F2 heads to Silverstone, a circuit seen by drivers, as Sebastian Montoya told LWOS, as one of the year’s biggest challenges.
Formula 2’s Next Stop: Silverstone, United Kingdom
Formula 2 continues its European journey, with the next stop being Silverstone. The home of motorsport is set to host a new round of the FIA Formula 2 2025 championship, where new twists are anticipated.
After a chaotic round in Austria, which altered the Drivers’ standings, Richard Verschoor is currently leading the championship.
The Dutchman collected a win in the feature race, exploiting the disqualification of his rival for the title, Alex Dunne. At Silverstone, the two drivers will return to the track to narrow or widen the gap in points.
Who Could Be The Next Winner?
Last year, Isack Hadjar took pole position in Britain, 2 tenths faster than Victor Martins. However, the next day, neither of them finished the race after a collision for Martins and a spin for Hadjar.
The Sprint race was held in difficult conditions, with heavy rain that made it difficult for the drivers to attempt any risky manoeuvres and attack the opponents in front of them.
Andrea Kimi Antonelli, who in his junior career always proved to be very competitive in the rain, achieved his first win of the year, with a margin of 8 seconds from Zane Maloney.
On Sunday, Isack Hadjar had a poor start but quickly recovered during the race, putting himself in second position.
Ahead of him, Jak Crawford, who was leading the race, received a five-second penalty for an unsafe release during his pit stop. This setback moved him to third position, and Hadjar inherited the win.
Upon reviewing the results, it appears that Victor Martins and Jak Crawford are the drivers to watch this weekend. Victor consistently demonstrates strong performance in qualifying, while Crawford tends to find more speed during the race.
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Can Verschoor Maintain the Leadership?
After a difficult beginning to the European league, Richard Verschoor seems to be back in shape to fight for the title once again.
The MP Motorsport driver is currently leading the championship with a 24-point advantage over Alex Dunne due to a disqualification in the Feature Race in Austria.
An unexpected setback from him and the whole team, which is currently in sixth position in the teams’ championship.
However, Alex Dunne on his social media reminded everyone that these difficulties are part of racing, and the strength comes from facing them and coming out stronger.
This is why the Irish will be more motivated than ever to reduce the gap for the first position in the standings and get back the leadership.
However, one should not underestimate Jak Crawford, who seems to climb the standings quietly step by step, with a series of good results.
The only bad spot in his current finishes is the “did not start” in the Sprint Race in Austria, where the American suffered an alternator failure, which prevented him from racing on Saturday.
The American driver is accumulating points that have placed him in third position in the championship, only two points behind Alex Dunne.
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Hard or Soft Tyre for F2 Silverstone Feature Race?
Being one of the higher-speed circuits of the calendar, Silverstone is considered to be very physically challenging for the drivers.
The high-speed zones like Copse, Maggots, Becketts and, Stowe required the driver to be able to control the car in the best way possible, facing a lot of G-forces among these corners.
In addition, the team needs to provide a stable car to their driver in order for them to have good grip on the track.
Ahead of the British round, LWOS spoke with Sebastian Montoya about the challenges of racing at Silverstone, with its high-speed corners:
“I’d say Silverstone probably one of the biggest challenges is the fact that it so many corners. It’s quite an old truck as well. So it’s really easy to put a tyre off, for example.
“It’s a track where it’s really high speed, but you also have to position the car in the right places. And being offline, even half a meter, makes quite a big difference on the grip that you feel as a driver. So that for me is probably the biggest challenge about Silverstone. It’s so wide, it’s so big, and there’s so many different lines that you could do.
“Trying to learn it is quite hard and also when you’re pushing so hard on the limit any small mistake that you make affects your time quite greatly. So I think the high speed complex and the nature of the circuit being so fast and wide is really easy to get offline and can make a big difference.” – Sebastian Montoya to LWOS.
Tyre management is an important topic, as Silverstone asks a lot from the tyres and the drivers. For this reason, Pirelli brought the Hard and Soft compounds, the same as last year.
The quicker strategy could possibly be to start on the Soft tyre and manage the graining until the pit stop to the Hard ones. The latter offers more consistency over a long stint, but the first could give a significant advantage in the first laps of the race.
The weather is still an important factor to take into consideration since it could alter the strategies of the teams for the weekend.
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Main Photo
Credit: IMAGO / Panoramic by PsnewZ
Recording Date: 07.07.2024
