Claiming his fifth victory at the F2 Saudi Arabian GP, MP Motorsport’s Richard Verschoor exceeded all expectations, winning the Feature Race. After starting from P9 at the Jeddah Corniche circuit, he overtook Jak Crawford to execute a perfect race. This performance brought him back to the top of the standings, putting him at a 12-point advantage.
Pitting on the last laps
With the third round of the 2025 F2 season concluded, MP Motorsport will certainly be pleased with the result. While Verschoor took a risky alternative strategy, it paid off in the final laps of the Saudi Arabian GP. During a post-race press conference attended by Pit Debrief, the Dutch driver shared his perspective on the Feature. Not only was he pleased with the outcome, but he believed his race went “perfectly”:
“I think so. Before the race you think about the perfect scenario and of course going Prime-Option as we did today is quite risky as the Safety Car risk is high here. Even the pace, no Safety Car, pit stop was great. Everything was good.”
Moreover, Richard Verschoor explained his thought process and the moment when he knew his race could turn around. The MP Motorsport driver claimed his result felt possible from the first conversation he had with his race engineer:
“I think very soon. I heard from my engineer that my pace was very strong, that I was going quicker than the guys that had just pitted for fresher Primes. I knew that I was on for a good result, but you never know what happens. So I just kept pushing as hard as I could. I think at one point I was virtually P3. When I came out after the pitstop in P2 I thought that I might have a chance, but it was late.”
Yet, Verschoor perfectly handled the strategy with a late pitstop. He mentioned the team preferred to let him out on track as much as possible. The MP driver described how he felt incredibly confident with his pace throughout the race. Nevertheless, Verschoor talked about the very real risk he took when deciding to stay out so late:
“To be fair we were going to stay out as long as I was faster, but I kept being faster, at some point though you have to box. I was a bit scared personally for a VSC, then you can not box and you have to stay out longer. You still want to take advantage of the Option tyres.
“I thought I could easily do five laps on the Supersofts, so we set a target that if there was no Safety Car we box with five laps to go, and I would have some time to make up some ground, and that’s what we did.”
Following his pitstop, the Dutch switched to the supersofts with only a few laps left of the race. Verschoor admitted his thoughts were on keeping Crawford behind, despite the clear possibility of winning the Saudi Arabian GP ahead of him. However, he kept pushing, and his efforts proved to be fruitful:
“First it was about keeping Victor behind me because I didn’t expect the cold icy tyres when I went out of the box. It took me at least a lap before the tyres got warm.
“Jak was quite far away so I wasn’t sure if I was going to catch him but to be honest, I went all in. I didn’t care about the degradation that I could potentially have. I thought I just need to get within DRS as soon as I can and I think that was the right call in the end.”
Back on the top step of the podium
This win put Richard Verschoor in the first position in the F2 Drivers’ Championship. Meanwhile, the Saudi Arabian GP showcased Verschoor’s great understanding of both the car and MP as a team. Still, he is confident their pace was good, but the Dutch believes it is more important to try and push further:
“At the moment everything is feeling good. I have a good and strong feeling with the team. They give me a lot of confidence, of course they have given me a good car as well. It was a big shame in qualifying, I think ninth was not reflective of our pace.
“But those are the moments when you still need to perform together. P9 and not be outside of the Top 10, I think that’s what helped us this weekend, always try, even if you have a bad situation. To still be in the Top 10 to fight for points every race, I think that’s what we all keep trying to do but for sure I am very confident in the team that they will keep pushing, keep improving and I know exactly what I have to work on myself.”
