Karting titles and F3 lessons: Paul Aron on the moments that made him

Paul Aron has made a great start to life in Formula 2, currently second in the Drivers' Championship having earned three podiums already in his rookie season.

The Hitech Pulse-Eight driver took some time ahead of a busy couple of weekends coming up to reflect on how he reached this point, picking out several key points in his career that has led the Estonian to F2.

ESTONIAN KARTING TITLE

“There are two very big moments and then a third moment that played a big role, but the first big moment in my career was winning the Estonian Karting Championship. Even though it wasn’t on an international level, it was still the start of my ascent. Everything started in Estonia and winning that Championship and that was when we took the decision to go international and we realised in order to develop further, we needed better competition. I think that was one of the key moments.

“It was a very interesting year actually because it was basically a title fight and it was back and forth all year. I went into that last race with a two-point difference. I was starting on pole position, and I remember thinking what I needed to do to win and in the beginning, after I did pole and won the pre-final, I had enough points if I finished second but then realised I’d calculated wrong and realised I still needed to win the race to win the title. And that was about five minutes before I got into the kart to do the final.

“It was a very interesting race, I led the whole way but defending the whole race and it finished at the final corner on the final lap, a downhill chicane and I was defending, he tried to go around the outside and we had a little bit of a touch, he spun and I won the race and became the Champion.”

EUROPEAN KARTING TITLE

“Then I’d say probably one of the biggest points in my career was when I won the European Championship in OK-Junior. To be honest, during that year, I won every competition I took part in, so it was a good year! But the European Championship was the biggest one, the biggest title out of all of them and from there, I really got into the spotlight of some important people and really after that is where my career took off.

“To be honest, I’d never really felt the pressure. I really enjoyed that year. I had a really good relationship with my team, my mechanic and engineer and I was just really enjoying driving rather than thinking about results. Obviously, I wanted to win but I never expected to. I was just out there enjoying my time. I was still going to school at that point, I only graduated last year, but for me at that point it was a nice escape from school doing something I really enjoyed.

"During the race my mechanics were showing me if I had enough points or if I needed to overtake somebody or not"

“We just kept winning. Round 1 was a dominant round, we qualified on pole, I won all the heats, and won the final lights to flag. We completely dominated that first meeting and from then on, I knew if we were smart, we were on to win the title.

“If there was a pressure moment, it was the final race because it came down to me and Gabriele Minì. I had a bit of a lead but not enough to be safe and I remember in that final race, I finished fifth which was enough but during the race my mechanics were showing me if I had enough points or if I needed to overtake somebody or not.

“The last three laps I was right behind the top four and Gabriele was leading the race, and then it was nerve-wracking because I was in a position where I didn’t need to risk overtaking but there was a risk from someone behind overtaking me and pushing me off. But in the end fifth was enough and we won the title.”

FIA F3

“From that point on, the biggest thing would be finishing P3 in the FIA Formula 3 Championship. I’ve had success throughout my whole career in single-seaters, but Formula 3 is definitely a Championship that is super high level. You’re in the Formula 1 paddock already, under the lights of F1 let’s say and I’ve had previous title fights and podium finishes in other seasons. But for me, I think F3 is really a Championship that finishing in the top three will put you in the spotlight and it’s the reason I’m on the F2 grid today.

“It would’ve been nice to win the title. I was with PREMA and had been with them for many years already, but from the first time in the car, I knew it suited me and it was quick, so I expected to go for the title last season. But every year isn’t that simple and there were many moments that defined the end result. Nevertheless, we shouldn’t look past the great results we did. We finished third in my rookie season, and I don’t think we were the guys to beat at the beginning of the season.

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“We as a team didn’t have the pace straight out of the gate but we worked really hard to get to the point we wanted to be and it was no secret at that point, it was too late to challenge Gabriel Bortoleto. I’d say if the season went perfectly, we’d have had a chance, but no season is perfect. With how we worked that year, third place was a good result.

“Races didn’t pan out the way we needed but the biggest loss of points was already a few rounds before, in Red Bull Ring. I had the chance to win the Feature Race, but I ruined that all myself and then we made a big error on strategy at Spa, losing another Feature Race win. Both of those moments came in Feature Races where I had a chance to win 50 points.

“Not ideal, but I think almost everyone can go on about how something went wrong in their season. We were lucky with not having technical issues, so it could have been much worse, and I’m happy with third place.

“If there’s anything to prove, I now have this F2 season.”