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WHAT WE LEARNED: Our biggest Barcelona lessons
The first round in a triple-header that will shape the 2024 FIA Formula 2 season is in the books and we have 10 different winners from 12 races.
There are trends beginning to show, drivers that are upping their performances and teams that have found their way with the new car.
With Paul Aron and Campos Racing heading up the Drivers’ and Teams’ Standings respectively as we head to Spielberg, here is what we learned in Barcelona.
RACE ANALYSIS: How pit stops played a crucial part in deciding the Barcelona Feature Race
TESTING TIME
Campos Racing may have ended in-season testing as the fastest outfit around the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya but come the race weekend, it was DAMS Lucas Oil that were the team to beat.
Isack Hadjar’s day three time was the fastest across the three-day event, but he endured a difficult Qualifying session to wind up behind title rival Paul Aron, who captured a maiden pole in his Hitech Pulse-Eight.
Jak Crawford went within just 0.002s of that effort on Friday but was uncatchable in the Feature Race after taking the lead. DAMS have taken a step forward in performance following the test however, proving that while outright laptime will catch the attention, it’s hard work going on behind the scenes that makes the biggest difference.
Campos won’t be too disappointed however as they maintained their lead in the Teams’ Standings, but it’s a very close fight in those stakes, with several teams hardly separated heading to Spielberg.
TEAMWORK
Going into Round 6, we had five teams separated by just 20 points in the fight for the Teams’ Championship crown, and while the margin from first to fifth might have grown, it’s still a titanic fight.
One point is all that separates Campos from Hitech in the Standings heading to Spielberg, with MP Motorsport trailing closely in third, just a further seven points back from the British team.
Invicta Racing are keeping touch too, fourth on 105 and hardly out of striking distance to Campos with both Kush Maini and Gabriel Bortoleto continuing to add valuable points, even if they got a little too close for comfort in Sunday’s Feature Race in Spain.
READ MORE: Juan Manuel Correa's Barcelona Weekend in his Words
Rodin Motorsport had led the way earlier in the campaign but have dropped to fifth as the paddock heads to Austria for Round 7. The podiums from earlier in 2024 have dried up, but Zane Maloney is keeping himself in the conversation in relation to the Drivers’ title fight, even if Aron and Hadjar are the two in form currently ahead of him.
DAMS DELIGHT
As mentioned, DAMS have been a team in fine fettle recently, with the team’s race pace in particular growing into a strength in recent rounds.
Both drivers have admitted that it’s the one-lap speed where there is still some work to do, but the French squad is certainly reaping the rewards for their efforts on race days when the biggest points are on offer.
Both Juan Manuel Correa and Jak Crawford can seemingly eek that little bit extra from the Pirelli tyres, holding onto the peak performance window a little longer than rivals around them, and it has paid off in spades lately.
Crawford’s Feature Race victory has rocketed him up the Drivers’ Championship standings to fourth, just 13 points from Maloney in third, while Correa is quickly closing in on the top 10 after the team’s difficult start to 2024.
Correa has just one finish outside of the points in the last five races, coming in the Monte Carlo Sprint Race around a venue where overtaking is hardly straightforward.
With more conventional tracks coming up, expect DAMS to press home their advantage as we head towards the summer break.