ART Grand Prix’s Tasanapol Inthraphuvasak left the F2 Sprint Race in Silverstone frustrated despite finishing P5. Although the Thai driver added four points to his tally, the ART driver suffered a slow launch off the line, dropping down the order before fighting back to finish where he started.
Reflecting on his race, Inthraphuvasak said: “I’m a bit disappointed. Obviously, we started P5 and if you look at the result, it’s a really good result. But I had a really bad start, starting from P5. I think at the end of the first lap, I dropped to either ninth or 10th.”
Noting that the team will need to review the data to understand his difficult start, he believes that his pace improved significantly as he grew more confident in the car. He added that recovering to P5 was a strong effort and valuable for points, highlighting how difficult overtaking remains at Silverstone due to the high-speed corners and challenging wind conditions.
“We need to look into the data for why I had such a difficult start, but then afterwards the pace was really good, and I felt really good with the car and with myself as well.”
“I think I did a good job to come through the field and finish P5 and collect good points. With this track, having a lot of high-speed corners, it’s always hard to follow and I think hard to make any moves, especially with the wind that we have currently.”
“Happy with how it went overall” says Inthraphuvasak on his Sprint Race
“There was no headwind on the straight, so it was really difficult to pass anyone. But I think I did a pretty good job to move forward and the pace was really good.”, Inthraphuvasak said. “So happy with how it went overall, excluding the start. So I think starting from P6, we can definitely move forward tomorrow.”
The 20 year-old explained that pushing throughout the race took a toll on his tyres, which led to a slight drop in pace towards the end compared to those ahead. However, adding that early setbacks forced him to push harder in traffic, the length of the safety car period also helped certain drivers at the front.
“I was pushing basically the whole race and I think that ruined my tyres a bit for the end of the race. At the end of the race I think my pace dropped a bit compared to the guys in front.”
“But it’s just because I fell back in the beginning and I had to push to get past the others. But I think how long the safety car was today, it definitely helped some guys in front out.”
“Better than expected” tyre degradation in the Sprint
Towards the end of the race, Inthraphuvasak explained how tyre degradation affected several drivers, suggesting it could play a bigger role in a longer race tomorrow. Noting that the soft tyres performed better than anticipated despite the hot conditions, he expects a similar strategy in the Feature Race.
“There was a lot of drivers struggling with the tyres in the end, so I think if we have a longer race tomorrow, for sure degradation will come into play. I think the strategy will be the same tomorrow. Looking at how it went today, I think the softs actually worked a lot better than expected with the hot conditions today.”
He added: “But tomorrow it’s going to be colder conditions, so we need to discuss which strategy we’re going for starting from P6. Obviously, you can risk on the strategy, but there’s a lot to lose as P6 is already a good starting position to score some good points.”
“So let’s see what we decide with the team. But tomorrow with colder temps, I think we should expect less degradation than today, but I think there will still be a lot.”
Inthraphuvasak: “Moving forward is the goal tomorrow”
“For sure moving forward is the goal tomorrow. We know we have a really good package in the car, in the race especially, and I think the podium is definitely not out of sight.”, the Thai driver said, when asked about his expectations for Sunday’s Feature Race.
Building on a strong weekend in Austria, Inthraphuvasak takes confidence from his recent performances. Feeling confident ahead of the Feature Race, he hopes to continue delivering strong results moving forward.
“I think we can aim for that definitely tomorrow. But it’s been a good two rounds now with the pace being there consistently. So like I said in Spielberg, I’m happy with the step I made on myself to be back fighting where we belong.”
“I’m carrying that momentum and I am in a good rhythm right now. So I’m really looking forward to the next rounds too.”
