Pourchaire ready for a reset after character-building 2022 season

24 November 2022

Théo Pourchaire’s difficult 2022 season was encapsulated in the season finale at Yas Marina. The ART Grand Prix driver suffered yet another tough weekend, closing his campaign without a points-scoring finish in Abu Dhabi.

He’s ready to move on after a torrid year but will be taking as many lessons as possible from what has been a tough second season in Formula 2.

“It’s difficult to end the year scoring less than five points for the last four race weekends, it’s really difficult,” he said. “I still finished vice champion which proves that I was really fast. I think I did a good season and if I look at the positives, it was a good result overall. A bit disappointing to end in that way that it did, but I had the pace which is the most important thing.”

The Frenchman’s final race of the year was looking like a strong one. He’d fought with Dennis Hauger over fourth position for the majority of the race and through the pitstop phase. After switching to the medium tyres, he pulled off the move to take the place from the Norwegian and was closing in on Liam Lawson for the last step on the podium. With just five laps to go though, his charge was undone as he struck a bird that caused an issue on his car, forcing him to retire.

Reflecting on the race, the ART Grand Prix driver said that his performance was typical of his year, as was the unfortunate outcome despite his best efforts. Always trying to look on the positive side, the 19-year-old hopes that all his misfortune has been used up during the 2022 season.

“It was a pretty good race up until that point. I think the Feature Race summed up my season really. I’ve just had zero luck all year. It’s crazy but it can happen, there are years like this.

“Qualifying and Free Practice were really good in Abu Dhabi, but then in the race I had a lot of bad luck. I had a lot of pace and it was a good weekend in terms of race pace and race starts, the driving from my side. I’ll always take the positives and on that side, things went well.

“It’s been a tough year but finishing vice champion and saying it’s been a tough year, that’s pretty good."

“Hopefully now I’ve used up all the bad luck this year, for the future things will be better. It was a good race and there were some good fights, and I was going for the podium. I was much faster than P3 up to that point and I was going for it. It’s unfortunate but sometimes things are like this.”

Though results from the majority of the year were far from what he’d expected, Pourchaire still put together a season good enough for runner-up honours.

When things were going right, the ART driver was fighting at the front, and he claimed three Feature Race wins in ’22. For Pourchaire, the way his season unfolded is still tough to take but says his P2 result in the Championship only bodes well for his future.

“It’s been a tough year but finishing vice champion and saying it’s been a tough year, that’s pretty good. I’m happy with the job I’ve done, I can always do better but I’m pretty happy with what I’ve done.

“I didn’t lose the Championship by myself, but we lost it as a team. We did some mistakes and I’ve learned a lot of things this year and I will apply all of that for the future. This year has been tough in some races and mentally as well. It’s also been helpful in many ways going forward into the future.

“We had very good pace all year, I was one of the fastest all year. I couldn’t show it for some reason in some of the races, but every time I gave my best. I will give my best and always give it 100%, so let’s see. If I have a bit less bad luck, then it can be a better year.”