Round 1 Post Feature Race Press Conference

FIA Formula 2: Hello and welcome to the F2 press conference. In third place we have Laurens Van Hoppen for Trident, in second place Rafael Camara for Invicta Racing and your winner Nikola Tsolov for Campus Racing. Nikola, starting with you, congratulations you're an F2 race winner. Just talk us through the race because there was plenty of action from start to finish.

Nikola Tsolov: Well the race was a bit messy but I knew that from the start. I managed to warm up my tyres pretty well especially for the race start which was really strong and that's how I managed to get a few positions already. Then after lap one being in third I thought, okay I'll just stay back and try to see how the race unfolds and what will happen later with the strategy but then obviously the two Rodin’s were very eager to stay in front and stay ahead of each other so I let them do their thing which ended up in an incident. I tried to avoid it, I was a little worried that they might take me out too and then once I got to the lead that's when I felt confident and I just managed my own pace.

FIA Formula 2: You're the first winner in F2 from Bulgaria. How proud are you of that achievement?

Tsolov: Yeah, very proud now that you say it. I think about it and going into the season I didn't have a doubt that this moment would come but it's great to finally realise it and do it on the first round is something I didn't think of. Especially historically, I've said before that Australia hasn't been nice to me let's say, although it's one of my favourite countries but finally, I managed to overcome that jinx or whatever that is.

FIA Formula 2: You also lead the championship at this very early age of the season. How important is it to build momentum early on?

Tsolov: One thing for sure is that I didn't think I would lead the championship after the first round. I was more kind of wanting to do progress through the year but it's good to take the lead because now I can just focus on consistent finishes and staying calm in the races. I don't have anyone to catch up to in front of me. Obviously, the championship will go up and down. That’s usual but the more consistent you are, looking at last year, the better you're going to do so that will be my target.

FIA Formula 2: Looking at the two drivers sat next to you that's three rookies on the podium today three F3 graduates.

Tsolov: I guess we're a good generation coming through for sure. I never doubted I would share a podium with Rafa especially because both teams were fighting for the championship last year. On the other hand, Laurens I was quite impressed to see him on the podium. I actually had no clue until I looked back after my celebration and saw the TRIDENT so I'm quite happy for him. We used to be teammates in F3 as well. I think it hopefully it can keep going that way and we continue our fight with Rafa for the championship like last year because it felt exciting.

FIA Formula 2: Thank you very much. Congratulations Nico. Rafael coming to you P2 today it's a positive result to start the season. Are you satisfied with today's drive?

Rafael Câmara: Yeah I would say it was a very positive start for the championship especially after yesterday. I was very close to get a podium and I think getting done with P2 today I'm quite happy. It was a clean race and happy to end the weekend like this.

FIA Formula 2: At some points during the race today you looked to get a bit stuck behind Nico Varone on the alternative strategy. Do you think you could have taken the fight to Nikola a bit more had that not happened?

Câmara: I mean it's difficult to know. I think probably it would have been a bit more interesting because I think the rest were very powerful. We were going see how it was going to be in the end but yeah it didn't make it easier. I thought actually that he was going to try to attack but by the end he didn't have enough space to attack. I just wanted to try, as quick as possible, to overtake him and then after that, pace was looking good but obviously it was not enough laps. It was a good end of the race.

FIA Formula 2: You finished on the top step in Melbourne last year in F3 and went on to win the championship. Now you're back on the podium this year in F2. You seem to have hit the ground running once again but this time in Formula 2. Does that feel good?

Câmara: Yeah Melbourne went pretty well last year and I think also this year everything is going very well. Quali almost ruined everything because also after the Red Flag it was quite a big mess. Everyone was going very slow and was just trying to open the lap because we knew that closing the lap for sure we were going to improve a lot. I think we managed in the end just to keep in the top 10 that was good enough to fight for points. Yesterday was looking very good as well. The pace in the car was feeling good in the race and we knew that today the goal was just to keep everything clean and that was going to be a good result.

FIA Formula 2: That was a good result indeed. Thank you very much Rafa. Moving on to you Lawrance. Thank you for waiting. This is your first F2 podium. How pleased are you with today's result?

Laurens van Hoepen: Yeah super happy. I think we did a really good race starting from P11 for sure. Was not really expecting to be on the podium but yeah I think the team and I did an amazing job. The pitstop was really good from the team as well. We managed to jump a position there and then also the pace looked really strong. We were able to keep the guys behind and at one point even catch Nico and Rafa in front. So yeah obviously a good race and really happy with it.

FIA Formula 2: Like you said you started outside of the top 10 but still battled through to get into the points quite early into the race. How tough was it to make the overtake stick?

Van Hoepen: I mean like Nico and Rafa said the DRS was quite powerful but then as soon as you're in the DRS train it's very difficult to actually make an overtake. But then luckily there was some exciting stuff happening in front of me which meant I could go through quite cleanly, which helped me a lot. And then also with Varrone it was a bit tricky to get past but as soon as you have a good exit and the guy in front doesn't have the DRS it's not too difficult.

FIA Formula 2: That's also Trident's first podium since 2024, that was in Baku. How happy are you to have helped the team achieve this result today?

Van Hoepen: Yeah I mean super happy. We've done so much work in the off-season already from when I joined the team in Baku last year. We knew it was going to be a tough job but from that point on, we started working like crazy and I’m very impressed with the team how much they've done in the off-season to give me a car that's capable of doing this in the first round already. I mean we knew we were on the right track after testing in Barcelona but we also still have a lot to improve, to be here already is a good start for sure.

FIA Formula 2: Congratulations on a great job in Melbourne