Roman Staněk has been fighting for a better season with Invicta Racing after his two tough previous F2 seasons with Trident. Looking for a new challenge, he made the switch to Invicta Racing, with the hope of showing what he is capable of. However, the F2 season has been a roller coaster for the driver. The Czech driver is currently 14th in the Formula 2 championship, with the aim of battling his way up.
The Formula 2 season began on a high for Staněk as he managed to score four points during the sprint race in Australia, where he finished P5. The Czech driver was set to start P3 for the feature race. This occurred after a good Qualifying and with the help of several grid penalties applied. Unfortunately, with the Feature Race cancelled due to the weather conditions, Staněk did not get a proper chance to fight for points. Perhaps, it could have been a significant weekend for him to secure even more points for the team.
A tricky start to the season
Bahrain proved to be an immensely difficult weekend for the Invicta driver. Even though he had a decent qualifying, once again securing P5, while his teammate qualified on pole for the first time, the rest of the weekend was lacklustre. After an unfortunate sprint race where Staněk ended P15 after a lack of pace and a close grid, the driver did not take home any points. Similarly, the Feature Race ended in disappointment for Staněk as he finished P17. He appeared to have a great chance of gaining points and spent a large part of the race impressively defending his position. He stayed in the top 10 until the last five laps. However, with an immensely tight field, he did not successfully stay in the points until the checkered flag.
Jeddah was quite the roller coaster for the Invicta Racing driver as he managed to grab another four points during the Sprint Race, where he finished P5 and the team scored double points. However, he also received a three-place grid penalty for impeding, which took away his chance of starting the race with a reverse grid pole. The Czech had an unfortunate Feature Race, where the team chose the alternative strategy and had to pit on lap 23 of 28. This ultimately landed him at the back of the pack, finishing just out of the points in P12.
The triple header
Thankfully, the triple header proved to be an improvement for the driver. Imola proved to be a better weekend for him. Even with the chaos of the qualifying session not being resumed due to the red flag brought out with six minutes left on the clock. After starting P12 in the sprint, he managed to fight his way to P8 into the points. Once again, Staněk was on an alternate strategy to his teammate, Fornaroli, in the feature race and ended up P17.
Although the Feature Race did not end well for Staněk, the Imola weekend showed a more consistent progress and gave better insight into what the Invicta driver is capable of.
Monaco had its ups and downs for Staněk. While he did not get points in the sprint race, he did manage to score points in the chaotic feature race, where he finished P7. Barcelona was once again a disappointment for the F2 driver, as he did not manage to secure any points over the weekend.
With the field often separated by a few tenths, there is more pressure to get everything right at exactly the right moment. This also makes it all the more difficult to secure points, as anything can happen when the field is this close.
Chasing podiums and points
The next race set to take place in Austria over June 27-29. With a bit of a break between Barcelona and Austria, Staněk will have had the time to recharge and prepare for the next race weekend.
The Czech driver will be hoping to fight his way to his first podium of the season and will undoubtably be ready to grapple more points for the team.
