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08/05/16 Barcelona Q&A with Jordan King: "Whenever I start a season it always feels like a strong year." |
| Jordan King will be starting his second year with the Racing Engineering team this weekend at Barcelona and after a very promising rookie season with the Spanish team he is now looking forward to the 2016 GP2 season with real anticipation and below he tells us what he expects from the year to come. Jordan, the long wait comes to an end. Are you excited that the 2016 season is finally starting? Yes, it was a long wait. It’s been a long time spent preparing - in the gym, at the team’s factory, in the simulator and also mentally so I feel better prepared for this season than I ever have been in every aspect. However there is always a question mark until you have done the job but everything looks positive. The test went well, the speed looked good, so all in all it was OK. 2016 is your second year with Racing Engineering. How much does it help to continue with the team? I find it’s more the simple things, you don’t even realize, that help like in the past, when I stayed on with other teams. One year ago I didn’t know my team mate, didn’t know my engineer, didn’t know the team, didn’t know the South of Spain. Some really simple things that you wouldn’t even realize just add to the stress level. Whereas this year, I know the engineers, I know the guys, I can tell them if we need to make a change, whereas last year I felt more like ‘I don’t want to annoy them just yet’. But now you know you’re friends and you understand how each other works. It’s just the small things you don’t consider that make a difference. You can get straight on doing what matters. They know where you need to improve, you know where they need to improve. Rather than starting from scratch you’ve already got the foundations. You and your team mate were both strong during the pre-season. How was your experience during these test days? It think it was very positive. There’s a couple of variables from my side I feel were a little bit left on the table, like traffic. But I think up and down the pitlane everyone’s got their own stories, but overall it was very positive. We ended up quickest in Jerez which was good, feels like we made a step forward with the car. Race runs feel quite good, but it’s always difficult to really say because you don’t know what anyone else is doing. The GP2 season kicks off in Barcelona next week. What are your goals not only for the season opener, but also the 2016 championship? I think the first goals is always got to be to win the championship. If you set your sides on that and work towards that, I think everything else will fall into place, focus on your own being. I think with it being my rookie season last year, it was kind of a bit stars in my eyes and happy to look at just everything, just being excited to be there. This year I’ve got kind of rid of the rookieness and I can really just focus on my job and do the best job I can do and then the results will come. This year's field seems to be a very strong one. Who do you regard as your main competitors? Whenever I start a season it always feels like a strong year, I think that’s the story in my racing career. It feels like it anyway. There’s lots of people, drivers like Mitch Evans, who is now in his third or fourth year in GP2, a couple of strong drivers from last year, like Lynn and Gasly, who are staying on in similar positions like me. I really think there’s probably six or seven people on the grid that can win races and if you look at it like that, this is a third of the grid that can win races, which will be tough. |
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