Viscaal’s Guest Column: I learn every single time into step in the car

Bent Viscaal scored his first Formula 2 podium in Monza, finishing second in the second Sprint Race. It was the Dutchman’s highest scoring round of the year so far and moves him up to 15th in the standings.

The Trident driver takes control of this week’s guest column to pen his thoughts on how he can push on from Monza and where he and the team still need to improve.

ONE GOOD POINT - MY FIRST PODIUM

This one is pretty obvious, but it has to be my first podium, the second-place finish in Sprint Race 2. That was absolutely amazing, not just for me, but for the team as well, at their home race.

It was a pretty special feeling, and it was well deserved for the team, who have had a long wait for a podium. I was super happy with that.

ONE BAD POINT - QUALIFYING

Again, this one is pretty clear for me, but Qualifying. We need to get on top of Qualifying because P18 is absolutely not where we belong, as you could see in the races.

For some reason, we haven't been able to find our Quali performance at all this year. It has been tricky, but we absolutely need to get on top of it and sort it out. If we can, then our life will be a lot easier.

WHAT I LEARNED - OVERTAKING

I improved my overtaking skills in an F2 car a lot. Monza is a track that has hard braking zones and also a run-off area, so you are really getting the most out of the stopping performance of the car.

In general, this is my rookie season and I learn every single time I step into the car, and Monza was no different, once again, I learned a lot.

FANS MAY HAVE MISSED - A SWIFT TURNAROUND

Everybody in the team was very disappointed after Qualifying, but things turned around quite quickly. We gained around 11 positions in the first race and then we got our first podium in the second, so everybody went from being disappointed to be being very pleased.

It was also good to see Jake Hughes again. We were together at HWA RACELAB in Formula 3 in 2019 and we had a catch up and spoke about the old times at HWA.

NEXT TIME OUT - SOCHI

We scored a first podium in Monza and got some solid points in general, so we will mostly just need to do the same in Sochi. More than anything, we will need to improve our Quali performance, a lot. We need to at least get into the top 10 because that would make our lives so much easier.

I had my first single-seater race in F4 at Sochi and have good memories from that, so I am looking forward to going to Russia again after two years of not being there.

Tot ziens, Bent