ART have thus far been the stars of the Bahrain weekend in Formula 2, locking out the front row for the first feature race of the season. Victor Martins, the reigning FIA Formula 3 champion, continued their good form with his maiden F2 podium in the opening sprint race. After the race, the Frenchman spoke to Feeder Series and selected media about his growing expectations for this year.

By Tyler Foster

Arriving for qualifying in Bahrain, Martins explained that he “was targeting a top five.” The 21-year-old achieved this goal and more putting himself on the front row alongside his ART teammate, Théo Pourchaire. With this result, Martins has set a high standard, but he understands that hard work is the key to remaining at that level.

“I would say I’m even happier to get that P2 than I would have expected. During the test, you never know how much each other is hiding from their true pace. We were looking good, looking strong. We are really happy with the car so I was expecting to be in the top five, not P2,” he said. “There is a bit of work to do still. In the end, it is a long season. My target was to be [at the front] around the mid-season. Now I’m here, I still need a lot of improvement on many things, tyre warm-up. I will just continue to push.”

Starting from eighth in Saturday’s sprint race, Martins’ quick getaway helped him jump into the podium places by Turn 1 of Lap 3. After overtaking Ayumu Iwasa for second, Martins settled for third when he was passed by Dennis Hauger on the penultimate lap.

ART’s early signs of pace have put their F3 graduate seemingly in the hunt for victory in Sunday’s feature race. While the Frenchman is intent on scoring another haul of points to complement his sprint race podium, he understands not to place too much pressure upon himself in the opening stages of the season.

“I will not say to myself I need to win absolutely, but I will try to not have any expectations – just to have fun like today, take pleasure in the car, drive it in the moment. Just adapt to it and maybe learn from today. I’m speaking about learning how to attack like I did today and how to manage a bit more the tyres,” he told Feeder Series.

I will try to not have any expectations – just to have fun like today, take pleasure in the car, drive it in the moment

Victor Martins

“Tomorrow is a feature race. I never did a pit stop in a real race, so I will say it’s going to be discovering a new thing for me again. Out lap with cold tyres, all of those things, we did it in testing. But now it’s the race. We scored points so there is a bit of pressure.

“I will just go for it like I did today. We will see where we can finish. I’m confident that the car is working really well;. I’m feeling really great in it, so for sure, we can score big points.”

Header photo credit: Formula Motorsport Ltd