Perth’s Aidan Read is in a buoyant mood off the back of a highly positive and enlightening weekend in the Formula Masters China Series at the Shanghai International Circuit (SIC), having achieved a top ten finish on his international racing debut (18-19 October).
Read, aged 15, comes from a passionate motorsport family and has marked himself out as an exciting young talent for the future during prolific Karting and single-seater careers in his native Australia.
His horizons have broadened rapidly. As a result of impressive tests in an array of single-seater racecars, Read headed north to make his international racing debut with the leading Eurasia Motorsport team at the SIC – China’s premier motor racing venue and the home of the Chinese Formula 1 Grand Prix.
The primary purpose of entering the final round of the 2014 Formula Masters China Series was to familiarise himself with the Formula Masters car and race weekend format, in preparation for a full season of competition in 2015.
The week began with a seat fitting, a physical track assessment and data analysis as Read attempted to become accustomed to the SIC’s intricacies, although the Eurasia Motorsport racer truly acclimatised to his new surroundings during a pair of one-hour test sessions in dry, warm conditions on Thursday (16 October), steadily drawing closer to the leaders’ pace and finding approximately 1.5s in lap time.
Conditions remained stable for official free practice on Friday (17 October) and Read continued to improve, climaxing in the 1m50.4s bracket, before recording the 12th fastest time – just 1.3s off the eventual pole lap – in a shortened, red flag affected qualifying session.
“While I was familiar with some of the Eurasia Motorsport management and staff from testing undertaken in the Philippines, having additional assistance from driver coaches and engineers aided my progression. The SIC was astounding to even walk around and, in terms of scale, it isn’t something I’m accustomed to. Conditions were extremely good in free practice, but there were some ups and downs in qualifying, as I struggled to improve my times. Higher track and air temperatures and rubber laid down by GT cars began to alter our racing line and I felt there was a lot more to come at the end of Q1. Given a few more laps I was confident I could find some speed and Q2 was much better, as I set myself up well for the feature race in P12. I felt positive leading up to the first race on Saturday.”
The first of three races proved to be an eye-opening experience, although Read was unfazed by the high level of competition and the physical and mental endurance required to compete in the FMCS.
In an impressive display of raw talent, the youngster from Western Australia broke into the top ten points-paying positions but, with no room for error in such a competitive arena, a minor mistake two laps from the end proved costly, ultimately demoting him to 12th place.
With starting positions for race two determined by lap times from the first encounter, Read lined-up 13th and made a superb start to hold eighth position as the Safety Car was deployed.
Embroiled in a fraught, but fair tussle with Eurasia teammate Bo Yuan and Yuya Motojima from Super License, Read showed guile and maturity that belies his age and raced on to tenth position and his first points finish on his Formula Masters debut.
Sadly, the third and final race of the season at SIC came to a premature conclusion when, from 12th on the grid, Read was an innocent victim in a first-corner skirmish. However, the young charger was wholly satisfied at the end of a stellar weekend in Shanghai, saying: “Overall, the experience was incredible and I learnt more in that short space of time than I could have dreamed. While the final race was disappointing, I’m thrilled to achieve my first top-ten finish in race two and I’m looking forward to building on this weekend with a commitment to entering the Formula Masters China Series with Eurasia Motorsport in 2015.
“The level of competition, the complexity of the car and the Shanghai International Circuit were completely new for me and I found it to be a steep learning curve,” said Read. “Learning to maximize the car’s potential on such a complex track was always going to be a challenge, but I wanted to show a continuous progression over the course of the weekend. I feel it was very successful in that respect and I come away comfortable that more practice will bring more improvements.”
Eurasia Motorsport Team Principal, Mark Goddard, said: “Aidan Read demonstrated fantastic potential and I am sure he will become a race winner in the series.”