Pourchaire hoping to battle for Silverstone pole to get season back on track

1 July 2022

Théo Pourchaire says he hopes that he has the speed to fight for pole position in Formula 2 Qualifying in order to reignite his title charge. The ART Grand Prix driver said that Silverstone was one of his favourite tracks on the calendar and hoped that would translate to a positive result this weekend.

Following Free Practice in which he finished P5, 0.25s off the top spot, Pourchaire says that he has a good car underneath him and that he was hopeful for the afternoon session.

“Practice was amazing, I love this track. Silverstone is one of my favourites. To drive here in F2 in Free Practice was amazing. The result was good also, we couldn’t do another push lap after the first red flag because of the second one that stopped the session. We’re good, the car was very good this morning and we can hope for a good result in Qualifying.”

Pourchaire arrives at Silverstone with a lot of ground to make up to Championship leader and rival Felipe Drugovich. The gap stands at 49 points, but Pourchaire says that this weekend he will be focusing on himself and his team only.

“It was not easy, to have a break just after Baku was not the best. I’ve had some bad results, Barcelona, Monaco was a bit better, and I want to recover that, I have four weekends to do that in July. We are confident but we just need to focus on ourselves. This morning I had great pleasure in Practice. The car was amazing, so I need to continue that and think about myself and not about the other drivers or put too much stress on myself.”

“I need to grab points every weekend now. But I want to focus on myself and take it race by race. The Championship is very long and we will see.”

With the rain falling after F2 Practice, Pourchaire says that any more precipitation will throw a curveball for all of the teams but he isn’t worried should the heavens open. The Frenchman believes that he and the ART team are well placed to secure a strong grid position and will be involved in the fight for pole no matter what the weather may bring.

“We will see after Qualifying what the realistic goal is for the weekend. At the moment, I think we’re fast. We will be fighting for pole or a good result at least in Qualifying. Then, I know I can’t take the Championship lead after this weekend.

“If it’s wet, it’s going to be tricky. We only get a few laps in Qualifying, and we need to be fast straight away, but we’ll see. This morning, the weather was not easy to manage. When there was the first red flag, I think it was caused by the rain. I think it was not wet enough for inters but a bit too much for the slick tyres, you’re getting oversteer and losing grip on the slicks.

“We’re ready for both conditions, but we now have the dry data and know what to do with the car. If it’s wet, I’ll adapt. The team has been here for many years in F2 and we have a lot of data from the past. The drivers will need to be quick to adapt to the conditions. The wind direction could also change which around this track is also important.”