Aitken: “we have homework to do,” ahead of Round 2

Jack Aitken says that him and his Campos team have plenty of work to do ahead of Round 2 of the season, after a difficult opening weekend, but cited his Sprint Race recovery as proof that he can be fighting in and around it this year.

The Campos racer was in the wrong place at the wrong time in Qualifying on Friday, when a yellow flag spoiled his final push lap, with the Briton having just set a purple first sector. This put Aitken on the backfoot for the Feature Race, starting from 14th.

He wouldn’t fare any better in the race, finishing P15, but made up for this on Sunday, with a surging drive to eighth, which earned him his first points of 2020.

“It has not been the return to racing which I was hoping for,” he conceded. “We definitely should have come away from this weekend with more, but we have some homework to do in the next few days, before we return to the Red Bull Ring.

“I am at least happy that we managed to fight our way back into the points on Sunday in what was quite a difficult race to overtake.”

It won’t quite be a case of copy and paste for Round 2. Having used the hard and the soft Pirelli compounds for the first weekend of racing, Aitken and co will be provided with a set of super soft and medium tyres for Round 2 in Spielberg.

“We raced the super soft last year, but the medium we didn’t, so there is a bit of an unknown factor there,” he explained.

“The new 18-inch rims handled pretty good though. We changed the balance a little bit compared to last year, but to be honest the Pirelli feeling is still the same, so it didn’t take too long to get used to those.”

As well as another round of the F2 season to contend with, Aitken will also take to the cockpit of the Williams FW43, for his first ever Formula 1 Free Practice session.

We just need to make sure that we really understand everything that has happened so far and make sure that we are ready to score some big points.

The Campos racer will replace 2018 F2 Champion George Russell in the Friday morning session, before hoping back into his F2 car for Free Practice, just 25 minutes later.

As challenging a juggling act as this may prove to be, the confidence and knowledge gained from powering the Williams around the Red Bull Ring, should put Aitken in good stead for an improved Round 2.

“We have obviously learned some lessons this weekend, as everyone will have done,” he concluded. “We just need to make sure that we really understand everything that has happened so far and make sure that we are ready to score some big points.”