Virtuosi Racing’s Hungarian driver competes in Scotland this time. After his historic podium Martin Molnár had to wait a long time to race again but the wait is over as the British Formula 4 field gathers this weekend at Knockhill in Scotland.
The British Formula 4 championship continues its season at Knockhill, Scotland’s motorsport stronghold, featuring Martin Molnár who achieved a historic success for Hungary in the previous round. The 15-year-old athlete first stood on the podium in the overall classification at Zandvoort, so it’s understandable he wouldn’t have minded avoiding another long break in the racing calendar. Nonetheless, he made good use of the past weeks.
“I don’t like these long breaks; it’s much better when the races are a bit closer together. I could rest during the three weeks, but I trained a lot and I am ready to get back on track. Especially after such a successful weekend as Zandvoort, I would have gladly continued racing, but it is what it is; I’m glad we don’t have to wait long now,” said the Virtuosi Racing driver, who was already in the car on Wednesday for the official test.
“It was an exciting test day, running both in the dry and in the wet, and we tried to find the right rhythm. The fastest lap times don’t tell the full story because when the conditions allowed for comparison, we were in the top six. Due to the short lap, the gaps are extremely small; a tenth of a second improvement can move you up 5-6 places, so I expect a very thrilling qualifying session. As a start this day was very positive, and hopefully the continuation will be similar,” Martin assessed Wednesday’s test.
A True Roller coaster
The 2 km long Knockhill circuit, located just 10 km north of Dunfermline, was built in 1974 on a sheep farm. Though it doesn’t have the rich and long history of most British F4 venues, it holds a prominent place on the British motorsport map as Scotland’s national motorsport center and the country’s only FIA-licensed track. “This track is a real roller coaster, quite a crazy one, probably the craziest in the entire calendar. It’s very enjoyable, full of elevation changes, and I’m really looking forward to the races. I was happy with the extra test day because we could only complete one of our two previous test days here due to snow on the second day. Overtaking won’t be easy; really, the last corner offers the best chance, but I think the weekend will be full of offs because even the smallest mistake can send you off the track,” described the driver of the Hungarian Motorsport Academy, operated by the HUMDA Hungarian Mobility Development Agency Zrt. belonging to the Széchenyi University Group.
As for expectations, Martin tries to keep his feet on the ground even after the Zandvoort results and continues to focus on the rookie classification, where he awaits the 7th round of the season from the second place. “It’s not realistic to expect to be on the overall podium every weekend now, especially since everyone was at Zandvoort for the first time, so the experience of those who have been racing there for years didn’t come into play. Nevertheless, I will do my best to eliminate the experience gap at Knockhill and in the remaining races,” said the driver, who already has 11 podium finishes in the rookie classification.
When Colin McRae was chased
Knockhill’s history is mainly remembered by the British motorsport audience as it hasn’t hosted major international series now or in the previous decades. However, in 1992, something happened at the track that went beyond the UK. That year, the British Touring Car Championship (BTCC), which also includes the F4 series as a support program on several occasions, including the upcoming weekend, visited the 2 km asphalt strip for the first time. Among the field was the already very popular, but still at the beginning of his rally legend path Colin McRae.
At the suggestion of David Richards, head of Prodrive, which operated both the BMW factory touring car program and the Subaru rally team, the then 24-year-old rally driver entered Knockhill to attract even more spectators as a local hero for the series’ Scottish debut. According to his later accounts, he wasn’t particularly enthusiastic about touring cars and didn’t prepare with much enthusiasm for the weekend.
Despite this, he was the best BMW driver in the first race, and in the second race, he was on track to repeat this result, but he knocked Matt Neal, who was ahead of him, off the track in the hairpin before the main straight, for which he was later disqualified. However, this didn’t calm down Steve Neal, Matt’s father and team manager, who, according to reports at the time, wanted to find the rally driver who had dealt with his son with the intention of tearing his head off, and wouldn’t have stopped there…
“Matt wasn’t too happy, but Steve was definitely the spokesperson. I was probably the fastest all weekend when I ran back to the motorhome after the race,” recalled McRae in a 2006 interview about the incident, which was his first and only appearance in the BTCC.
Back to F4, Martin’s weekend starts with the practice day on Friday, followed by qualifying and the first race on Saturday, and the second and third races on Sunday.
The schedule for the 7th round is as follows:
Friday
11.20 – 12.10: Free practice 1
15.30 – 16.20: Free practice 2
Saturday
11.05 – 11.25: Qualifying
16.30 – 16.50: Race 1
Sunday
10.55 – 11.15: Race 2
15.55 – 16.15: Race