Aitken: “To stand in front of my home crowd was unreal”

Jack Aitken has fitted in perfectly at Campos Racing this season, assisting with the team’s emergence as a race-winning outfit in Formula 2. The team’s rise from last season has been spectacular, with three victories throughout the year, as well as four further podiums.

The Spanish side were without a win in 2017 and ’18, but have been transformed in the latest campaign, and speaking on the official Formula 2 podcast, F2: the Road to F1, Aitken asserted his belief that their growth shouldn’t be understated.

“A lot of people have spoken to me about this, but I think it is important to stress how far Campos have come, even in the past year or so,” he said. “They have done a great job going up against, frankly, the giants of junior motorsport, DAMS, ART, PREMA, and UNI-Virtuosi as they are now known.

“These guys have got so much resource they are almost mini Formula 1 teams and I think that we are doing a great job to come in and really challenge those guys and win races.”

The team’s first victory came as early as the second round in Baku, which set them up to challenge the Championship’s usual dominant forces. Now, with one round to go, they sit in front of the aforementioned PREMA Racing, and just 11 points off Carlin Racing, in the battle for fourth place. Also in fifth place, Aitken sits just six points off Sérgio Sette Câmara in the fight for fourth in the Drivers’ standings.

Such has been their success in 2019, the Briton says that there is a tinge of frustration that they are not better off. He explained: “I think we are almost a little bit disappointed that the gap to Nyck De Vries is as big as it is. But, he has been very consistent, which is what title challenges are made of.

“We have been a bit unlucky here and there and I have made some mistakes, it has not gone perfectly all round, but we are right up there.”

Of those three wins, in Baku, Silverstone and Monza, there is a clear, overriding favourite for the London-born driver, and few will need more than one guess to work out which.

Aitken achieved victory at his home race in July with a sensational overtake of Louis Delétraz, a move he admits involved a fair amount of risk.

“That was almost a bit unnecessary… I spoke to him Delétraz afterwards and he said ‘you know, you are lucky that I saw you,’ and I said ‘yeah, I know,” Aitken laughed. “It was one of those moments where I caught him up on that lap and I just thought, well, I don’t know how much he has left in those tyres, this might be it, and I have got to take my chance.

“If there is half a chance at your home race, you have got to take it. I might never get the chance to win at Silverstone again, with motorsport being the way it is. So, I went for it and it was like ‘ohh, that’s perfect.’

“To stand in front of my home crowd was unreal, that is one of my favourite moments ever. “

You can listen to the full podcast with Aitken HERE, or via your favourite podcast app.