Barnard delighted with ‘outstanding’ drive to P8 in Budapest Sprint Race

AIX Racing’s Taylor Barnard was incredibly pleased to take the final point in the Budapest Sprint Race, coming through from P17 on the grid to finish in eighth.

The Briton was one of the 12 drivers on the grid to start the race on the Soft tyres, but he was the only rookie that managed them well enough for 28 laps to finish in the points.

While it may just be one point for Barnard, he was thrilled with the performance, putting a lot of it down to aggressive approach on the first lap.

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“My getaway from the line was not really the best, but my first lap was quite good,” said Barnard. “I was up about five places or so, so the first lap is always going to be a bit chaotic, but I knew the race was going to be a bit of a management race.

“I watched the F3 race and there was not really much happening, they were all in the DRS train, so I knew I had to be aggressive on the first lap, so that was a positive. We then went into the management phase of the race, and I already felt quite quick from the beginning.

“But I could see the cars in front of me fighting quite a lot and I was just waiting, saving my tyres, biding my time and when I felt the time was right, I had to push for a couple of corners, but you have to make it work. If you push for too many corners in a row you push your tyres too quick.

“I did quite a good race, I chose the correct places to push and to make the overtakes. I had a few good battles with a few people, so it was a well-run race.”

Explaining further as to how he balanced managing tyres while also trying to make his way through the field, Barnard shared an example from his battle with Van Amersfoort Racing’s Rafael Villagómez and his approach.

“I think I was behind Villagómez for quite a while,” he explained. “I saw that he was going quite wide in the last corner and that gave me a bit of an opportunity that if I was to push, I could have half of my front wing on the inside at the last corner.

“I had an easy line because I was already behind him with DRS, and it was an easy overtake. I think it's more about managing your tyres, watching the pace of the car in front drop and drop and then you pick where you want to overtake because you've sat behind them and studied the car in front.”

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Barnard also explained that he mainly went on how he felt during the race, choosing to not always listen to his race engineers calls to overtake and instead making moves when he felt it was right.

It all combined with a nice drive through to P8, a late move down the inside of Oliver Bearman at Turn 2 giving him a well-earned point, and after a “rough” season, Barnard says moments like these mean a lot.

“I've had a bit of a rough season to be honest,” said Barnard. “To have these outstanding performances in a couple of races, even though it's only a point or whatever, it's these performances that make it worth it for me.

“The Monaco Sprint Race, okay it was a train, but I didn't have an easy life with the Safety Cars and the Red Flags, and I felt the same here. I qualified badly but to make it work on the Softs is a bit better.

“I remember George Russell saying when he was at Williams it's selective success. If you can't win every race, you have to take the positives from what you can do in your situation, so it's moments like this where you have to be happy. It's a good race and good performance so we will see what we can do tomorrow.”

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Previewing tomorrow’s Feature Race where he will again line up in P17, Barnard said: “Well obviously we had a good car today. I guess the weather will be very similar tomorrow, and there is a pit stop so there is going to be a bit more chaos, so I'll definitely be aiming for points.

“It's a couple of laps longer so with the pace I had today maybe I can go a bit harder. I can't really give you a target but top 10 will be great.”