The top three FIA Formula 2 qualifiers have told InsideF2 about the setup compromises they have to make for the Silverstone circuit.
ART’s Victor Martins, Rodin’s Alex Dunne and DAMS’ Jak Crawford were the fastest drivers in Friday’s Qualifying session ahead of the eighth round of the season.
While the Silverstone has many famous high-speed corners, such as Copse, Maggots, Becketts and Stowe, there are some tricky low-speed sections including Village and The Loop in the first sector, the long right-hander of Luffield and the Vale chicane at the very end of the lap.
It makes finding the perfect blend of car performance across a range of speeds hard to find.
“It’s always difficult to know how you are going to set up the car,” Irishman Dunne explained. “You can maybe be a bit more stable and save the rear [tyres] a bit more, or you can have a bit more front end in the car and just manage the rears yourself.”
He added that it’s “tricky” to get it right but praised his Rodin mechanics and engineers for doing a good job, saying their experience is vital to finding a balance that allows him to perform well.
Pole sitter Martins said that his ART team have delivered a strong car for Qualifying this season.
But he admitted that creating the right setup for the races has been challenging for the team.
“In the races, if I’m realistic, we have not been that strong,” he said, adding that “sometimes we have not raced, so it’s a bit tough to get some data to know what to improve,” referening his failure to start the race in Imola and being eliminated at Turn 1 in Monaco.
Speaking about the Silverstone setup, he said it is a “compromise”, explaining that the new F2 car is playing a bigger role in the setup trade-off than it’s predecessor.
In 2024, the F2 series introduced a car more similar to that of Formula 1, with ground-effect underfloors playing a larger role in creating downforce.
“This new car is definitely playing an even bigger role in the compromise with the setup between high-speed, medium-speed and low-speed.
“At the end [of races] where you have big degredation (deg), or when you are on a track where it is most likely to have bigger deg, the effect is bigger,” the Frenchman said.
"Yesss! Allez!" ??@VictorMartinsFR claims @aramco Pole Position at Silverstone! ??#F2 #BritishGP pic.twitter.com/saAClo2wFx
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Third-placed Crawford agreed that it’s a circuit requiring a compromise, despite the challenging high-speed sections.
“I think everyone knows it’s quite a lateral track [in terms of force on the car], these cars they work in a certain window that’s really easy for these kind of corner speeds.
“At a place like here, you kind of sacrifice [in certain corners]. Maybe that was our problem! We were not so fast in the slow speed, which probably hurt us a bit more.
Unlike in Formula 1, the Parc Fermé rules aren’t as strict in Formula 2. Teams are able to change the cars set up following Qualifying, with the only item teams must stick with is the setting of the rear wing.
Teams select a low downforce, medium downforce, or high downforce wing setting that is locked in for the weekend.
IMAGE CREDIT – Photo by James Sutton – Formula 1/Formula Motorsport Limited via Getty Images
