Round 2 Post Feature Race Press Conference

FIA Formula 2: Hello again from Bahrain where it is now time to hear from our top three finishers in today’s FIA Formula 2 Feature Race. In third place we have Leonardo Fornaroli for Invicta Racing, second is Luke Browning for Hitech TGR, and your race winner is Alexander Dunne for Rodin Motorsport. Alex, a Feature Race win in just your second F2 weekend. How good does that feel?

Alexander Dunne: It’s got a nice ring to it for sure. We are really happy. I think the team has done a mega job. I knew we had the pace to have a good result, but I think naturally even if you know the pace is there you probably would never expect a result like this. But I think the thing that makes it even sweeter is after the race we had yesterday. I think I was a bit disappointed with myself towards the end of the Sprint Race. I think we started the Sprint Race really strong and then after the Safety Car, the second Safety Car restart, I think definitely didn’t do the job that I hold myself too a certain level, and I didn’t think it was at that level after the second Safety Car restart. So, I think to bounce back like that in a dominant fashion is kind of a nice way to redeem myself and pay back the team.

FIA Formula 2: Similar to yesterday you made a good start and hit the front early. Did you think clean air was going to be crucial to your hopes today?

Dunne: To be honest, initially I hadn’t planned to go straight for the lead. I think a couple of laps before I passed Leo I didn’t necessarily believe I was the quicker car. But there was kind of like this switch between pace. Initially I didn’t necessarily feel strong and then from one lap to the next it was kind of like a big deficit. That’s kind of when I went for the move and after that it seemed like the pace was just really strong till the end of the race. Initially the plan was just to sit in P2. I knew I had a big gap behind, so I just wanted to manage it the best I could and I think once we got in the lead, and once I broke DRS to Leo, I think we could see that the pace was strong to have a good result, so I kind of just kept on pushing on, but I tried my best not to push too much. I think when you’re in a position like that and you’re feeling comfortable, driving away, it is relatively easy to lead yourself down the wrong road and push a bit too hard, so I tried to manage that and I asked the team for updates all the time, to make sure I understood what was going on behind me, and I think we managed it well.

FIA Formula 2: In the end it was a comfortable margin of victory. I know you mentioned it in parc ferme that Rodin have gone well here before, but how much confidence do you take to get this win so early, both yourself and the team?

Dunne: It’s nice. I think generally though our pace has been pretty strong, pretty consistent. We qualified fifth in Melbourne and fourth here. So, I think quali pace is pretty good. There are a couple of things in Melbourne and also in the test, that also as a driver I was struggling a little bit with the car, so we changed a couple of things coming into this weekend, to make it a little bit easier for me and I think it’s worked. Moving forward, I think Qualifying is a bigger thing to me than the race to be honest. If you qualify at the front, the rest is kind of how it is. I think we will just keep on focusing on that but I feel pretty comfortable. If I keep on performing and doing a good job, I think we are in a good place.

FIA Formula 2: Excellent job today, congratulations on the victory. Luke, P2 for you today, 18 points for that one and your second podium of the season. How pleased are you with that result?

Luke Browning: I am happy. I’m actually in two minds. I think we did a fantastic job with the strategy that we had. Equally I think we could have come from this weekend with more but coming into the weekend I thought this was going to be one of our weakest rounds. We came out of the test in not a great place, and then to adapt that quickly from F1 machinery to F2 Quali, I was elated, and then to really finish it off in the Feature Race, to have that strong pace, especially in the early laps on the Prime, to manage to get past Duerksen and then pull that big gap really secured that second place for me, so I think we did a good job with our strategy today and had we gone with the other strategy, I don’t think it would have worked either, because the start that we had, we had some clutch issues throughout the whole weekend, which hampered our start. I think I was 15th going into T1 in the Sprint Race, made my way all the way back up to fifth, and ran into some issues in the final lap, and it was the same here, we dropped back just behind, I think we were second of the Prime runners, then we managed to overtake and show our pace but equally Hitech just did a fantastic job this weekend. I don’t think there is much they could do from there side. I think we were unlucky with some reliability issues with the clutch, so hopefully going to Jeddah, these things will be sorted.

FIA Formula 2: You mention the strategy there in the first stint, but how tough is it to judge the second stint on the Softs and how much you could take out of them, because at times you looked very quick compared to the runners around you?

Browning: I think once I got past Victor, I thought it’s probably not worth pushing too hard, in case I deg and fall off a cliff, because we hadn’t run the Option tyre in this heat and we expected the shock from the test was basically we had a lot more deg on the Option tyre than expected, and the Prime tyre was a lot stronger towards the end of the stint. Historically, the Option tyre, even on the last lap was quicker than the last lap of the Prime whereas it wasn’t really the case this weekend. I think to adapt the way we did, I am super happy, big congratulations to Alex, I think he drove really well today and continued in their dominant form.

FIA Formula 2: You mentioned that you had to make the adaptation on Friday from the Formula 1 machinery to F2, but having that strong outing with Williams, did that give you momentum that you have carried through?

Browning: Definitely. It’s nice to feel that James and the Williams Driver Academy are properly behind me, but not only that, I feel that everyone around me at the moment, they have complete faith in my ability and I share that confidence with them. It’s nice to hop in everything and be there. I am just driving confidently at the moment and I am sure there will be races where we are not quick and there will be races where we are quick, but I think if I just do the best that I can at the time that I’ve got it, I think it will be enough by the end and there are some weekends, that’s P2, if that’s all we’ve got, fantastic and another weekend that will be P5. I thought this weekend was going to be a P5 to P8 weekend, but turned out to be a P2, so maybe that rewards us at the end of the season.

FIA Formula 2: Well done today. Leo, thanks for waiting. Third place for you after starting from pole position. How do you feel after that race?

Leonardo Fornaroli: Well of course a podium is nice but I really wanted this win, it’s three years I am trying to take a win, in F3 and in F2. But for some reason, it’s just really difficult. Today I gave my best, but we were lacking some pace, compared to Alex. So, when I saw that I tried to just focus on myself, and give absolutely everything, still try to finish P3, and in the end we managed to do it, so still good points, and I will try to enjoy more even if it’s not P1.

FIA Formula 2: The win might not have been on offer today but you weren’t letting that podium slip away from you. Talk us through that final few laps and that fight with Pepe to hold on to P3?

Fornaroli: I think I could have done a better job on the Hards, because on the radio they told me that Victor had slightly older tyres than me, so I was pushing a lot to try to catch him while Pepe behind me was managing better. When I started to fight with Victor, I didn’t treat very well my rear tyres, so in the last three laps, Pepe was just quicker than me, and we started the last lap, and he was very close. Still I managed to keep him in behind, was a very good fight, so happy I finished on the podium.

FIA Formula 2: I know you mentioned the lack of a win, but there has been no lack of titles obviously with last year’s F3 Championship and you are leading the Championship at this early stage of the Formula 2 season. Are you trying to take a similar approach in being consistent this year?

Fornaroli: As I said so many times yes, because it’s the key now in the feeder series Championship with the level that there is today, so I will try to copy and paste last year.