American driver Jak Crawford endured a difficult weekend at Round 10 of the 2023 FIA Formula 2 championship in Hungary, saying he made mistakes and wrong decisions.
The 18-year-old described his weekend as “really tough”, finishing 14th in the Sprint Race and 17th in the Feature Race, won by Aussie Jack Doohan.
Despite some “decent” pace in practice, the Red Bull Junior Team driver’s weekend began to unravel in qualifying, which is hugely important around the Hungaroring in Budapest.
“I made a big mistake on my first run, I didn’t get my references in and this hurt me in the second round,” the F2 rookie explained.
This left Crawford 17th on the grid for both races: “We knew it was going to be tough to score points from there,” he said.
The Hitech Pulse-Eight driver made up three spots on the opening lap of the Sprint Race on Saturday, but remained there for the rest of the race, calling it “quite a boring race”.
Moving to Sunday, the American started on the soft compound tyre and was one of the first to pit for fresh rubber, which Crawford said was “bold”.
But the former PREMA F3 driver said this hurt his race a lot.
“I ended up battling a lot on my out lap and I damaged the tyre a bit,” Charlotte-born Crawford said.
He added: “In some battles, I made some wrong decisions and lost some pace from that.
“From then on, it was a recovery and we ended up where we started.”
Crawford’s rookie F2 season has been somewhat successful, with three podiums and a Sprint Race victory in Austria.
But for the podium success, Crawford is now level on points with teammate and fellow F2 rookie Isack Hadjar, who finished fifth in Sunday’s Feature Race.
In the teams’ championship, Hitech Pulse-Eight sit ninth, seven points behind Spanish outfit Campos Racing.
Image: Formula Motorsport Ltd
