Team presentation - SVL Racing

SVL Racing is the first to present its car for the 2025 VFC season

The late bloomers from Holland around team boss and driver Sander van Leeuwen are starting their rookie season this year, like several other teams.

Joonas Kaurala will be van Leeuwen's team-mate this season. The young Finn made his debut race for Vincent Gutt's team, Spark Racing Team, at Spa last year. One race later, he also scored his first points at the Blue Horns Ring with 8th place.

We were able to interview Joonas, of course in the classic Finnish way, ‘short and sweet’:

‘Hey Joonas, thanks for the opportunity to talk to you. Firstly, tell us a few thoughts about the VFC and what convinced you to drive in the VFC this year.’

‘Well, this year's car was very good from the beginning when I tried it and it kind of convinced me to drive VFC.’

‘Good to hear. We saw you last year when you made your debut for Spark at Spa and scored your first points at the Blue Horns Ring. What is your personal goal for your first full-time VFC season?’

‘Simple: have fun and score points!’

Sander van Leeuwen, on the other hand, will compete in his first VFC race in Australia. In addition to FSR at Optiminal and the DTM series at ASRC, the Dutchman was not a slow rider on the bikes last year. Although Sander signed up his team quite late, he has already shown a solid basic pace in individual private tests, perhaps SVL will take on an underdog role in the season?

‘Hello Sander! Thanks for having us here at SVL headquarters. It's cool to have so many new faces at the start, especially if you know them from other series. You're the last team to sign up for the VFC. Do you think that's a disadvantage, especially because you didn't have the chance to sign engineers?’

‘I think it puts us at a bit of a disadvantage, of course. But I'm still happy that we can take part, and if we're good enough in the end, I don't think it should matter.’

‘Let's hope it doesn't affect the car's performance. And now to you. What is your goal for the first season in the VFC?’

‘My goal is to finish at least among the top five teams. I know that above all I have to be fast enough. I also know that there are a lot of fast guys, so it will still be tough.’

‘You're right, it will be interesting to see which of the top guys will have an advantage at the start. Now back to your team and the advantages. What did you focus on when developing the car?’

‘We focussed primarily on the aerodynamics. This means we can be fast in corners, but also have less drag on the straights.’

‘Okay, thanks Sander for the insights, see you on the track!’

With SVL Racing, the VFC season starts with a motivated new team on the grid. We are excited to see how both drivers start the first races. Tomorrow we continue with another new team, the Italians of Valle Esports.