Victor Martins looks ahead to his 2025 F2 season, hoping to forget the woes of 2024 and pick up from his impressive rookie season to challenge for the title.
After an F3 title and being named F2 rookie of the year in 2023, many thought Martins would be a title contender in 2024. However, after a difficult season where ART GP found themselves struggling with the new cars more than expected, Martins finished the season a disappointing seventh.
Martins admitted to Pit Debrief and other media on the F2 media day that coming into his third year in the series, 2025 is going to be important for him to win the title.
He said, “It’s going to be an important year, I have no problem for people to put me as a favourite because in the end, I have been the rookie champion in 2023. In 2024 I think I was one of the favourites also.”
“But, in the end we didn’t manage to put everything together. We struggled a lot with the car and the package overall.”
A different fate
As a driver who had found himself at the front of the grid consistently in the last few years, 2024 was a new challenge for the Frenchman.
Martins admitted, “I think I have experienced also a situation where I have not been in the past, where I have been a bit surprised by not being at the front straight away, finishing on many pole positions in 2023.
“Every time on the podium, I was most of the time up there fighting for victories. For sure, I learned a lot of things about how to manage these difficult moments.“
However, Martin’s mentality remains positive for the 2025 season, almost seeing last year as non-existent.
He explained, “I feel this year is gonna be different. In my mind, I feel like I jumped from 2023 straight to 2025, and 2024 hasn’t really existed. It doesn’t affect my goal, my motivation, my confidence in the team and the people I’m working with.”
2025 Goals
When asked what his hopes are for the 2025 season, he was quick to be clear his sights are on the title. He said, “I know I’m working with the best engineers in Formula 2 and they will give me the best car in Quali in Melbourne and the 13 others.”
“I know this year is gonna be different, but I don’t want to be like I need to win straight away, I need to do the pole from the first run. I know that the package we have right now is really strong in both short and long runs. So for sure, it brings more serenity into how you approach the weekend. But for sure, my goal is to win the title and nothing else.”
In previous years, Martins has also had the support of the Alpine Academy. However, for 2025 he announced that he was parting ways with the F1 junior team. The Frenchman chose to not dwell on this decision and only gave a short comment about it.
He said, “Let’s say my goal and their goal were not on the same line. And that’s why we wanted to part ways.”
“But in the end, the past doesn’t matter, it’s only the future. I see my F2 season coming really quickly with ART and I’m fully focused on this and I will make no other comments on this one.”
With two years under his belt, he has more experience than most of the grid and it puts him in a great position to fight for the title.
