Oscar Joyce: 2024 Radical World Finals Vice-World Champion

Oscar Joyce notched up four podiums to become Vice-World Champion in the 2024 Kinetic7 Radical World Finals at Yas Marina Circuit (7-10 November).

The 20-year-old from Richmond, London took a hattrick of runner-up finishes and a third place result on his first outing in a Radical SR10 XXR and his maiden visit to the home of the Formula 1 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, finishing P2 in the definitive World Championship.

Oscar said:

I return home to the UK as a Vice-World Champion, having taken my DW Racing-prepared Radical SR10 XXR to four podiums in the 2024 Kinetic7 Radical World Finals at Abu Dhabi’s Yas Marina Circuit (7-10 November).

I couldn’t be happier and it’s a great way to round out what has been a super successful season, but it also gives me a lot of confidence moving forward into 2025 and beyond.

My maiden experience of an SR10 XXR and Yas Marina came during the first of two days of testing on Thursday (7 November) and I progressed quickly once my DW Racing team had ironed out a few teething problems with the car.

You’re never going to rock up at an unfamiliar circuit with a brand new car and set the pace, but the advancement in each test run was encouraging.

I have been in similar scenarios before, having stepped from an entry-level Radical SR1 to an SR3 XXR with more power and downforce for the 2024 Hagerty Radical Cup UK.

I had to work hard to adapt my driving style because, while both cars have similar characteristics, there are many subtleties to the SR3.

For starters, you have to manage the car and it rewards an aggressive driving style that wouldn’t yield lap time in an SR1 with treaded tyres.

More aero performance and full-slick Hankook tyres provide high levels of grip and consistency across a race distance, so it was about believing that I could really “send it”, braking late into corners to get overtakes done, and planting my foot on the throttle early on the way out of turns.

It was pretty much a full-system reset with respect to my driving technique, and track time in stable conditions is what you need most to get out of old habits.

The SR10 XXR is a completely different beast altogether, as it’s more like a GT car than a typical sports-prototype – lots of horsepower but more weight also.

The power delivery is awesome – it goes like a rocket – but you have to be more patient on the brakes and through the corners, keeping the rear-end in check so you don’t spin out.

Happily, I found a groove and was quick from the very start of qualifying, the 1m55.726s that guaranteed me third on the Heat Race 1 starting grid being a full two seconds faster than my best time from official testing.

Unfortunately, I was unable to take up my position on row two of the grid – the pit lane closed with me and a handful of opponents stuck behind a car that had stalled at the exit – but I was confident I could get back to the front where I belonged.

It was a steep climb up through the 32-strong field because, while my 450bhp SR10 XXR cleared slower cars with ease on the straights, the lighter, nimbler SR3s from the Pro1500 and Pro1340 classes were superior in Yas Marina’s twisty sectors.

I was patient and calculated when it came to overtaking and I was the second-placed Platinum runner in sixth overall when, to my delight, the Safety Car intervened.

The restart presented an opportunity to clear the leading Pro1500 entries, but I ran out of time to bridge the gap to race leader Alim Geshev, receiving the chequered flag second on the road and just 3.6 seconds adrift.

You could say that winning from the back is more satisfying than a lights-to-flag victory from pole position, but I hoped going from the front in Heat Races 2 and 3 would make life a little easier for me and more interesting for spectators.

Who would win in a straight fight between me, Gregg Gorski and TT Racing’s Geshev for Platinum class glory?

It was golden hour when we returned to the racetrack for Heat Race 2, the floodlights just starting to dominate and the W – Yas Island Hotel’s iconic light show doing the business as the sun set over Abu Dhabi.

I got a good start but slotted in behind poleman Geshev as we swarmed on Turn 1, but my heavily worn tyres prevented me attacking for the win.

Instead, my attention turned rearward, as the #24 car of Gorski filled my mirrors.

I was under pressure and a slight mistake left me a little exposed, but I was clean and efficient through lapped traffic and once again finished in the runner-up position with a slender half-a-second margin over my pursuer.

I then started Sunday’s 45-minute endurance race from third and, this time, fresh Hankooks helped me get the jump on my Heat Race 2 sparring partner Gorski and pull away by more than eight seconds.

However, problems in my compulsory pit stop cost ten seconds and handed P2 back to Gorski; my clutch got stuck and I had to hold the brakes to stay stationary for 45 seconds, as per the regulations, then I had trouble starting the car.  
 
Nevertheless, points for three podiums in as many heats put me third on the grid for the ‘winner-takes-all’ World Finals Race, at the end of which a World Champion would be crowned.

A first-corner shunt brought out the red flags, but the grid was reset and I aced the second start, immediately passing the lead Pro1500 car for second position.

A drive-through penalty for Gorski freed me up to go after race leader Geshev, but, while we initially traded purple sectors, the United Arab Emirates-based driver used his local knowledge of Yas Marina to pull a gap.

As In Heat Races 1 and 2, I brought my DW Racing-prepared SR10 XXR home in second overall to become Vice-World Champion, backing up my runner-up finish on home soil in the Radical Cup UK Pro SR3 Championship.

Winning the World Championship outright was obviously the ambition, but I’m delighted with the outcome when you consider that competitors like Geshev came with miles of experience around Yas Marina Circuit as stalwarts of the Gulf Radical Cup.

There was a lot of learning over the course of World Finals week and it’s really positive to know that I can jump into a car I’m unfamiliar with at a track I’ve never visited and achieve big results that belie my relative lack of experience.

We methodically chipped away in each session and were steadily closing in on Geshev towards the end of the weekend, but fair play to him for being so incredibly consistent.

DW Racing did a great job, everybody was super supportive and to come away from the 2024 Radical World Finals as Vice-World Champion is a great way to round out a brilliant year.

Naturally, I hope to go one place higher in both the World Finals and back home in the Radical Cup UK when we go again in 2025.