As Midnight Motorsport approached Shanghai, anticipation was building. 2011 got off to a slightly rocky start as the team was an unknown. The outfit came about when CSG decided to not enter a full works entry: after discussions with the CSG team, Nick Rowland was given the task to create teh Midnight team as a satellite team from the CSG garages.
It was a slightly hurried start to the season, with driver contracts and also components coming very late. Nevertheless, a lot of mileage was turned by Dave Carr-Smith in pre-season. Seeing Dave's name raised a few eyebrows, as technically he is part of CSG: this is due to the increased responsibilities handed on to Dave, which led Rowland to offer Carr-Smith a soul driver offer and administration. Impediments meant that, in the past week, the former CSG manager had to take a few more responsibilities, but it's fair to save Dave has taken to his role like a duck to water.
Rowland stated: "I felt that Dave would always be our main protagonist and as the season goes on, it's clear to see he will be. After winter testing, both Dave and I entered really with a slight unknown. We had no idea really where we were on pace or if we even were on pace. Then for me to pop it in to 3rd in Melbourne in Qualifying was like a dream come true. Never thought or expected anything like it. Come the race, though, it would all go downhill. A heavy misjudgement on braking and tyres cost me heavily. Dave, on the other hand, brought home solid points."
The situation in the next race was less of a highlight for Midnight's early season: "Abu Dhabi was an absolute write off. We had nothing in Abu Dhabi, straight line speed; traction; even turn in had gone by lap 3 on the tyres. Horrible event for us. We turned up in Suzuka with things still looking pretty bleak up until about 20 minutes before qualifying. Out of the word work an hidden gem was found and all of a sudden it breathed new life in to our car, but also gave myself and Dave a lot of confidence."
"This positivity was reflected by Dave's superlative qualifying, only for it to be shattered early on and my more so, and finally, encouraging race pace. Dave wasn't even far off catching me, the fight back of Champions was handed there. "
More technical issues blighted Rowland's first in-season test whereas both Dave and Bruno took to the wheel and even the professional Dave still maintaining his full lappery of testing.
