F2 points breakthrough for Louis in Hungary

Louis Delétraz showed his battling qualities at the Hungaroring this weekend as he fought to secure the first FIA Formula 2 Championship point of his rookie season in the series.

The 20-year-old targeted a strong performance at the seventh round of the championship in Hungary so he could put a frustrating first half of the season firmly behind him and enter the F2 summer break on a high.

However, practice and qualifying proved to be tougher than expected on the tight and technical 4.38km track as Louis and his Racing Engineering team struggled to find a chassis set-up that would allow then to extract the optimum performance from their Pirelli super soft tyres during a flying qualifying lap.

ADS Securities-supported Louis pushed as hard as he could and managed to qualify the strongest out of the Racing Engineering cars with a P15 starting slot on the grid for Saturday’s Feature Race. But he knew the result could have been much better.

“The feeling in qualifying was that I was pushing hard and doing a good lap, but then I saw the time and it wasn’t good. I think it’s clear to everyone that the car doesn’t allow us to get the grip out of the tyre. We’re not using the tyre properly and we don’t have the grip level to go quicker,” Louis explained.

Louis opted for a prime-option tyre strategy during the 36-lap race in the hope that he could benefit from some clean air and ran as high a P4 when the runners on the opposite strategy pitted early to switch from the soft to the medium compound.

However, with track temperatures soaring to 52 degrees Celsius, Louis wasn’t able to make his medium tyres last as long as he wanted and he had to pit earlier than planned for fresh rubber.

He rejoined the field in a lowly P19 but fought back magnificently on his soft Pirellis to claw his way back up to P11 at the finish – a position that later became P10 when one of Louis’ rivals was hit with a 10-second time penalty after the race.

“Unfortunately, the prime tyres didn’t hold as long as everyone expected in the heat and we had some very quick rear degradation,” Louis said. “But I managed to find some good pace on the softer option tyre and could fight back and claim my first point. It’s not something I’m getting hugely excited about because I want a lot more points. But it’s a start and a step forward.”

Starting from P10 on the grid for Sunday’s shorter Sprint Race, Louis was hoping to march up the order and add further points to his collection in Hungary. But degradation on the prime tyre proved to be a challenge again so Louis – running in P12 at the time – decided to gamble six laps before the end during a Virtual Safety Car (VSC) period.

He said: “When we saw the VSC, there was an opportunity to try some soft tyres. I came into the pits and changed. As it turned out, I didn’t gain or lose anything but we had to try something and it was nice to get the six laps at the end on the softs to push to the limit and overtake on the inside, outside and brake late. That was a good feeling.”

With a three-week break until the next F2 round at Spa-Francorchamps in Belgium, Louis has the opportunity to analyse his season to date and to plot a way to improve his performances further still when racing resumed on 26-27 August.

“It’s nice to have a bit of a break so that we can work hard to fix the issues in qualifying and recharge the batteries a little,” he said. “Hopefully that will mean we can come back stronger at Spa.”

RACE RESULTS