21st July 2021
Louis Foster says the target for this weekend’s Imola races is no different despite fighting for the Euroformula Open championship; score pole position and win.
With four rounds complete and with four currently scheduled remaining, Odiham teenager Foster trails title rival Cameron Das by 19-points in the standings heading to Italy this weekend for three more races.
Das is in his fifth season of contesting races in the series while CryptoTower Racing Team driver Foster enters most weekends having never driven the tracks on the calendar, including this weekend’s event, in what is his first season competing full-time outside of the UK.
The only venue Foster has driven at before, at Spa, he took a hat-trick of wins in scintillating fashion.
Despite having one eye on the battle with stable-mate Das, Foster says the goal’s remain the same as always.
“The target for this weekend is the same as any other, to put it on pole and win,” said Foster, who is backed by Copart, a global leader in vehicle remarketing and recycling. “We can’t aim for anything else. Jak [Crawford] is missing rounds with other commitments, so the long-term outlook and target based on that is to beat Cam [Das], I’ll be content if I’m finishing ahead of him in each race. “But obviously, wins and poles is what I’m aiming for.”
Foster and Crawford have two poles each this year, and despite not having competed at Imola, it is at least one of the tracks Foster is more familiar with thanks to simulators and video games.
The 19-turn, three-mile epic is a favourite with fans and drivers alike, and one that Formula 1 visited in 2020 and 2021.
“The track seems very technical, quite tricky in the first and the middle sector as well,” added Foster. “I’m looking forward to it, it’s in a very nice part of Italy where it should be warm, which will add another difficulty with the tyres and fatigue and things like that. That should make things a bit more interesting. “My simulator session this week went well. I’ve driven around Imola more often than somewhere like Hungary just because it’s a bit more well known, it tends to be in a lot of video games. “I did a sim endurance race there a while ago so I have a decent idea about the track on simulator stuff. Obviously that doesn’t necessarily correlate to the real-world. “They’ve also changed all of the kerbs since Formula 1 went there last year, so a lot of simulations haven’t updated it like the one I was using. You can take almost every kerb now whereas in the sim you can only take so many. “I’ll have to get used to that when I get there.”
Following Imola, the Euroformula Open series will not race again until September 11 in Austria, and Foster said:
“I’m going to enjoy the summer break”, but that “it’s been nice to have races in quick succession for the momentum”.
You can watch Foster in action this weekend via Euroformula Open's YouTube channel. Imola timetable (all times BST) Friday 11.15 - Practice 1 16.30 - Practice 2 Saturday 10.55 - Qualifying 18.15 - Race 1 Sunday 10.20 - Race 2 17.20 - Race 3 Live Streaming EuroFormula Open YouTube Channel (https://www.youtube.com/user/EuroFormulaOpen) Notes to editors
Louis Foster Louis Foster is a 17-year-old British racing driver from Hampshire aiming to take the racing world by storm. Son of British Touring Car and GT racer Nick Foster, Louis has been around motorsport for the majority of his life. Foster had a successful karting career before making his debut in Ginetta Juniors where he won nine races and scored 19 podiums in his first season. A step up to the British F4 championship delivered six wins and 13 podiums in his first season of single-seater racing, while his debut BRDC British F3 campaign kept up a 100% winning record in his car racing career with three victories and six podiums.
Outside of motorsport Louis is a keen rugby and hockey player as well as enjoying off-road mountain biking and training in the gym. He studies at the Lord Wandsworth College near Farnham.
Foster is sponsored by auction giant Copart, which sells over 350,000 cars per year.
For media inquiries and interview requests, please contact barry@onesmgroup.com Euroformula Open The Formula 3-based championship was founded in 2009 and offers teams the opportunity to use engines produced by different manufacturers to power its Dallara 320 chassis. Racing with F3 cars two steps away from the upper echelons of F1, Euroformula Open is a more cost-effective model to the FIA Formula 3 equivalent. The Euroformula Open car was new for 2020 featuring the distinctive Halo head protection device and a stronger tub for driver protection. Despite the added weight of the safety features the car remains around 580kgs with horsepower in the region of 240. The series features three races per weekend shown on the Euroformula Open YouTube channel, and the current calendar features circuits that have all appeared in Formula 1 over the last two years. Provisional 2021 calendar 23-25 April Portimao 14-16 May Circuit Paul Ricard 18-20 June Spa-Francorchamps 09-11 July Hungaroring 23-25 July Imola 10-12 September Red Bull Ring 24-26 September Monza 22-24 October Barcelona Round 9: TBC
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