Fittipaldi scores great 2nd in Barcelona

Enzo Fittipaldi drove superbly in Barcelona to gain his second Feature Race P2 of the F2 season and moves into P7 in the points table. Fellow Red Bull Junior Ayumu Iwasa was not thrilled with his strong 4th but holds 3rd in the championship chase.

Enzo Fittipaldi fast and converts front row to podium

“A really good race weekend in Barcelona finished,” enthused the 21-year-old Brazilian. “We qualified 2nd, very close to pole.

“We finished the Feature Race in P2, very happy with the result. We made a good start, I got alongside Oli into Turn 1. I almost got by him and then he squeezed me wide, I had to go off the track and rejoin.”

Enzo Fittipaldi on his way to the F2 podium in Barcelona 2023
© Dutch Photo Agency / Red Bull Content Pool

“I was able to defend my position. The whole race we had very good pace. Even though we were not on the best strategy we were able to keep our position and finish 2nd, scoring very good points.”

Very happy with the race and the whole weekend in general, we were really fast.
Enzo Fittipaldi

“So looking forward to the next race in the Red Bull Ring.”

Ayumu Iwasa holds 3rd in points but wants more

“Actually it was quite a difficult weekend for me,” explained the 21-year-old Japanese. “Of course, scoring points in both races is OK but….”

“I think that in FP and the Quali, our pace was quite good. We made a big step because so far this season we are struggling to have good speed in Qualifying. But this time we could fight for pole position so that was really positive.”

Ayumu Iwasa on the grid of Formula 2 - Barcelona 2023
© Dutch Photo Agency / Red Bull Content Pool

Yesterday it was a very difficult race, difficult in my driving, the car was quite OK but we should have reacted better for the track situation, a tyre pit stop or pit stop timing.
Ayumu Iwasa

“Today was OK in terms of the performance, I just missed some positions at the beginning of the race, in the first lap. This was not good so I need to see what I need to improve, I will keep pushing and keep improving with the team to win the race.”

“Overall there were some improvements this weekend so we will go ahead from here.”

Dennis Hauger well in the points but not satisfied

“A difficult weekend overall, we wanted a lot more from this weekend,” stated the 20-year-old Norwegian. “But we just couldn't do so much more.”

“Qualifying was decent for us, P6 while my teammate was back in P15 so felt like i maximised it.”

Dennis Hauger F2 in wet conditions - Barcelona 2023
© Dutch Photo Agency / Red Bull Content Pool

“Race 1 was difficult, running for a long time in P3 but due to a car behind already having had some temp in the tires before the restart I just couldn't hang on to it unfortunately.”

“Race 2 was a hard one. I couldn't find any balance or pace on the soft tires which put us on the back foot for the rest of the race. And with the slower strategy we ended P8. We hoped for more but there is stuff to work on for Austria so we will keep pushing.”

Jak Crawford - not an easy weekend

“It was a tough weekend for us, zero points,” stated the 18-year-old American.

“It's not where we want to be as a team. I had an issue in Practice with the car so I didn't get in any representative laps, so it was difficult to get a feel for how the car was.

“So going into Qualifying was a pit of an unknown. I felt like I did a pretty good lap but in the end, it was P9 which is not good enough. We didn't have quite the pace.”

Jak Crawford in the pit lane of Barcelona 2023
© Dutch Photo Agency / Red Bull Content Pool

“Race 1, starting wet. In Turn 1 my race ended, I wasn't left too much space and just the smallest contact broke my front lefty toe link and I was out of the race which was really unfortunate because I think that with the changeable conditions and everything that happened in the race, we could have ended up on the podium.”

“In Feature Race, we started on the Prime, the hardest compound and the goal was to go to the soft at the end of the race. I made a really good start and was running in P8 but we didn't quite have the pace on the hard compound and I didn't manage to keep the tyres lasting long. It was very difficult and we lost a lot of time at the end of our Prime stint.”

“I think that the most we had the pace for was P9 or P10, about where we started.”

We just missed a bit of pace and will do a lot of hard work to rebound for the Red Bull Ring.
Jak Crawford

Zane Maloney with pace but no grid place

“A very difficult weekend, we had the pace all through Practice and Qualifying. Really unfortunate to Qualify 21st,” stated the 19-year-old Barbadian.

“Of course, I got my lap deleted, which is my fault. The rest of the things were outside my control, very unfortunate.”

Zane Maloney racing Formula 2 in Barcelona 2023
© Dutch Photo Agency / Red Bull Content Pool

“Of course, the weekend was going to be very difficult from there, especially in Barcelona where it is so hard to pass, it was an uphill battle.”

I'm happy because the pace was there all weekend, made some good moves, had some good battles, but not the weekend we wanted.
Zane Maloney

“But very positive in terms of pace and looking forward to pushing on in the next round and hopefully having the same pace or even better at the Red Bull Ring and putting it all together there.”

Isack Hadjar not happy with Qualifying and bad luck in the Feature

“Highly disappointing performance from my side in Qualifying,” explained the 18-year-old Frenchman with typical honesty. “Had a decent first run but then, didn’t feel level of confidence I had on the first attempt and had a bad lap.'

In such a competitive field you can’t afford that and that was it.
Isack Hadjar

“Race 1 was quite boring, can’t make up places in the wet and as the track was drying we were going to pit and when the SC came in we did. So we jumped a few cars ahead, then it was a really calm restart and we ended in 12th.”

“The Feature, had a good start and had the inside line in T3 but got the door closed by the car ahead and damaged the front wing. From there, the race was over, we had to pit twice so no hope for points. A shame because the pace in free air seemed great.”