Zak O’Sullivan and Pepe Martí have experienced mixed starts to their debut Formula 2 seasons in 2024. As the championship heads to Silverstone, they sit 11th and 12th in the drivers’ standings respectively. Before the on-track action began, Feeder Series caught up with the pair at a press conference, alongside other selected media.

By Martin Lloyd

Both O’Sullivan and Martí raced in Formula 3 last season, impressing in their sophomore years of competition in that championship. Having moved to F2, both drivers had hoped for better results by mid-season.

“It’s obviously been quite tough,” said Martí. “I haven’t really scored as many points as I would’ve loved to. I think if we had not had the penalty at the Red Bull Ring, we would’ve been P8 or P9, so it’s not a bad showing, it’s the first half of the season. Then again, my points rely on two rounds, so I need to get my consistency up and do a better job in every weekend.”

Martí was handed a 30-second post-race penalty in Austria for pitting under the virtual safety car, demoting the Campos driver from fourth place to 15th. The Spaniard revealed in the press conference that he originally believed he was over the safety car line in the pit lane when the virtual safety car was called, but the stewards judged him to be behind it.

Meanwhile, O’Sullivan scored a lucky win in Monaco, having anticipated a virtual safety car. Outside of this victory, the ART driver has lacked bright spots, with a fourth place in Bahrain being his only other significant haul of points.

“It hasn’t really gone as I expected, a bit of a tricky year so far,” O’Sullivan said. “Some highs, but still a bit to go, that’s for sure. It’s a lot harder to string a proper weekend together. In F3, once you have a good qualifying, you know your weekend is sorted as long as you don’t make any mistakes.

“In F2, there’s always a variable, and it’s about controlling those and being consistently up there, and the points add up round to round. I think we’re seeing that at the top of the championship a lot this year.”

Both drivers have found the adjustment to the new car difficult. While both were used to F3 machinery, O’Sullivan drove the previous generation of F2 cars in Abu Dhabi and feels that there is a ‘pretty sizeable difference’.

“It’s quite different to F3,” concurred Martí. “Especially on the hard compound, it’s not a car that enjoys and combines both entries and exits and therefore when you have the hard compound on in tracks like here [Silverstone] and Barcelona, it becomes quite uncomfortable because you want to push as much as you can but you have to be quite smart with how you tyre-save.”

O’Sullivan and Martí will be looking for an improved weekend at Silverstone. They sit over 70 points behind championship leader Paul Aron, who is closely followed by Isack Hadjar. Gabriel Bortoleto, Zane Maloney and Franco Colapinto round out the current top five in the standings.

Header photo credit: Dutch Photo Agency