Following the FIA Formula 2 Bahrain Qualifying Session, Victor Martins has discussed how he and the team have changed, following a challenging year as he reflects on his 2024 Formula 2 season.
Victor Martins was a provisional fan favourite for the 2024 title, proving on many occasions that he has the talent and raw speed, but luck wasn’t always on his side, having six retirements over the course of the season. But many through no fault of his own, unfortunately leaving the [at the time] Alpine Academy Driver lower in the drivers’ standings than he may have hoped.
ART Grand Prix had a difficult 2024 season, taking nine races to achieve their first win and not a single Feature Race Pole all season. Whereas, 2025 has started almost perfectly for the French team, with Martins inheriting Pole for the season opener down-under after disaster struck for Prema’s Gabriele Mini – exciting fans who expected Martins to be a contender for the title this year.
Two grid penalties for the Italian after impeding the DAMS of Jak Crawford saw Victor Martins take the first Pole of the season, providing an insight into how well the ART Grand Prix team have improved since a rocky start to last year.
This momentum has clearly continued to the toasty Bahrain International Circuit, seeing Martins start on the front row for the Feature race, 0.155s off of Pole-Sitter Leonardo Fornaroli.
Inside F2’s Fraser Ford asked the newly-announced Williams Development Driver about the development of ART Grand Prix throughout last season, on both Victor’s side and the teams.
“You said at the beginning of the press conference ‘We are back’ – that you are able to fight for Pole Position regularly again this season.”
“You’ve alluded to the changes towards the back-end of last season. Do you understand the changes that ART has made to the car, and have you had to change your driving style to adapt to these changes?”
Martins answered, also evaluating the importance of strong communication within the team:
“We don’t understand everything, because F2 is really difficult and tough for the engineers to understand what’s going on in the car, and also ourselves – as drivers we sometimes make a mistake and we don’t understand where it’s coming from. So definitely good communication and confidence between the two parts – myself and the team is key.”
Admitting that the season was a difficult one for the French team, sometimes due to his own mistakes, he continued as he praised the team for their progress, making big improvements after Barcelona.
“I think we started to really be good last year from Barcelona, where we knew what was wrong and also myself – on the driving style suiting the car or not.”
“Working out in the sim and also the confidence helped a lot, I’m sure right now if I had the car of last year, I would be much quicker than how I was last year. When you are doing well, you just live on that momentum. ”
Martins has definitely lived on the miraculous momentum from the Australian opening round, signing with the Williams Driver Academy to become the ninth member after parting ways with Alpine.
Last weekend saw a new beginning for the Francophone, completing many laps with the 2023 specification of the FW45 at Monza, alongside fellow Formula 2 and Williams Academy Driver Luke Browning.
Credit: ART GRAND PRIX
