Sergio’s F2 presser from the Sprint Race.
In order of appearance:
- Robert Shwartzman (PREMA Racing)
- Mick Schumacher (PREMA Racing)
- Guanyu Zhou (UNI-Virtuosi)
SA: A question for Robert and Mick – when you have a track like Spa with long straights and high speed corners, even some low-speed corners, to what extent are you able, within the team, to follow your own personal preferred set-up route?
RS: Well, I mean, me and Mick we have quite similar baseline balance and then we can obviously ask for our personal set-up changes, like the wing or something that we prefer. Obviously, we have a bit different driving style and everybody has their own preference in terms of car balance but from the general balance itself we have the same parts so it’s just small like, you know, fine-tuning which we do on the car just to sort of get matched for each driver to be as better as possible.
Set-up magic from PREMA
MS: Well, both of us have knowledge of this track (having Schu Sr genes it’s easy, mate!) and in general of tracks that we’ve driven on and we’ll drive on. I think that we share knowledge from last year’s car so for me I know what I want and I know what I need so we follow kind of path I think that Robert, not having driven that much this car yet, kind of follows us through but nevertheless, you know, he has, as he said, different driving style. So yeah, it doesn’t mean that he’s gonna be quicker in my car and it doesn’t mean that I’ll be quick in his car. Also internally in the car there are differences, you won’t find a car that’s 100% the same to another one on the grid so therefore you have to adapt, you have to see OK, how’s this car handling compared to the others and therefore readapt the set-ups.
SA: Mick, congratulations for quite consistent weekend! With the experience you have nowadays, what would you’ve done differently in your first year in Formula 2?
MS: Umm, going back to the first year, I think we were obviously on an unlucky pace at the time. We had a few issues mechanically and some, you know, coming together which was not great but nevertheless I think, you know, I took it as a learning year and definitely I think now with the knowledge I have… I don’t think I would’ve been any quicker (in year one) because the thing is the tyres are completely different (2019 to 2020) so the knowledge I had at the end of the year was really kind of be (erased?)… This one-year experience, I mean we saw a few other drivers like Guanyu as well, they were doing really good jobs on those particular tyres but also the team had, you know, very good kind of data with it which you know helped us to develop ourselves, some quicker that others. For me, I’m very focused on this year and I think we’re doing a good job. Obviously, already I had a few unlucky weekends but nevertheless I think now we’re back on track and we’re coming in big steps so you know that is kind of what counts at the moment.
iberianmph.com 