François Sicard: “The difference is in the detail”

Sat on the cream leather sofas of the freshly decorated VIP hospitality area of the Formula 2 paddock, François Sicard is surrounded by the faces of this season’s drivers, which are dotted around the walls. Elsewhere, you have carefully chosen tables and chairs, televisions displaying the weekend’s action, and of course, coffee machines.

Each item has been purposefully selected to ensure that the area stands out and provides VIPs with the ultimate F2 experience. It is small details like these that also make DAMS stand out, the type of attention to detail that Sicard himself builds his teams around. It is what separates “the good from the great,” he says.

“I always say to the team, the difference is in the detail,” Sicard asserts. “The difference is how much effort you put into every single corner, into every single area, that is where you make the difference, otherwise, everybody would be able to do it.

“How much attention you are putting into the details is what makes the difference between the good and the great. The same goes for both teams and drivers.” They may not have had the quickest car out on track, in terms of outright pace – they have just one pole position to their name so far this season - but they’ve been consistently up there, with solid core performance and a strong basic setup.

For Sicard, this has been key to their title charge, with them currently sitting top of the teams’ standings on 260 points. They have two strong and experienced teammates in Nicholas Latifi and Sérgio Sette Câmara, who are both competing at the top end of the Championship.

“I think that we have two drivers capable of winning the title, which is not very common,” explained Sicard. “We have a pretty good package, with a good car and two good drivers.

“The competition is so tight and so close, it is easy to go from P1 to P5, but our aim at the moment is to try and be in the top five every time, which is something that we have managed pretty well. We have a very good team atmosphere and dynamic with the drivers, both are working very hard. They are taking what we give them and trying to improve.”

Latifi in particular has enjoyed a stellar campaign, so much so, that he has been called up by Williams F1 for FP1 on two occasions so far, in Canada and France. While this is proof of his undoubted potential, it poses plenty of pitfalls, of which Sicard has had to overcome.

“I think that we are managing the situation with Nicky [Latifi] very well. It was a bit hard at the beginning, but he is strong when dealing with pressure and he is very good at adapting to any situation.

“Jumping from an F1 car to an F2 car is not an easy task. You might think that it is an advantage, but it’s not. To get used to your Formula 2 car after doing an hour and 40 minutes in F1 is not so easy, but he did pretty well and he was very fast in FP1. The more mileage that you are doing in a racing car, the better it is for you, as long as you are able to adapt.”

It is those final words, which are key, “as long as you are able to adapt.” Adaptation is a key component for Sicard. No driver and team combination is ever perfect, no matter how close it may look. Every partnership requires work, and often, it is down to the driver to make that adaptation.

It is different at Dams, says Sicard. Sette Câmara arrived with the expectation of challenging for the championship, but there were teething problems. Despite a strong first round, where he finished 2nd and 3rd, there was a lull following that and he failed to secure a win until Spielberg.

Some of that was down to bad luck, such as in Baku or Barcelona, but ultimately, the Brazilian struggled to adapt to his new machinery. For Sicard, it was important for the team to make changes, as well as the driver.

He continued: “It is one of the key components of the company and the team. It is easy to say to the driver that the car is good and they have to deal with it - it is up to you to deliver. For me, it is never black and white.

“Yes, we ask the driver to adapt to the car, but also, the engineers have to adapt the car to the driver as well; it is about finding the right balance. We could see that he was talented, but we had specifics on the car which didn’t suit his driving style very well.”

All of this has culminated into exactly what the Frenchman expected, both drivers challenging at the top of the Championship, pushing DAMS towards to the team’s title. Latifi is a little ahead of his teammate on 139 points, but the Brazilian’s charge has been gathering pace and he is now just 18 behind.

Sicard assessed: “From the outset, we knew that it was not going to be an easy challenge to go for the title. I think that Nicky and the team know that you have some strong moments and some more difficult times.

“This is something that we are prepared to face. We never underperformed, if you look at the pure performance of the driver and the team, every time we were there, but you need a bit of luck. We are not in doubt and he is not in doubt; we are prepared to fight.

“And, I am really confident [in Sette Câmara]. In terms of pure performance, he is there. We are really in a strong position for Sérgio to fight for the title every race, and then the outcome, we will see."