Louis Delétraz was delighted with his performance during Qualifying for the FIA Formula 2 championship round at Silverstone on Friday afternoon, and he feels his Charouz Racing System team have a good shot at the Feature race win on Saturday.
Delétraz will start the Feature from fourth on the grid, sharing the second row with team-mate Antonio Fuoco, and he feels the car feels good so far this weekend in the Northamptonshire sunshine.
“First of all, nice weather at Silverstone, which isn’t always the case,” said Delétraz to The Checkered Flag. “We had a good qualifying yesterday, good practice, we have a good car.
“There’s been a few runs we were very competitive. We had a bit of bad luck in Red Bull Ring with engine, but that is racing. I am looking forward to catching up points this week.”
Delétraz has been pleased with his recent pace that has seen him take podium finishes in both Monte Carlo and the Circuit Paul Ricard, although he reckons his biggest result to date was denied to him due to the engine problem at the Red Bull Ring that he felt took away a chance of a maiden win.
“We’ve had good runs in Monaco and Paul Ricard, always in the top eight and two podiums, two P2’s,” said the Swiss racer. “I think we were the biggest points scorers on Monaco and Paul Ricard events, which was great.
“At the Red Bull Ring we were on for the win I think in race one, because we’d had such good tyres that were really looked after, and I was just waiting for the final five laps for the drop.
“But I didn’t see the final five laps due to the engine, and then you start sixteenth next day and you have no chance, you can only go back to P10 and then there was a crash. A weekend to forget but now we’re starting strong and I think that we have the pace today.”
Delétraz feels his first win in Formula 2 cannot be that far away after his recent strong pace, and starting from fourth at Silverstone, he hopes to move forward, although he reckons polesitter George Russell will be tough to beat.
“I think it’s going to be a long race, safety car start, but for sure the soft will have a lot of degradation with this heat,” said Delétraz. “We will have to see, all will be decided in the last five laps again.
“We have had the pace recently, I really felt like Red Bull Ring was going to be the one, but that’s racing.
“George looks really quick all weekend, probably the hardest to beat and hopefully I can get passed the DAMS of [Alexander] Albon and my team-mate!”
