Campos Formula 2 racer Pepe Marti suggested his team are not to blame for the technical problems their cars experienced in the first two rounds.
F2 introduced an all-new chassis – the Dallara F2 2024 – and a revised 3.4-litre turbo power unit for this season.
However the cars of Marti and team mate Isack Hadjar appear to have suffered more than most teams from reliability problems. Hadjar’s car went into ‘safe mode’ in the Jeddah races, forcing him into retirement both times. He had another problem in Bahrain, while Marti experienced a DRS failure early in the Jeddah sprint race.
Speaking with media including RaceFans, Marti suggested that Campos were not to blame for the problems experienced by him and Hadjar.
“I don’t mean to put the blame on anyone else, but my team were checking statistical data and I think they had zero DNFs due to mechanical failures in F2 since, I believe, 2019,” he explained. “So to have three problems, engine-wise, in a weekend – and one DRS problem in a weekend – is, to me, exceptional. It would make no sense.
“I’m not putting the blame on anyone else,” he stressed, “but I feel like obviously it’s a new car, so there are going to be things that have to be restructured or replaced or whatever.
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“I mean, how often do we get F1 teams that go out on track and be like ‘oh, we have an overheating issue of 95 degrees over the target temperature’? That’s obviously going to happen every so often and my team are trying their best to work around and trying to understand what the source of the problem is.”
Marti said Campos have worked closely with F2’s suppliers to ensure they don’t experience any further problems with their car this weekend at the Albert Park circuit in Melbourne, where F2 supports the Australian Grand Prix.
“Obviously you try to inform Mechachrome, try to inform Dallara as quick as possible so they can also work on it if it’s their part of the problem,” he said. “And if it’s our part of the problem, then my mechanics, my engineers, they’ve been working non-stop since Jeddah. So for that, obviously we have to trust them a lot.
“We go out on-track and we expect the brakes to brake, throttle to not get stuck – it’s obviously just like that. You drive out and you want to have that confidence that everything is working fine. Normally that’s the case, but sometimes it won’t be.
“From my side, I’m not concerned. I…
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