Photo: Formula Motorsport Ltd
Victor Martins is yet to score in Formula 2 this year, but is not concerned as he believes he can still recover the ground lost in the title fight.
The ART Grand Prix driver was in a podium position for two thirds of the season-opening sprint race at Bahrain, but then a struggle for grip meant he faded to 11th place. He retired from the feature race, then in Jeddah crashed out on lap one of the sprint race and came 11th in the feature race after being penalised for causing an incident.
“I will say for sure, if I’m honest, it’s a big impact [on my title hopes]. But in the end, if I think like that and I try to find excuses or to understand – for sure I want to understand, but if I think too much about Jeddah and Bahrain, it’s not going anywhere,” he admitted to Formula Scout.
“I think it’s just to try to keep working, having a good communication with the team, being honest with ourselves of what we can do better on both sides, on myself, on the team side, and with the overall package. But I’m not concerned, we have still 12 [rounds] to go. It’s quite long, I’m more seeing like a 12-round championship for me than a 14 [-round].
“We will get some opportunities, it’s long. Last year I didn’t start [the season] really well, with some mistakes. So I was not having so much [more] points than right now. But we will get there for sure. I’m really confident in the team, in myself. I know what to do, and now it’s down to this weekend [in Melbourne]. We need to start now, and I believe we will do it.”
The Alpine junior sits 18th in the standings, and after 2023’s first two rounds was 10th despite taking a pole and two sprint race podiums.
Martins says he has “missed some opportunities” already in 2024 and knows “I could have done better in Bahrain” where “I had the wrong approach” in qualifying and it led to him being “on the back foot” thereon. He and ART GP now know why the sprint race did not go to plan, and they thought they were “going for a top-five” result in the feature race before retiring.
Less racing completed meant less learned about F2’s new car, but Jeddah “started well” with Martins qualifying fourth. However he admits “we just missed something there” with the set-up, which impacted his confidence at the wheel and ultimately his results.
“We are not at the best. You can see on the results, we are not where we want to be. [So] we need to work. But there is no specific thing, we don’t need to like reinvent the world, we don’t need to be a magician, and do magical things. It’s just do better things, which are small things: better communication, better trust in ourselves, better serenity in our work, and then we will get there for sure.”