Round 5 Post Sprint Race Press Conference

FIA Formula 2: Hello and welcome to today’s top three press conference following the FIA Formula 2 Sprint Race here in Monte Carlo. In third position, we have Luke Browning of Hitech TGR. In second, Gabriele Minì of PREMA Racing, and our winner today, Kush Maini for DAMS Lucas Oil. Kush, congratulations, not your first F2 victory but your first P1 on the road, and it’s in Monaco. How happy are you right now?

Kush Maini: Yesterday’s Qualifying was intense. It was very close, so I was glad we were in the bubble to get reversed. Obviously this is the Sprint Race, we all want to win the Feature, but it’s still a win in Monaco. As a young kid from India, playing F1 on a PlayStation, I never thought I’d be here and winning in the second tier. So really grateful, grateful to the team as well. We’ve had a very rocky start, with a lot of things going wrong. Some things were in our control, some things not, but our season starts today and there’s still a long way to go for us, so this is a positive note to take forwards.

FIA Formula 2: You were under huge pressure from Gabriele behind, was it something that was difficult to manage because we know you’re not allowed to do any mistakes here?

Maini: Yeah, I think I was just doing my race really. I was struggling a bit with front locking and one of my brakes fell asleep, so it was just not about going for the quickest lap this race, but about being consistent, and not making mistakes and just controlling the race, which I feel we did. Obviously, Gabriele was very fast, and it was nice to keep him behind.

FIA Formula 2: Tomorrow you’ll be starting from P10 around a track where it’s notoriously tough to overtake. Does it feel like there’s more to be gained tomorrow?

Maini: I think in F2 anything can happen. I remember I started 11th in 2023 and finished sixth, so tomorrow’s goal is to get some more points. I think we’re quite far behind, further behind than we’d want to be, but F2 is a different ball game and it’s a very long way to go. It’s just about gathering those points now and that’s the goal.

FIA Formula 2: Well, a massive congratulations to you today. Gabriele, moving on to you. Another podium in Monaco for you after your two F3 victories in recent years here. A strong race for you in which you had to attack and defend, can you tell us what it was like from the car?

Gabriele Minì: Yeah it’s the third podium in a row after winning twice in F3, getting another podium today. Not in a Feature Race, but it’s still good points after the struggles of Imola. It’s good to bounce back here. I just tried to put the pressure on Kush and try to be as close as I could to him, almost pushing him through some corners and trying to make him do a mistake. But he did a good job and didn’t fall under pressure, so in the end, it wasn’t about defending, but about cooling the tyres to try and go for the fastest lap. But, following more or less three quarters of the race on the gearbox of Kush ruined the tyres a bit, so it was quite complicated for me to do that. But I think our pace was quite good, so looking forward to tomorrow.

FIA Formula 2: Like you said, you were close to Kush, how close were you to a possible overtake or trying to push him into making a mistake?

Minì: I think pushing him into making a mistake, I couldn’t have been any closer because I would have crashed into him. But to try and overtake, the problem is at the exit of every corner, you open a small gap with the speed and you have to cover more distance. It’s more complicated to do a send without crashing, so I just tried to get him to do a mistake but it was just the best I could try.

FIA Formula 2: Today’s P2 is your best result of your rookie season so far. Can you take some positives from that race into the Feature tomorrow and the upcoming rounds?

Minì: As you said, it’s the best result for us so far. Of course in Monaco, starting in the top three, you’ll probably finish there unless there’s a crash. It’s complicated to overtake so it was all about keeping it on track and trying to get the fastest lap. In the end, we had pretty strong pace, and as Kush said, in F2 anything can happen. So we just have to be smart, use our pace, hopefully gain tomorrow using our pace advantage and see how it goes.

FIA Formula 2: Well good job today. Luke, thanks for waiting. It’s another F2 podium for you, your fifth of the season so far. Can you tell us how today’s race went because it wasn’t an easy one starting from P2 with a start that was not ideal.

Luke Browning: Yeah, so another podium. Obviously happy with the result. It would have been nice to maybe be one step higher, but the points difference isn’t too big. I think the main thing was just to manage the execution. Just a little bit of a shame today and a bit of a messy race. I had anti-stall twice, both on the formation lap and race start. I think it was a little bit out of my control. As it is in this Championship, it’s all about maximising what’s inside your control, and this was damage limitation today. To have these issues in Monaco, especially off the start, and to recover to P3 with the pace we had, especially early on in the race, I think it was a good job by the team and myself.

FIA Formula 2: You had Arvid Lindblad in front of you with a time penalty. Did that play into your race plan or were you not taking too many risks knowing he had a time penalty to come?

Browning: It was actually the opposite because he was trying to create the biggest gap he could to the guys in front. So the moment I backed off to do the fastest lap, he would back off and block me to do it. So I was kind of screwed if I slowed down and screwed if I was quick and right behind him. Unfortunately, it was just one of those days today where the situation I was in, I couldn’t do much more. I was P3 but I think the reason why I was trying to overtake him so much at the start of the race was because, if I was able to get past I’d have a shot at doing the fastest lap. Otherwise, I wouldn’t. One of those, but equally happy.

FIA Formula 2: Looking at the standings you move to within one point of the Championship lead with that result. The Feature Race is still to come but you seem to be building some real momentum at the moment?

Browning: Absolutely. I think we had a bit of bad luck go our way in Qualifying with a spinner coming onto our last lap. Otherwise, I think we would’ve been lining up P3. But, equally, this is Formula 2 and like I said before, maximising what we’ve got, you never know what could happen tomorrow. Strategy played a big part last year and I’m sure it’ll play a big part this year. If you manage to pick the right one. Monaco – you can have your fair share of good luck here. I’ve had mine and hopefully we roll the dice tomorrow and let’s see how it goes.

FIA Formula 2: Thank you very much.