2021 Round 5 post-Race 2 press conference

Thoughts from Doohan, Schumacher and Sargeant

FIA Formula 3: Congratulations to the top three finishers of Race 2 of the FIA Formula 3 Championship here at Spa-Francorchamps. In third place, Logan Sargeant for Charouz Racing System, in second place David Schumacher for Trident, and taking his second win of the season, our race winner Jack Doohan, also for Trident. Many congratulations Jack, it's been a long day and you've ended it in the best possible way what does it mean to you to win at Spa-Francorchamps?

Jack Doohan: It means quite a lot. I'm really happy to be able to capitalize on this morning's sacrifice. This morning was difficult conditions, so the aim was to not lose ground and to not gain ground, and to start from pole for this afternoon. Today it went our way luckily, the balance was in the window so huge credit to the team and to my engineers and Giacomo for being able to nail that and nail the conditions. It means a lot to me for the Championship, and it's great to have David in P2 for important constructors points.

FIA Formula 3: Jack, you seemed to nail the start, and the opening lap, at the end of which you were 1.7 seconds ahead of David. Were you able to just control the race after that?

Doohan: I was quite nervous about being too high on pressure, so from that point onwards I just went quite far forward on the brake bias. Further forward than I've ever run in the wet, just in case the rears started to overheat. I started to lock up the front into Turn 1, Turn 5 and the last chicane, but I just had to the brake early because I prefer to lose a little bit there than in the end not be able to have the rears. In the end, it started to work and I was still maintaining a gap and the guys weren't catching so as soon as someone started to be a threat I would have then started to push but the rear tyres still seemed quite good, so it was a good race.

FIA Formula 3: And the Safety Car restart and dramas there?

Doohan: No I think I went quite early, not extremely early, but before the Bus Stop chicane. Then seemed to get a decent exit and quite a good run up through Eau Rouge and managed to get a gap from the iconic Spa slipstream so I was happy about that and keen to get racing again. Obviously then there was an incident in Eau Rouge which halted that.

FIA Formula 3: You've taken 13 points out of Dennis' Championship lead in this race are you starting to believe it's on?

Doohan: Definitely. I believed before the weekend, and I still believe it's never over until it's over. We'll just keep going in the best way that we can as a team and myself and hopefully, by the end, we're there.

FIA Formula 3: Thank you, Jack. David coming to you, welcome back to the podium for the first time since that win at the Red Bull Ring. How close were you to challenging Jack for the win today?

David Schumacher: I think after the first few laps it was not really possible to challenge him anymore. I could see he was maintaining the gap so I didn't really bother pushing more and trying to fight him and just destroying my tyres as it got more dry and dry and dry towards the end. It wouldn't have made sense to push as much as I can and then end up with destroyed tyres and going back in the positions. I just tried to maintain my position, tried to save the rears, tried to save the fronts, and keep a steady gap to Logan so he didn't catch me. I think it worked quite well, it was quite a shame that the Safety Car came out on this particular lap because I was on a purple middle sector, it would have been a nice lap. Otherwise, I think we had a great run, both of us, the team did a great job, the car was mega. I'm looking forward to tomorrow's race, maybe it's raining again.

FIA Formula 3: David you say the car was mega, clearly the Trident cars going very well in the wet have you found something with the set-up?

Schumacher: Maybe... I don't know! It might be the set-up, it might be the both of us who help each other to gain more pace. The three of us, with Clément as well. Yeah, it seems to work well, and we are working on it to get it even better.

FIA Formula 3: Well done David. Logan coming to you, great to have you back on the podium. You made a great start to jump from fifth to third, how close was it with Alex Smolyar's car directly in front of you?

Logan Sargeant: Not too close, I saw it coming! But it was a pretty good one, I was happy with that. Hopefully, as a duet, we can replicate that tomorrow. I just got stuck in, had a good first corner and from there it was just about trying to catch David. I had a few good runs at him but nothing I could really attack, but still, it was a good race in general. We move forward, the pace was strong so we need to carry that into tomorrow.

FIA Formula 3: Tell us a bit about the conditions at the end when the rain started to come down. Had there not been that Safety Car period how difficult would it have been in those conditions?

Sargeant: It definitely would have been tricky. Obviously, we were saving the tyres throughout the race but saving them on a drying track is not ideal. I think it would have been extremely slippery when the rain came and to be honest it started to get extremely dark out there towards the end of that. So I think to be honest to end under the Safety Car was probably the right decision.

FIA Formula 3: Logan, well done!