was a good battle at Brands Hatch,” Voisin commented. “I think we’ve made some pretty good improvements since Silverstone over the summer break and it was nice to be back up towards the very sharp end of the field, and obviously getting my first win of the year, which was long overdue but better late than never!
“Especially after Brands Hatch I think it’s a bit more of a two horse race for the championship, but it’s never over. There’s still seven or eight people who are still mathematically in contention for the championship, so you don’t discard any of them but for sure it’s made our chances a lot better. It was nice to extend my championship lead albeit not by a lot, but even so, it’s a positive heading into the last two rounds of the season.”
Having taken his first win of the season, he now intends to win as many of the four ‘main’ races still to come this season, to really take the title by the scruff of its neck, having erased some of the inconsistencies from 2022 that stopped him launching a prolonged title assault in his first campaign of single-seater racing.
“Yeah for sure, that’s my goal, I’ll go for the four main races I want to win, so we’ll be doing everything in our power to do that.
“Last year I had a few wins but at the same time when it went wrong it went wrong quite a lot! So this year has been about minimising the mistakes and minimising the bad days. That was the main objective and I think we’ve done that.
“Finally getting that win, confidence wise is huge, and we can only carry that into the last couple of rounds of the season. At the end of the day we still don’t want to bleed any more points unnecessarily because it’s still very close, but I think we’ve got a good shot.”
The pack heads to Zandvoort in a fortnight’s time, and Voisin reckons the current breed of GB3 machinery will deliver compelling action at the home of the Dutch Grand Prix.
“I haven’t actually driven there [Zandvoort] in the dry yet, so I’m yet to find out for sure, but looking from onboards and things like that it looks like an amazing track. I think it will suit these cars perfectly, lightweight, quick in the corners and stuff like that so I think Zandvoort with its twisty and undulating nature of the circuit is the perfect combination for these GB3 cars.”
The Zandvoort event will commence a hectic few weeks for one of the UK’s brightest young talents, with the season finale at Donington Park coming just a week afterwards, before then leading on to the assessments for the Aston Martin Autosport BRDC Young Driver of the Year Award, for which Voisin is a finalist. He’s eagerly anticipating the challenge of what could be a career defining month.
“A huge amount, I’m really looking forward to it, for any young up and coming British driver, it’s a dream to be driving some pretty amazing cars, cars that I’ve never driven before.
“Driving a car with a roof will be a first for me but I’m really looking forward to it, especially getting out in the MSV F2 car will be an experience you don’t get very often, so I’m looking forward to it and I’ll be trying to make sure I make the most of it for sure.”