In the first part of More Female Racers: The Journey, we met MFR newcomer Eris Aphelion from GTWR R8G Female Racing #5, who will we be following across the course of the More Female Racers by Thrustmaster Rockets season. MFR is all about the improvement and journey of our drivers, so let’s dive into how Eris got on at the temple of speed, Monza, and how her preparation differed from round one.

Preparing for Monza 

Round one at Zolder was a tough race for teams up and down the gird, but Eris dealt with the difficulty of the track and the race being her first at The Sim Grid brilliantly. However, Zolder has stark differences from Monza. Monza is far wider and presents many more overtaking opportunities, but there’s a flipside.

Monza comes with a few hard braking zones that are easy to misjudge and limit high-speed corners like the Ascari Chicane, and Eris had to change her approach accordingly.

“Compared to round one, my preparation has had a large focus on turn entry and exit, more than finding the flow between the corners as I did at Zolder. Finding the braking zones that work for me has been a challenge. One of the more interesting challenges has been finding a setup that works well for both Yvonne and I. Our driving styles aren’t as similar as you may think, which provides an interesting challenge.” 

As much as Monza is a challenge, Eris is working hard to overcome her personal points of struggles. “I’ve always personally enjoyed monza as a track bar 2 areas: turn 1 and Ascari. For overcoming my issues with turn 1 I’ve spent a lot of time practising the braking point and turn in points with varying amounts of success. As for Ascari, the main part I’ve struggled with is the mid section of the complex and lifting enough to keep the car on the line, but not lifting too much too lose time.”

What were Eris’ expectations after round one?

Zolder gave a varying level of success to Eris and teammate Yvonne van den Berg, due to a lap one incident. However, that meant the recovery drive was on. Their drive was very respectable, climbing their way back up to tenth in class, which is a very decent result considering the circumstances. But, as the races go on, expectations change, especially for a series newcomer. 

“As for my expectations, I’m wanting to not get too optimistic until I’ve managed to make it through lap 1 without a major incident. I would like to be able to qualify in a similar place in class for this round as in round 1, but Monza can be a tricky beast, so it’s anybody’s guess as to how it may go.” Eris may have been keeping her aspirations under covers, but with the pace, she showed at Zolder’s qualifying, a strong result could be on the cards.

Eris’ positives from Monza

Qualifying didn’t go all too badly for Eris and the GTWR R8G Female Racing #5 teams, as she lined up in twentieth place, although, this was “lower” than she wanted. Nonetheless, the battle was certainly on. “The race start itself went a lot better than expected. I didn’t die in turn 1 which is always a good way to start the race. As the lap went on it was just trying to keep myself in the mindset of staying sensible and not pushing too hard.” 

After a great start from Eris, she absolutely raced through the field, gaining six places in just two laps. Throughout her first stint, she kept up an amazing level of pace, gaining further positions and keeping with her team’s Silver class rivals. “This race in comparison to race 1 started so differently, it started so well, I had high hopes of a relatively good finish to redeem the previous race. I felt I managed to build and improve on my start and keeping calm enough to remain level headed enough to not just go all out trying to get positions.” Even after what she regards as a poorer qualifying, she still made great strides compared to the last round. 

How could round three be better? 

Despite the great first stint that Eris drove, her race sadly unravelled. “On lap 10 I was defending for most of the lap from another car in class, in the braking zone for Ascari I thought I was defending against the same car I had been all lap and attempted to place my car accordingly. This is the moment it all went wrong, got a tap on the rear right of the car from (what I think was) 23rd position who was pushing hard to unlap themselves. This led to me spinning and collecting the outside wall and ultimately ending up in the gravel.” Although her race started so well, it sadly went downhill, but not due to a mistake on her part. 

When looking ahead to Spa, she said, “My main takeaway from Monza is to not over-defend, it can end in more harm than good.” Spa is no easier than Monza, if anything tougher, however taking key wheel-to-wheel advice such as these are key to growing as a driver. Eris showed great potential at Monza, but it didn’t pan out quite as she had hoped. Nevertheless, it was a great improvement from Zolder, and we are sure she is looking to carry this momentum into round three, which will be streamed live on The Sim Grid YouTube channel.