Round 4 Post Sprint Race Press Conference

FIA Formula 2: Hello and welcome to today's FIA Formula 2 Championship press conference following the Sprint Race in Monte Carlo, Monaco. Joining us today in third place Gabriele Minì, in second place Roman Bilinski and our Sprint Race winner is Noel León for Campus Racing. Noel congratulations, this is your second sprint win in as many weekends. You look to be in good form right now on a Saturday.

Noel León: Yes, I think so. Yesterday we looked pretty strong and in the end we didn't close it but I'm very happy to get my second win. It took a bit long to get the first one but finally as I said, the first one is always very very difficult to get and as soon as you get it, it's a bit more easy and things go your way to help you to go further with the race. Pretty happy to have on my pocket the Monaco win and yeah looking forward for tomorrow.

FIA Formula 2: Can you take us through the management of this particular race because we saw drivers backing up and then going for it a few times. How was it from the car?

León: Yeah for me the main thing was to get a good start. I know Roman was going to attack me at the beginning so the first two laps were important to create the gap and build the temperature into the tyres nicely because it was very warm. So degradation was a bit and yeah after that I didn't want to risk it for a fastest lap. Just stay on a pace and the whole race went like that and car felt pretty good. At the end I was a bit worried about lapped cars because I started to catch them but luckily everybody got out of the way and I have the race win.

FIA Formula 2: Looking at the Championship you are up there but tomorrow you'll start from a little further back on the grid. What can you hope for in the Feature Race? We know it's going to be long and strategic. León: I need to, I don't know, go tonight and dream that I have a very good pit stop and when I go out they have a mess or something on the pit stop so I can go further after my pit stop but yeah I don't know strategy will be key tomorrow. We want to go further so it will be important have open eyes, save a little bit of tyres and push it when we need to undercut or overcut whatever we need to do. We will discuss with the team and we'll see tomorrow.

FIA Formula 2: Well thank you very much congratulations on your second win. Roman moving on to you this is your maiden F2 podium you must be very satisfied with that especially when it's a place like here in Monaco?

Roman Bilinski: Yeah for sure I think it's something we deserve, it's not been the easiest start to the season for the team in general but I’m very happy to be on the podium and to also share it with two great drivers as well. It is really good and it was great and thank you to Dams.

FIA Formula 2: You were fighting for the top spots last year in F3 is there something about this track here in Monte Carlo that clicks for you?

Bilinski: I mean yes it was a good race for me last year but I think it's one of those tracks where you get in the car and you just send it and you give everything you can so I guess maybe I have that with me but it's a fantastic track and such an honour to drive here.

FIA Formula 2: Looking at the race today it all happened at the start, then you tried to push and then you had to back off a little bit as well how was it from the car?

Bilinski: Yeah it's definitely not easy especially when the guy in first is quite fast I tried to put him under pressure for as long as I could but around Monaco there's only so much you can do and then getting to the late stages in the race I started to struggle with the tyres but I just tried everything I could today, it wasn't quite enough but we'll learn overnight and move on.

FIA Formula 2: Talking about learnings obviously there's a Feature Race tomorrow you'll be starting from further back on the grid what did you learn today that will actually help you gain a few positions tomorrow?

Bilinski: I don't know if I really want to say that in front of everyone but there's a couple things. I didn't manage the tyres so well and so we need to look what I could have done better there. Tomorrow is going to be interesting of course we have the pit stops involved so there can be a lot of chaos as well, as we saw last year so as long as we can execute on the main things we need to do then hopefully we can gain a couple positions but let's see.

FIA Formula 2: Thank you very much good job today. Gabriele thank you for waiting it's another podium for you and a very special one at that what are the emotions like do you feel like you did the maximum that you could do out there today?

Gabriele Minì: Yeah I mean it's another podium the fourth one in a row so it's very positive we have good moment so far. I think today this was pretty much the maximum, the goal was to try and keep the position or try to gain one at the start but everyone got a really good start. There was quite a lot of grip on the starting grid so everyone did a good job with that, we just were not quick enough I think for the fastest lap so I tried once, just a calm lap but as soon as I heard the actual fastest lap, I just tried to bring it home safely because yeah I think that was once again the maximum we could have done today.

FIA Formula 2: So what you mean is that there wasn't any moment that you thought maybe you might be able to make a move?

Minì: I mean for sure I was able to get close. I don't know how far I got when I slowed down to try and create a gap but I caught up in two or three laps and after I just cruised around. So it's all about keeping it out of the walls here in Monaco. I don't think trying a move is something you really want to do especially when you are where you need to be to bring home the points. In a way it's really risky for very little reward. So in my head, there was never a plan to try and overtake it was just about trying to keep it out of the wall and not get overtaken.

FIA Formula 2: Speaking of scoring points you've scored points in every single race so far this season and we know how important consistency is when you're fighting for the championship is that your plan in order to win F2 this year?

Minì; Well of course the plan is to always to try and score points. I think anyone would be lying if they told you not, but the main goal is to always try and maximise what you have so if what you have is fast enough to arrive P8 you arrive P8 and if you're fast enough to win you try and win. So far I think this season we have pretty much have always done that. Even when we got the issue in Australia we came back very well and scored points in both races. So this year this, this weekend we were quick in Free Practice but we missed a bit in Qualifying and I think I mean I'm still quite happy with my performance and the team performance we are working very hard and we are both trying our best so if this weekend the maximum points we can score is 10 we try to score that. So that's the goal for the whole season.

FIA Formula 2: Well thank you very much Gabriele congratulations.