27th July 2021
Louis Foster took 15-points out of his Euroformula Open title rival at Imola, closing to within just four points of the series lead in another battling weekend.
CryptoTower Racing Team driver Foster, who turns 18 on July 27, felt pace was lacking in qualifying, but made use of his fast-starting ability to put himself in position for a strong result.
Foster had initially fallen back with a bold move at the fast Tamaburello corner didn’t come off, but later fought back into contention and pressured his rival into an error.
That led to an eighth top three finish in 13 races with second place in the first race of the weekend.
In race two Foster struggled to overtake and make the most of his strong pace, taking fifth, before a fourth place finish in the reversed-grid race three despite being caught up in an early incident which stifled progress.
“For a first time at Imola, with limited testing there, only two sessions for getting a balance with the car before qualifying, I think we did a good job,” said Foster, who is backed by Copart, a global leader in vehicle remarketing and recycling. “Similar to the previous round at Hungary actually, personally it hasn’t been my best weekend but Cam [Das, title rival] had an up and down weekend as well. “We lacked a bit of pace in qualifying but we found that instantly in race one as our pace was really fast, and in race two. “We leave having gained 15 points which is great, so it’s really a lot closer. “A few more podiums would have been nice, it was just slightly out of reach for a few different reasons.”
Foster has always been a driver capable of pulling off opportunistic and surprising overtaking moves during his career, but this weekend with passing other cars being difficult, he had to work on a different style by subjecting rivals to heavy pressure.
That, plus honing the car balance, led to some gains for Foster and his crew.
“The P2 was probably the highlight of the weekend,” added Foster.
"The overtakes in that race weren’t always about making moves, it was more about forcing other drivers into mistakes with heavy pressure.
"I found it quite difficult to overtake around Imola - I know it can be good for overtaking - but for us as a series it felt difficult to overtake this weekend.
“I think we made a big jump with the car balance, my engineer and I worked really hard so I have to say a big thank you to those at Motopark and to my engineer especially, Pol Andreu Ferrer.”
Foster has concluded his studying for the summer break, coinciding with the Euroformula Open Championship not returning until September 11-12.
In that gap, Foster will move to the United States in mid-August where he will remain for the rest of the Eurorfornula Open season. He is evaluating opportunities in the States and continuing his education there.
“I’ll take a short break to relax and clear my thoughts but honestly my routine won’t change too much,” Foster said.
“We’ll continue working hard to be in the best shape possible to come back and attack the remaining rounds.
“I’m definitely expecting a tough weekend when we return to action in Austria. My rivals have raced at the Red Bull Ring before and I haven’t.
“The track looks relatively technical, and difficult. But I think we can overcome it with a good amount of preparation. That’s really the key, to know everything you can before you get there to hit the ground running.
“Cam knows all the tracks we’re heading to in this second part of the season, so I’m going to have to use all of my knowledge of driving the car quickly and prepare well to take advantage.”
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