Interview
'The goal is always to win the championship' – Josep María Martí previews his rookie F2 season with Campos
Following on from a stellar 2023 campaign in FIA Formula 3, Josep María Martí is set to make the step up to FIA Formula 2 in 2024. The Spaniard has been previewing the year ahead as he gave his views on continuing his relationship with Campos Racing and his goals for the season.
Martí has been racing in Campos colours for the last three years having raced for the team in his lone year in Spanish F4 back in 2021, as well as in his two seasons in F3. The partnership is set to continue in F2, which Martí admits is critical in his transition into the competition.
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“Staying at home is always a plus,” he admitted. “The team is obviously different personnel, different people but the ambiance is the same, it is a family ambiance, to me that is really important.
“To have an environment that you know people appreciate you and you know you appreciate the people, and you work very closely with them because you all have the same goal. Obviously, the goal is to win, maybe not straight away but the end goal is to be competitive and hopefully get silverware. I'm really looking forward to it.”
On the other side of the garage to Martí will be his fellow Red Bull Racing academy member Isack Hadjar. The Frenchman is a new addition to the team – having raced for Hitech Pulse-Eight in 2023 – but is the more experienced of the two as he enters his second season in F2.
“For me first of all it's really a pleasure to work with Isack, I've known him for a long time and he's a really nice lad,” said Martí. “I am looking forward to working with him. Next year, before the start of the championship, the most important is to get a good car.
“A car that fights with the top and I am sure that Campos can provide us with a car that is more than capable of fighting for the top spot. I am really looking forward to being there. To be honest I don’t feel the added pressure being in the Red Bull junior program.
“Obviously wearing the colours is more than an honour, it’s a privilege, and to be honest it’s an amazing thing for me, for my career, it's been a target of mine for long and being able to wear the colours is a lifelong dream, but in the end the cars are the same.
“I'll be driving an F2 car like everybody else, so it doesn't give me an advantage and what's important is to outperform the rest of the field. Realistically I hope the season goes well, that I learn quickly, that I have a good level from the get-go, and I am able to fight for big positions.”
When asked what he thinks will be the biggest challenge stepping up from F3 – where he won three races in 2023 – to F2, Martí replied: “Probably the turbo. Probably getting used to more weights, longer car, turbo, two compounds, pitstops.
“There is a lot of everything that comes in to play. The biggest thing to judge will be the format. You get to the weekend and every time you get to quali you start to experience the option at that track. That is certainly going to a challenge as well as going to tracks I don’t know like Qatar and Jeddah, and I think it will be interesting.”
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Martí’s 2023 season signalled one of progress as he went from scoring just two points the year prior and finishing 26th in the Championship to amassing an impressive tally of 105, ending the year in fifth place.
Explaining what he learned from that year that he will carry into 2024, Martí said: “I think the first one is to never give up. I think this year has been proof that if you keep working hard, results come, and both the team and myself have excelled at that.
“I am proud that I have kept working hard even when things went against us, and results have come our way after working really hard. For sure something that I will also take will be fighting at the front, experience of being able to fight at the front with really, really good drivers because it’s a really different race when you are sitting in the top five and not in the top 20.”
Assessing his goals for the year, Martí says he does not have a specific result in mind, although he does admit the early weeks of the season will go a long way to determining how the campaign will pan out.
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“Results wise I think I don’t really have a goal in mind,” admitted Martí. “Obviously, the goal is always to win the championship, but I think that is something that will be answered in the first few races.
“And I think apart from that the biggest and most important thing for next year is having good pace. Being comfortable with the car, being at one with it and being more than comfortable to push the limits.”