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FormulaNerds spoke to F2 driver, Zak O’Sullivan, ahead of his home race weekend, the British Grand Prix. The Williams Junior confirmed how much he’s looking forward to racing around Silverstone after the first half of the season didn’t meet expectations.
Zak O’Sullivan’s rookie season in Formula 2 sees him drive for the team that helped Théo Pourchaire win the 2023 championship. Unfortunately, ART Grand Prix haven’t been able to build on last year’s success.
With Victor Martins as a teammate, one could say the expectations for O’Sullivan and ART were high. However, this season hasn’t been smooth sailing.
After seven rounds, ART are eighth in the Teams’ Standings on 63 points. 42 of those points came from the F2 rookie, O’Sullivan. The British driver, who is also a member of the Williams Driver Academy, achieved five points positions this year. His most notable being the Feature Race in Monaco, where O’Sullivan stood on the top step of the podium, taking the win.
But now, moving onto Round 8, O’Sullivan will take to the track for his home race.
‘It doesn’t really change too much’
People say that racing in front of their home crowd can often give a driver an extra boost, but sometimes it can add an extra level of pressure. In a Virtual Media Roundtable ahead of the Silverstone weekend, FormulaNerds spoke to O’Sullivan more about this and how he feels ahead of his home race.
Speaking to us, O’Sullivan admitted:
“To be honest with you it’s like any other weekend. Of course, it’s a home race for me, it’s a track I enjoy driving. It’s a track most of the grid enjoys driving.
“But it doesn’t really change too much. I’m taking every weekend as it comes at the moment. I’m just focusing on each session and executing our weekend as well as we can.
“I’m looking forward to it, obviously, it’s nice to have a home race, so looking forward to it.”
O’Sullivan spoke further in the VMR to F2 media about the track itself. He noted that in the early days of his career, Silverstone “was the main track” that he tested at and that he was “always driving here”.
However, moving into the FIA feeder series of Formula 3 and F2, it’s not that often a driver takes to the British circuit. O’Sullivan told media that because of this, “any time” he races at Silverstone is “a good time”.
The Williams junior also spoke about what he particularly likes about the circuit, saying:
“In terms of corner complexes, I think everyone is going to say Maggotts and Becketts. From Copse onwards, I think it’s the best track on the calendar, it’s really really high speed, especially this year with the ground effects.
“I think it’ll be very very quick, especially in the races as well, you can really kind of feel the car moving around and it’s a unique series of corners.”
A tough season for ART
In addition to touching on Silverstone, O’Sullivan spoke to the VMR media about his difficult season. The ART driver admitted that it wasn’t just him struggling, it was the “whole team”.
However, he did confirm that both himself and Martins are “united over a common a goal and that’s to improve everyone, improve the team and get there because [they] both want to win.” O’Sullivan developed further on his comments, saying:
“I’ve had seasons like this in the past in simpler situations, my first year in F3, where you may not be fighting for wins every weekend but it doesn’t change the way you approach everything.
“You take every session as it comes and you focus on the best you can do and what I’ve learnt at least in these years in F3 and F2 is that normally, if you execute everything perfectly, you will always have a good result.
“So, I think focusing on your objectives, especially on a race weekend, is important and then outside the race weekend, in between the races, we’re looking to make bigger improvements but once we’re at the track, it’s full focus on execution because that’s the one thing we can control.”
O’Sullivan has yet to take pole position this season, but he does have a Feature Race win. He’s hoping for a strong weekend at his home race, and that begins later today with Qualifying.
Headline image: X @ZakOSullivan