15 year old school girl racing driver competed in her first International Formula 4 Championship race in Asia last week, posting some impressive times, showing she’s more than ready to step up to the FIA F4 class in 2019.
The Essex based youngster secured the drive in the F4 South East Asia Championship round at the world famous Sepang F1 Circuit in Malaysia with the help of an existing sponsor, GoBobby.uk, a Website Hosting and Domain Name Registration business based in England, who came up trumps with just two days before the deadline.
The youngster told us how the deal came together, she said, “The organisers in Asia contacted me directly and offered me the opportunity to race out there. They’d been following my career progression and offered me the last three rounds, sadly I couldn’t do the other two in Malaysia and Thailand as I had prior commitments, but when they spoke to my management team, they agree a deal for the Sepang round; I was so excited! We still had had to find the budget to get us out there, upgrade my race licence and our passports but also had to ask my school, St Clere’s in Stamford- Le-Hope, Thurrock, if they’d be willing to let me have the time off too. The school were awesome, offering me the chance to go as it was clearly a massive career move, an opportunity that doesn’t come along every day. They made sure I had plenty of homework to do on the 14 hour plane journey’s though, so I didn’t fall behind, which I was grateful for. Everything fell in to place just in time>”
“As soon as I arrived, the team introduced me to my personal team; my mechanics, my performance engineer, data engineer and driver coach, as well as the other drivers, then they sat me in the car and poured my seat (all drivers have their own moulded seat made). They’d already set the steering column length, the pedal box position and the ballast in the car (all the cars end up the same weight) based on my size and weight which they’d asked me before I even left the UK,” said an excited Linscott.
Her manager recalls the week’s schedule, “it was full on from the word go; seat fitting, race suit fitting, mechanical changes to the car to suit Emily’s physical size and shape, and two test 1 hour on-track test sessions for the first two days, free practice and qualifying, plus the additional media interest in her too, meant she had little time to relax, but as demanding as it was, she rose to the challenge and met it head-on with her usual diligence and professionalism that makes her the sponsors dream that she is.”
As one of just two drivers on the grid to not have been driving the F4 cars all season, Emily was treating this as part of her winter testing programme. Her immediate thoughts on the circuit was one of wonder and amazement as it challenged everything she knew about racing, with every conceivable type of corner one could wish for, including gradient changes, ultra-high speed corners (flat in 5th gear), high-speed direction changes, off camber hairpins and two long (930m) straights, on which she would reach over 145mph on before hitting the brakes hard for a hairpin at the end of each. The 5.543km (3.444mile) long circuit is notoriously tough but very rewarding for a driver.
Her practice times proved to be good and her pace throughout the dry and wet conditions were above expectations and her qualifying run meant she would line up on the grid in 9th place.
Even before the start of Race 1, her car had shown signs of playing up, not allowing her to select gears seamlessly on the sighting lap, but there was nothing that could be done now. As she slowed up to take her position on the grid for the start f the race, her car just shut down, the engine died, and electrics shut down. The start lights went on, then off, as the other competitors raced away, leaving Emily still trying to sort out her car’s issue. She got it going and tore off in pursuit, some fifteen seconds adrift of the last place driver, who was just going out of sight through turn 1 as Linscott moved off her grid position.
She set about putting in some consistent laps and did so with fantastic ease, each lap drawing the next competitor closer and closer. She was averaging a closing pace of 3 seconds a lap and when she finally caught that car, she tracked her down the back straight and at the braking point, Emily went for the move up the inside in to the tight, late apex off camber hairpin, leaving her brakes super late and diving straight of the inside kerbs to ensure she got track position. She then defended her line up the next straight, but her move had been beautifully executed and left Shaharul no chance of coming back at her in to turn 1. However, Shaharul wasn’t finished. Clearly inspired by Linscott’s overtake, she attempted to stick to the back of her opponents car, using her as a pace setter, but it all came undone at the super-fast turn 12, where Emily held her car at full throttle in 5th gear, something the other driver tried to do too, but realised was too much, lifting off the accelerator and spinning off track, leaving the young Britain to speed off in to the distance. A fitting 7th place finish overall was Emily’s reward. Shahkirah did get back on track after her spin and finished the race.
Emily’s 2nd race, 10.45am on Sunday saw her replicate her 7th place finish with another sterling drive, but the data showed there were a few gremlins with her gearbox, causing her to miss down-shifts when entering corners, costing her valuable time in the process.
Race three, the final race of the weekend, had Linscott on the front row of the grid. The lights went off and she got a decent start, maintaining her 2nd place in to turn one, but sadly there was a coming together with another car on her inside, which caused her car to rotate across the other cars’ front and she was collected by a third car, ending her race there and then. It was deemed a racing incident with no blame to any driver, which seemed accurate enough.
The consensus from the week’s exploits were that it had been an overwhelming success. For Emily to make the bold decision to drop her ‘Junior’ status in favour of upgrading her licence to that of an International one was huge as it means she’s unable to go back to Junior status for the future; being the least experienced driver out there by some margin was always going to be challenging, but once again, she’s risen to that challenge and shown she can hold her head up high for what she has achieved.
To give you some perspective of the occasion, Emily had hundreds of fans watching the live streamed coverage on Facebook at 1.40am UK time, all commenting on how well she’d performed, sending her their heart-felt good wishes and all supporting her brave move in to the fiercely competitive Formula 4 class, not withstanding the additional 6000 mile journey half-way across the world to take part in it. Her mum, Samantha, who didn’t travel with her daughter on this occasion, had her sisters round to mark this momentous occasion and watch her first 30 minute F4 race together, when her youngest child competed in her first ever International F4 race. She didn’t travel as she was too nervous to be there track-side!
Emily flew straight back after the last race on the 23.30 flight in to Heathrow. Fourteen hours later she touched down and headed straight to school as if it was just another day’s school run commute.
Her plans for 2019 are fixed on competing in the F4 Championship, but with a twist. She’s aiming at doing both the British and SEA f$ Championships subject to raising the necessary budget, and of course ensuring the time and logistics of the two series don’t cause difficulties with the GCSE exams too.
Her management team are inviting businesses interested in understanding more about becoming part of this amazing story, to contact them directly, where they can explain in detail, just how Emily’s racing can help their brands expand in to new sales arena’s and successfully find a whole new marketplace in which to sell their services and products in a tax efficient way. Please contact Mark by email mark@moosemotorsport.net
