Ralph Boschung has explained why maintaining consistency will be crucial in his bid to becoming Formula 2 champion, following his maiden series win in Bahrain.
Boschung, who had completed 95 series starts without taking a win, took a stunning lights to flag victory in the sprint race before taking second place in the feature from 10th on the grid.
But, maintaining his Bahrain form may prove tricky if Theo Pourchaire’s runaway feature race win was anything to go by, as the Frenchman dominated proceedings, finishing 19 seconds clear of Boschung.
“Well, I wouldn’t want to maintain it,” Boschung exclusively told Total-Motorsport.com. “If anything, I still want to improve.
“I think consistency will be a big factor if you want to fight for [the] title. But it’s very early days. Anything can happen. So we always have to stay grounded and be sharp to react to crucial moments during the race weekend.”
Tyre management key to victory
After qualifying 10th for the feature race, Boschung would start on the reverse grid pole for the sprint alongside Czech rookie Roman Stanek.
With on-form feature race pole sitter Pourchaire still a threat from tenth on the grid, the opening laps were critical for Boschung if he wanted to hold the Frenchman at bay.
With Stanek quickly losing second to the warring DAMS pair of Ayumu Iwasa and Arthur Leclerc, Boschung was able to slowly stretch the gap out to over three seconds by Lap 11.
“Well, for sure, getting a good start and trying to pull the gap,” explained Boschung. “I knew that it’s quite hard to overtake in Bahrain.
“[I] just tried to manage the tyres and make a gap. [The] gap got bigger towards the end of the race because the guys were fighting in the back.”
Sensing victory with seven to eight laps to go
Although Pourchaire had climbed to fifth, Boschung still controlled the race from ART’s Victor Martins, who quickly came under attack from Dennis Hauger in the final 10 laps of the race.
The Norwegian’s charge gave Boschung a chance to nurse his tyres to the finish, taking an emotional maiden win and Campos’ first F2 win since the passing of Adrian Campos Sr in 2021.
“I knew the gap was around six seconds,” said Boschung. “So I knew if I don’t make any mistakes, if nothing breaks down, it should be enough.
“I also knew I had more juice in the tyres because I didn’t push like crazy. So in case I [came under attack], I could use more of the tires to go quicker.
“When I crossed the finish line, I had tears in my eyes and took a while to respond to my engineer. [Finally], I jumped out of the car and hugged the whole team, [it] was a fantastic moment.”
