Javier Sagrera, ‘milli’ in English to reach F1

With the illusion of a child who dreams of reaching Formula 1. That’s how he ended up in MD. We await you in a private newsroom in Barcelona. There he sat next to his laptop, which he had to lean on to explain his sports career. He didn’t have to open it. His biggest asset is in his character, with everything he’s learned in the past two years. Javier Sagrera (01/12/2004)of Torroella de Montgrí (Girona), has attracted attention since he was a boy with great names in motorsport such as Marc Gené, Jordi Gené, Miguel Molina, Mariano Molina, or the prestigious engineer Chus Sánchez. They were his great supporters until he jumped from karts to Spanish Formula 4. The pilot arrived at the national championship with a lack of experience structure and could not shine. That’s when he wanted to change his whole life in pursuit of his dream. He decided to bet everything on motorsport. He sat in front of his father, the businessman Javier Sagreraand called his mother, the actress Monica Pont, who currently lives in Mexico. He has a message for both of them: He wants to quit school and focus entirely on his dream car.

“I told them: ‘It’s very easy, cars have a certain amount of years, and if your time is up, you can’t go back. It’s now or never. And if you’re not good at cars , you can always go back to the study and add to it the experience you have had and lived with it’. Parents are faced with a complex question. But they decided to support their son’s dream. The boy will fly to England and start a new life alone driving the prestigious British Formula 3, where so much talent has emerged. He will explore life and learn from his successes, mistakes, decisions and actions. I will make ‘milli’ in English. “I did well in my studies,” he told MD Sagrera about his first year at the social high school. “But between all the competitions I did, I missed a total of 4 months of school”, added. “I couldn’t go 50% on both things. You have to do one thing and do it well. And I decided to go 100% with what I’m really passionate about, my dream”he pointed out.

England, land of the motor

“I took the suitcases and went to England. He lives in a flat next to the team. I’m in London. The first year, in the northernmost part. I worked with the team every day”, he highlighted. He can choose one of the championships with the highest level of promotion in the world, the Spanish F4, but he needs a big change that will allow him to accumulate more kilometers. He wants to go to England because he knows he will have more shooting time and will be able to work every day with his new team, Elite Motorsport, in 2021.The team arranges a test plan for you which will be forwarded to you when you sign the contract and you have all the days fixed. I feel like I’m in an academy. The work is about two test days a week driving, one day a week is a simulator, another two days traveling to the circuits and the rest is in the factory making more simulators or with me in mechanics learning whatever it is”.

There he believed he would find all the ingredients to develop as a pilot. “If you really want to train as a driver and have a good foundation, the English work methodology, the amount of time you get to ride on the track and what the English circuits give you creates the perfect environment for a driver. The extent of the European circuits is not the same as the British. Brands Hatch, my favorite track, is very tight and you have no room for error. You have to put your wheel a millimeter from the grass to go fast and if you touch the grass there is 5 meters to the wall. All are old school circuits where you train like the pilots of oldwithout making mistakes and as a pilot you have to go the limit of 30 laps without overbrake because you are outside. Also, there are many blind corners, too technical. You will learn a lot”, he emphasized.

A Master of life

Javier’s learning goes beyond circuits. That surprised him the most. The boy now bears little resemblance to the one who at the age of 16 took a flight to London without a return ticket. “I took the suitcases and left alone. And many anecdotes: The first day I took all my clothes and put them in the washing machine. When I take it out, a little kid can put it in (laughs). I had to buy new clothes because nothing fit me. These are experiences and learning. Learning this at the age of 16 shaped me. It helped me a lot and I appreciate that my parents gave me this opportunity”he declared.

He also learned to move behind the scenes in search of support, something very important in a sport where money is almost everything. “I got there and I didn’t have a representative or anything. And sometimes I have meetings where I have to get the Management team (representation) and sponsorships… and I will reach 16, 17 years and leave, take the train, go to the company’s offices and introduce myself. And it’s fun They were surprised that a child had the courage to go to an office alone, sit down with a laptop to explain his sports career and convince them why they should bet on him”standing out between laughs.

“Those kind of things helped me a lot. It’s unusual, and I’m not saying that this is how things should be done because everyone has their own specialty, but also training you I appreciate it and I will sell my project as a pilot and see what happens. And this has helped me a lot,” he added about this.

Two years in British F3 and looking for a bright future

On the track, in his first year, with the Elite Motorsport team, he achieved some fast laps and good times. That first course helped him settle in and his talent caught the attention of the best teams. He tried important gatherings like Carlin, Hitech GP and Fortec. He then chose one of the most important teams in the world in the promotion categories, Carlin, where, for example, Lando Norris was trained, among other talents. But certainly, for the course of 2022, the car changed in the category and Carlin had a hard time adapting to this new car. “Expectations were very high at the start of the season. Everyone expected me to win the championship in my second year but we went into it with a reality check in the first few races. The adaptation to the car was not good, we struggled to understand the car well, we had a lot of problems with the engine, the power unit was 3 CV below what should be given and when we realized, three races had already passed ”, it commented to MD .

It was then that Javier brought out his ability to solve things on his own, the result of how much he matured in England. He gathered his entire team at a table and told them what he thought. nothing holds back From that moment, there was a before and after. “From the race they changed my engine, we met, I sat down with them, I told them what I thought needed to be changed. It was a difficult meeting, but I told them the truth. And from the race that was until the end, I was the Carlin driver with the most points in the second half of the season. In the race after that meeting I achieved my first podium of the season and in some classifications I finished second, third… I knew I was over 12 kg, which was 4 tenths per lap every time I went out track, but even so, Things improved, always first team in the standings”. Yes, you read it right. Javier Sagrera has a weight disability. He drives with 12 kilos more in his car.

“Being a tall driver, I’m 1.87. In the FIA ​​categories they average the weight of all the drivers and it’s close to that, but In England there is a minimum weight that is perfect for a pilot weighing about 65 kg, but for someone who weighs 77 like me, it breaks him. I assure you that my teammates weigh 590 kg and I weigh 602. This is truth. And my two companions are 1.70 and I am 1.87”, he highlighted.

The clearest example of how he was conditioned by his bigger weight can be seen in the last round of the year: “In the last qualifying I was a tenth faster than the pole overall for the whole lap and I lost four and a half tenths in all straight. I was sixth, 3 tenths off pole when I could have been first, one and a half tenths behind everyone”. Despite this, he positively credits his time in England for his immense learning on and off the track, having closed that door and returned to Spain to think about his next move.

“I only have plan ‘A'”

After two years in London, now Javier Sagrera He is preparing in Girona for his next challenge. Explore your options to jump to a higher promotion category. And he does it with the belief that he will reach F1 in the future.

“F1 is my dream. I’ve always had a lot of self-confidence and I know that if I work harder than others and work hard, it doesn’t have to come out. I know inside I have talent and I am good. Sometimes it’s good to believe it, not in an arrogant way, but it’s good to know that you’re capable of doing it, because if not, it’s better not to do it. I know I can. It’s important to be at the right time and place, so yes, there are moments of luck, but luck is also up to you”, added the 18-year-old, who now has a management structure behind him and sponsors who have helped him in recent years. last year.

“My only plan is F1. I don’t have a plan ‘B’. The only plan is ‘A’. All my energy and attention is directed towards getting to F1. I want to end my sports career saying that I have done everything possible. I play it I accept it. But for some reason it didn’t come out, which I don’t think because I think it will come out 100%, only from what I’ve learned in these two years I can say that it’s worth it. this”concludes Sagrera, considering that it is worth not only trying, but giving everything to achieve it. call it a dream Javier prefers to call it a ‘goal’.