Debutant Zachary David celebrates double victory at Formula Winter Series season finale

US Racing driver Zachary David wins both races at the Formula Winter Series season finale in Barcelona – Gianmarco Pradel wins the Rookie classification.

US Racing quintuple victory – debut victory of Zachary David

The first round of the Formula Winter Series ends with a victory for Zachary David. In his debut in the race series, the US Racing driver fights his way to victory from third on the grid. The up-and-coming driver, who competes under a Maltese licence, ultimately came out on top in some impressive duels and multiple battles with his teammates. Second place went to his Australian team-mate Gianmarco Pradel, who thus took a big step towards the runner-up championship and winning the rookie classification. Ruiqi Liu from China completed the Top 3.

For US Racing, the race ended with the perfect result. The successful racing team of Gerhard Ungar and Ralf Schumacher can be happy about a five-fold victory. Frederik Lund and Akshay Bohra completed the team’s successful run in the other positions, which, however, was marked by tough team-internal battles.

Two Safety Car interruptions

After a crash of Amna Al Qubaisi (GRS Racing) and a technical problem of Lola Lovinfosse (Campos Racing), the experienced race director Werner Aichinger had to send the safety car onto the GP circuit twice, which brought the field close together again and again and made for exciting as well as unpredictable restarts.

Another victory for David

Zachary David also triumphed in the second service at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya. The Formula Winter Series debutant came from pole position on Sunday afternoon to win ahead of Singapore’s Akshay Bohra, who also made his debut in the series at the season finale on the Spanish Formula 1 circuit just outside Barcelona. As in the first race, US Racing was once again able to celebrate a five-fold victory.

Rookie classification and runner-up championship goes to Pradel

Gianmarco Pradel was also very happy. With his third place, the Australian was crowned champion in the rookie classification of the Formula Winter Series. In addition, he also secured the runner-up championship behind his team-mate Kacper Sztuka, who already won the title at the penultimate race weekend in Navarra and did not compete in Barcelona. A successful season finale for the likeable Australian!

Race ended prematurely

After an accident involving Campos Racing driver Maite Caceres, the race was stopped a few minutes before the end of the race so that the sports stewards could safely recover the crashed vehicle. Caceres, who hails from Uruguay, survived the impact at turn six uninjured, but damaged the front of her Tatuus car.

Promoter satisfied with debut season – significantly more starters expected next season

“The debut season of the Formula Winter Series knew how to thrill with exciting races, as we also experienced this weekend here in Barcelona,” said FWS project manager Robin Selbach. “We have already had some good discussions for the 2023/2024 season and we are confident about the future of the racing series. We are currently assuming that our starting field will continue to grow.”

The race calendar for the 2023/2024 season of the Formula Winter Series will be presented shortly.