Louis targets continued F2 improvement at “amazing” Silverstone

Louis Delétraz will come face-to-face with one of his all-time favourite racing circuits this weekend when the FIA Formula 2 Championship heads to Silverstone in the UK for the sixth round of the 2017 season.

The fast and flowing configuration of the 5.89km track presents a challenge that Louis relishes every time he lines up on the Silverstone grid and this weekend’s F2 races will be no different as he pushes to build on the improved pace he showed in Austria last week.

“The performance in Spielberg was encouraging and I want to use that base to improve again this weekend. I have to say I’m glad we’re heading to Silverstone next,” Louis said. “It’s a track I really look forward to going to every year. The first time I drove there in Formula Renault 2.0, the initial few laps were amazing. The high-speed corners make the track very special and it’s going to be something incredible again in an F2 car.”

The key to success as the 2017 F2 series reaches its mid-way point this weekend, will hinge on being able to find a strong set-up during Thursday’s free practice session and then using that to secure a grid slot among the F2 pacesetters when Friday’s 30-minute qualifying session swings into action.

Louis’ Racing Engineering team is fully aware of what will be required to make a strong impression on the Silverstone asphalt and the Swiss rookie also knows exactly what he wants from his ADS Securities-supported car.

He explained: “High-speed stability is very important because half of the corners are driven at around 200 kmh and you need a lot of confidence in your car and yourself to carry your speed. There is also two slow parts on the track that are more technical and you need a good front end and a good balance to make the corners properly.

“The other thing that I’ll be watching carefully is the tyre wear. I’ve never driven the Pirellis at Silverstone before but from the history it looks like the degradation is going to be big. The high-speed corners hurt the tyres quite a lot and Silverstone has many of them. It will be interesting for me to see how hard I can push and how long I can make them last.

“Keeping the tyres alive is about limiting the wear in the high-speed corners and trying not to overdrive the car. I’ll need to keep it stable and avoid any big movements – both understeer and oversteer – and be smooth. You also need a car that does what you want. If you’re fighting the car, it won’t do you any favours.”

With free practice being held 24 hours earlier than normal, Louis and his F2 rivals will also have to get to grips with a slightly different race weekend format at Silverstone. Louis expects driving for the first time on Thursday and then qualifying on Friday will mean having to get used to quite different track conditions during both sessions.

The 20-year-old said: “The track is going to be pretty dirty on Thursday because nobody will have driven it before us. We will clean the track for everyone else. Then we go to qualifying on Friday which is after the FP1 and FP2 sessions for the Formula One. The grip will be huge by then – we’ll go from nothing to a lot!

“That’s something which will be new for everyone and we’ll have to see how we can react to that. I’ll definitely be pushing to the maximum so I can hopefully enjoy a positive weekend and continue to make even more happy memories at Silverstone.”

RACE RESULTS