Photo: Formula Motorsport Ltd
Paul Aron exceeded his own expectations for the opening round of the 2024 Formula 2 season at Bahrain as he came away third in the standings.
The Hitech GP driver finished fifth in the sprint race and stepped on the podium in third place in the feature race to score 19 points.
The Estonian and his team had struggled for pace in qualifying and race runs during pre-season testing at the track, but made improvements in the weeks since and Aron was able to carve his way through the field from 12th on the grid in both races.
“It feels amazing,” Aron stated afterwards. “We finished fifth yesterday, we had a very positive race, so I kind of expected to be strong today. But at the same time, I really kept my expectations as low as possible and hoped for a pleasant surprise and it came.
“I’m very, very happy and I’m very proud of the team, because ever since we started off it wasn’t the easiest, and if we look back at testing and if you would have asked me am I expecting to finish in the podium, I would have hoped just for points.
“I think we’ve made a huge leap forward, very proud of the team and very proud of myself. I just had a lot of fun today and yesterday, so I really enjoyed my first two races in F2 [with Hitech].”
Aron explained to Formula Scout why he felt they had got off on the wrong foot.
“Me coming in as a rookie, I would say I haven’t had a strong team-mate next to me to learn from and who could give a lot regarding experience of car balance and so on. So it has taken me time to understand the car and how to push the team in which direction because I don’t know how this F2 car worked. At the same time, I think the team has done a very good job.
“We’re on the right path. I don’t think we were in testing, and from hereon we still have a lot to improve. I’m very happy with how things are going. Both me and the team are working really, really hard to improve, and I think that’s the way to move forward. As long as you’re enjoying what you’re doing and as long as you’re making steps in the right direction, you can always be happy.”