{"id":94102,"date":"2021-07-02T02:35:47","date_gmt":"2021-07-02T02:35:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=94102"},"modified":"2021-07-02T05:57:20","modified_gmt":"2021-07-02T05:57:20","slug":"aussie-prodigys-incredible-breakthrough-race","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=94102","title":{"rendered":"Aussie prodigy's 'incredible' breakthrough race"},"content":{"rendered":"

Australian Formula Three driver Calan Williams<\/a> heads to this weekend's third round of the championship in Austria<\/a> with his confidence at an all-time high, fresh off his first podium finish in the category.<\/p>\n

Williams finished third in the opening race of the French round, not only the first time he'd finished on the podium, but the first time he'd even been in the points.<\/p>\n

It's the start of what he hopes is a breakthrough season, with the 21-year-old now comfortable he can run at the front of one of the most competitive categories in the sport.<\/p>\n

Williams started from pole position for the French race, coming home fourth on the road, but was promoted to third after a penalty for one of his rivals.<\/p>\n

In an intense race, the top places changed hands a number of times.<\/p>\n

"I was really happy with the result in France, it was my first podium in F3, my first points, it was really good," Williams told Wide World of Sports.<\/p>\n

"I definitely learned a lot more starting on pole at Paul Ricard, than I would have at somewhere like Barcelona. At Barcelona, if you start first, you usually finish first, it's a circuit where it's hard to pass.<\/p>\n

"But at Paul Ricard, the amount of overtaking that was going on was incredible."<\/p>\n

Williams said he was unaware of how exciting the racing had been until after he stepped out of the car.<\/p>\n

But the realisation that he could hold his own amid such a spirited battle has done wonders for the Perth driver's confidence.<\/p>\n

"It wasn't until I looked at the broadcast later on that I realised how close the racing was," he said.<\/p>\n

\"Calan<\/p>\n

"That made it great to have a result in a race that was so competitive, rather than one where everyone just finishes where they started.<\/p>\n

"The two cars in front of me started sixth and 10th, so there was no real advantage to starting at the front."<\/p>\n

Now in his second season in the category<\/a>, Williams endured a frustrating 2020, failing to score a point all season.<\/p>\n

Part of that was down to the struggles that many rookies have when they first step into an F3 car, but circumstances beyond his control were also a factor.<\/p>\n

"I was a bit unlucky in 2020, both times when I was running near the front I got hit by another car, so I knew from that I could do it, but I just hadn't been given the chance to do it," he explained.<\/p>\n

"I certainly take a huge amount of confidence from France. I'm 100 per cent sure we can do better than that through the rest of the season."<\/p>\n

\"Australian<\/p>\n

After a strong off-season, Williams had high hopes for the opening round of the season in Spain, only for a disappointing qualifying session to ruin his weekend.<\/p>\n

The F3 field is so tightly bunched together that Williams found himself 21st on the grid, despite being less than a second off pole position.<\/p>\n

But he didn't dwell on the disappointment.<\/p>\n

"It was easy to move on because I knew what the problem was," he explained.<\/p>\n

"The qualifying was no good, which is especially tricky at Barcelona, because it's so hard to pass and if qualifying doesn't work out it ruins your whole weekend.<\/p>\n

"Then in France I was surprisingly much calmer during the race than I expected. I was able to focus on doing my own thing.<\/p>\n

"To be honest I was just treating it like any other race, even though it was the first time I'd been in the lead in F3."<\/p>\n

\"Calan<\/p>\n

This weekend's race in Austria could go one of two ways, according to Williams. If the field is tightly bunched, passing will be next to impossible as every car will benefit from a slipstream and the Drag Reduction System (DRS) that allows the rear wing to open on the straight.<\/p>\n

But if the field spreads out in the opening laps, it should make for an interesting race where cars are able to pass.<\/p>\n

Williams has spent time recently at the Formula Medicine facility in Italy, which specialises in physical and mental training of athletes, particularly in motorsport.<\/p>\n

"I worked on over-thinking, which is probably better described as over-complicating," he said.<\/p>\n

"I had this thing where I felt I had to try too hard, rather than just relaxing and trusting myself. I know I have the ability to be fast, I have to trust that will happen when I'm in the right state of mind.<\/p>\n

"There's still some work to do but it's getting a lot better."<\/p>\n

For a daily dose of the best of the breaking news and exclusive content from Wide World of Sports, subscribe to our newsletter by<\/strong><\/em> clicking here!<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Australian Formula Three driver Calan Williams heads to this weekend's third round of the championship in Austria with his confidence at an all-time high, fresh […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94102"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=94102"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94102\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":94104,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94102\/revisions\/94104"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=94102"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=94102"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=94102"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}