I'm absolutely delighted with the fact my latest guest is British up and comer and current FIA Formula 3 star Taylor Barnard!
Taylor is currently in his rookie year of F3, racing for the Swiss based team Jenzer Motorsport alongside Nikita Bedrin and Mexican Alex Garcia who are also among the mass amount of rookies on this year's grid.
📸 Taylor with teammate Garcia(right) and Bedrin(left).
Over the last year, Taylor has made a name for himself as an incredibly quick and consistent driver as he managed an overall 8th place in Italian F4 and second in ADAC F4 in 2022 before a stint in the Formula Regional Middle East Championship saw him finish second again at the start of this year, battling with his 2022 rival Kimi Antonelli for the title.
📸 Taylor in the Formula Regional car.
Since then, Taylor has made his F3 debut with Jenzer and took his first points in the last round in Australia, as well as making up 30 places in total in the first round in Bahrain after starting at the back of the grid for both races.
Let's get onto Taylor's questions!
1. You’ve already raced against some tough opponents at this stage of your career; Kimi Antonelli, Rafa Camara, Ollie Bearman and Charlie Wurz to name a few; are one of these driver the toughest you’ve raced or does someone else stand out? Martinius Stenshorne.
📸 Norwegian youngster Stenshorne is racing in FRECA this year.
2. What’s your favourite circuit you’ve raced on so far? Albert Park.
📸 Taylor in his Jenzer at Albert Park.
3. What’s one you’ve not raced on yet that you’re desperate to? Monacoo!!
📸 F2 in Monaco.
4. Who’s your racing hero or heroes? Senna.
📸 Senna(left) with great company: Alain Prost(centre left), Nigel Mansell(centre right) and Nelson Piquet(right).
5. It seems to be a good time to be a young British driver with the likes of Ollie Gray, Zak O’Sullivan and more recently, Luke Browning joining F1 set ups, is getting picked up by an F1 team something you’re also trying to do just now? Of course, I am not fortunate enough to have the money to pay to be on these programmes. However I know there is some rare cases of people which get lucky. But of course I would love to be a junior driver of any team!
📸 PREMA's Zak O'Sullivan is the current highest placed British driver in F3.
6. You’re in your rookie season in F3, is stepping up to F2 next year already in your mind or do you feel like you’d benefit from another year? It's early in the season, let's see how it goes.
📸 Testing at Imola.
7. What’s your goal for your F3 campaign? At least a podium.
8. What are you most looking forward to in F3? Monaco.
📸 2012 was the last time this level raced at Monaco. Marlon Stockinger leads Antonio Felix Da Costa off the line ahead of Daniel Abt and Mitch Evans.
9. What was racing in Asia like at the start of this year? Very cool. We had some good results too!
📸 Taylor finished second overall in FRMEC in an exciting championship.
10. What’s your favourite F1 car ever? Senna’s famous McLaren.
📸 Iconic, simplistic.
11. What is your favourite helmet design ever? Vettel 2011 Turkey.
📸 Seb celebrates.
12. What’s the reason behind your own helmet design? My dad actually made the design 6 years ago now and I've kept it since then!
📸 Laser focused.
13. As a racing fan yourself, is there anything you’ve collected throughout your career in terms of memorabilia or collectibles? Not really. Just good memories!
📸 Good memories!
Thanks to Taylor for his answers and a special mention to thank Taylor's media team and that admin of Jenzer's social media accounts for their help setting up this interview!
Taylor, Jenzer and F3 all return to action at the Imola Grand Prix weekend on the 19th to the 21st of May.
📸 Image credits: Taylor Barnard, Sky Sports, Formula Motorsport Limited, Oracle Red Bull Racing, McLaren Racing, Marlon Stockinger.
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