Fast learning curve!

Chris Lulham was circumspect at the start of his debut British Formula 4 weekend with Fortec Motorsport at Silverstone. He has a glittering karting record, but had completed just three days’ F4 running – all in the wet. Thursday pre-race testing was his first run on slicks. Plus he’s been taking a year out from racing to concentrate on GCSEs.

Qualifying 14th of 15 runners apparently justified his view. “There’s still a lot to learn, it [qualifying] wasn’t that bad but I stiil have stuff to find,” Lulham cautioned. So what attracted him to F4? “Mainly it’s just a first step from what I was doing last year in Europe, karting,” he said “it also seemed the obvious way to go. It’s also good competition.”

Lulhams’ first F4 race quickly got even tougher. Another thing he didn’t have experience of was a practice start, and he let his machine roll before the lights extinguished, incurring a 10-second penalty. Still, his race pace was good and he set seventh-fastest lap. Then in the remaining two races his wet-weather experience suddenly became more relevant, since both were held in such conditions. “It handles a lot more like a kart in the wet,” he added.

It showed, for in race two he rose to finish seventh, and it might have been even better: having climbed to sixth early on, he dropped to 14th after locking up on the kerb paint at Becketts. He then saved his best for last starting race three from 14th, he finished an incredible fifth. In both wet races he made some spectacular moves along the way.

And he astounded himself in doing it. “I honestly didn’t expect to improve so much over the period of a weekend,” Lulham said. “I didn’t expect to be as competitive as I am. But the racing was really good fun, much better than I thought it was going to be. And coming from 14th to 5th was something I didn’t expect. I’m happy I came. Some of the moves were pretty risky but they paid off in the end and I’m glad I did it.”

This was a one-off deal and Lulham says there’s “potential” to do more, including perhaps a full season next year. His SIlverstone experience only encouraged him. “I’m definitely more keen after this weekend!” he concluded.

(Text and images by kind courtesy of Autosport and JEP)