After a challenging start to his season, DAMS’ Jak Crawford secured his first podium of the year with a P2 finish at the Saudi Arabian GP. Securing pole position by less than a tenth, the American delivered DAMS their first pole position since 2023.
Although narrowly beaten to the win by MP Motorsport’s Richard Verschoor, Crawford took plenty of positives walking away from Jeddah. During the post-Feature Race press conference attended by Pit Debrief, the American driver shared his thoughts and reflections on the race.
Unlucky VSC timing, but satisfied with his effort
Having started on the front-row alongside ART GP’s Victor Martins, the American headed into Sunday eyeing a victory. However, the Feature Race saw Verschoor’s blistering pace and a strategic masterclass from MP Motorsport proved unbeatable for the rest of the field. Acknowledging the close competition and unlucky timing of the VSC that cost him the win, Crawford knew he had given his all and was overall satisfied with his performance, despite losing the win.
“It’s a tough one to be honest. It was always going to be a close race, especially at this track where there is no deg [degradation]. The Prime-Option is almost the preferred one if there are no Safety Cars, we always knew it was going to be close.”
“It’s a shame we ended up behind Victor [Martins] after the VSC, because we fell a little bit and that’s where I felt like we lost the win. I drove basically 20 quali laps in a row and left nothing on the table, so on my side I am happy. Of course just wishing we would have a little bit more to keep Richard behind one more lap.”
Battling the threat of Verschoor’s pace
On a different strategy to Verschoor, DAMS and Crawford knew they needed strong race-pace to build up a gap to the Dutchman. The American driver explained having learnt about Verschoor’s blistering pace, tyre management was no longer the priority. The DAMS driver explained that despite having pushed flat out to build a gap out in front, it just was not enough at the end of the day.
“Quite early I passed Victor, tried to build a gap with DRS and thought, I’m going to save my tyres, I didn’t know the pace, so I dropped into a 47.9 or 48.0, and then they told me Richard was doing 47.2 so at that moment I went flat out, didn’t lift off a single bit.”
“It was a really tough race pushing that hard. I didn’t know how I was going to go and honestly, when Richard came out of the pits, obviously with cold tyres, he dropped back, so I was thinking I had a chance again. I was going quicker and quicker, but unfortunately the gap just wasn’t big enough.”
Playing it safe was the best option for points
Having entered Jeddah having scored no points, DAMS and Crawford were determined to change that. When asked if they had considered the alternative strategy, the American driver expressed no regret going with the safest option, knowing it was the best way to secure his first points of the season.
“No, I had no points on the board up until this race, so I had to go with the safest option, Option-Prime strategy is easily the safest strategy covering all Safety Car risk. That’s what we did, just to play it safe, collect the points. I wouldn’t change anything. Happy with my decision.”
Confidence grows as his 2025 campaign gets underway
The Feature Race marked Crawford and teammate Kush Maini’s first points of the season. As F2 brings the next round of racing to Imola in a few weeks, both drivers would hope to carry this momentum to maximise their performance moving forwards. Following a pole position and P2 finish in Jeddah, Crawford is feeling confident. With DAMS and both drivers finally showing their potential, the American driver is optimistic for the rest of the season and looking forward to achieving better results in the upcoming triple-header.
“A great confidence. Bahrain was an outlier for us where we struggled and didn’t get to manage any points even though I think we could have. Australia we were really fast but didn’t get to show anything, so I am glad we got to show our pace here, qualifying on Pole finishing second in the Feature Race with great pace.”
“Feeling very good for the rest of the season, very confident. The team has done a great job so far, and we have a lot of momentum to take into this short break before we go into the triple header.”
