March 24, 2011
Published on tags: Superleague
After every Superleague race, the top three finishers attend the GPVWC Press Conference to answer some questions about their races. Today, the top three in the 2011 Australian Grand Prix are Lee Morris (ENG, Draig Racing), Dave Carr-Smith (ENG, Midnight Motorsport) and Sam Millar (SCO, Synergetic Motorsport). They are interviewed by Adam Smith.

Q. Guys, thanks for coming, First of all, Lee: first win of the season at the opening race, were you expecting to do so well?

LM. Hi, the answer must be yes as my aim is to win races and the championship. I am here to win, not to finish 2nd!

Q. Of course. So do you think you have the car to give you wins all season or is there a lot of work to be done?

LM. Well, I'm sure we at Draig have the best car in the field, so I have to believe that I can win more races. We had the upper hand at this race too, we lost a lot of time with backmarkers when we needed clear air for the two-stop strategy to work. Everytime Joe [Consiglio] came up to someone, they seemed to move over and then block me - but I'm sure that's not the case! Apart from that, we must have had them on the limit for his brakes to fail on a 3 stop strategy.

Q. Ok, so there's clear confidence in the team and yourself. You mention the strategy, did the new quali format pose any problems for you?

LM. Yes, Ihave full confidence in my team, I would like to thank them all for this win as they deserve it just as much as me. Ryan Walker made a fantastic debut with a last minute call to race as Liam pulled out, the new qualifying was interesting, as its not always the fastest car on pole, it provides teams and drivers with the oppertunity to be creative in strategy as we saw today. Myself and Joe were on completley different stategies but we were seperated at the end by 2 seconds with 8 laps to go, so I really do think the new qualifying is good.

Q. Ok, well done today Lee. Next is Dave Carr-Smith, second on the podium today, You qualified 5th, did you expect to be on the second step today?

DCS. Not at all ?going into today I was hoping for a top 5 finish at best. Being a new team, obviously, our car is quite a way behind the others in terms of development and with such a high quality field this year I thought even a top five would be difficult. I think I actually qualified 6th but I messed up my lap otherwise I would?e been on the second row along with my team mate. But yeah, I? thrilled to finish on the second step in the team? first race, it? a massive achievement for all of us at the team after a lot of hard work in the pre-season tests.

Q. How confident are you that the team can continue to keep the pace in the car or even improve it throughout the season?

DCS. I think - given our current situation in terms of car performance - we can only improve from this point onwards. Obviously, both Nick and myself have a lot of experience both at GPVWC and in sim-racing in general so I? confident that as the season progresses we can continue to achieve strong points finishes with the occasional podium and perhaps even start to get in the mix with those Draig and Nordsjoen cars towards the end of the season.

Q. Obviously, you've been away for a season: basing your judgement on today, how confident are you in your return?

DCS. I don? think I ever doubted my return. Despite stepping back to a team management role last year, I have kept myself busy with other categories of racing and so I think today was a question of how the car would perform and how far up the grid we could push it rather than anything else. Despite a strategy blunder at my second stop my race progressed as expected with only a couple of minor errors on my part; so I? happy with my performance today ?I just hope I can continue this strong start to the season into round two next week.

Q. Thank you Dave. Sam Millar of Synergetic motorsport filled the last place on the podium today. Sam, are things looking better for you and Synergetic this year?

SM. Definitely, the car has felt great from the start of testing and it's continued to perform well. I joined Synergetic half way through last year so I feel very at the home at the team, we have high hopes for this season.

Q. Pre-season testing has shown that you have the pace, do you think you have the fight to challenge the championship?

SM. Well, tonight's race was a two stopper, admittedly I was quite shocked to find myself quite so far down the grid at the end of Q1. Luckily though, the laps I put in to Q1 weren't peaks and Q2 allowed us to take some of the places back that we lost. We haven't had any updates to the car for a while now, but this is planned as we are due a big package soon. Of course, we're all here to win the championship but we'll take it a step at a time and see how things go.

Q. Alright, again you mentioned qualifying, do you think that the new format can bring a new aspect to GPVWC once other teams get up to speed?

SM. Definitely, I wasn't so sure with the new qualifying format at first but now I see it as a massive opportunity to make up for some lost ground in Q1, it's very exciting.

Q. Okay, thanks for that Sam, well done for today, see you in Abu Dhabi. Thank you to Lee Morris, Dave Carr-Smith and Sam Millar for joining us today.