Hitech driver Jack Crawford admits this weekend was challenging for him in Bahrain. The American driver looks back to his weekend and admits there is a lot to improve.

“It was a tough weekend, lots learnt though. In Qualifying, we just didn’t have the pace. It was very close though and I think we were only 3 tenths from potentially P5 so it was really close, but we were on the bottom end of that  and we just didn’t have the speed there, but we knew we would have in the race.”

Crawford finished 10th in the Sprint Race, but after a penalty, the Hitech driver fell to 14th place, which is not bad, but not what neither the driver nor the team were pursuing.

“In the Sprint Race, we went for a different strategy. I started on Primes so I spent most of the race at the bottom of the pack and working my way up as the others started to degrade, I ended up finishing in P10, but I had a penalty so I moved back to 14th.”

Nevertheless, Crawford seems optimistic for his performance throughout the weekend.

“It was a good race, it showed our speed, we were the highest finisher on primes, the harder compound, so that was positive.”

Sunday came around and the Feature Race started. The level of difficulty for the rookie was significant.

“Going into the Feature Race we knew it was going to be difficult and a lot would depend on strategy” said Crawford.

“I think that both from my side and the team’s side we could have done a bit better, just with the strategy in general as well as with tyre saving. ”

Crawford keeps a positive attitude and is willing to learn from the slips from the weekend in Bahrain. 

“Still, it was a positive race. We gained 7 positions and I think that with a bit different strategy we could have finished in the top five. Of course, that’s in hindsight.”

The Hitech rookie is excited for the upcoming rounds in the FIA Formula 2 2023 season. Crawford is ready to put more work into his performance. 

“I think I really learnt a lot this weekend even though it wasn’t the greatest weekend results-wise, zero points. But I learnt so much and I am definitely more ready for Jeddah than I was for Bahrain.’

Image: Redbull Content Pool