Maciej Gładysz secured the inaugural Eurocup-3 Spanish Winter Championship crown after a close title battle with teammate Mattia Colnaghi. Feeder Series spoke to the 17-year-old about his winter championship success and the upcoming Eurocup-3 season.

By Seb Tirado

Gładysz took two wins, three further podiums and two poles on his way to the title. He only failed to score once when he retired on the penultimate lap of the final race at Portimão, the second round, with a fuel pump issue.

Entering the final round at Aragón, Gładysz trailed Colnaghi by 28 points – the equivalent of a race win, pole position and the fastest lap. Gładysz achieved all of those in race one , and with Colnaghi finishing down in 24th thanks to a tangle with Ernesto Rivera, he brought the deficit to zero.

“That was everything I could’ve done on Saturday,” Gładysz said. “Race one went really, really good. I managed the race [and] managed the push-to-pass really [well]. On the second-to-last lap, I was trying to use push-to-pass as much as possible to do fastest lap, and I managed to do that.”

“I did everything on Saturday, and on Sunday I was trying to be more calm, just to do everything in front of Mattia.” 

It was Gładysz’s title to lose going into the final race of the weekend. The 16-year-old qualified second on the grid as Colnaghi could only manage 21st after fuel injector issues compromised his fast laps. In the end, Gładysz finished second whilst Colnaghi could only manage 13th, giving the Polish driver the championship by 18 points.

“It was a great way to start the season,” Gładysz said. “We managed to bounce back in the last round [and] we won the race and finished P2. We won the championship and [we] hope we keep this momentum for the main one.”

Winning the championship was all the more special for the Polish driver because of the uncertainty that came before it. During a wet test at Barcelona last December, Gładysz went off the track at Turn 12 and crashed into the wall. Though he hit it at only 30 km/h, he broke both his hands after the steering wheel snapped on impact.

“I had two surgeries,” he said. “In one of my hands I [now] have titanium metal. The other one was just a small break. But in general, it was a tough moment for me and it was very stressful.” 

Gładysz took a seven-week break from driving after his surgeries. When he returned to the cockpit for the first round of the winter series, he was still struggling.

“For the Jerez race, I wasn’t really physically prepared for the first free practice session,” he explained. “I was struggling in general with everything and I was quite off the pace. But after, I found a few bits and it was good in the end.”

Later that weekend, Gładysz scored a podium in race one and won the final race of the weekend from pole position. He remained at the sharp end for the rest of the season.

Going into the main Eurocup-3 season as its winter series champion, Gładysz made clear that he intends to claim back-to-back titles.

“After the winter series, this is my main goal,” he said. “We just need to be, in my opinion, a bit more consistent with [qualifying] laps. During qualifying, I made a few mistakes and there was still a margin between both qualifyings.”

“I’m still learning the car because I’ve done only four [testing] days before my first race, but I adapted quite quickly.” 

Both the Eurocup-3 and Eurocup-4 Spanish Winter Championship titles were won by satellite team drivers. Gładysz took his title with KCL by MP Motorsport, while Thomas Strauven won his title with Griffin Core by Campos. Unlike his Eurocup-4 counterpart, Gładysz was the only driver to notch points for his team, as Kai Daryanani, the Polish driver’s teammate for the final round, scored a best finish of only 16th.

Header photo credit: Dutch Photo Agency