F2 veteran bemoans 'crazy' driving standards after Monza crashes
Junior

F2 veteran bemoans 'crazy' driving standards after Monza crashes

by Samarth Kanal
3 min read

Red Bull junior driver Arvid Lindblad caused two race-defining crashes in the Monza Formula 2 feature race, which left one rival particularly aggrieved.

Campos Racing’s Lindblad locked up and hit the rear of Rodin’s F2 contender and McLaren junior Alex Dunne on lap eight. 

With a damaged front wing, Lindblad locked up once again on Lap 11, taking out Invicta Racing’s Roman Stanek.

Victor Martins (ART) also got caught up in the lap 11 chaos. He criticised the FIA for not forcing Lindblad to pit with front wing damage.

“I’m OK, but it’s always the same,” he said after the race. “I think racing lately has been going crazy, especially here at Monza. 

“Drivers have a broken front wing, they keep going. The FIA should just say to box or make the penalty earlier because I knew Lindblad had a broken front wing.”

Asked if Lindblad should have been shown a black and orange flag for the damage, Martins replied: “There should. They had enough laps. They can see it. I reported it on the radio. It’s always the same case. I had it yesterday."

He added that he pitted voluntarily during the prior Monza sprint race to change his front wing..

Lindblad was handed a 10-second penalty for the collision but Martins criticised driving standards in general.

“There are things they need to watch out for because racing has been going crazy. Sometimes you just need to be at one point in the corner where you can be like ‘OK I forget about the other guy and just push him off and I will be fine’. That’s not racing.”

Luke Browning, who won the feature race for Hitech, was more pragmatic about the driving standards on Sunday despite narrowly avoiding the locked-up car of Lindblad at Turn 1. 

“To be honest, I didn’t see anything. I heard about it, but equally it’s important to put this into perspective; you’ve got 20 of the best young drivers in the world all fighting for 20 spots in Formula 1… They all want to show that they’re the best, they all want to win, and everybody wants to win badly.

“And the reward is massive. When you have that on the table, everybody is trying their absolute best, no one wants to crash, and generally the driving standards in Formula 2 have been fantastic…”

The Race says

Samarth Kanal

Dunne was upset after being hit by Lindblad and the McLaren junior said he was OK despite rubbing his right leg in a slightly pained way - and he understandably declined to comment on the crash. 

Martins was firm on his views, and I completely agree with his take that Lindblad should either have had to pit with the damage - either by choice or by being flagged in.

He has been unfortunate; Martins has been hampered by on-track scuffles and collisions in three straight races.

Browning’s point is fair, though. Driving standards are generally fine in F2 and some weeks you just get safety cars breeding safety cars. 

That’s just the way in a championship where drivers are left strung out by high costs and intense pressure to prove themselves to F1 teams.

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