Victor Martins’ 2024 Formula 2 season suffered a similar fate to Oliver Bearman’s. As the Rookie of the Year in 2023, Martins had high expectations and hopes for the 2024 F2 season.
ART won both the Drivers’ and the Constructors’ Championships in 2023 so it was assumed that they would find themselves near the front again in 2024. However, that wasn’t the case.
Like many other previously successful teams up and down the grid, ART Grand Prix stumbled with the new regulations and found themselves falling through the standings. Unfortunately, that quickly ruined any hope Martins had at a title fight.
Consistently difficult start
Bahrain showed immediately that the 2024 season was not going to be easy for the Frenchman. ART showed glimpses of pace in Bahrain and Jeddah. Martins managed to qualify in fourth and it seemed that Martin may have been able to get important points on the board.
Unfortunately, neither race provided any fruit. In Bahrain, Martins suffered an engine failure that took him out of contention. Jeddah was another stroke of bad luck when his opportunity for big points was destroyed by a lap one crash.
Melbourne was the first glimpse of Victor Martins’ speed beyond the performance of the ART car when he stormed from 21st in both races to seventh and eighth. The potential he showed in Melbourne made the struggles of ART that much worse for the Frenchman.
Melbourne seemed to signal that Martins had found his footing in his second season.
Imola and Monaco were stronger weekends for Martins. Though each weekend saw an out-of-point finish, he managed to collect a single point in each feature race. His consistency was building to what no doubt would be his high point of the season.
Barcelona: the highs and lows
Barcelona was the first race of the season that saw Victor Martins’ true potential. As an incredibly talented driver who deserved to be fighting at the front of the grid all season long, Barcelona was the first time fans and teams saw this come to fruition.
Victor Martins qualified in ninth, which meant he would find himself on the front row for the sprint race, an opportunity he couldn’t waste. He didn’t, he overtook Kush Maini and led the pack taking his first win of the season.
However, with reduced points in the sprint race, Martins needed to repeat the performance to take home a larger and more valuable haul of points. But after a collision with Dennis Hauger in the opening lap, any hope of points was gone.
He left Barcelona with a win but only eight points which set him far from the championship lead.
Consistent points
Martins continued to suffer after Barcelona. With two retirements and a no-point finish in Silverstone and Speilberg Martins, a positive result in Barcelona seemed to be for nothing.
It felt as though with every step forward that Martins took, the championship contenders were taking three more. Something Martins voiced when he admitted it felt as though ART were “missing a lot of pace”.
Hungary seemed to be the turnaround point for both ART and Martins, taking two second-place finishes that weekend. In Monza and Baku, he found his way to the podium for two more second places and two points finishes for the rest of the weekend.
After Baku, he had another period of struggle before coming back to Abu Dhabi to end the season with a fourth-place finish putting him in seventh in the championship.
A season to forget
Throughout Victor Martins’ 2024 F2 season, he showed the performance of the driver who won F3 and Rookie of the Year in F2. Unfortunately, ART Grand Prix found themselves without the car to give him a fair shot at the elusive F2 title.
Much like Oliver Bearman, the 2024 season became a season of ‘what could have been’ for Martins but unlike the Brit, Martins lacks the consultation prize of a Formula 1 seat.
In fact, despite being one of the most decorated Alpine juniors, he finds himself getting lost in conversations with Jack Doohan, Franco Colapinto and Paul Aron now filling the space.
Martins deserves to be in the conversation and he will take the chance in 2025 to achieve the results to prove it.
