Zane Maloney’s Silverstone weekend in his words

9 July 2024

No race wins but two very important podium finishes for Zane Maloney had the Rodin Motorsport driver feeling very positive leaving Silverstone.

The Bajan driver was pleased to be back up the front and fighting for the top positions, and he says the team is now well-placed to fight for the Championship in the second half of the 2024 campaign.

Here is the Silverstone weekend unfolded in his own words.

PRACTICE – P10

“Practice – not much to say to be honest. Nobody did much running. We didn’t want to use any of the tyres from the allocation that we get for the weekend. So, we were trying to save them for Qualifying and the races, I did one lap so not much to say. It was half-wet, half-dry depending on when you went out. So not much to say.”

QUALIFYING – P9

“A bit disappointing. Purple sector one, green in sector three but we were P17 in sector two. I made a mistake unfortunately because the car was great. I was doing a great job the whole session, around P3 the whole time on pace. I don’t think we quite had the pace for pole, but P3 or P4 was on.

“I made a small mistake on my side and ended up P9. Once you’re in the top 10, your weekend becomes a bit better because you have the reverse grid and Feature Race to do something from those positions. So I was happy to be back towards the front of the field but a bit disappointed with my mistake.”

Maloney believes P2 was the best possible result in the Sprint

SPRINT RACE – P2

“Not much happened to be honest for me. I started P2, finished P2. It was a rolling start, I knew the move would have to be done at the start if we had a standing start, but we didn’t unfortunately.

“It was all about trying to save the tyres, keep the others under control. Kimi had great pace, so they were just a bit ahead of us. To finish P2 considering the conditions with quite a bit of aquaplaning around halfway through the race before the Red Flag was pretty good. But it was a bit lonely, not too exciting from my side.

“When I came back to the team after the press conference, I understood why we were off the pace to win. Such small things can make a big difference in pace. The tyres are so sensitive with both wets and slicks – those small things you do can have a big impact on your performance.

“That’s why a driver and team can get lost after a race weekend because you don’t have all the data and sensors to know exactly what’s going on. So, it’s a bit of an educated guess as to what’s going on.

“We struggled a bit in the Sprint, but we know why looking back on it. Some things on my side and some things that out of our control, so we were confident going into the Feature Race even if it was wet.”

The Bajan driver says he could have won had it not been for an incident in the pitlane with Jak Crawford

FEATURE RACE – P2

“The Feature was great. I think it was one of the best races I’ve done in a long time. Got a good start, made up three places up at Turn 3 braking very late up the inside. We had great pace on the Softs and the Hards.

“I was having to push really hard to try and make the moves. I made a move on one of the Invictas I think, and then it was all about having a good pitstop. The team did a great stop but unfortunately, I almost had a small crash in the pitlane, and I think that cost us the win today. But after that, had to push really hard to keep Ollie behind, killed the tyres a bit too much and struggled a bit at the end.

“To come away from the weekend with two P2s though, you can never complain. The only thing better is obviously Bahrain. But other than that, it’s the best weekend I’ve had in Formula 2 and I’m really happy about it.

“I was quite surprised actually about the move on Gabriel. I went into the race with full commitment, risking everything on every corner at every lap. That’s how you have to race sometimes. Sometimes it’s a bit of a waiting game, sometimes you have to force the issue and that’s what we really did that today.

“It was on the limit, but he gave me space which allowed me to make the corner, so it was good racing for sure.”

Maloney feels back in contention after bouncing back at Silverstone

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“I’ve never felt we were really out of the game to be honest. We’ve had one round that we struggled with pace in general, which was last round, so to bounce back from that was amazing from the team.

“But for seven of eight rounds, we’ve been up there, on the pace and on the money. So confident about the weekends to come, we just need to be focused on executing each session as well as possible.

“Still, somethings to improve from my side but that’s a thing in general as a racing driver, but I think we’re back in the fight.”