Oliver Stewart insists he cannot afford to carried away after claiming his first race victory in the F4 British Championship.
Beauly teenager Stewart triumphed in one of three races held at Thruxton last month, in the eighth of 10 events in the season schedule.
Stewart is nearing the end of his debut F4 British campaign, having been signed up by Hitech GP at the start of the year.
The 15-year-old is eager to secure his place on next season’s grid and, although his recent victory will help his case, Stewart believes he still has further work to do in the final two events of the season.
Stewart aims to ‘get consistently better’
Stewart, whose next event comes at Silverstone on the weekend of September 23, said: “It’s a good thing that indicates, to people on the outside and people who are here to help me, that we are making progress.
“That is almost like a confidence boost in itself – it encourages people to do the best they always can.
“I put 100% effort in all the time and sometimes it gets to a point, when things aren’t going too well, you can almost lack that motivation to do well.
“It’s when you keep going that the results come. At this point in the season, it’s very difficult to tell what that result is going to do.
“One result doesn’t do very much for you, you’ve got to get consistently better and start to get more of those results.
“It almost depends on (the final races at) Silverstone and Brands Hatch.
“If we can keep making improvements, I would like to think we will hopefully be on the grid next year.
“I’ve had a lot of encouraging comments which is all good and well, but we’ve still definitely not done what we need to do yet. There are still two rounds to go, and I need to keep pushing.”
Emotions were let out following triumph
Stewart’s victory came in the reverse grid race, with the Charleston Academy pupil now targeting a victory in a race which sees his starting position reflect his qualifying.
He added: “The way I look at it, it’s kind of like an artist painting a picture. You put so much hard work into it, and the win is almost like the signature at the bottom of the picture.
“It really was a big moment for all of us. The picture of my dad with his head in his hands crying just shows all the emotions.
“It was just about letting out all the hard work we have put in, and finally getting the result we deserved.
“It was a big thing in my career.
“The win came in reverse grid which, I wouldn’t say makes it easier, but gives you more of an opportunity because you are nearer the front.
“That’s out of the way now, which I am extremely happy about, and now hopefully we can move on to getting wins in full grid races for qualifying.”
Stewart eager to overcome qualifying struggles
Stewart made the transition to F4 following a successful career in karting.
He says qualifying is more important than ever at his new level, given the fiercely competitive racing environment.
He added: “Our qualifying has been a bit of a struggle, even in karting.
“There have been a few times I have struggled, but in the race situation my pace has been really good. That’s one of my strong points.
“A lot of these things don’t come naturally and for me some of them have.
“It’s very different from karting to cars. In karting you can go forward quite easily, considering there is no dirty air.
“In a car, if you go close to someone you lose all the aerodynamics and you’ve got a lot of understeer which basically means the car is pushing forward quite a bit and not turning around the corner as it should.
“It’s quite a bit slower. All these variables make it much more difficult to overtake in a car compared to a kart.
“It’s quite difficult to go forward, which makes qualifying even more important.”
Conversation