Round 8 Sprint Race Press Conference

FIA Formula 2: Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the press conference for today’s sprint race here in Spa: joining us are race winner Sergio Sette Camara from MP Motorsport, in second place we have Nyck De Vries from Racing Engineering, and in third place we have Luca Ghiotto from RUSSIAN TIME. Sergio, congratulations on your first F2 win: how does it feel?

Sergio Sette Camara: It’s a great moment, a great feeling. We didn’t have the best of luck in the beginning of the season, things just weren’t going our way no matter what, but the team kept supporting me and things finally came around in Spa. It’s a good track for me, I had my first podium in a formula car here in 2015, so I’m very happy.

FIA Formula 2: Obviously the start was critical to the victory today: how was that from your seat?

Sergio: The start is not easy: there’s a lot of horsepower in this car, and I am the only driver not coming from GP3, 3.5 or repeating a season, and I was racing with 250hp last year so I’ve struggled with the starts. It’s a heavier car and it wheel spins a lot, and it was like this yesterday, but we worked on it overnight and today we could get a good start. It was crucial for the win and gave me the confidence I needed, and in the last few laps the tyres were going away, I’m not sure what was the state of Nyck’s tyres but definitely the safety car came at a good time for me. Maybe it would have been a fight for the victory in the end, but with or without a fight I’m happy.

FIA Formula 2: Congratulations. Nyck, a podium with a new team this weekend: you must be happy with your weekend here?

Nyck De Vries: Yes, definitely: it’s never easy to come into a new team for the remainder of a season, but we prepared everything carefully and I was impressed with their organisation, professionalism and structure. They’ve had a difficult first half of the season, so obviously I’m happy to give them a podium: I think we could have challenged Sergio for the win in the end, but obviously he deserves it and hopefully we can keep progressing and get more results like this.

FIA Formula 2: Before the safety car you had cut the gap to Sergio: had you saved your tyres to prepare for an attack at the end?

Nyck: I was trying to save my tyres throughout the race, and was waiting: I saw him moving a lot more than I was during the race, so I was expecting his tyres to degrade a little bit more than mine towards the end of the race, but you’ve still got to get past.

FIA Formula 2: Well done today. Luca, seventh on the grid to third and on the podium: how was the race from your seat?

Luca Ghiotto: I got a good start luckily, moved up to fifth place on lap one and started to look after the tyres straight away, because from yesterday it already looked like it was not easy on tyres at this track. It was pretty slow over the first lap, and I was slowing down my teammate behind me as well to save the tyres, so when he caught up to me I just thought it’s maybe time to start pushing! I think it was a good strategy for the race, and in the end I was about half a second quicker than the guys in front, so the safety car came in the wrong moment and because it was quite a big crash it took a long time to clean the track, so we didn’t race anymore. But I’m quite happy anyway, we did a good job after yesterday where we struggled a little bit, and thanks to the team who did a really good job. Now I can just concentrate on my home race!

FIA Formula 2: Monza next, and I think this moves you up to 4th in the championship: what are your ambitions?

Luca: Considering that the 2 guys in front of me, my teammate and Rowland, didn’t score as many points as me we are closing up together, and I think the true goal this year is 2nd place in the championship: I think we can do it, so let’s just keep on working like we did today.