Hugh Barter is feeling very positive ahead of the upcoming Spanish F4 round at Spa-Francorchamps despite a difficult weekend at Valencia last time out.
The Australian currently sits third in the championship Tymoteusz Kucharczyk and the high-flying championship leader Nikola Tsolov.
Barter also tested at Spa in pre-season ahead of his hectic schedule balancing the Spanish and French F4 Championships.
Prior to the Spa race weekend Barter told InsideF2 he is eagerly anticipating the iconic circuit after a tricky weekend in Valencia: “Coming into Spa I think personally I feel quite confident especially after Valencia even though Valencia was a tough round the pace was definitely there.
“And I had some good experience overtaking lots of different people so hopefully I don’t have to use it this round but if need be it’s there.
“Earlier this year from the testing that went well and I think we had some good positive data and feedback from the test that we’ll surely take to this round.”
Spa has become an iconic circuit over the years with long straights making setup crucial to balance top speed and downforce through the track’s many high speed turns.
The Melbournian explained that the Belgian circuit isn’t overly difficult to set up a car at but getting the correct downforce level is all important.
He said: “Spa I don’t think is quite a tricky track in getting these set up right obviously you’ve got lots of high speed corners which you need to compensate for the long straights so you need to find a good balance between how much downforce you need to run.”
A couple of the 16-year-old’s team mates have previously raced at Spa last year including Georg Kelstrup winning at the 7km circuit in 2021.
Serbian driver Filip Jenic has also competed at Spa securing a tenth place finish in Race 1 last year.
Barter explained that his team mates are unlikely to reveal all the secrets of Spa-Francorchamps but he can reap the benefits of watching onboard footage from last season’s Campos’ drivers.
He said: “Obviously Filip and Georg have raced here last year but I don’t think they’re going to tell me everything we are still teammates and we’re still rivals out on track.
“But obviously I can watch last year’s races and onboards from Pepe (Marti) and (Sebastian) Øgaard so I think that’s probably more of an advantage.”
Image: Hugh Barter
