Round 3 Post-Feature Race Press Conference

FIA Formula 2: Welcome to Jeddah where it's time for the press conference with the top three finishers for the FIA Formula 2 Feature Race. In third place we have Victor Martins from ART Grand Prix, in second is Jak Crawford from DAMS Lucas Oil and taking his fifth victory is Richard Verschoor from MP Motorsport. Richard, an inspired drive from ninth on the grid to victory, was it the perfect race for you?

Richard Verschoor: I think so. Before the race you think about the perfect scenario and of course going Prime-Option as we did today is quite risky as the Safety Car risk is high here. Even the pace, no Safety Car, pit stop was great. Everything was good.

FIA Formula 2: At what point did you realise that the alternative strategy was going to play out for you?

Verschoor: I think very soon. I heard from my engineer that my pace was very strong, that I was going quicker than the guys that had just pitted for fresher Primes. I knew that I was on for a good result, but you never know what happens. So I just kept pushing as hard as I could. I think at one point I was virtually P3. When I came out after the pitstop in P2 I thought that I might have a chance, but it was late.

FIA Formula 2: It was a late pitstop just what factors were coming into play that made you pit when you pitted?

Verschoor: To be fair we were going to stay out as long as I was faster, but I kept being faster, at some point though you have to box. I was a bit scared personally for a VSC, then you can not box and you have to stay out longer. You still want to take advantage of the Option tyres. I thought I could easily do five laps on the Supersofts, so we set a target that if there was no Safety Car we box with five laps to go, and I would have some time to make up some ground, and that’s what we did.

FIA Formula 2: How confident were you as you exited the pits that you could pass Jak?

Verschoor: First it was about keeping Victor behind me because I didn’t expect the cold icy tyres when I went out of the box. It took me at least a lap before the tyres got warm. Jak was quite far away so I wasn’t sure if I was going to catch him but to be honest, I went all in. I didn’t care about the degradation that I could potentially have. I thought I just need to get within DRS as soon as I can and I think that was the right call in the end.

FIA Formula 2: Richard you’re leading the Championship having shown great consistency this season, how confident are you that you and MP can continue this form?

Verschoor: At the moment everything is feeling good. I have a good and strong feeling with the team. They give me a lot of confidence, of course they have given me a good car as well. It was a big shame in qualifying, I think ninth was not reflective of our pace. But those are the moments when you still need to perform together. P9 and not be outside of the Top 10, I think that’s what helped us this weekend, always try, even if you have a bad situation. To still be in the Top 10 to fight for points every race, I think that’s what we all keep trying to do but for sure I am very confident in the team that they will keep pushing, keep improving and I know exactly what I have to work on myself.

FIA Formula 2: Congratulations. Jak a great race, to quote you, you drove your heart out, just sum up your feelings after this P2.

Jak Crawford: It’s a tough one to be honest. It was always going to be a close race, especially at this track where there is no deg. The Prime-Option is almost the preferred one if there are no Safety Cars, we always knew it was going to be close. It’s a shame we ended up behind Victor after the VSC, because we fell a little bit and that’s where I felt like we lost the win. I drove basically 20 quali laps in a row and left nothing on the table so on my side I am happy. Of course just wishing we would have a little bit more to keep Richard behind one more lap.

FIA Formula 2: At what point in the race did the threat from Richard come onto your radar?

Crawford: Quite early I passed Victor, tried to build a gap with DRS and thought, I’m going to save my tyres, I didn’t know the pace so I dropped into a 47.9 or 48.0 and then they told me Richard was doing 47.2 so at that moment I went flat out, didn’t lift off a single bit. It was a really tough race pushing that hard. I didn’t know how I was going to go and honestly when Richard came out of the pits, obviously with cold tyres he dropped back so I was thinking I had a chance again. I was going quicker and quicker but unfortunately the gap just wasn’t big enough.

FIA Formula 2: You said without a Safety Car period the alternative strategy is the preferred option. Did you consider that prior to the start?

Crawford: No, I had no points on the board up until this race so I had to go with the safest option, Option-Prime strategy is easily the safest strategy covering all Safety Car risk. That’s what we did, just to play it safe, collect the points. I wouldn’t change anything. Happy with my decision.

FIA Formula 2: You’ve got the points on the board now, you’ve kick started your Championship campaign, how much confidence does that give you going forward?

Crawford: A great confidence. Bahrain was an outlier for us where we struggled and didn’t get to manage any points even though I think we could have. Australia we were really fast but didn’t get to show anything, so I am glad we got to show our pace here, qualifying on Pole finishing second in the Feature Race with great pace. Feeling very good for the rest of the season, very confident. The team has done a great job so far and we have a lot of momentum to take into this short break before we go into the triple header.

FIA Formula 2: Well done to you. Victor great race by you, just sum it all up for us.

Victor Martins: I think it was a good race, of course we wanted more starting from P2 I was targeting the win, but I think how the race went it was quite difficult at some point to think about winning today. I think I got a good Option stint, I was quite close to Jak trying to put pressure on him after I struggled a bit with the tyres and I said to myself, we need to do something different with the strategy just to try and get an opportunity. It’s what happened I took the risk when I saw the debris on the track, I stayed on track because I wanted to make that overcut which kind of worked because the VSC came after and I managed to stay in front. After on the Prime tyre, even though I tried to put temperature in the tyres, I think during the VSC you can’t really build up into the tyres. So he got in front of me again after that and then after I was just trying to get close but not too close because I think you struggle in Sector 1 quite a lot. It was just a waiting race I’d say. At some point I knew I had no opportunity anymore. If I knew he was going to get out this close in front, Richard, I would have maybe pushed a bit more. I was a bit upset to my team because they were also thinking that he wasn’t going out in front. I think with the pace, he would have gotten me at some point.

FIA Formula 2: Can you talk us through what looked like a great battle between you and Jak. I think you were side by side for four corners. You must have enjoyed that even though it didn’t work out in the end?

Martins: Yeah for sure it was nice. Actually, I don’t think we touched, Jak you think we did? I don’t know in my head there was like two things going on, do I break late, do I… I just said ‘I’m going to break later than him’ then he just managed to bring some good speed and then of course I’m trying always to leave space. I was hoping he was going to leave space on the outside because last year I got squeezed into the wall. But it all went well, it was nice.

FIA Formula 2: Okay thank you well done.