Trident trending in the ‘right direction’ after positive Melbourne weekend says Ricci

The Melbourne weekend was a strong one for Trident as Roman Stanek took top spot in the Sprint Race while Richard Verschoor produced a comeback drive into the points in the Feature event.

While he was pleased with the outcome of both races, there was another aspect of their performance at Albert Park that caught the eye of Team Manager Giacomo Ricci.

“We are quite pleased with the performance of both drivers and of course for the team,” he said after the weekend. “I am very happy about what we achieved in Qualifying because for me it was a good result, we finally placed two cars in the top 10. Richard qualified P3 and Roman P10.”

Stanek converted that P10 Qualifying into a win in the Sprint Race after starting on pole position. He produced an exceptional display of defending throughout the affair to cross the line in second.

However, once Isack Hadjar was given a 10-second penalty for causing a collision, it meant the Campos Racing driver lost the victory, promoting Stanek to the top step, earning the Czech driver his first win and podium in Formula 2.

"I have to thank the whole team, they worked day and night to find the car balance issue and the drivers never gave up"

“Roman did a good job despite his pace not being amazing,” said Ricci. “He was struggling in the second part of the race, but he had a great drive with a great defence.

“With the penalty for Isack at the end, being able to take P1, his first victory in F2, I am sure this will give him a boost for the rest of the season.”

“For Richard unfortunately, the race didn't go so much in our direction,” the Trident Team Manager lamented. “First of all, the first part with the Option tyre, we had a little bit of graining, so we were not super strong.

“But then after the pitstop, we were quick. Unfortunately, some guys had almost a free pitstop, they have been lucky which sometimes can happen, and we dropped quite a bit to the back and then he had to recover. He scored strong points, and it was quite a good race, so pleased with this weekend for the F2 team.”

Following a difficult start to the year which included no points in Bahrain and just four in Jeddah, Trident have been hard at work looking to take a step forward with their performances.

READ MORE: Paul Aron’s Melbourne Weekend in His Words Talking through the improvements made since Round 1, Ricci said: “I think it was needed. Bahrain, the first round we were not expecting to be there, but then I have to thank the whole team, especially the engineers, they worked day and night to find the car balance issue. And I have to thank the drivers because they never gave up, they have always been positive, and they pushed the team to do a good job.

“It was good, and I think we are going in the right direction, and we will now work extremely hard after this race and during the official testing in Barcelona, in order to keep going ahead with the package because as we know everyone will improve.”

They will be keen to build momentum heading to their home soil in Imola for Round 4, a track Ricci says is one of Stanek’s “favourites”.