Excited Beganovic feeling confident ahead of season-opener in Melbourne

Dino Beganovic is in good spirits ahead of this weekend’s season-opener in Melbourne, the Hitech TGR driver feeling confident ahead of his return to a track where he was triumphant at in 2024.

The Scuderia Ferrari Driver Academy member is about to start his rookie Formula 2 season having stepped up for the final two rounds of the last campaign, achieving his maiden podium in the Yas Marina Sprint Race thanks to a P3 finish.

Speaking as the paddock reconvened in Melbourne, Beganovic gave his early thoughts ahead of Round 1.

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“It feels amazing honestly,” said Beganovic on returning to Albert Park. “I’ve really been looking forward to coming back here to Melbourne. I have good memories here from last year, winning the Feature Race in F3.

“I’m starting this new journey with a new team in Hitech. It’s been very good preparation-wise, I feel like I did a lot of sim work in the off season and getting up to speed with them in general.

“But I’m just looking forward to getting back out on track after so much work in the virtual world for a long time. To kick off the season here in Melbourne and with my new team, I’m really excited.”

Beganovic and Hitech first got together for the post-season test in Abu Dhabi, before returning to the track last month for some pre-season running in Barcelona.

The Swede racked up 180 laps across the three days in Spain, and he feels this has put him and his team in a good position heading into this weekend.

“Everything went well,” said Beganovic of his preparations for the season. “I did a lot of sim work, but I feel like the preparation has been key together with consistency and looking at the big picture.

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“That’s the most important thing as we have such little track time, it’s always important to be as prepared as possible. Barcelona went well, I feel ready, and I think the team feels prepared as well. So, we seem to be aligned all together and have a good feeling.

“Testing is always just testing, it’s difficult to know where you are but my feeling was good, and that’s the most important thing for myself and the team.

“I have the same mindset starting the season as I had in Qatar and Abu Dhabi, so it’s just focusing on my driving, and then the results will come to me.”

As mentioned, Beganovic is returning to a track where he won last year. On that occasion, he came through from third to win the Feature Race, giving him his maiden Formula 3 victory.

When asked if that gives him an extra confidence boost heading into the weekend, he replied: “It does. Looking back, I have good memories, and I can use that as fuel to see myself doing it again.

“It’s a nice thing to have, when you have success, you can achieve it again more often. So, it definitely gives me a confidence boost and being aware that we might have a similar kind of race, depending on the weather, I feel like we can expect the same kind of race with fewer cars on track.”

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Speaking of the weather, forecasts for Sunday show a high chance of rain during the Feature Race. Beganovic though, was not too phased by the idea of a wet track.

“I don’t mind,” he said of the potential for rain. “It would be nice to have a wet race but at the same time, I hope we get a lot of green laps and we’re able to race.

“It’s quite a high risk of Safety Cars and Red Flags on this track, so that’s the only negative if it rains. But if it does, I would like to do a race in the wet.”