Post by Charlie Martin

Happy #PrideMonth from Spa Francorchamps! 🏳️‍🌈 🏆 🏁 In car temps nudging 80 degrees were just one of the challenges in Belgium 🥵🔥 There was also a new team, and teammate who had never driven Spa or the McLaren Racing Artura Trophy Evo we were sharing. Niemann Autosport gave us a perfect car though, and I set class pole and P14 overall in qualy, a solid start 🚀 Sadly a mistake at Eau Rouge put us out of race one. It was during my stint and I had to dig deep and reset. Racing can be brutal, as a driver you have to learn from your mistake, adapt and then compartmentalise what happened 😣🧠 We had a mountain to climb but the entire team rallied (in 40 degree heat) and we managed to get the car out for qualy 2 - a small miracle 🙌🏼 Coming away from race 2 with a class win was a bitter sweet moment, it felt like the result that we should have had in race 1 and I'm #accountable for that one... but there are no guarantees in motorsport. On paper we left Spa leading the AM class in the championship, but that's only half the story. Jumping into a new team can be intense - figuring out the #culture and building #trust quickly while the #pressure is on. Throw in a mistake and feeling like you've let everyone down, disaster 😕 It could have unravelled quickly, but it didn’t. We pulled together, we let our guard down, we showed each other who we are and what we're capable of when things don't go to plan. That made us stronger, together 🤝🏼 #Inclusive #teams are built in these moments when we all show up for each other - knowing you can count on each other increases psychological safety and drives #performance. Huge thanks to Eric Jan Niemann and the whole team at Niemann Autosport, can't wait to join you all at Misano in 3 weeks time! 🇮🇹