Phoenix F1 Melbourne Superleague post race report

A tough debut, that was for sure. The least developed car on the grid, and it showed. Qualifying was tough, to say the least, with Boyd Bryson managing only 22nd with a 1m27.6; Kieran Ryan 24th with a 1m28.2.

Problems at the start for others meant the drivers both moved up several places, Kieran leading Boyd until early on Boyd put his car on a kerb, getting loose and into the wall he went - losing his front wing. In for repairs so early on put him way down the order, and from then on trying to make it easy for the guys lapping him led to some more off-track moments. A four pitstop race meant a P18 finish four laps down, only one place ahead of the last car running at the end.

As for Kieran he drove a pretty good race and as other drivers suffered problems in the latter stages, moved into the points! But luck was not on his side. As the lead car was on his final lap and not too far behind him, he was in a battle with Mark Stanton for P15 (which due to van der Voort's DNF would have meant a battle for P14). Exiting the last turn before starting what would have been his personal 56th and last lap his engine blew up throwing grey clouds of smoke behind him! As other cars passed his stricken car before it managed to cross the line, he dropped down to P17.

Unfortunately for the team, Malaysia is rumoured not be an improvement on the R&D upgrades front. With the weather forecast showing a high probability of rain, this truly may be the teams only hope for a points finish in round two.

"Now that we have a clearer view of our financial situation, our R&D department led by Shinji Nomo are working on major improvements to the car. Together with the drivers input, we've got a programme in place which should ensure our car is as good as it can be before the next in-season test in May" commented team owner Andy Graydon. "We know why we are where we are and look forward to the car being a major step forward come the third round at the A1-Ring."