With four rounds left on the F2 calendar, Campos Racing’s Pepe Martí is taking stock of his 2025 season. The Red Bull junior driver has experienced a rollercoaster year, filled with impressive highs, challenging lows. From the podium celebrations in Bahrain, Austria, and Budapest to the setbacks in Monaco, Martí has navigated a season defined by unpredictability. As the championship heads into its final stretch, he reflects on the lessons learned, the progress made, and the areas where he still aims to improve.
Summer reflections and lessons learned
Reflecting during the summer break, the Red Bull junior driver admits it has been an inconsistent season for Campos Racing. The year has indeed not been without setbacks. Martí suffered DNFs in both the Feature and Sprint races in Monaco. Still, after a strong showing in Hungary, he feels the team has regained some momentum heading into the final rounds.
“We’ve had great success. We’ve had terrible weekends, we’ve had a bit of everything, I would say. Ideally, you learn from your mistakes, and you raise your chin when you’ve had a good weekend.
“But it’s been a bit confusing at times where we’ve been really, really quick, but we haven’t really been able to find ourselves in a good position. So, it’s been up and down. As a team, you try not to make the same mistake twice, as a driver as well. And there’s things that I think I’ve improved quite a bit throughout the year.”
Despite the challenges, the Spaniard acknowledged that the season has also had several positive moments.
“So, in that sense, I’m quite confident. We’ve been through 10 rounds this year. Six of them we’ve been really quick. So, there’s no reason to believe why we shouldn’t be quick going forward. We’ll just keep trying to find that positive momentum.”
Room for improvement
While there have been notable highlights, Martí has struggled with qualifying performances and to start at the sharp end on a Sunday.
“I’m still not happy with the qualifying performances. I think even generally, as a team, we’ve been struggling a bit more than we expected in qualifying, especially if you look at 2024 when we were very quick, but there’s been weekends where, like I said before, it just didn’t feel like it was all meshing together.
“So, there’s a bit of not everything going our way, or just not really understanding why. There’s been times where we’ve been a bit behind. But to be honest, especially after Silverstone where we struggled and had a difficult weekend, we really delved deep and analysed what went wrong, and we think we found the reason for why.“
A talent for race starts
Another positive takeaway from the season, and overall his career, are his race starts. Martí recognized that he’s always had a natural talent for them and is able to make up several positions at the beginning of a race.
“I think I’ve always been quite a natural at good starts, and even go-karts, F4, F3, and now F2. I’ve always been quite good at starts and first laps and finding my feet.
“This year, I’ve found a sweet spot of where I know this is going to happen, I know this is where I have to be, this is the line I have to take. And we’ve had rocket ship launches as well. We’ve always been really good at starts and recently, we’ve really been using it in our advantage. We’ve been massive in that area.”
Focus on Feature race wins
While Martí has secured three Sprint race victories this year, he aims to translate that success into Feature race wins, for which improving his qualifying pace is key.
“Races are very different starting from first or fourth, let alone 11th or 20th. But generally, I wouldn’t say that it annoys me, because in the end, I know that I’m quicker.
“I know that I’m capable of doing it the same way on a Friday and on a Saturday and Sunday. But I feel just the way that the Championship is, especially this year, it’s the closest margin so far in qualifying, between first, second and probably between the top 10 as well.
“It just shows that a lot of teams have done a really, really good job over the winter break. They’ve done a good job.
“We’re one of the only teams that has two drivers in the top 10 in the standings. So, it shows that each team has managed to at least make one of their drivers feel very comfortable in the car and able to get good results.”
Eyes on the Teams’ Championship
Martí is confident that Campos Racing can compete strongly in the Teams’ Championship over the final four rounds, while he also aims to improve his own standing in the Drivers’ Championship. They’re 43 points behind Invicta as things stand.
“As a team, we know what our strengths are, and what our weaknesses are. As a driver, I know myself very well, so each person tries to do their job as best as possible, and as a team, I think we do.
“We do fantastic job, and I’m hoping that we can take the fight in the Teams’ Championship, as we are doing so far, and take it to the end of the year. Hopefully by doing that, I can be higher up in the Drivers’ by the end of this the year, which I think is very, very doable.
“I don’t really mind the summer break. It’s good to disconnect. Ideally, I would love to keep on racing throughout the whole year consistently, but there’s a bit of everything second half of the season coming up.
“There’s a lot of tracks that we really enjoy driving at. There are tracks that I think we were strong around last year, and there’s tracks where I did barely any laps, like Baku. So there’s a bit of everything. I’m full of motivation, and I’m confident that we can secure more great results in the second half of the year.”
Looking ahead
As the 2025 F2 season heads into its final rounds, Pepe Martí and Campos Racing are determined to build on their momentum, recover from the setbacks, and maximize their potential on the remaining circuits. With his natural talent for strong starts, the lessons learned from inconsistent weekends, and a clear focus on improving qualifying pace, Martí is confident that he can finish the year strongly – both in the Drivers’ and Teams’ standings.
