CHARLIE ROBERTSON is aiming to challenge for the first podium of his maiden season in single-seaters when the BRDC Formula 4 Championship travels to his 'home' track at Brands Hatch Indy Circuit this weekend.
The Whyteleafe teenager, who drives for leading team HHC Motorsport, heads into the second event of the season fifth in the championship standings – with a best result so far of fourth place to his credit – after a consistently competitive outing at Silverstone Grand Prix Circuit two weeks ago. Graduating into single-seater racing this year after winning the Ginetta Junior title in 2012, the Investigo-backed driver made a solid start on his Formula 4 bow and was within just 1.5 seconds of climbing the rostrum during round three.
A lot of home support is expected to cheer the 16-year-old on at Brands Hatch, an event which will be the biggest of the year for the F4 contingent with the category running on the support card for the FIA Formula 3 European Championship and spectacular DTM touring cars.
"I'm really looking forward to Brands, it's always great to race there and we'll have a lot of friends and family coming along so I'm determined to have a good weekend and try and get on the podium if we can," said the Caterham School pupil.
"It'll definitely be the biggest race weekend I've ever been involved in, the DTM always attracts massive crowds so that'll be a nice boost.
"Silverstone wasn't a bad start to the season at all, we wanted to come away with strong points scores from each of the races and we managed that. The aim now is to build on that at Brands and keep moving forward."
One of the main challenges for Charlie will be to qualify as high up the order as possible at Brands Hatch with overtaking at the 1.2-mile Indy Circuit notoriously difficult.
Starting on the first couple of rows of the grid is of paramount importance at the Kent track so the MSA Academy racer is targeting a strong qualifying performance as a priority.
"Qualifying is always a big part of the weekend but especially at Brands Indy," he said.
"You've really got to get it right and put a good lap together. In Ginetta Junior it wasn't so much of a problem but in a single-seater like the F4 car, the chances to overtake are really limited.
"Hopefully we can qualify well and then take things from there."
Qualifying will take place at 12pm on Saturday, with the first race of the weekend following at 3.20pm.
On Sunday, round five is set to begin at 2.15pm, with round six expected to commence at 4.40pm.