The first of three F2 races at Baku City Circuit saw TRIDENT’s Laurens Van Hoepen finishing in second, 1.058 seconds behind race winner Dino Beganovic, after the Dutch driver started the Sprint Race in P2. The 21 year-old secured back-to-back Sprint Race podiums, having finished third in the Madrid Sprint Race last time out.
Speaking in the post-Sprint press conference, in attendance by Pit Debrief, the Dutch driver spoke on his performance and the challenges that the Baku City Circuit provides along with the approach he has going into the Feature Races and the final stretch of the Formula 2 championship.
”Pace wasn’t too bad” in the first race out of two in same day
When asked about his immediate thoughts following the race and whether he was happy with his performance, van Hoepen said: “Yeah, I am. I think overall we did a good race. The pace wasn’t too bad. Dino, I think, was a bit quicker than us today, or this race, let’s hope not in the Feature after this afternoon, but overall I’m happy.
“Of course I would have wanted to be able to fight a bit more for the win, especially starting from P2 and Dino having a good start from P3, but overall we kept it clean, we didn’t make any real big mistakes, so yeah, overall I’m happy.”
The TRIDENT driver spoke about the essentials in order to have a good lap at the notoriously tricky Baku City Circuit, highlighting the need for little to no mistakes and getting the entry speeds into certain corners correctly.
“It’s so important because as long as you have a good run on the straights, you’re kind of safe, but as soon as you make a tiny mistake there, you’re so vulnerable into T1 that you just have to nail every lap and that puts some pressure on it. Also with T18 and T19 being not the easiest corners to do with such high speed, it’s tricky, but also gives a good aspect for the racing.”
Experienced more rear degradation than expected
van Hoepen emphasised that while he was happy about the result today, there is still a lot to do before the two Feature Races, with the first scheduled for later today and the second on Saturday.
“Honestly, I think we were good, but we still have some work to do. I think Dino was a bit quicker than us overall, so yeah, we’ll try and work a bit and then hopefully in the future we have an even better pace and are able to go a few places up to the front.”
He highlighted the unusually high amount of rear tyre degradation he faced as he attempted to fight for the win against Beganovic. Additionally, he explained how drivers can manage it by adopting the right mindset.
“The rear deg today was a bit more than I expected it to be. So I kind of got called out a bit in the end of the race by not focusing enough on the beginning of the race. So it’s something we can definitely work on. But overall, it’s like Dino said, not the most that we’ve had.”
“And we’ve definitely had so much worse that it’s definitely manageable, and you just have to focus on it and know what you have to do to be able to get away with it. And then I think, yeah, if you do that right, especially in the future race later this afternoon, you can benefit from that if you do it well.”
Looking to the final stretch of the championship
Although the Dutch driver sits in the bottom half of the Drivers’ Standings, he has the opportunity to climb further up the order with a strong points haul as the margins remain tight.
When asked by Pit Debrief how important it will be to balance risk versus reward especially with a significant amount of points up for grabs this weekend, he echoed similar sentiments to Dunne, saying: “Yeah, I think it’s similar to Alex. I mean, it’s not like I’m fighting for a championship. So yeah, I have, I think, a lot less to lose than some other people around me.”
“So I think I’m going to be able to maybe use that to my advantage and just try to get as many points as possible this weekend. And yeah, hopefully that will work out well.”
Approach to preparing for a street circuit
The Dutch driver admitted that his preparation for street circuits does not differ significantly from that of any other track, despite the higher risk of making a mistake. However, he noted that he may pay closer attention to certain details during a track walk at street circuits.
“I think for me as well. I think, honestly, it stays very similar to normal tracks. Maybe I pay a bit more attention during the track, hope to see if anything’s changed. But apart from that, no, it’s very similar. You just focus on the stuff that you have to do.”
“You just look at the run plans, maybe try a bit more. But honestly, in all tracks, you have a bit of a similar plan, and you try to use the track time as much as possible.“
He added: “I got reminded by the team this morning not to do anything silly, but then as soon as I put my helmet on and I went in the car, it was out of my mind because you just don’t think about it. You think about what you can do, and you’re not going to go for an overtake because you’re scared. You just have to go for the moves you think you can do, and that way, the approach doesn’t change too much.”
van Hoepen: Baku is a “tricky” circuit
Van Hoepen turned to previous footage of past restarts at the Baku City Circuit in finding extra knowledge on how to approach them in terms of getting certain aspects right, like reaction times.
”It’s tricky here. Also, with the brakes and the tyres cooling down a lot after that long straight. I watched quite a few videos from previous restarts here to have some knowledge and see what happened, but it’s always the same thing.”, he said.
“You just have to be very alert and focus on the reaction time that’s good and let you go. I think my second restart wasn’t the best I’ve done, but it just worked out. At least I have some more experience for the Feature Races later.”
However, starting further down the grid for the first of two Feature Races later today, Pit Debrief asked van Hoepen and Beganovic about their expectations for strategic variation across the field. The Dutch driver echoed Beganovic’s sentiments, noting that most drivers will likely favour the preferred strategy given the high likelihood of safety cars.
“Same as Dino. No, but I mean, he said everything. If you have strong pace, you can definitely overtake around here. But the strategy is quite similar for everybody because it’s so risky to do anything else with all the safety cars that are happening on this track.”
