Boschung: Early days to lead Championship but no reason Campos can’t be confident

30 March 2023

Ralph Boschung has taken advantage of Campos Racing's strong start to 2023 to lead the Drivers’ Championship heading into Melbourne. The Swiss has a Sprint win and another podium to his name, but has his feet firmly planted on the ground.

Boschung says that despite leading the Championship heading into Round 3, no one is getting carried away just yet. While the position he finds himself in is a positive, he has adopted a more pragmatic approach to the season.

“It sounds good for sure but it's obviously very, very early days. I think the whole top 10 in the Championship is within a couple of points so it doesn't really mean as much as it might sound. But for sure it's nice to have that instead of having no points. I’m pretty happy with it.

“I always say we go race by race. We know our strong points, we know our weak points, generally speaking. So I believe that if you look at the four races we've done so far, nobody really dominated. Okay, in Qualifying ART has looked good but, generally speaking, there is not someone that's just quicker than everybody else. I believe that it's about minimising the mistakes and just staying out of trouble. So if we have to contend with eighth place, we'll take the points.”

Following the second race weekend of the year in Jeddah, Boschung took the top spot despite having an anonymous weekend compared to his Sakhir efforts.

The Campos team left the Middle East with a lead in both Championships but with work to do ahead of Melbourne. Having had time to analyse the weekend in full, dissecting the races and reflecting on their strengths and weaknesses, Boschung says that it should be a better time around Albert Park.

“To be honest, we didn't really struggle with the car in Jeddah. Our pace was similar to Bahrain, our Sprint Race, finishing fourth - we had a potential to finish on the podium even when the pace was quite quick, I just didn't make the best out of it.

“Then in the Feature Race we had a different issue, nothing related to our pure performance, so I'm not so worried about that. Obviously now this weekend will be a bit of a gamble I guess for everybody because we don't know the circuit.” After spending time on the sim back at the team’s base and having inspected the track on Wednesday with the team in person, it was a different proposition than what TV pictures indicated.

Narrow, fast and with four DRS zones to utilise, the Albert Park circuit will be an exciting challenge according to the Campos driver, especially with changeable conditions in the forecast.

“Looking at it on TV, you know it a bit but when I did my first laps in the sim I was actually quite surprised how difficult the circuit is compared to looking on TV. Then doing the track walk, that just added another step of difficulty because it's a lot narrower than what it looks on TV. It's going to be exciting. I think overtaking might be quite difficult.

“For me, the third DRS zone that goes along the back straight, that's the one I think where you could potentially really overtake. The other DRS zones I believe will be a bit tricky, but still we have four which we’ve never had before.

“We have might have some rain on Friday and Saturday, so that could change a lot of things. I love the rain, so I wouldn't mind if it rains it. But if it does, it better rain properly. And if it's dry, it better be completely dry, but the in between one is usually a bit tricky. But I would welcome the rain for sure. So let's see, it's gonna be exciting."