Sebastien Philippe: "You have to focus on everything"

How has the season been for ART from your perspective?

Not bad, I would say! For sure, George [Russell] is doing a fantastic job and we’re really working well with him. We’ve had a few issues through the season, but that’s probably the same for everyone. For Jack [Aitken] it’s been a lot more difficult, and as a team we’ve struggled to find the keys to help him perform every time, so that means we’ve had some good times and some races where it was a bit more difficult.

You had a tougher time in 2017, but you’re here in 2018 back to winning ways. What’s been the secret behind that?

I think there’s no real secret – we had a hard time last year for different reasons and we had to analyse at the end of the season not to do them again. This year’s completely different because we’ve had a new car, so it’s a completely different scenario. I would say it’s difficult to compare!

Having George and Jack with you, as you did in GP3, offers a bit of continuity. Does that give you a benefit?

It’s always a benefit when you can have drivers for many years, because for sure it helps that you know each other much better. This is especially the case for ART, because the F2 and GP3 teams are really close with the same technical director, so it’s a good point especially at the start of the season when you start the relationship. When you’ve already been working together for a year, it’s a lot better!

George won GP3 last year and he’s on top of F2 this year – just how has he been able to adapt so quickly?

I think the best thing is to ask him directly! To be honest, even from our side, it’s been quite a surprise in a good way – especially to adapt to the tyres, because it’s quite difficult for the drivers to adapt to them and to be using them at the best in any situation. Sometimes you have to take care of the wear, or you have to push more, and that changes with the pressure or with the track surface. It’s really good to understand the feeling of that, and so yes - you’d probably have to ask him.

In the final races, do you feel Carlin are beatable in the teams’ championship, or are you focused on getting George over the line in the drivers’ standings?

Of course, you have to focus on everything. At the end, you’re trying to do the best job that you can and during the weekend for both drivers, we’re just taking it round by round and let’s see at the end where we need to be. But for sure, we have a better chance in the Drivers’ Championship – it’ll be a bit more difficult in the Teams’ one, because Carlin scores lots of points through the weekend and is doing a very good job. But let’s wait until the end.