Alessio Lorandi: “F2 is a new challenge for me”

Just before the Hungarian round of FIA Formula 2 championship Trident announced their new driver Alessio Lorandi to join Arjun Maini for the remainder of the 2018 season. We had the chance to talk with Alessio about his season, recent injury and new challenges in Formula 2.  

Alessio Lorandi started the 2018 season in GP3 Series with Trident. Before joining Formula 2 he was standing on 7th place of the championship with 42 points in his pocket. “In Barcelona unfortunately I did not score any points” began to talk about his GP3 season. A five-weeks long break followed the Spanish round when unluckily Alessio got injured. “Basically I flipped on my gokart while training and I broke my collar bone” started Alessio about his incident “I stayed in the hospital for like a week then I had to recover in the next two weeks for the rehabilitation to get ready for the GP3 triple header. Which I did so I was quite happy. I got a plate in my shoulder which helps me with some movements. It will be still broken for 2-3 months but I don’t feel any pain at all.”

Despite the accident Alessio showed a big improvement from the second round collecting 42 points. “From Paul Ricard on I had a lot of speed, especially on the Red Bull ring” Alessio scored a podium finished and a 4th place in Austria followed by an unlucky round in Silverstone where he stalled in the start of the race. “It was a shame because I was super fast in Silverstone. I had the speed but events like this happen and then it is difficult to recover on the race.”

When the Milan-based team offered a Formula 2 seat for the promising Italian talent just before the Hungarian round he took the chance and decided to move up. “Even though we had two bad rounds and some events just did not let me to be there to fight for the championship it was still difficult to give it up” shared his thoughts on leaving the GP3 season unfinished.

 “It is a great opportunity for me to drive this car” started Alessio about his change to F2. “I have already been part of Trident in GP3 and when they needed a new driver they looked inside the team. I think we worked very well together and probably that is why they chose me. I am very happy with their decision. Surely it will be a good experience to race with this car and I am very excited.” 

The difference between the two series is quite big and Alessio has to adapt quickly. Besides pitstops, tyre management and the race strategies the biggest difference is in the engines. While in GP3 Series the cars have 430 horsepower Formula 2 cars are pushing it to 630 horsepower granted by a V6 turbo engine. “It was not easy with the turbo engine as it is very difficult to manage compared to GP3 for instance.” started Alessio about the car “The torque is really differently modulated so you need to change a little bit of driving style and that is quite difficult to do in a very short time so I’ve been struggling a bit on Friday for this reason but this is part of the challenge.” said the Italian driver.

“Of course it is not an easy task to get into a championship halfway through the season but we knew this.” started Alessio about joining Formula 2 when six days of testing and seven out of twelve rounds of the season have already passed but Alessio seems to be ready for the challenge. “It is difficult because at this point everyone is up to speed already and I had to get to the same speed after only one free practice and it was not too easy.” Alessio seemed to adapt to the car quite well during the weekend gaining some experience in different conditions and finished the wet first race on 14th position followed by an unlucky second race where he had to retire because of a collision after half a lap.   

We wish the best of luck to Alessio for the remaining of the season!