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Tveter and Carlin See Silver Lining
In Character Builder at Hockenheim

HOCKENHEIM, Germany, May 4 - A rookie's main objective is to gain experience and to learn, and that's just what Ryan Tveter did in the FIA Formula 3 European tripleheader last weekend at Hockenheim, Germany.

The young American's challenges at a mostly wet Hockenheim began in Thursday’s collective test, when a technical glitch again severely limited the speed of his #26 fielded by Jagonya Ayam with Carlin. More challenges came for the 20-year-old driver from Oyster Bay, N.Y. throughout the weekend, with issues ranging from "lap-murdering" red flags during qualifying to blinding spray followed by contact in Race 1, as well as an engine misfire that sent him to pit lane for virtually all of Race 2. Early progress with a very strong start in Race 3 was short-lived when a brush with the curb during a fight for 12th place sent him back to 28th, although he ultimately fought his way back to finish 20th. 

Despite the repeated setbacks, Tveter and his team considered it a productive weekend.

For every driver, but especially for rookies, what happens behind the scenes between the drivers, engineers and team managers is very important as they work together towards future on-track success. Many performance goals are set independent of race results, and then evaluated by the team in the massive on-board data collected. Tveter continues to exceed his team's expectations on the steep learning curve in formula racing, and Hockenheim gave him another opportunity to add to his skills. 

Jose Manuel Lopez Garcia, Carlin race engineer and Formula E performance engineer who has worked with the likes of Carlos Sainz Jr. and Daniil Kvyat, said "Ryan has a great ability to take the positives from every situation and channel what he learns into productive and very rapid growth. We can see it in the data, where he often outperforms his peers and championship leaders in many metrics, and it's also obvious in his qualifying results. Ryan manages traffic on the track better than I have seen in any young driver, let alone one with his limited racing experience. That skill is innate, and it's exciting. We continue to be extremely happy with Ryan’s progress, as well as his outstanding work ethic and attitude.”

"With great pace and the technical glitch worked out, we had the potential to deliver a points performance but it just wasn't meant to be this weekend," Tveter said. "Nonetheless we did achieve some great gains in other technical areas. I feel very grateful to be supported by Carlin Racing and Jagonya Ayam with Carlin, who were amazing at responding to the many factors ranging from extreme weather to technical issues that were out of our control at Hockenheim. We’ll take what we’ve learned on to France, and we get another shot at Hockenheim in the season finale this fall.”

The series now travels to a street circuit that will be new to Tveter, as it appears at Pau, France May 15-17. Tveter turns 21 on May 20, right before the fourth event May 29-31 in Monza, Italy. 

The Moscow race slated for late August has been replaced by a round in Portimao, Portugal Sept. 4-6 as a cost-saving measure for the teams. The entire schedule is available on the series' Web site at FIAF3Europe.com.

The series is broadcast in the United States on FOX Sports 2, and all the events are available for viewing on the FIA Formula 3 European Championship channel on YouTube. 

Fans can follow Tveter through his Web site at RyanTveter.com, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. The team's Web site is at Carlin.co.uk.