Drivex Eurocup-3 driver George Zhuravskiy has expressed problems that tyre sets shipped by Hankook because last yr have varied in good quality and reported this has previously impacted results from the series’ non-championship Aragón winter season spherical.
By Juan Arroyo
Zhuravskiy claimed the good quality of tyre sets in Eurocup-3 experienced been inconsistent due to the fact series supplier Hankook’s manufacturing facility plant in Daejeon, South Korea, was destroyed by a hearth in March of last 12 months.
Speaking to Feeder Collection about his pre-year observations in advance of Eurocup-3’s 2024 time opener at Spa upcoming week, Zhuravskiy said that some tyre sets were being of better good quality than other individuals, correctly skewing the speed – and so effects – of quite a few drivers.
“Due to [the fire], I don’t know what occurred, but the good quality differs from tyre set to tyre established. I can notify you for confident, if the championship does not fix this concern, I will under no circumstances be equipped to tell you where I am,” the Drivex driver explained.
Zhuravskiy raced on Hankook tyres final calendar year in Spanish F4 as nicely as in the closing two Eurocup-3 rounds, all of which he contested with Drivex. This Eurocup-3 year is his first full campaign at the Components Regional stage.
He cited the effects from past month’s winter spherical at Motorland Aragón, in which 14 drivers were present, as evidence of the difficulties. “In practice, I was P6, nearly in the prime five, extremely continually. Then in qualifying, qualifying just one, it was 10th. Then qualifying two, it was a catastrophe, I was 12th.
Zhuravskiy’s swiftest lap across people sessions was a 1:55.337, set in the initial apply session. The Drivex driver’s quickest laps in the two qualifying sessions ended up a 1:55.457 and a 1:55.525.
“There’s no correlation among the observe classes and the qualifying classes, but I can tell you for confident that this is not Formulation 1. Everybody is driving nearly at their finest in follow. This type of big difference, it’s really unclear, but the tyre sets make a large variation in this championship.
“It’s just definitely troublesome, to be genuine, since I sense like there’s some that are ready to realize which tyre sets are superior and undesirable prior to basically putting them on, I have this suspicion. Regretably, it’s just a little bit random for us.”
Zhuravskiy stated the championship’s organising entire body – which is partly composed of competing teams – experienced been designed conscious of the problems and that numerous teams experienced pressured for a take care of through internal conferences.
Feeder Collection understands that there were several complaints from groups to sequence organisers about the varying top quality of tyre sets but that none came soon after pre-season testing in Spa-Francorchamps. The collection claimed it had labored with Hankook to resolve the instances in which decreased high-quality tyres have been shipped.
“It’s a major concern for the championship,” Zhuravskiy said. “I experience like if they don’t get [the tyre problems] preset, it’s just not reasonable. It’s a little bit of a disaster in actuality for the reason that tyres must be the identical. Here, it’s really distinct just from the jumps in overall performance that you get.
“Sometimes, you can put a new tyre and not even strengthen, which is not even thanks to keep track of circumstances. Keep track of situations can be even much better. Anyone could be improving upon and you’re not. That happens normally.
“That’s not only me [affected on track], that’s lots of persons. There’s no place in naming. [Among] most individuals who I communicate to in just my team, there’s a total consensus about this, that this is for sure what’s occurring.”
Zhuravskiy questioned why Hankook experienced remained tyre provider for 2024 in spite of the ongoing difficulties.
“If they’re not equipped to present us fair tyres for anyone, why would they take this on? Possibly it was far better for them to admit … ‘We have these challenges now, it’s possible it’s improved for us to action back’. I understand it’s organization, but it’s also the occupations of youthful motorists that are at stake in this article,” the 17-yr-old reported.
“The technical facet of the automobile may differ so a great deal that from weekend to weekend, there’s performance jumps in the teams, but it absolutely shouldn’t be the circumstance in the tyres. That’s a person issue I can inform you for certain. It’s not a fantastic glance.”
The series will use a lone tyre compound per weekend this season, abandoning the two-compound technique utilised past 12 months.
Zhuravskiy recommended the new compound will be “even softer than final year’s” smooth compound, which he claimed could guide to tyre efficiency abruptly dropping off right after a selected sum of degradation at some tracks.
But he also said that simply because of the Aragón circuit’s very low-degradation mother nature, the winter season spherical in March was not consultant of the prospective effectiveness adjustments.
“Aragón, Crimson Bull Ring, I would say [there is] not a lot of degradation. [They are] just tracks full of straights and not a ton of corners, so that’s very easy. I would say these two will be the lowest degradation.
“Barcelona is the place men and women struggle with the tyres. Due to the fact I raced in Barcelona, I can notify you, and that was with the old tricky [compound]. I don’t know about this new smooth, which is even softer.”
At Aragón, exactly where drivers to start with raced on the new compound, Zhuravskiy place on employed tyres from qualifying for the next race. He advised Feeder Series he assumed he would make it through the race devoid of concerns. It was only in the ultimate three laps that the Drivex driver talked about emotion major tyre put on.
“In [Formula Regional], we must have tyres that don’t degrade as a lot for the reason that we will need to continue to find the limit. We however have a place to build as drivers, so it would be quite useful if we could just not think so a great deal about the tyres and just drive, force, push,” Zhuravskiy explained.
As for his objectives for the period, Zhuravskiy said he was concentrating on a top rated-three complete in the rookie standings. He will race against six other rookies in 2024 – most notably Spanish F4 runner-up Christian Ho.
“Heading into the rookie period, I’d say I want to battle for rookie podiums each and every solitary race. I want to struggle for points just about every solitary race, but the target for me is to be preventing for the best of the rookies,” he explained to Feeder Series.
“I know that there are of class some fantastic people that are rookies in the championship. There’s Christian Ho and there’s Valentin Kluss, but I do be expecting myself to finish at minimum in the best three of the rookie championship. That’s the bare minimum purpose for the year, and scoring factors persistently is very important for me.”
Header picture credit rating: Niels Broekema / Dutch Photograph Company
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