Interview
Small details can make the biggest difference, says Vesti after tricky start to F2
Frederik Vesti is a big believer that small details can make a big difference, and the ART Grand Prix driver says he’s learned a lot from working on them during the three days of testing at Barcelona, asserting that he can feel “a lot of potential.”
Vesti has endured a difficult start to life in the second tier, with the Mercedes junior starting all four races from outside of the top 10 and failing to take a point so far.
Moving forward in two of the three races he’s finished, Vesti believes that finding a fix for his Qualifying woes will be the springboard to greater results.
“The main issue so far is that I haven’t improved from the first run to the second in Qualifying,” Vesti said. “There is usually a one-second difference between the two, so that sets me back so much and has me middle to last on the starting grid.
“From there, it is almost impossible to have a good race. I have a lot of potential, but because of the second runs, I am nowhere. Getting that consistency in Qualifying is what I need at the moment.
“Sometimes it surprises me how easy it is when you get everything right, but then it hits back so hard when everything isn't in the ideal window. In those moments, the car becomes so difficult to drive, but in general, it is a great car.
“It takes time to learn the car because it’s big, it’s heavy, and the tyres are different, but I am really enjoying driving it.”
A title contender during two seasons of Formula 3, Vesti was also the 2019 Formula Regional European Champion, and so he’s more accustomed to fighting at the front than the back.
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The Danish driver is hopeful of returning to the points places sooner rather than later and feels that the three days of testing in Spain could prove vital to achieving that.
“Testing can make a huge difference,” he continued. “You get a lot more time and a lot more laps in testing. All of the small details that we miss in a race weekend, we can pick up in testing and work on them. Those details are what make a difference in a race weekend.
“In the race runs, we got 23, 24 laps on the hard tyre of straight racing on the second day and we learned a lot in that time. We’ve got a lot of data to take away with us and look at and we can use that to understand where we can improve. After two race weekends, it is really useful to have been testing again.”