Louis in determined mood after Barcelona F2 disappointment
Louis has vowed to come back even stronger when the FIA Formula Two Championship resumes later this month, after a disappointing sequence of events at round two in Barcelona denied him the chance to score any championship points this weekend.
The 20-year-old started strongly at Circuit de Catalunya-Barcelona as he fired his Racing Engineering car to a promising P5 in Friday’s practice session. But a lack of grip from his car’s rear tyres in sector 3 during qualifying meant the highly-rated Swiss driver could only qualify P11 for Saturday afternoon’s 37-lap Feature Race.
When the action got underway, Louis’ hopes of pushing up the order were dealt an early blow as he received contact from the cars driven by Sette Camara and Cecotto. The second impact spun Louis’ #3 machine around at the chicane and he dropped to P18.
Then, just as he was plotting his recovery, the Safety Car was deployed to recover a stranded car. Having adopted a strategy to start on the hard ‘prime’ Pirelli tyre and then switch to the soft ‘option’ rubber later in the race, the sight of the Safety Car was bad news for Louis as it handed a free pit stop to the other drivers that had chosen the opposite ‘option-prime’ strategy which required an early change of rubber.
“The two things that are really important for the strategy we chose is to have a clean first lap and to have no safety car between laps seven and ten. Unfortunately for our race, we didn’t get either,” Louis explained. “It was very frustrating but I got my head down and tried to recover as much as I could.”
Louis promptly carved his way through the field – pulling off some exquisite passes on the way – and ran as high as P7 before he had to dive into the pits to make his mandatory stop on lap 25. He eventually took P11 at the chequered flag and illustrated his pace by setting a fastest lap of the race that was quicker than that of race winner Charles Leclerc.
“Looking at the Feature Race, I think a top-eight finish was very easily possible,” reflected Louis. “With all the issues we had, even if the pace was not good enough for P1, we should have been in the mix and benefited from the reverse grid for Sunday’s Sprint Race. It makes things a lot easier when you’re starting closer to the front.”
With his P11 Feature Race finishing position determining Louis’ starting position for today’s Sprint Race, the ADS Securities-supported driver was optimistic he could edge into the points during the 26-lap battle. But another bout of first lap contact and a lack of outright pace held Louis back and he had to settle for P14 at the end of the race.
“I got hit again on the first lap. It wasn’t as bad as yesterday, but someone dived down my inside and I had to move to the outside and back off otherwise there would have been contact and some wheels missing,” Louis explained. “That caused me to drop back and then, after five laps or so, it was very hard to overtake because we didn’t manage to keep the tyres alive. That’s something we have to look at and work on. At the moment, we don’t seem to be able to use the tyres as much as we want to.”
Although Spain’s round of the F2 championship didn’t yield the results Louis wanted, he’s determined to bounce back from what he considers to be the leanest period he’s ever experienced during his motor racing career.
He said: “I’ve never gone two events without scoring a point so I’m not used to being in this position. I’m expecting to do much better and, believe me, I want to do much better. Results like this just make me determined to push even harder. I don’t want to stay in this position. I know we can run at the front of this championship – we just need a bit more luck to put everything together.”
The third FIA Formula Two Championship event of the season will be held on the streets of Monte Carlo on 25-27 May.
