Pourchaire's Guest Column: The title fight isn't over yet!

2 August 2022

There are few things that could beat getting a podium at your home race last time out in Le Castellet, but snatching victory in the Budapest Feature Race to reignite hopes of a Formula 2 Championship has got to come pretty close.

Théo Pourchaire balanced speed and survival - making overtaking opportunities count whilst trying to keep his tyres in check all the way to the chequered flag to bring home his third victory of his 2022 campaign.

We handed the floor to the ART Grand Prix star to give us his thoughts for our 10th Guest Column of the season. The Frenchman looked back at what could prove to be a decisive weekend, how he's bounced back and entering the summer break on a positive note before returning to action at the end of August.

GOOD POINT - FEATURE RACE WIN

The Feature Race win for sure! It's very, very good points. I enjoyed the race a lot, it was very good. Good points for the Championship as well - it's the best way to go into the break, to go on my holidays, so I'm very happy with that.

ONE BAD POINT - THE SPRINT RACE

The start - I don't think it was fair what happened. One driver completely misjudged his braking point and pushed a lot of cars out of the road, but it's like that and we can only respect the decision of the Stewards to not put a penalty on that. We need to accept it's like that.

Unfortunately, I didn't score any points in that race because of that. It's a bit difficult because every race counts, but I need to move on and I just won the Feature Race after that, which was the best response possible.

WHAT I LEARNED - THE HUNT IS ON

I learned a lot from this weekend. I learned that I am still in good shape. I still need to find some things like Qualifying pace, the limit in Quali. We can always improve in some places but I learned that I'm still going for it, going for the title and I'm sure we can do something great by the end of the year!

FANS MAY HAVE MISSED - A BET'S A BET

Just before the Feature Race on Sunday with my chief engineer Frédéric Guyot, we made a bet and he told me "Théo, if you win the race, you have to take a picture with a special outfit". It was my sister's shirt, which I didn't want to wear because it was very special. Anyways, I won the race, I did the photo and we were laughing a lot at the end but it was funny!

NEXT UP - SUMMER BREAK BEFORE THE TRIPLE HEADER

The next round is a bit far away, we will have the break now. Then it's Spa - a very good track, very good for overtaking, providing good racing. It's a triple header so when we think about the next race, we for sure think about the next three races because it's almost the last three rounds. Abu Dhabi is very far away then after that.

I'm ready for it. I will rest a bit and then work hard to prepare myself for the triple header.