Sami Seliö and Mad Croc BABA Racing will be looking turn around their fortunes as they contemplate the second half of a season that so far has been dogged by bad luck to say the least.
With the 2015 season at its mid-term after races in Qatar, France and Portugal, 21-year-old Filip Roms in his fourth season in the top flight is sitting in sixth spot in the points table with Sami Seliö in ninth.
In terms of performance Seliö’s current standing cruelly masks his overall performances at each Grand Prix but the team principal and double World Champion will be the first to accept that failing to take the chequered flag and pick up points, for whatever reason, puts the team on the back foot.
At each event he [Seliö] has been quick in all sessions and shown good race pace in the relatively new generation BABA hull the team rolled-out in China last year; two top five qualifying slots earlier in the year in Qatar and France were followed by a 23rd career pole position in Portugal and in all races he posted the second fastest lap time.
In Qatar Seliö was a man on a mission, he passed Erik Star to take fourth and then on lap 22 passed Ahmed Al Hameli into third, but caught a wave in the pass bringing the two together, both crashing out of the race and robbing him of a certain podium finish.
Another podium disappeared in France, Seliö losing what looked to be an impressive drive from fifth to second place after being given a post-race one lap penalty for taking out a turn buoy and eventually classified in fifth.
Portugal was unquestionably an incident that Seliö played no part in and the dramatic and spectacular crash that ended his race on lap 27 of 36 from second place was avoidable with the blame placed firmly at the door of Abu Dhabi driver Alex Carella who clearly cut across and closed him down, Seliö making his feelings very clear when the two rubbed shoulders in the paddock after the race.
For teammate Filip Roms the highlight of the year for the youngster was his first ever podium, taking third in France after starting from P10 off the pontoon.
In both Qatar and Portugal Roms demonstrated his growing race craft, moving up from 13th on the grid through an international field of top drivers to finish in eighth and seventh respectively.
The target for the team in the second half of the season is to ensure that they convert performance to points in all the remaining races.
The next stop on the tour is Liuzhou in China on 1-2 October, a circuit where Seliö has enjoyed mixed fortunes, winning in 2009, crashing heavily in 2011 and seeing his chances of a third world titled ended by Shaun Torrente after he crashed into him the following year. His last podium in China was second place in 2013.
