2021 Round 7 post-Sprint Race 1 press conference

Thoughts from Armstrong, Lawson and Vips

FIA Formula 2: Many congratulations to the top three finishers of Sprint Race 1 here at the Jeddah Corniche Circuit, in third place, Jüri Vips for Hitech Grand Prix, in second place Liam Lawson, also for Hitech, and taking his first win in FIA Formula 2, our winner, Marcus Armstrong for DAMS. Many congratulations Marcus, what a great race. First up, how good does this feel?

Marcus Armstrong: It feels fantastic because it's been sort of a tough 18 months in general so to finally get a trophy, let alone a first place one, it feels good definitely. Also to see the smiles on a lot of my engineers' faces, and my mechanics as well, it's a great reward for a lot of work that hasn't really been rewarded so far this season. Again, I'm feeling over the world, but I know that yet again in about four hours time I'll be back on track for another race so we can't really linger on the enjoyment, we need to crack on and get straight back into it.

FIA Formula 2: As you say, a great reward. How much confidence will this win give you?

Armstrong: To be honest, I don't think it's going to change a lot in terms of my confidence because, in my opinion, I was always capable of doing it. It was just a matter of putting it all on the table and doing what we can do. Obviously, a trophy is only a representation of what we've been working towards. It's not going to give me a massive boost of confidence in other words. It's going to be nice to put next to the TV though!

FIA Formula 2: Talk us through the race. You took the least at Turn 1, talk us through what happened?

Armstrong: I wasn't expecting to outdo Liam the way I did, just due to the fact the left-hand side of the track is quite dirty because no other cars have ever raced here. So it was very dirty, there wasn't any rubber laid down as opposed to the other side of the track being a bit more rubbered in. I think that's testament to what my engineer Thomas has managed to do because he's been working on perfecting the clutch mapping and the very small simple boring things but obviously, it pays off ultimately. As well I think we were lucky not to make contact at Turn 1 because I'm sure he was on the limit of the grip on the breaking and I certainly was as well. Two Kiwis going wheel to wheel at Turn 1, it was getting dicey but it was cool.

FIA Formula 2: Many congratulations Marcus. Liam, let's bring you into this now, how dicey was it at Turn 1?

Liam Lawson: He's not wrong, it was pretty close! The start wasn't so good for us. Honestly, it wasn't a bad start, the initial launch was good and then I just got a little bit of wheel spin. I went to close the door and there was a point where I thought I could do it but I didn't want to get a puncture or have contact before Turn 1 that early in the race. So I gave some space, saw the huge dust cloud come up from Marcus' car on the inside and then into Turn 1 tried to stay next to Marcus. But he ended up cutting through and again, I played it a little bit safe, I could have kept going and stayed in front, but I gave the position back not to risk any penalties and the pushed on.

FIA Formula 2: Any other opportunities present themselves in the race?

Lawson: There were a few, to be honest, the car was quite quick during the race. I focused a lot on managing tyres, especially early on. It felt like at every point I started to catch back up and start pushing a VSC or a Safety Car would come and it would allow us all to reset the tyres a bit. Marcus is always quick in those first couple of laps, so that was quite frustrating because I feel like had there been no Safety Cars I think we could have closed off a bit earlier, and it's what happened in the end after the last safety car. He broke away in the first one or two laps and then the last lap is where we came on strong again, I thought about having a lunge in the last corner we've had a few too many DNFs this year so I just wanted to finish.

FIA Formula 2: Many congratulations to you Liam. Jüri coming to you, many congratulations as well, once again a strong performance by you on a street track. How much did you enjoy it out there?

Jüri Vips: Yeah it was quite fun, was pretty hot. I think the other races will be a bit easier. It doesn't feel that much like a street track because there is so much runoff and stuff, but I really really love this place. I think I saw an article of Oscar saying it's like Silverstone with walls here and there. That's exactly what it feels like. It's a real joy to drive on and a decent result as well.

FIA Formula 2: You had to work for this P3. You had to pass Ralph Boschung on track. Talk us through that move?

Vips: As Liam said, first of all, the start, well I have the same feeling as him. I think I had a similar launch to him as well, it didn't feel that bad, to be honest. But the people from the inside, like Boschung, seemed to have a really good start. I was a bit surprised because I thought we were on the cleaner side but it seemed to be that the other side actually had a better launch. Then I think Boschung overcooked his tyres a little bit at the start, and I managed to pass him. But I've got a bit of work to do before the next couple of races under Safety Cars because I had no grip compared to the others and I think I was overcooking my tyres there, so I didn't have much in the end. Little bits of homework to do here and there for me and the team, but generally pretty happy with how it went.

FIA Formula 2: Well done to you Jüri.