Regaining confidence in the car: Josep María Martí on his 2024 season so far

Josep María Martí concedes that his rookie Formula 2 campaign has not gone the way he wanted but feels he is beginning to regain his best form heading into the last two rounds of 2024.
The Campos Racing driver made an excellent start to the year, achieving a double podium finish at the season-opening weekend in Sakhir. But since then, he has scored points in just five races, with a P2 finish at the Spielberg Sprint Race his only other podium.
He is now 16th in the Drivers’ Standings with 43 points and as he reflected on his 2024 campaign, the Spaniard called it a “rollercoaster”.
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“It’s not been the greatest year one can have,” started Martí. “We started off really well in Bahrain but after that it’s not been as great as I would have liked. We had a difficult weekend in Jeddah and from then it’s been a rollercoaster.
“Halfway through the season we had another high in Austria where we were fighting for the top five, consistently for the podium, and getting P2 in the Sprint Race. But it’s been a bit tough. I’ve had a lot of problems, a lot of DNFs – eight at the moment.
“I blame myself wholly for Jeddah but other than that we have always been implicated in stuff that we weren’t the causes off. It’s been a bit of a shame, obviously we had three crashes before Turn 1 which is not great, but the pace has also been up and down.
“We struggled at some tracks to be quick as a team and others where Isack (Hadjar) has been able to take advantage of the race pace and the quali pace, we’ve struggled due to some factors and obviously due to me sometimes not performing at the level expected of me.
“So, I need to up my game in that area at times but I feel that for the year had gone more smoothly, we have to have done more laps, those 30 laps of the Feature Race are valuable and eight DNFs hasn’t been helped by the fact that we have been lacking some pace.”
Of those eight DNFs, Martí pointed to the hard luck he and his team have faced, such as in Imola when his mechanic was hit by an errant tyre in the pit lane during his stop, and in Monte Carlo where he was blocked on his fastest lap in Qualifying by a car that had just hit the wall.
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However, he also takes ownership for his part in a few of those incidents, noting that because he has found himself battling in the midfield, he has had to take more risks to gain positions.
But there have been some positives for the Red Bull Junior Team member, especially in the last few rounds. He accepts that because of his results, this may be hard for others to tell, but Martí feels he is beginning to regain the confidence he had at the beginning of the year.
“There are obviously some driving aspects I’ve improved on throughout the year,” he said. “Even if the race goes better or worse, percentage-wise in Monza and Baku was where I had been the closest to Isack since Bahrain and Austria.
“I feel like I am regaining the confidence in the car. Obviously in the last few races we have not been as competitive as we had been across the first half of the season, which was expected.
“We knew that it was going to happen as most teams that were a step back in the first few rounds have come back, and we knew that they would. Teams like PREMA that maybe struggled a little bit at the start of the season, or ART now they are as competitive as us.
“So, it’s clear they have made their steps forward and now they are making competition a little bit tougher. Obviously, you have more drivers capable of being in that top five, top 10 and competition is a little tougher.
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“Now that we are not the leading car at every track, it’s a bit harder to see the improvement but I’ve personally seen it. In Monza, I believe I was only two-tenths off Isack and we only had that one push lap due to Red Flags.
“So, I’ve seen the progress and I am not necessarily happy with it but I am confident that if I keep going in this direction, we will be quick, hopefully by Qatar and Abu Dhabi and hopefully when we have a competitive car again, we will be back fighting for the front positions.”
For him to be back fighting at the front, the 19-year-old says he needs to qualify better, which he thinks will be helped by his improving confidence in the car.
Martí explains that because of the issues they faced during the year, he has struggled with the balance of the car. This has therefore affected his pace and his ability to push the car in the braking zones.
He believes he lost this feeling after Monte Carlo but says it was after Spa that he started to find form again. The Spanish driver hopes to continue that trend in Lusail and Yas Marina, as he is keen to help Campos close that 35.5-point gap to Invicta Racing in the battle for the Teams’ Championship.
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“Results-wise, I would love to be back in the top five,” said Martí on his hopes for the final two rounds. “I would love to win, but being totally honest one of the main targets right now is to regain the consistency and confidence I had in the car.
“Even in pre-season testing in Bahrain, I was really confident in the car on the hard compound which is the one we are going to be facing in Qatar for the races, so it’s certainly a matter of trying to regain that confidence again.
“To feel as good as I did at some point in the season, rather than aim for a one-off result, regain that momentum going into the winter break.”