Marcus Armstrong not at full potential despite Imola victory
Marcus Armstrong says he is yet to maximise his performance so far in the 2022 FIA Formula 2 season despite his sprint race victory at Imola.
Marcus Armstrong on the road to victory in Imola. (Formula Motorsport Limited)
The Kiwi said he was happy with the victory but still feels out of the championship fight.
"I feel as though I need to improve on a few things if I want to chase this championship," said the Hitech GP driver.
"I'm working hard with my team, its a fantastic environment at Hitech and they're helping to get the most out of myself, and at the moment its a process…"
"The championship is very long, so it is day by day and I have a lot to improve on."
Formerly a member of the Ferrari Driver Academy, Armstrong says it brought added support last weekend at the Emilia Romagna grand prix.
"A lot of the fans, for whatever reason, are supporting me this weekend, I think because I was in the FDA for so many years, so it feels really cool to have so much support."
Despite cruising to victory after taking the lead on the opening lap, it was no smooth sailing for the Kiwi, who crashed in practice before suffering a team radio outage during the race.
Armstrong calls it a "strange crash and a silly mistake".
"That sort of put a damper on my confidence going into quali…"
"So I don't feel as though I've maximised the package so far this season."
'We need to work hard and I need to focus on the small details and get the most out of myself."
One area that Armstrong seems to have mastered is the mental challenge of F2, taking the sprint race victory in a challenging weekend.
Armstrong didn't complete a single lap of dry running before the race start, qualified ninth in a wet qualifying session, and took the win without team radio during the race.
On his fifty-second Formula 2 start, Armstrong was clear-minded about his focus on team targets during the race.
"I was focusing just lap by lap, the car balance was not perfect, to be honest, in that race, and it was not the easiest."
"But I could see in my mirrors that Jehan [Daruvala] was also struggling."
"The race was about 25 laps but for me it seemed quite short."
