Photo: Red Bull Content Pool
Adrian Campos Jr has explained the story behind his Campos Racing team’s new alliance with Formula 1 giant Red Bull in the support paddock.
Formula 2’s 2024 grid features two Red Bull Junior Team members, Isack Hadjar and Pepe Marti, and both race for Campos.
“It’s the first time that we are a Red Bull junior team in F2,” Campos told Formula Scout. “We have been working with them in the past in lower categories [in two Formula 3 events in 2023]. To have the chance to do it in F2 is very important for a growing structure like we are.
“We want to do more things and better. So to have success in the motorsport world you need to partner with the best. And at this moment Red Bull is the best. They also have under control the best drivers. So in order to achieve the best results we need to be with them. I’m very proud to have this partnership in F2 with them and I am looking forward to extend it.”
Campos reckoned his team’s recent form across junior single-seater racing was key to gaining the partnership.
“They know the capacities that we have on the technical side. And they understood that with the right tools and the right drivers we could achieve very important things. So at the end this was the main thing for them. They gave us the opportunity and I think we are delivering the results.”
After round five of the season, Campos Racing leads the teams’ standings. Marti was on the podium twice at Bahrain, while Hadjar won the Melbourne and Imola feature races and just missed out on winning a third in Monaco. He was first on-the-road in Imola’s sprint race, but a penalty for causing a collision demoted him to sixth.
According to Campos, the alliance has meant his drivers “are having great preparation” for each race weekend.
“We do preparation in our workshop and also we send our engineers and our drivers to Red Bull. And they allow us also to prepare the races together with them there.
“We’re working together to improve both sides, our simulator and their simulator. Because obviously we have more information about the F2 than what they have. The software of these cars is more accurate [on] the one that we did than the one that they have. But the hardware is way better what they have. So we are trying to put something together. They are very open to work together. And this is something we are getting benefit from because they have a structure [as an F1 operation] we cannot have.”
Campos added that the gains his team gets transcend the technical department, with “more income in terms of sponsorship than we have ever had in the past”.
“When we were closing the deal with Red Bull, with Helmut [Marko] in this case, we could make a strong proposal because we were expecting a bigger income in terms of sponsorship,” he explained.