Invicta Racing Team Principal James Robinson has praised Roman Stanek after the Czech driver scored his maiden FIA Formula 2 pole position in Hungary.
Stanek, who inherited his first Feature Race win in Belgium last weekend, topped qualifying in Budapest on Friday afternoon as the Invicta team locked out the front row for the first time in F2.
21-year-old Stanek beat team mate Leonardo Fornaroli by 0.146s to secure pole position for Sunday’s Feature Race.
It’s the teams third pole position of 2025, with Leonardo Fornaroli having taken top spot in Bahrain and in Austria.
“This hasn’t happened overnight,” Robinson said. “We’ve seen this from Roman since day 1, he really has a good understanding of the car.”
He told InsideF2 that Stanek’s results in the early part of this season hadn’t been reflective of the work he’d been putting in outside the car, insisting that the team “knew this was on the cards”.
But since Round Six in Spain, Stanek has started to deliver on his promise, especially in Qualifying, which Robinson told us at Silverstone was the key to the 21-year-old unlocking his potential.
Stanek achieved his first podium of the season in Austria, with third place in the Sprint Race, before repeating that result in Britain, where Fornaroli won the Sprint Race.
The former Trident driver was third on the road in Spa, after achieving a then-best qualifying of third place.
But post-race penalties for Rodin’s Alex Dunne and Campos’ driver Arvid Lindblad saw Stanek promoted to P1, eventually receiving the winner’s trophy during an impromptu podium ceremony in the Invicta garage in Hungary.
“He’s been on this trajectory since the start of the year,” Robinson said, “and even at the start of the year we saw flashes of it.
Fornaroli not impacted by offset run plan
The yellow Invicta cars had been strong throughout Friday afternoon’s session, which saw F2 Championship leader Leo Fornaroli carry out an alternative run plan.
While most of the teams and drivers went out more or less at the same time, Invicta and Fornaroli waited in the pit lane for others to complete their laps.
It meant the Italian could enjoy a clear track for his first run on the twisty Hungaroring, where the busy track can lead to a compromised lap.
Initially, the reigning F3 Champion appeared to have made perfect use of the open road, leaping from 22nd and last to provisional pole position, ahead of Stanek.
However, joy quickly turned to frustration as he saw the lap time deleted for exceeding track limits on the exit of Turn 1.
A second run on used tyres saw the championship leader put himself fourth on the grid.
While everyone else pushed to improve their times on a second run, Fornaroli waited in the pits, as he dropped to 10th place, while Stanek extended his advantage in P1.
The last man to set a time, Fornaroli launched himself onto the front row, alongside his team mate with the final lap of the session.
Team Principal Robinson said: “The plan was always to run a split strategy.”
He insisted that Fornaroli’s strategy wasn’t the defining factor behind the order of the team’s drivers.
“I don’t think it was the strategy that got Leo P2, neither did it cost him P1, there’s pros and cons in doing that strategy, he did one less lap than everyone else, but I don’t think it made a big difference either way to be honest.”
Asked what his message to the drivers will be on Sunday morning, regarding the run to Turn 1, Robinson said it would be a simple message: “Keep it clean and don’t crash into each other!”
Image Credit: Photo by Malcolm Griffiths – Formula 1/Formula Motorsport Limited via Getty Images
