Below Nyck talks about his great Belgian weekend and what he is hoping to achieve this weekend at the historic Italian circuit of Monza.

What a first race weekend for you with Racing Engineering! Without any previous testing or sim preparation it started off well from free practice on. Can you talk us though your weekend with your new team?

We first met end of 2015 and there was already an interest from both sides to work together. Unfortunately, we didn’t get the chance to find a way of working together earlier, so I guess Racing Engineering and I are both happy to finally have the chance to collaborate, even though it’s in the middle of the season. Everything is new for us, we didn’t do any testing together, no preparation, so it’s not easy. But the team is very supportive and gave me a very warm welcome. We worked really hard all weekend to prepare everything. We had to get to know each other and it was not always very straight forward, especially in terms of race balance we needed a bit of time to find out each other’s needs. But generally, I am very happy with our first weekend. We scored a podium, which is very nice, especially a nice reward for the team. They really worked hard and prepared everything, every possible scenario during the weekend. I hope to continue to progress and be competitive.

There is no time to rest as the F2 Championship went from the Belgian Ardennes straight to the Autodromo Nazionale di Monza close to Milan, yet another legendary track. The famous Parabolica, the Lesmos and Serraglio are part of the Italian layout. What does it mean for a driver to race at the “Temple of Speed”?

I guess all European tracks have something in common because they have a lot of history, and I think Spa and Monza are two of the most special. To be honest, I like all European tracks, but certainly Spa and Monza are very special and unique. So, it’s always cool to go there as the whole feeling, the atmosphere around the event is very special because you kind of feel the history. But at the end of the day we are there to perform and to win and that’s our priority.

With such little time, how do you prepare the race weekend and what are the key factors to keep in mind?

We took some time to debrief our first event together in depth. We obviously try to learn as much as possible from our first weekend together to take it to the next event. There is not much time, but I guess we just have enough time to debrief and prepare again for Monza. There isn’t anything particular or specific. We travel to Monza on Wednesday and get back to work on Thursday.

With such a positive start in the Racing Engineering car in Spa, what are your goals for Monza?