Back to basics in Bahrain: Campos Racing testing round-up

The team showed bursts of pace during the three days of pre-season testing in Sakhir but Campos Racing head into the 2024 campaign with several unknowns left to discover.

It will be a familiar predicament up and down the pitlane, with each team forced to squeeze their three-day plans into two following torrential rain on the opening day.

As Team Principal Adrian Campos Jr explains, that made for an even more intriguing test at the Bahrain International Circuit, as teams battled back after the rain to learn as much as they possibly could before round one.

“We only have three days of testing before the first race and to lose one of those to rain and add in that the car is completely new, in the end it’s difficult to complete the run plan, which we didn't. But that will have been the same situation for everyone.

“Having only two days of testing, everyone will have been working on the basic set up. If someone managed to do this, I think it's already a big advantage.

“Then we will start getting more into detail as the season goes on and as we do more testing in Barcelona, we will be able to get more into the details but now we need to get the basics right. Ride height of the car, the ideal configuration, the tyre pressures, all these kinds of things.”

Campos has an all-new driver line-up for 2024 with the arrival of Isack Hadjar and Josep María Martí. The Frenchman joins the team following his rookie campaign with Hitech Pulse-Eight that included bright spots and struggles, but Campos Jr says he has bedded in well within his new surroundings.

For Martí, the Campos colours are more than familiar to him, having raced for the team in the past three seasons across various series and Championships. His graduation from the Spanish team’s F3 operation has, as you may well imagine, been a smooth transition.

“I think that they got along really well. I know that Isack was very happy. He got involved with the team very, very well. He trusts the people around him which is very important.

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“With Pepe, it was my dream to have him with us and doing Formula 2 and for me it was really important to be able to provide him with all the tools that he needs to grow.”

In F3 machinery, Martí was a race winner in Sakhir 12 months ago, winning the opening Sprint Race of the season in impressive fashion. Over in F2, Campos were also race winners, with Ralph Boschung taking the F2 Sprint honours before returning to the podium with P2 in the Feature Race on Sunday.

Then-Campos driver Kush Maini also fought for a podium, ultimately finishing fourth on what was a very strong opening to the campaign for the Spanish team.

Any form of repeat would be a welcome surprise for the team says Campos Jr, who believes with so many unknowns still to be solved, the pecking order is still tricky to read into.

“Doing another weekend like that will be very difficult. Our drivers are more experienced and have better results on paper than the ones from last year. Pepe was fighting for the Championship in the last F3 round at Monza, and Isack is going into his second season with really good results last year.

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“I think it's more difficult because with a new car, the main thing that you need to know is all the aero configurations and these kinds of things. You have to figure out the ideal setup for the car and people were doing a different run plan to us. You can’t always tell when someone is doing a performance run or a race run.

“So it's very difficult to understand where you are compared to the others. But with the information that we have, I believe that we should be at least fighting for good results in the beginning.”