The 2017 Eurocup Formula Renault 2.0 series started this weekend at Monza and AVF, one week after the opening round of the World Series Formula V8 3.5, went back on-track with the team’s developmental department. The Spanish squad fielded four Tatuus racecars for Portuguese Herique Chaves, Peruvian Rodrigo Pflucker, Mexican Axel Matus and Swissman Gregoire Saucy. The races were marred by several crashes and long neutralizations, although fortunately none of the incidents involved the AVF cars. The best overall result was secured by Chaves with a seventh place in race 1, while Saucy barely missed the rookie podium in fourth place, 12th overall. In race 2, the Swissman ended up 12th in front of Mateus, with both drivers in the rookie top-10. Pflucker had worse luck as he was forced to a double retirement.
Adrian Valles, Team Principal AVF
“The potential all over the week-end was better than what we showed. Henrique proved fast and the problem was simply that he hadn’t a clean qualifying session. Yesterday we had a collision with Palmer and just few clean laps but the pace was very competitive. Gregiore impressed me as well for his speed in qualifying practice with a great P14. Axel is improving constantly every time he hits the track, and Rodrigo made a mistake when he was already in the midfield. I think all our drivers have great potential, but qualifying is crucial at Monza and many of our drivers did not find a tow to follow: here it can cost you 7 tenths. I’m sure that better races will come and hopefully we can put it all together”.