Round 7 Post Sprint Race Press Conference

FIA Formula 2: Welcome everyone to today's FIA Formula 2 press conference following a thrilling sprint race here at Silverstone. Joining us, P3 from Van Amersfoort Racing, it's Rafael Villagómez. In second place from MP Motorsport, it's Gabriele Minì. And from Campos, capturing his fifth career F2 win and second sprint victory of the season, Nikola Tsolov. Congratulations, Nikola. Can you take me through your start because again you had a very effective getaway this time.

Nikola Tsolov: Yeah, the start was very good, almost stalled on the Formation lap. We had a bit of a discussion about what to do for the race start. We managed the right one and just stayed patient. I think that's where I gained most of the places. I was already third by Lap one, obviously on the outside of T3 as well, getting Miyata was very important. Then I was quite happy with where I was. I didn't really think about moving forward too much more, just thought about finishing the race, taking good points. But obviously I just saved the tyres and I think was going step by step a little closer to Gabi until I got the DRS. That was a crucial point. It was very powerful today again, but it was very tough to pass him. He was driving very well in terms of where to push, and where to not. So I had to adjust a little bit and see where I could get close, and then on the last lap, he made a little mistake in T3 and that opened the opportunity to get by. Honestly, I didn't expect for that to happen. I was just happy with the P2 at that point, but yeah, grateful that we managed to execute it well.

FIA Formula 2: Just how much work were you having to put in there to force him into a mistake?

Tsolov: A lot. As soon as I arrived to him, it was all I was trying to do. He doesn't crack very easily under pressure, so he managed it well on that side and that made my life more difficult. On the other hand, we put in a lot of work on the car from yesterday to today and managed to improve a lot because honestly, we weren't expecting to be as fast as we were, especially on the hard compound. But we made a big change and I'm happier about that rather than the win itself. Looking forward to tomorrow.

FIA Formula 2: You had said that the team did make some changes to the car. What are you expecting from the Feature Race?

Tsolov: No expectations. Again, we want to finish in the top five, just like today. If we can move forward, we move forward, but there's no rush to risk anything.

FIA Formula 2: Congratulations, Gabi, coming to you. Can you just take me through what happened there with the lockup at the end of the race?

Gabriele Minì: I mean, I think it was quite straightforward. I just pushed a bit more in Turn one and then in T2 and I just arrived a bit too quick into the corners, and I locked up. I missed the corner and that was just a stupid mistake.

FIA Formula 2: Was the race today just a lot about managing? Were you having to manage the tyre more as you got deeper into the race?

Minì: Yeah, we had to. I mean, at least myself, I had to manage quite a lot. It was quite a tricky one. I was starting to struggle already, like 12 laps to the end. So, when Nikola started getting in the DRS, I had to be honest, I was not really expecting to be able to keep him behind. I still managed to until the last lap. So, still just some work to do.

FIA Formula 2: And you guys are in a tight championship battle at the moment, but there's a nice moment between the two of you at the end there shaking hands. You guys have a lot of respect for each other. Where does that come from?

Minì: I mean, we've been together in the Alpine Academy in 2023 and 24. So we shared a lot of training days together, and we know each other quite well. He's a really nice guy. You know, of course, we are rivals on track, but we always respect each other. So it's quite nice to have such a nice championship battle.

FIA Formula 2: Thank you for that, Gabi. Rafael, coming to you, what more could you have done today to track down the two leaders?

Rafeal Villagómez: Yeah, I think the start was pretty good. After that initial phase of the race, we just seemed to struggle a little bit. In the middle part we just lost DRS, and I just didn't have the pace that these two guys had, and then it was difficult. Like I said, the DRS was super powerful and to make that up is just tricky. But I was happy because then I was just managing a little bit. and then towards the end, I was able to come back. Of course, they were fighting, so that made it a little bit easier. But I do believe that the pace towards the end was a lot more competitive than the middle phase of the race.

FIA Formula 2: Did you guys do anything to the car before so you could get yourself into this position?

Villagómez: Yeah, I think since Barcelona we've been struggling a lot with deg in general. So we're trying to figure out together with the team what's going on. What can we improve, and I think everyone's in the same boat. You know, everyone wants to improve race by race.

FIA Formula 2: All right. Thank you very much for that, Rafael. I appreciate it.