Early Formula 3 European Championship leader Nick Cassidy has admitted that he was suffering from fatigue during last weekend’s opening round at Paul Ricard.
The New Zealander finished second in all three races in his Prema Powerteam Dallara-Mercedes, but a mistake while leading cost him victory in the second.
He had arrived in Europe on the Monday evening after flying back from his latest Super GT test in Japan, where he is a works Toyota driver with the TOM’S Lexus team.
“I’m not in ideal shape,” said Cassidy after the second race.
“I’ve been travelling way too much this month – I could’ve won both races [on Saturday] so to be leading the championship and instead be disappointed not to win races is weird.
“I felt after the test [the official day at Ricard on Thursday] that my performance was not where I’d left it.”
Since the official Euro F3 Vallelunga test in early March, Cassidy has had commuted between Europe and Japan for a private F3 test at Barcelona, Prema’s media day, plus Super GT tests at Okayama (twice) and Fuji.
He is back in Japan at Okayama this weekend, where he kicks off the Super GT campaign co-driving with veteran Daisuke Ito.
Cassidy felt his form improved through the Ricard weekend.
After narrowly losing out on the race three win to team-mate Maximilian Gunther, he said “my feeling is very different to after the first two races.
“I made no mistakes and gave it absolutely everything.”
EUROPEAN F3 STANDINGS
| Pos | Driver | Points |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Nick Cassidy | 54 |
| 2 | Lance Stroll | 35 |
| 3 | Maximilian Gunther | 35 |
| 4 | Callum Ilott | 26 |
| 5 | Joel Eriksson | 25 |
