Dennis Hauger reported early on in the Sprint Race in Barcelona that he was struggling with the set-up of the car. 

The race started in wet conditions with a lot of standing water around the circuit but the track was ready for slicks by Lap 20/26. 

He spoke to InsideF2 Editor and motorsport journalist, Jim Kimberley shortly after the race and cleared up what he meant on his radio call. 

“Tyres in general was drying up. It was just difficult to keep the tyres and feel the grip, how it was. In the end, I don’t know how they managed in front to do so much better but yeah, they managed a bit better and we just couldn’t hang on to it.”

Hauger finished fourth in the Sprint, he stayed close to Victor Martins for the majority of the race but didn’t pass him, as was the pace of the ART cars. He reflected with InsideF2 about his chances of a podium today:

“Probably, the main thing was tyres and with [Théo] Pourchaire being one more lap than us before the Safety Car he just had more temperature and more knowledge so made it easy for him to go around those in the end on the first lap”

He was then asked about the tyre warm up and how difficult it is to warm the tyres after exiting the pits or under Safety Car. 

Unlike Formula 1, Formula 2 doesn’t have tyre blankets. This makes it especially difficult to generate temperature and the changing track conditions couldn’t have helped Hauger’s mission for a podium.

“That was the main thing for us on the first lap after the Safety Car. I mean, I had more pace than Martins but just couldn’t manage around with the wet set-up and without DRS.”

Tomorrow he starts sixth, ahead of Martins and behind Pourchaire. He looked forward to the Feature Race: 

“Hopefully dry. I think we can do a good job then so we’ll see. We’ll just do our best and then go for some points.”

Image: Formula Motorsport Limited