Victor Martins returns to Formula 2 this year as one of the title favourites. He remains with the defending teams’ champion ART Grand Prix, and team principal Sébastien Philippe says it is now his moment to deliver.

By Steven Walton

Alpine junior Martins joined the F2 grid in 2023, jumping in at ART Grand Prix alongside eventual champion Théo Pourchaire.

The 22-year-old French driver displayed impressive speed throughout his rookie campaign, taking three poles, a win in the Silverstone feature race, and nine additional podiums. He finished fifth in the standings, his haul of 150 points helping ART win the teams’ championship.

This year, Martins will succeed Pourchaire as the team leader at ART. His new teammate is rookie Zak O’Sullivan, who finished second last year in F3.

Philippe told selected media, including Feeder Series, that the pressure was on Martins now that he enters his second year in F2. 

“It’s the moment where you need to deliver now,” he said. “He needs to cope with this pressure.”

Philippe said Martins was relaxed and confident ahead of the new season.

“The competition will be hard and there will be some other contenders, so let’s try to focus on learning this new car first,” Philippe said.

The start of 2024 would require a “push all” mentality, Phillippe said, because F2 has a seven-week break after the third round in Australia. “So it’s quite important to start from Bahrain in front.”

He told Feeder Series Martins and ART would need to “fine-tune” their performance this year.

“We had too many mistakes last year on his car, coming from the team first and also from Victor, who I think was trying too much at some points,” Philippe said.

One of Martins’ most costly mistakes last year was a spin in Jeddah feature race when he held the effective race lead. He also crashed in the Baku sprint, sped under yellow flags in Monaco, and earned penalties for collisions in Spa and Zandvoort.

“We lost so many points in the first half of last year. It’s just fine-tuning I think,” Philippe told Feeder Series. The team, he said, need to be “consistent and try to avoid as much as possible mistakes from both the teams’ side to the drivers’ side.”

“We are close to being able to deliver well, but again I would say there will be some good contenders. It will be a big fight, I think.”

One name hotly tipped as a potential title rival of Martins’ is Ollie Bearman, who remains with Prema Racing. The pair fought for the F3 crown in 2022, and they were the top two rookies in the field last year.

Pre-season testing

This week, all F2 drivers and teams took part in a three-day pre-season test in Bahrain, which ran from Sunday until earlier today.

This test was the only chance for teams and drivers to experience the new Dallara F2 2024 car before the first round in Bahrain in two weeks.

The first day of the test saw heavy rain around the track, meaning no one got any dry running during a three-hour nighttime session. Martins nevertheless finished that session third behind Dennis Hauger and Zane Maloney, with O’Sullivan sixth.

Proper running commenced on day two, and Rodin Motorsport’s Zane Maloney finished the day with the fastest time, ahead of DAMS’ Jak Crawford and Van Amersfoort Racing’s Enzo Fittipaldi. O’Sullivan and Martins were seventh and eighth, but Martins did go third in the morning session, in which times were roughly three seconds slower than in the afternoon.

Teams and drivers primarily focused on long runs on day three. The Campos duo of Isack Hadjar and Pepe Martí also did qualifying runs in the morning and came first and second, while Martins finished 11th after completing 14-, 18- and nine-lap runs.

Maloney set the pace in the afternoon as most drivers did both qualifying and race simulations. Martins was one of four drivers to complete only the latter and was classified 20th, having completed nine-, 19- and 15-lap runs.

The Frenchman ended the test with the eighth fastest time overall and with 163 laps completed, the fourth highest total in the field.

Philippe, who spoke to media as the second day of the test began, said the new F2 car looked nice, but it was too early to tell if the pecking order would change because of it.

He said the wet weather on the first day provided “nice experience” for O’Sullivan, though he would have preferred to have dry-weather running.

Philippe said he was happy to have the 19-year-old Williams junior at ART this year, describing him as easygoing, smart and friendly. “The collaboration is already like if we were together for six months,” he said. “I think the collaboration with Victor will be good.”

Header photo credit: Sebastiaan Rozendaal / Dutch Photo Agency