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Adaptability and learning all the time: How I Race with Kush Maini
DAMS Lucas Oil’s Kush Maini is the latest driver on the 2025 grid to walk us through how he sees his driving style today.
With experience of both the old and new Formula 2 cars, he explains how his driving has evolved over the years and what the differences are in adapting to a new car.
“I would say very late on the brakes, very hard on the brakes. Pushing the entries a lot and I would say an aggressive approach overall.
“I think you always have to adapt your style depending on the car. The better you adapt to a car, the faster you can learn it, so every car is different. F4 – there isn’t much aero, so you have to carry minimum speed and not brake at the last moment, carry the momentum through.
“Whereas, in F2, you have great braking performance so you can go fast in this way as well. Every category is different and offers its own challenge, but overall, it teaches you how to adapt a lot over the years. I think that’s how you reach F1 in the end knowing how to adapt to all these different cars. That’s the goal of the ladder.
“If your natural style suits the car you’re in, the learning process can be quite quick to be honest. If it doesn’t, it can take a few more laps.
“In my first season of F2, I got comfortable with it really quickly, whereas F3 I took a bit more time, so it just depends on what suits you, but in the end, we’re racing drivers and if it doesn’t suit our style, we have to adapt. The faster we do that, the less time we waste.
“I’m still learning things in F2. Last year, the high points were very high, and the low points were very low. F2 is like that – the stars have to align. You have to do the best on your side to make things align.
“Maybe last year I didn’t do the best job of that. I know I’m quick enough, it’s about getting the whole package together, and that’s the trick in F2 and what I’m learning every day.
“The ‘new’ car felt a bit different. I felt less stability on the brakes, the aero is coming from a different place, so to achieve laptime, you have to adapt your style a little bit for the newer car.
“For whatever reason, the old car I seemed to get straight away whereas the new car, even though I was quick straight away it was being consistent and adapting to it for every track that changed. Each car, even if it’s the same laptime, it’s achieved in different ways and that can make it feel different.
“I think the sim can help and I’ve driven some in the past where I feel better on track, but then some simulators you can rely on with some setup work. The F1 sims are very advanced in that respect, so you can do a lot more with them. It just depends on the correlation and how accurate it is.
“You don’t want to rely on the sim that doesn’t correlate, rely on it for setup and turn up in FP and you’ve blown it. It’s a fine line but in the end, I definitely feel better going into a weekend after having done sim prep, it’s like a ritual now. I feel like the team and I understand each other now and have created harmony in the way we work.”