Talking All Things Formula 2 With India’s Latest F1 Hopeful, Jehan Daruvala

Jehan Daruvala has made some big waves for Indian motorsport since he joined the Formula 2 grid in 2020. The Red Bull junior driver, racing for Carlin, may have had a steep learning curve early on, but he managed to end his rookie season in spectacular style with a win in Bahrain.

2021 has seen the Indian driver continue this strong momentum with a top three overall finish for Mumbai Falcons in the Asian F3 Championship and a couple of podium wins in his second F2 season. Now that we are halfway through 2021, it's crunch time for Daruvala as he hopes for a title win in Formula 2. 

We caught up with India’s latest F1 hopeful in a season that could prove paramount for his chances of landing a Formula One drive. A major thanks to Eurosport, the official broadcasters for Formula 2 in India, for setting up this interview.

 

Q- Let’s talk about your 2021 F2 season so far. You had a great start with podiums at Bahrain and Azerbaijan, but towards the halfway point of the season, you’ve faded away a bit. What happened? 

Jehan Daruvala- I think apart from Monaco before Silverstone, it was going pretty good I'd say. Unfortunately, qualifying didn't go as well as I wanted, it was all really tight. I think from P4 to where I qualified in 12th, there were only a couple of tenths in it, and you know this format kind of puts you out of place, so it's hard to score a lot of points after you qualify outside the top 10. 

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To make it even harder this year, at Silverstone, there was no tyre degradation at all. So similar to Formula One, there was no overtaking in the Formula 2 races. It's pretty difficult to move forward and that made it difficult to have a good weekend. Even in the races, I had the speed, but couldn't show it at all. So yeah, it was a difficult weekend I kind of want to forget and almost, you know, move on to Monza. Hopefully, from now, I can have four strong weekends and come back into the title fight.

Q- What area do you believe needs improvement to really be in the mix with the front runners and thrust yourself into the title fight?

JD- I think qualifying has proven to be very important this year. I need to just, kind of put in a good lap together. They feel good, but these one or two mistakes in a championship like Formula 2 are really costly. Obviously, when you're finding the limit mistakes do happen, but if I can cut all the small mistakes that I'm making in qualifying, it will completely change my starting position. And from there, my weekend should be a lot better.

Q- We’ve also noticed during the races sometimes when you’re stuck in a DRS train you seem to be a little hesitant in making the lunge for an overtake. Have Carlin or Red Bull made any suggestions to have a more aggressive approach towards racecraft moving forward?

JD- Not really, to be honest, you know, with how the format is, if you are too aggressive in Race 1 and you make a mistake, or you crash, you lose points for both races. In a feature race, it's a bit different and you can take a bit more risk as there are more points on offer. With how the format is, if you lose a position on the first day, you can gain it back on the next day, and it's for the same amount of points. In the first two races, obviously, you need to be aggressive, but you don't want to go crazy trying to do stupid things, because the maximum you can score one or two points more on one day, but you can lose out on a lot of points if you have an accident or don't score. 

Q- Speaking about the format, in the 2021 F2 season, there aren’t many circuits you can race at, but there are more races on the weekend. So considering the huge gap between race weekends, how do you manage to prepare yourself and what do you do in your spare time?

JD- Oh, honestly, there's almost too much time for us between each race, it's obviously the same for everyone. But yeah, we have a lot of time, which gives you more time to prepare for the upcoming weekend. But right now, I just want some time off because I have over a month off. So I’m gonna have a couple of weeks off at home and then go back and prepare. The main thing is to stay fit physically because you don't just stay fit driving, you need to go to the gym, stay fit, when you're at home, and that's the main thing, and then use the simulator and prepare with the team for the coming event. 

You know, there's only so much preparation you can do. You can only prepare stuff from the past and from previous years, and there's only a limited amount you can actually do so you can't prepare every day in a month. The proper preparation for a race only begins a couple of weeks before the event, and that's how it really goes.

Q- So with that, do you prefer the 2020 F2 format or the current format for this year?

JD- I just prefer driving, as much as I can be in the car. I think last year’s format is probably a bit more suited to me.

Q- Last year, you had a great turnaround in form starting at Monza. Coincidentally, we’re heading there for the next race and we’re at a similar point of the season. Any chances we could see a similar turnaround?

JD- Yeah, I'm pretty confident it should go well. Obviously, you can't guarantee anything in racing or even in F2 but I believe if I have a good weekend and Monza I can be right back in the fight.

Q- 2021 also marks your second season as a Red Bull junior driver. How has this affiliation been so far? 

JD- It's been really good. With the pandemic and stuff, we can't go to the factory and track as much as we would like to but we still get to prepare at Red Bull on the simulator before the race weekends. Obviously, it's very difficult to enter Formula One, so being a part of the Red Bull Junior Academy gives you that platform and if you do perform, you could have the opportunity to get into Formula One. So in that sort of sense, it's a privilege to be part of a brand, which is this big and has a competitive package in Formula One.

Q- We know from Formula One and in lower categories that the Red Bull driver programme comes with a lot of pressure to perform. How do you manage to handle the pressure that comes with the competitive nature of this programme? 

JD- I guess at the end of the day, there's no choice. If you want to get into F1, you have to be able to handle a certain amount of pressure, which is a lot. So I think the main thing is to not really think about it. Just think about your own future, you're driving for yourself, and for yourself only. At the end of the day, if it weren't for them, you wouldn't have the chance to go there. And if you didn't perform you would anyway not go there. So the idea is to not think about the big scheme of things. You just think if you perform well in F2, you will have a chance for Formula One. So that's my main focus right now.

Q- Now that we’re at the halfway point of 2021, have you had any discussions with Helmut Marko about your future beyond 2021? And if hypothetically, the Red Bull programme doesn’t work out, do you have anything else planned?

JD- No, I don't know what I want to do next year. It just depends on how well I do in the next few races, and then we have to take a call from that.

Q- Finally, what's your opinion on the motorsport scene in India?

JD- From when we were doing it in India, it's not really become much bigger than it used to be. Guys like Mumbai Falcons are promoting a series, trying to get young karters up from karting into F4, into F3, and up the ladder from there. So, let’s hope that plan works out to generate talent in India. 

We are a country of over a billion people, and still, not many people have the opportunities or the finances to get into Formula One. Hopefully, that will change in the next three or four years and if an Indian driver does make it to Formula One, I think that would also help the cause.