Upon the conclusion of the Etihad Airways Abu Dhabi Grand Prix on November 27, the Formula One fraternity will have a couple of months to rest before the 2017 season begins with testing in February ahead of the opening race in Australia on March 26.
For Sauber’s Felipe Nasr, one bonus of having some down time will be the chance to watch movies at home with his family.
However, the Brazilian revealed that due to spending so much of the year in planes, when it comes to watching movies with his family, a popular pastime in the Nasr household, there is not much he has not already seen.
“It is kind of funny when I go back home my family wants to watch a movie and I have seen them all because I am on a plane all the time,” he said when asked about how he likes to spend time away from the track.
“I watch a lot of films when I am on planes as we have to travel so much.
“I do get to watch a lot of action movies, thrillers, suspense drama movies though I’d say I aim more for the action movies.”
One of his recent favourites was Star Wars: The Force Awakens, and Nasr is a big fan of the cinematic series, going back to when he was a child.
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“It was kind of fun,” he said of the latest edition to the series, which starred Harrison Ford. “Bit different to the other ones but still, it’s Star Wars.
“It doesn’t matter what age you are. Basically from when I was a kid seeing that Star Wars movie for the first time, it was just great, and even now years later you go back and watch it and it’s still great.”
Escaping to the world of film on the small screen of an aircraft has been a nice distraction for Nasr from a frustrating second full season in F1.
Sauber, who have struggled for funds for much of the season, have lacked performance in their chassis, with Nasr scoring the team’s first points of 2016 earlier this month when he finished ninth in Brazil.
It has been a character-building year for Nasr after a successful 2015, where his fifth place in Australia was the best debut result by a Brazilian in F1 history — pretty impressive when you think this is a country that has produced world champions Emerson Fittipaldi, Nelson Piquet and Ayrton Senna as well as race winners in Rubens Barrichello and Felipe Massa.
“It has been a challenging year for everyone, not just myself as a driver,” he said.
“For everybody involved, from the staff to mechanics, engineers to people back in the factory because we are a racing team. We are all looking for the results and we all move by that.”
On how he has handled the challenge of dealing with an uncompetitive package that has often left him fighting at the back of the grid, Nasr said: “For me I have been really looking deeply. What can I do better here? Where are the positives I can take?
“I think it has made me a stronger driver all around. So really looking to maximise every detail on track and off track to be constructive in a way.
“It hasn’t been rewarded in terms of the reward we get but I can say it was good for a learning curve year and I think everyone will step out of this stronger from here.”
Nasr takes heart from the fact that the 27 points he scored in 2015, with six top-10 finishes, have shown what he can do when he has a good car at his disposal.
The fifth place in Australia is still a source of pride. “It was amazing,” Nasr said. “It is one of the best memories I have so far from Formula One.
“Everything was just falling into place at the right time. I was not feeling nervous at all when the race started. I knew what I had to do and when they told me I was running in sixth place, then Kimi [Raikkonen] retired from the race and that fifth place just felt amazingly good.
“It was for everyone that supported me my entire career. My family, my friends. The team did a great job and it was a very big reward for them as they hadn’t scored a point in the 2014 season and it was such a way to start things off.”
Nasr is glad to be seeing the back of 2016, but is looking forward to racing in front of the UAE fans this weekend.
His grandfather was born in Lebanon and emigrated to Brazil in the 1960s, and his Middle Eastern roots mean that racing at Yas Marina Circuit has a special feeling for him.
“I always feel that there is an extra support coming from the region, from the local people. There is some connection and I can see that increasing only more in the years ahead,” he said.
Wishing to lower expectations on his chances of fighting for a top-10 finish on Sunday, he added: “I wish we could. But just being realistic we still do not have the car performance yet that we would love to have. Right now we are fighting with the midfield group.
“I will tell all the Middle Eastern fans to wait a while, we are coming and hopefully we will have the right car and the right pace on the car when the time comes and I can repay this respect I have from them.”
Nasr, who is expected to remain with Sauber for a third season in F1 next year, though no deal was announced at the time of going to press, is hopeful that a change in the regulations for 2017, which will see the aerodynamics on the car changed to try and make them inherently quicker, will give the Swiss team the chance to move back up the field.
“Everyone is starting from a level place, different cars, different downforce, different tyres and a different show,” he said.
“But hopefully we can get ourselves off the line better in terms of development.”
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