Taylor Barnard scored his first points in Formula 2 with a faultless drive to victory in Monaco’s sprint race. Afterwards, he told Feeder Series that last month’s in-season test helped his team to turn their car around.

By Steven Walton

Barnard started the sprint race from reverse grid pole position after finishing tenth during qualifying on Friday. Despite a big lockup at the first corner, he held the lead at the start and looked comfortable out front.

He never relinquished the lead despite interruptions to the race, which included three safety cars, a virtual safety car and a red flag, which was shown with six laps to go when Zane Maloney spun out at the Rascasse corner. The race was stopped for more than 10 minutes during the red flag.

Barnard told selected media, including Feeder Series, that the interruptions didn’t make his life easy, explaining that the red flag stoppage in particular was “a little bit agonising”. He described the winning feeling as “absolutely amazing”. 

Barcelona test ‘helped us to turn the car around’

Barnard’s lights-to-flag victory ended a long winless drought for AIX Racing. The team – which was known as Charouz from 2018 to 2022 and PHM in 2023 – last won in F2 at the Abu Dhabi round in 2018, when Antonio Fuoco won the sprint race.

Barnard’s victory added to an already remarkable podium the team achieved last week when Joshua Dürksen finished third in the feature race.

When asked about what had changed for the team, Barnard told Feeder Series, “It’s a little bit of everything to be honest. Coming into this season, I had absolutely no preparation, it was a last-minute call for me to even do Formula 2, so I’m improving myself race-by-race. The team obviously were struggling a little bit at the beginning.”

Barnard told Feeder Series that last month’s three-day test in Barcelona “definitely helped us to turn the car around”.

“I think the team have done a great job to turn it around and the key was probably the test in my opinion, it was the same last year in Formula 3 for me, not just the car but myself as well.”

’A big couple of weeks for me’

Barnard’s victory in Monaco comes nearly one month after he raced on the same streets in Formula E. He is the reserve driver for the McLaren Formula E Team and deputised for the injured Sam Bird.

Barnard continued racing for McLaren in the Berlin E-Prix earlier this month, where he scored points in both races and became Formula E’s youngest-ever points scorer at just 19 years old.

“It’s been a big couple of weeks for me, to say the least,” Barnard said.

Header photo credit: Dutch Photo Agency