Ralph Boschung is entering his fifth full-time season in Formula 2, and is more confident than ever after starting with two fourth-place finishes in Round 1 at Bahrain. With Jeddah this weekend, Boschung spoke to F1 Feeder Series and selected media about his possibility to fight for the title as well as his future in motorsport.

By Tyler Foster

After the best season of his career in 2021, with two podiums while finishing tenth in the standings, Boschung has returned to Campos Racing for a second consecutive year. He made a brilliant start to his campaign, qualifying fifth in Bahrain. He capitalised on this solid performance in qualifying by managing a fourth-place finish in both the Sprint Race and the Feature Race.

We spoke to him about whether he felt he maximised his first weekend of the season, and whether he was at all disappointed not to end up on the podium in either race.

“I think in the sprint race I am quite convinced that we should have ended up on the podium. So, a couple of points we did throw away there. Then I think each in the feature race, I’d say fourth was close to the maximum, third maybe. A couple of points were really still in the bag, but also if you compare to my first race weekend last year in Bahrain, I didn’t score anything so coming away with two times fourth is also quite decent to start the season.”

Title chances

While it may be considered a leap for a driver such as Boschung to have a legitimate shot at fighting for the title this year, his pace throughout Bahrain was consistently impressive. It illustrates a level of confidence that we haven’t seen in the Swiss driver so far in his F2 career.

This may be driven by the fact that he finally achieved his maiden podium in Formula 2, with two third-place finishes in the final two rounds at Jeddah and Abu Dhabi. Finally breaking his podium duck may initiate an unforeseen championship run. 

We asked the 24-year-old what he felt about his chances at a genuine title contention this year and whether he had thought at all about his future in motorsport beyond F2.

“We’re only two rounds into the season, so I think it’s way too early to talk about the title or the championship. I always look at the season as race by race anyway so I’m not really too much focused on that. I mean purely if we finish often in positions like in Bahrain, we can have a lot of points by the end of the year. At the moment I’m just focusing race by race, see where it ends up. And then, for the future, I’m also not much looking at that.”

With this weekend’s round being at Jeddah, some may expect Boschung to be especially excited considering this was where he gained his first F2 podium, however the Swiss driver is not getting drawn into any storylines. He is firmly focused on taking things one step at a time. If he is to fight for the championship throughout 2022, he will need to avoid any distractions and be mentally tougher than his opponents.

Header photo credit: Dutch Photo Agency