FIA Formula 3: Monaco, Rd.4 2023 – Press Release
Cumbria’s Jonny Edgar and his MP Motorsport team returned to action this weekend at the fourth round of the 2023 FIA Formula 3 season at the world famous Monte Carlo street circuit, but a challenging weekend saw Jonny leave the Principality frustrated and without points.
After the Emilia-Romania round of the championship was called off last weekend as a result of severe flooding in the region, Jonny arrived in Monaco eager to get back to racing after a longer than expected break.
Practice began in wet conditions, making it difficult for Jonny to learn the unique street track. Halfway through the session Jonny spun at Massenet, and despite keeping his MP Motorsport F3 car out of the barriers, he was unable to continue in the session. This meant that Jonny went into qualifying with just 12 laps of practice under his belt, but despite the lack of track time and no running in dry conditions, he qualified in 8th place in his group and lined up 16th for the Sprint and Feature Races.
Unfortunately for Jonny the Sprint Race started in the worst possible way when contact from another car pushed him into the barriers at the very first turn, Sainte Devote and he was unable to continue in the race.
In the Feature Race the BRDC Superstar driver managed to avoid a repeat of any first lap drama and held on to his starting position through a safety car restart. He then climbed to 14th following a collision between two of his rivals on lap 19. Jonny pushed his car to the limit but on a circuit where overtaking is incredibly difficult, the 19 year old remained in 14th place for the rest of the race.
Jonny: “Practice was wet at the start and it was pretty slippy, and I was taking it a bit easy just to get used to the track and to slowly build up my pace – it was good to get out on track and it was fun to drive, but it was pretty difficult to learn anything useful ahead of qualifying.
On Friday, qualifying was my first proper time on the track in the dry, so I took it a bit easy at first, and then was just making sure I got through the last two laps without having any damage. On my last lap I was improving quite a lot but unfortunately a red flag came out at the very end, which was a shame because looking at the sector times of mine and everyone else’s, that lap could have been good enough for P5 or P6 in the group, which would have put me in a position for the reverse grid. If I was in a reverse grid position I think that could have changed the whole weekend.
Then in the Sprint Race, I had the crash on the first corner. So I was out from the start. It was a shame not to get a chance to race and to understand how the car felt following other cars, and to learn a bit more about the track and get some experience because I’d only really done three legitimate dry laps up to that point.
In the Feature Race, it was good to make it past turn 1 this time, but after the start it’s impossible to overtake really. It was nice to get a few more laps on the track and learn a bit, but overtaking was just impossible so I was stuck in a train for the whole race.
After this weekend I’m looking forward to going to Barcelona and getting the ball rolling again.”
Jonny will be back in action this next weekend at the Circuit de Catalunya for the Spanish round of the 2023 FIA Formula 3 Championship on 02 – 04 June. Practice, qualifying and the races will be broadcast live on Sky Sports F1.
Monaco Grand Prix FIA Formula 3
Qualifying
16. J.Edgar (MP Motorsport) +1.869
Sprint Race
DNF. J. Edgar (MP Motorsport) N/A
Feature Race
14. J Edgar (MP Motorsport) +31.109
FIA formula 3 Championship points after 6 of 20 races
17. J.Edgar (MP Motorsports) 2pts
