Photo: Red Bull Content Pool
Formula 2 drivers Jak Crawford and Pepe Marti both had mechanical problems at Spa-Francorchamps last weekend that became evident after their steering wheel displays started acting up.
Marti’s problem occurred on the opening lap of the sprint race, prompting him to visit the pits. He then rejoined the track, but his car stopped on the way to Pouhon due to alternatore problems and he retired on lap two.
“We had a mega mega start. I was up in 12th, so obviously it was a bit disappointing to run into a problem,” the Campos Racing driver told Formula Scout afterwards.
“The dash was flashing out and coming back. I was trying my best to do different types of reset procedures on the engine, but it just never came back. So eventually it just died. No clutch or nothing. A bit of a shame because I think today we could have fought for a good top-10 finish.
“There was a misunderstanding [with my trip to the pits] because I felt the problem and going into the last corner, for some reason, the problem went away because it was intermittent. And it went away for a good kilometre-and-a-half and I went through the pitlane and my engineer said: ‘We’ve seen and we smell something that is really wrong. So we take it easy and come into the pits.’
“We decided to do a pass through because he said ‘if everything’s fine, just drive through’ because it was a last moment decision. But obviously we were not one lap down. So we wanted to stay on track and we came out. And as soon as I felt the issue come back, I moved out of the racing line, trying to not impede anyone or put some oil on the track, and then it just came to a stop.”
DAMS’ Crawford had his issue in the feature race, which he finished third in.
“I think everyone’s had their fair share [of unreliability] this year. It’s unfortunate that there’s a bit more than last year. I mean, it feels like it’s almost every race,” he said to media including Formula Scout.
“I drove half a lap with my steering wheel not working, I had a black screen, I couldn’t shift, I was stuck in fifth gear for half a lap.”
F2 CEO Bruno Michel recently spoke about how reliability concerns are handled by the championship.
“Sometimes they [the teams] are being hard on us. And I tell you, we’ve been through difficulties, either reliability or either availability, and in that case I don’t think they are nice. But at the end of the day, we get through,” he said.
“And if we have issues, they stay behind closed doors. And they don’t go out. And I think that’s something that is extremely important, and it’s true on my side, and it’s true on their side as well.”
Pepe Marti interview by Roger Gascoigne