Round 2 Post Feature Race Press Conference

FIA Formula 2: Hello and welcome to the FIA Formula 2 Feature Race press conference with the Top 3 here in Jeddah for Round 2 of the Championship. In third place we have Dennis Hauger of MP Motorsport, in second is Kush Maini from Invicta Racing and taking the win is Enzo Fittipaldi from Van Amersfoort Racing. Enzo, big congratulations, your first win of the season and your first F2 Feature Race win, tell us how it feels.

Enzo Fittipaldi: It feels amazing, there’s a lot of emotions and I am just very happy to come out on top today. Van Amersfoort Racing gave me an amazing car. The team did a great job on the pit stop. We were just flying today. I think every lap we were doing was very fast, our pace was very fast. We had some good fights on track. We got a bit unlucky with the Safety Car, I feel back to fourth and had some guys on the supersofts ahead of me. I had to at the same time manage my tyres and overtake, I think I managed that well. We were very competitive, getting the fastest lap on the second last lap of the race. Extremely happy and very grateful for this win.

FIA Formula 2: You mentioned having to fight back a little bit there, can you talk us through that incredible double overtake into Turn 1.

Fittipaldi: My mentality was that I didn’t want to spend any time behind the guys on the supersofts. As soon as you go through those ‘S’ corners with dirty air, the tyres overheat. As soon as I had that moment, going into Turn 1, I knew I needed to break very late and get both of them on the exit of Turn 2 so I had a clean track ahead of me. And that’s what I did. It worked out very well. I was able to build a very good gap from there.

FIA Formula 2: Thank you Enzo, Kush to you, your first podium finish of the season. You must be feeling pretty happy about that one.

Kush Maini: I think it was a positive race, especially after yesterday where we really struggled, so I am really happy the team and I switched it around. Today we were really competitive. Obviously, Enzo was in a different league today so congratulations to him. I think I am happy with P2. We need to analyse a little bit more on where we can catch Enzo, but good points today.

FIA Formula 2: How much confidence does this result give you and the team for the races ahead?

Maini: I think Qualifying-wise we know that we will be on the money. The car is great. We had a few doubts in the races but now that that is cleared up, I feel we can be competitive all throughout and I am looking forward to Melbourne.

FIA Formula 2: Thank you, Kush. Dennis, wow what a finish there. Can you tell us what it was like from your perspective behind the wheel.

Dennis Hauger: Overall, to be fair it was a bit of a frustrating race, it felt like we had more pace. I just got a bit stuck behind Martins in the beginning of the first stint. After that it was a bit of a DRS train, as soon as I got past one car, I caught up pretty quickly to the next car. On the last lap, it was quite tight. I was very close to Crawford before the last section already. I tried to unsettle him a bit on that last straight. He had DRS as well and we all just bunched up into the last corner. I just tried to be smart about it. It was quite tight on the exit with Jak (Crawford). I got the DRS to go on the straight and I got P3 by three hundreds of a second I think. It was a fun race, a lot of adrenaline. I think we could have done more but happy with third.

FIA Formula 2: Back-to-back podiums, are you hopeful that you can carry this form forward to the next round of the season?

Hauger: Yeah, I think so, I think we are still finding our way. Just progressing every round now with the new car. I think we are on the right path, and I am looking forward to continuing the work into Melbourne.

FIA Formula 2: Thank you, Dennis, Enzo coming back to you for one more. Does this feel like a breakthrough result for you and what can we expect from you in the coming races?

Fittipaldi: For sure, ever since testing in Bahrain we have been very competitive every run we did. It was frustrating because in Bahrain I couldn’t show what we could do. On Saturday we had an issue with the car. There were also some issues with the starts. On Sunday in Bahrain, we again had a very bad start and then a crash at Turn 1. I couldn’t really show what pace we could do. It was frustrating leaving Bahrain knowing there was so much potential. I came into Jeddah with confidence and knowing that I just needed to hit my marks and if we have a clean weekend we will be at the top.

FIA Formula 2: Thank you to all three, well done today.