‘The hardest Championship to win’ – James Robinson proud of Invicta Racing after Teams’ Title triumph

Invicta Racing Team Principal James Robinson was full of praise for his entire squad after they sealed the Teams’ Championship at the Yas Marina Feature Race.

Roman Stanek led the British team’s charge to the title on Sunday by finishing second, with Leonardo Fornaroli losing out under a Safety Car and forced to settle for 11th.

The result means Invicta have become the second team – after PREMA Racing – to win the Drivers’ and Teams’ Champions in back-to-back seasons, and speaking in the paddock, amongst the celebrations, Robinson expressed his pride at what his team had achieved.

FEATURE RACE: Duerksen wins again around Yas Marina

“It's an immense feeling,” said Robinson. “It's hard to find the words right now, it keeps sinking in. It's obviously a huge relief. We had a comfortable points margin coming into today, but you never know.

“We knew it would have to be a real crazy race for things not to go our way, and for us to lose the Championship. We decided on the split strategy, which we probably wouldn't have done if we weren't trying to cover off every scenario in the race for the Teams' Championship.

“But having said that if it had not been for the Safety Car that strategy would have worked. Leo's pace was quicker than the guys who were on the Option-Prime, so we probably would have had a similar result without a Safety Car.

“The guys here, they are the most talented and hardworking people I have met and worked with in my life.”

While Invicta won with a 38-point gap to Hitech TGR, Robinson admits there were moments in the season when they were a bit worried about whether they could retain both titles.

“In Austria, we had to do some late night work,” he reflected. “I think we cumulatively had about five hours sleep each across the entire weekend, because we had two really late nights. Leo had a shunt in the Sprint Race, and we had to do a last-minute change for Roman at half 11.

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“So times like that are when you think this is what you work for, this is why you do it. Similarly in Barcelona, we had a disastrous weekend, terrible Feature Race from good starting positions. We messed up and came away with no points, and we thought it was going to be a long season at that point.

“We were P6 at the point, Leo was about the same in the Drivers' Championship, we were 20, 30 points off. Second half of the season we have come good, and I just couldn't be prouder of all the guys.”

Stanek had started the race from pole, but lost out to Joshua Duerksen and Dino Beganovic during the pitstop phases, dropping him to a net P3. However, with the Swedish driver getting a five-second time penalty for speeding in the pitlane it promoted him up to second.

While Robinson knows that his driver will be disappointed not to have won, he stands by his words on Friday, that the Teams’ Title would reflect well on Stanek’s side of the garage.

“What I said the other day is so true,” he continued. “It's a great for him to get a great result to finish off the season. I am sure he will be disappointed it was not the win, because it was there, but he can't be too disheartened with second place.

“His whole side of the garage, his engineer, who has done an immense job with him this year, Colin, Tom, Josh, Nathan, the guys who work on his car, they are some of the best in the business.

READ MORE: Dino Beganovic aiming for podium sign-off after delivering P4 in Yas Marina Sprint

“They deserve a really good result today, and I think the fact that we can celebrate the Teams' Championship means the whole teams can enjoy and relish today.

“I am a bit sad that it is the end of the road for Roman here, I honestly would have loved to have had him again for another year if we could. But it's the end of his third year in F2 and he is going to go off and do other things now, and I think he is going to have an excellent career.

“He is going to make a brilliant racing driver, in whatever format of the sport he ends up in, he is going to have a long and successful career as a professional racing driver, of that I have no doubt.”

When asked whether the competitiveness of the Championship makes winning the title even more special, Robinson said: “It does. These Championships are really hard.

“Roman and I had a philosophical conversation about this last night. This is I think the hardest Championship in motorsport to win. All the cars are the same, you've got 20 of probably the 50 best racing drivers in the world and this is the last step for all of them before they look to make it into F1.

SPRINT RACE: Lindblad holds off Duerksen to claim victory at Yas Marina

“There's not a bad driver in this Championship, none whatsoever, not even close. It's a real emotional rollercoaster, because this is people's lives, people's careers, we are long past the point of doing this as a hobby.

“I am not just talking about the drivers, I am talking about the guys in my team. You have to really remember and relish these days because they don't last forever, especially in a championship that is so tight like F2, where any team can win a race, which is not the case in F1 or in any other Championship.

“So we always try to be mindful of that and remember that things can swing back anytime, and there will be dark days. It's a tough championship, and we need to enjoy the good moments.”