The exciting 16-year-old from Orange, New South Wales, will be contesting a full season in the British F4 Championship from April this year, but started his transition to single-seaters with the first of what will be two Formula Winter Series events held in Spain to prepare even further for what is set to be a vintage campaign for the feisty rookie.
A frontrunner in Ginetta Juniors – the series previously used as a stomping ground for drivers such as current Formula 1 champion, Lando Norris – in the UK, George took the step into single-seater racing almost seamlessly, racing for the AKM Motorsport outfit founded by Kimi Antonelli’s father, Marco.
Testing pace was mighty from the youngster, right in the frontrunning mix, and second fastest in session two. Qualifying ninth for the first of the weekend’s three 30-minute races, Saturday’s opener was a thriller held in tricky, greasy conditions that steadily worsened as rain arrived. George showed no signs of being put off by the conditions, and rolled up his sleeves on a fantastic first lap to climb four places into the top five.
He then battled hard with a chasing pack, at one stage surviving a four-wide sideways moment heading through the tight hairpin concluding the lap to come out the other end of an intense battle in an impressive seventh place by the finish – confirming third place in the rookie category as an additional reward for a strong debut.
Starting seventh for race two, George had to take major evasive action as the lights went out, as Alfie Slater’s car stalled on the row directly ahead of him. It killed his momentum slightly heading to the 90-degree opening left-hander, but he did a sterling job to fend off the attacking threat of Markas Silkunas to end lap one leading a train of cars in a lofty seventh spot.
The more experienced Oleksandr Savinkov was able to find his way by, but George tucked into his slipstream to continue his part in a fantastic four-car battle over sixth place. In amongst this, he almost pulled off a sensational three-car overtake heading into the first corner as the four cars climbed over one another, fighting for every last position at the wide and fast Spanish circuit.
On multiple occasions he braved it out three-abreast with his rivals through the tricky final section, showing no sign of backing out as he aimed for a rookie podium once again. He saved his best passing move until late on, rounding the GB4 Champion Ary Bansal at the tight first corner with a stunning move on the outside line to bring himself up to eighth place overall at the chequered flag. Track limits penalties were again an unwanted story from the race – George among the many handed a 5-second time penalty which put him P15 in the final classification.
George started the final race from row six looking to put on another exciting performance, and he instantly began to get his elbows out as he braved a triple overtake on the inside of a jostling pack of cars heading into the braking zone for the tight hairpin at the end of the back straight. He chipped away at two more rivals after the first of three safety car interruptions during the chaotic encounter, and then took advantage of a battle that removed Teo Borenstein directly ahead of him, climbing to seventh place.
After an almighty two-lap squabble to conclude proceedings, George took the flag ninth overall and fifth in his class, ending a positive weekend for the Orange racer ahead of his second visit in Barcelona still to come.
George Proudford-Nalder: “Overall I think it’s been a really solid weekend for us. We got used to the car pretty much straight from the off, and testing pace showed that we were among the fastest out there which I think we reiterated in the races. A lot of tight, intense racing at a wide circuit like Aragon, so a bit of tactical driving and fight was needed which helped us out a lot. There’s drivers with a year or two experience over us that we were learning from, and the AKM Motorsport team gave me an awesome car to debut with which made the education much easier. To get a podium in class was the goal, and we did that straight away, so let’s go and achieve more this season!”
George is straight back into action in Spain once again this weekend (14/15 March) with AKM Motorsport, competing in the final Formula Winter Series event at Barcelona before kicking off his season in British F4 a month later.
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