March 28, 2012
Published on tags: Superleague
It's fair to say it's been a rather understated start to the season for reigning world champion Joe Consiglio. So far a 3rd and a 5th is all the Maltese driver has been able to muster and with Midnight Motorsport already stretching their legs in the championship, Consiglio has found himself struggling for outright pace.


After last Thursday's race, the Nordsjoen team stayed on in China in order to evaluate why their cars were relatively off the pace. Consiglio explains the situation: "Australia was a decent result for us so it wasn't really until China that we realised just how far behind we were in terms of our understanding of the NR005. We know the car has good potential but so far we've been unable to unlock it."


"Anyway, the extended stay allowed us to analyse exactly where we've been losing time relative to our competition. After many hours of work we believe we've made significant progress in the area of car setup and our general understanding of this year's mod. With this in mind we're confident we can feature more prominently in Abu Dhabi. Lukas [Euler] is probably still out of reach at the moment so the aim is to close the gap and finish on the podium."


When asked about the Championship, Consiglio was philosophical about his chances.


"It's too early to say whether we can turn things around enough to challenge for this year's Championship. I've had to reset my goals for this season a bit, all I want to do now is maximise the package I have. If Midnight or any other team do a better job in the development race, I'll tip my hat to them and say 'well done, you deserve it'."

"As long as I feel I'm extracting the most from the NR005 I
can sleep easy. So far I've not done that but like I said we've made real progress in our setup since China
and our first chance to show it will be in Abu Dhabi."