Charles Milesi invites himself to the front of Eurocup FR 2.0 at Le Castellet

The desire of Renault Sport to boost its flagship championship in Formula Renault 2.0, the Eurocup, has resulted in an increase in the number and standard of the participants as we saw on the last weekend of August at the Paul Ricard circuit. In this elevated context, Charles Milesi confirmed his good performances in the NEC in Assen, climbing to the top five in the South of France in Race 1 and then finishing Race 2 in 9th place against the best specialists in the discipline.

Entered with a wild card, Charles was one of the youngest rookies out of the 32 drivers present at Le Castellet and the only one to be competing in his first season in single-seaters after junior karting. After a few coups but also a number of concerns, especially regarding his health, since the start of the season, the young R-ace GP driver has started on an upward curve that has convinced the entire team of his potential. 2017 is for him a year of discovery and learning in motorsport and his main objective remains to gain as much experience as possible. By pitting himself against much more seasoned rivals, he has progressed significantly and can now join the fight in the top 10. Julien Abelli, who trains him within his Simmumotion concern, is also pleased with the latest results of his protegee. A new approach to his training should soon give him extra skill on the track.

Charles took advantage of the two sessions of collective testing to learn the 5842m of the Var circuit and was already very fast during the qualifying sessions. On Friday, during the first session, he particularly worked on the third sector and finished 4th in his group. While no one expected him in such a place, he demonstrated the next day that it was not down to chance by setting the 2nd fastest time of the group in the second session.

Starting from the second row on the grid, Charles had a good start in Race 1, but then lost places in the heavy battles in the pack. He followed the rhythm of his experienced opponents perfectly and waited for the slightest opportunity to move back up the rankings. He returned from 9th to 7th position in the last third of the race and finished in 6th place, less than 6 tenths from the top five with the 5th fastest time.

Charles started from the third row at the start of Race 2. He did not take unnecessary risks in the early laps to increase his chances of taking the finish with much pragmatism. He competed with drivers already integrated with renowned Junior Teams and concluded his performance eloquently in the top 10 in 9th place.

“It was a great experience!” said Charles. “I adapted quickly to the circuit and was able to achieve very interesting times in Qualifying. This enabled me to enjoy the two races, confronting seasoned drivers. I was in the right group and learned a lot. Seeing I was very fast brought me new confidence and I will revise my ambitions upward for the two meetings to come on circuits that I know better: Spa and Barcelona.“