Wharton at home in F3
Boosted by his breakthrough win, James Wharton feels at home in FIA Formula 3 and is ready to attack the back end of the season.
Wharton has grown throughout his rookie F3 campaign with points finishes in each of his last three rounds, highlighted by a special Sprint victory in Austria.
It has seen the ART rookie rise from 25th to 18th in the standings thanks to flying from 20th to sixth in the last start at Silvestone.
Having come close, but just missed out on points across the first four rounds, Wharton always backed his ability, but admits it has given his confidence a massive boost.
“It has definitely given me more confidence,” he told Auto Action.
“But at the same time I know I am in F3 for a reason. I always backed myself, but the result had not come yet.
“What happened in Austria was more for everyone else rather than me because I had never had a win or podium with ART.
“It was nice to earn their respect because the reason why they chose me was to win, so it was good to get it to do it.
“It is great to show the team what I can do because we have made big steps in qualifying.
“This has given me a big boost for the rest of the season.
“I felt it was where I should be and I don’t doubt I can win more races now.”
After enjoying the “best feeling ever” in Austria, Wharton carried on his momentum by getting his next best result in the following start at Silverstone.
Despite traffic issues hurting him in qualifying and restricting him to 16th in the Sprint, the boy from Bundoora used his nous to move up the leaderboard.
With rain threatening, Wharton decided to run wets, and it proved to be a masterstroke as he soared into the top 10 in the blink of an eye and ended up securing a strong sixth.
“We had a problem in qualifying, getting impeded, and I do believe that a feature race win was possible,” he said.
“It hurts knowing we had the pace to win, but it gives me a boost that my race management was really strong.
“At a tough track in tough conditions where you have to manage the tyres I felt I did a good job.
“I was probably the most convinced it was wet tyres out of the whole field.
“I said we needed wets as early as the journey from the paddock to the pits.
“I did not know it was going to rain so much on the last lap, but it was down to the feeling from previous years of how the track was drying.”
After struggling to come to grips with the new car in what was the “biggest challenge” of his career, Wharton is proud to come out the other side and highlighted Spain as a turning point.
“I had to change my driving style for the first time,” he said.
“I love to brake late and push the edges of the corners.
“But with this car and engine it is not possible. You need to be on the throttle early.
“You need to not do too much on entry, but really get on the power coming out and something I have never done in my career.
“This is why it has taken longer than it probably should have because I have had to change my driving style 360 degrees. Something I have never done before.
“I won my second F4 race and podiumed in my second Formula race and pole first FRECA race.
“This has been a massive shift in my mindset and forced me to be open-minded.
“I have never felt so good off track which is why it has been super frustrating.
“If I am having a bad time off the track it can make things hard, but this year has been the opposite with a great support network around me.
“It was hard and there were times, especially in Monaco where I struggled to have any confidence in myself.
“But I have worked with the team really well and they have supported me when things have been tough.”
Only three rounds are left in the F3 season, starting with Spa where Wharton has enjoyed plenty of previous success on July 26-27.
Image: Dutch Photo Agency
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