Drugovich hoping car changes help ‘quite a bit’ after topping Sochi practice

24 September 2021

Felipe Drugovich has set his eyes on achieving a strong weekend in the FIA Formula 2 Championship at Sochi after topping the Free Practice session on Friday morning, hoping changes to his car help him “quite a bit” throughout the weekend.

Drugovich narrowly led Campos’ Ralph Boschung in the practice outing, which marked the first time since the opening practice session of the year in Bahrain that the Brazilian has led an F2 session.

“It feels good, I don’t come from a very good sequence of races,” Drugovich admitted. “I was hoping that this weekend we could do a good job and score many points, and also be fast which is something I struggled with a little bit in the last couple of weekends, a little bit.

“We have to see if we can actually keep this pace up. We changed some things in the car for this morning, hopefully they’re going to help me quite a bit.

Drugovich finished on top in an F2 session for the first time since Round 1 at Sakhir

“I think it gives you a little bit of confidence, that’s it. We just have to keep doing our job and see what went well, what went wrong and see what we can still improve for quali, try to do our best.”

Drugovich, who currently its ninth in the Drivers’ standings, is yet to take to the top step of the podium this year, having secured two podium finishes earlier this season at Monaco.

The UNI-Virtuosi driver is hopeful that he can have a stronger weekend in Sochi compared to 12 months ago, when an incident-ridden weekend saw him retire from the Feature Race before crossing the line in 20th in the Sprint Race.

“I felt really good now with this car, last year I didn’t feel really good,” Drugovich said. “I think you have to combine driving style with the track, and also with the car.

Drugovich is ninth in the Drivers' standings

“Last year I didn’t feel (that). This free practice went well, I think everything was working fine, I liked it, so I can say I really enjoyed it.

“For sure (in qualifying) it’s going to be much faster, the Super Soft (tyre) always gives a lot of grip. For the Mediums, the balance changes quite a lot, so we have to analyse quite a bit to see what we can minimise, the balance changes in the qualifying session.”