2023 Round 7 post-Qualifying press conference

Thoughts from Bearman, Fittipaldi and Doohan

FIA Formula 2: A very warm welcome to the top three qualifiers for the FIA Formula 2 Feature Race here in Barcelona. In third place, Jack Doohan for Invicta Virtuosi Racing. In second place, Enzo Fittipaldi for Rodin Carlin, and taking his second pole in FIA Formula 2, our pole sitter, Oliver Bearman for PREMA Racing. Ollie, many congratulations, all the easier without a bent steering wheel this time?

Oliver Bearman: Yeah, everyone knows I made my life a bit more difficult than I needed to in Baku. Today was a bit more of a standard session let's say. I had a good car underneath me and yeah, it was a nice session.

FIA Formula 2: Now last weekend in Monaco was quite a tricky one for you. Just how much of a relief is it to come here to Spain and deliver the pole?

Bearman: Yeah, Monaco was tough. I didn't really lack pace, but of course when you have a bad Qualifying that's your weekend in the bin. On Sunday, I was really quick, so it's a bit disappointing of course. But it's nice to bounce back like you said. I knew it was there, I didn't need to prove anything, but it's nice to be back up the front.

FIA Formula 2: And talk to us about the lap. Were you concerned about track limits at the end?

Bearman: No. I think from the car it felt like I had loads of room. That clearly wasn't the case but you know it’s a Qualifying lap, you have to give it everything. It was a decent lap. They’re never perfect. We've had like three push laps today, so there's always places where you're like I could have found a bit more time there. But it's just about putting it all together and we managed that today.

FIA Formula 2: All right, congratulations to you. Enzo coming to you now. So close to pole position today, are you happy or frustrated to be that close?

Enzo Fittipaldi: Honestly, I'm a bit frustrated. I really wanted the pole lap obviously. In Baku, we were really close as well to pole and then again here so yeah, it is a bit frustrating but still P2. To get a result and it was a good lap so I'm just very happy, the team put a good car together for me and we're really fast.

FIA Formula 2: Let's throw it forward to the Feature Race. Obviously, you've only had the one Practice session but how is the long run pace? What can you hope for on Sunday?

Fittipaldi: In testing we were really very competitive in the long run. I'm confident, I am sure we will have the pace. It's all going to be about the start and who has a better start going into Turn 1 because it’s a big slipstream into there. So, it's gonna be about nailing the start and trying to get past Ollie into Turn 1.

FIA Formula 2: What about the end of the lap with the two fast corners to close it out. What is it like to drive and how do you think that's going to impact tyre wear over a long run?

Fittipaldi: I think for the left front, it is a bit more Let's say it takes a bit more out of the left front than what we were used to when there used to be the chicane. So I'm expecting for tomorrow's race that it will be quite a limiting factor, the left front. I think the same thing for the Feature Race as well. I like the last two corners. I think it was a good change, it's really fun on a Qualifying lap. I think in the races, I don't know if it'll make it more difficult to overtake, I don't know I'm not sure.

FIA Formula 2: All right well best of luck in the race, well done today. Jack coming to you now. The car looked to be a bit of a handful. How was it in Qualifying?

Jack Doohan: It was really good in the first run to be honest, and I would have liked to actually go in the gap straightaway. But due to something not being exactly right after my little excursion in Monaco, that really put us off a little bit and put our strategy a little bit out of play. And because I haven't really been able to really maximise any performance I wasn't really in a position to take a little bit of risk and for it not to pay off because of something that's out of my control. So I had to just stick to the basics and the car felt good in the first run. So I wanted to continue that for the second run, but unfortunately, with the bit of track evolution and a bit of cloud cover as well for the latter part of the session and with the track temp just dropping on me a couple of degrees, unfortunately the last sector just wasn't the same as the first run. I was trying to repeat that if not take a little bit more and I lost quite a lot of time the last few corners compared to that first run so yeah. No ifs buts or maybes, pole was there, and the potential was very, very up there, but unfortunately, we’re P3 but still, not a bad spot for the two races.

FIA Formula 2: Can you talk us through the run plan because we saw different teams have different strategies during Qualifying. What was yours at Virtuosi?

Doohan: At the beginning, it was going to be the same as PREMA but then with things not really exactly going perfectly like I said earlier this year, it was better just to get a lap on the board first off and not have a Red Flag and not have something happening that could have potentially put our session at risk. So we went together with everybody at the start. In the first run, I think we're four tenths clear before the MP went out and did their second run. So our pace was clearly very strong. And then our plan got a little bit compromised because a lot of people actually did their second runs at various points in the latter stage of that session, which put us a little bit out of sync but in the end, I think we had really good track position and were the last crossing the line. So if you take track evolution into the equation, we had the best possible position but unfortunately just didn't come together and with such small margins, we’re P3.

FIA Formula 2: Jack, final one from me. After a frustrating end in Monaco, if we can call it that, how much of a relief is it to come here to Barcelona less than a week later and deliver what you've just delivered?

Doohan: Yeah, it’s great. It was very difficult in Monaco especially to take because so many things have been outside of my control. And I was very frustrated with myself because, everything's unfortunately been out of my control for quite a while, and just shunting is in your control. And that was on me. That was difficult to take. But, taking the positives forward from the weekend was that I finally had something underneath me that I could deliver with and really be back to where I know I could be. So that was positive and coming into here, we had a great test here obviously with the car back together and I knew that we were gonna be in a great position for today. So like I said, a little bit disappointing to underdeliver, but I think our race pace is very strong. So I look forward to giving that a go tomorrow and on Sunday.

FIA Formula 2: All right, good luck with that.