Rodin Motorsport’s Zane Maloney has endured a difficult run of form in Formula 2 in recent weeks, with just 13 points in the last four weekends compared to 62 in his first three. The 20-year-old told Feeder Series in the Silverstone paddock that he hoped for better results beginning this weekend.

By Martin Lloyd

Maloney showed flashes of pace in his debut season in 2023, but he stepped it up to another level at the start of 2024. He dominated the opening round of the season in Bahrain with a rare double win. 

But since taking a pair of podiums in Melbourne and Imola, Maloney has not managed to rediscover his early-season form. “I’d say that in the last two rounds, at Barcelona and the Red Bull Ring, we’ve struggled a bit for different reasons,” he said. “The team was doing a great job. I feel like I’m driving great, but we haven’t been getting the results. We think we know why. We can see why. Hopefully it’s better here for Silverstone.

“Of course in Red Bull Ring, to have the two [mechanical] problems in the two races wasn’t ideal. The last four rounds, I haven’t been getting the results. I’d say Monaco and Imola were not down to us, whereas the last two rounds were suboptimal.”

At Monaco, Maloney was involved in two crashes. In the sprint race, he locked up at Rascasse before Juan Manuel Correa pitched him into a spin. In the feature race the following day, Joshua Dürksen hit him while exiting the pits and launched him into the air. Maloney survived the incident to finish 10th.

At Imola, he finished the feature outside the points having lost time in the pits and while being behind Roman Staněk.

Maloney said that despite his recent struggles, he could rediscover his race-winning form of early 2024.

“I have a lot of trust in the team; they have a lot of trust in me,” he said. “You’re not defined by two rounds; you’re defined by 14. I think we’ve shown pace-wise in five out of the seven rounds that we’re one of the quickest on the grid.”

Maloney has to find form quickly if he is to regain the ground that he lost in the championship to Paul Aron, Isack Hadjar and Gabriel Bortoleto, who have all overtaken him in the points.

After Silverstone, the Sauber junior has six more F2 rounds to do so: two later this month, two in September and two in December. He feels that the large gaps in the schedule could help or hinder him depending on his form.

“When you’re having good rounds, good weekends, then you want to keep going and keep the momentum up. Of course when they’re a bit more difficult, then some time off is usually a good thing,” he said.

“I love racing, I love driving. For the mechanics and engineers in F1, for example, it’s tough to do so many rounds back to back, but for the drivers, we’ve dedicated our lives to it and I’d race every weekend if I could. From that aspect, I wish we had racing every weekend!”

Maloney has raced at Silverstone in British F4 in 2019, F3 in 2022 and F2 in 2023. His highlight at the circuit was a second-place finish in the F2 feature race last year, until then his best result in the series.

“I’ve driven around Silverstone quite a lot in the dry and the wet, of course doing British F4, and doing testing when I was back in British F4 and Euroformula [Open],” he said.

“It’s usually cold when it’s wet, so that makes it quite tricky for the drivers. I’ve driven Silverstone many times where you can’t feel your hands when driving! Hopefully this weekend’s a bit warmer than that. The forecast definitely says there’s a chance of rain each day which might spice things up for everyone, but I’ve always gone well here so I’m really looking forward to it.”

Maloney was correct in predicting a chance of rain: the track was sodden upon sunrise on Saturday following continuous rain since Friday afternoon. The opening Formula 3 race was delayed from its scheduled 9:20 BST start to 18:00. It remains to be seen whether the track will be slightly drier during the F2 action.

Header photo credit: Simon Galloway / LAT Images via Stake F1 Team Kick Sauber