After a difficult 2024 Formula 2 season, Rafael Villagómez finished 24th in the championship. Villagómez drove his first season in Formula 2 for Van Amersfoort Racing, but he had trouble breaking into competitive positions on a regular basis.
One of his weaknesses was qualifying. He frequently started the race from the back because his best starting position was only 14th. However, manage to put on a few memorable performances in spite of these challenges, including finishing seventh in the Melbourne Feature Race and eighth at Monza. His capacity to profit from race tactics and safety car interventions was demonstrated by these glimpses of promise. However, he rarely battled for points because of his general lack of speed in comparison to his opponents.
Fresh approach to his season
While addressing the media, including Pit Debrief, Villagómez reflected on his debut season and expressed plans to improve his position in the championship.
“I think after a year we had before that maybe it wasn’t the best one. It’s always good to look back and see where you can do better. And for sure, the area that we identified was qualifying because majority of the time, the race pace was quite strong compared to basically the people we were fighting around or even like the guys in the front. And obviously, you know how difficult it is to make a position. So if you start already quite from the back, then it’s difficult to just outpace everyone.”
He spoke about his problem area and his plans to improve on it, “we identified that qualifying needed the most work. We worked quite hard during the winter to try to see if we can fix it. First myself, and then as well as the team.”
On his experience and expectations with Van Amersfoort
“I think the expectation like I mentioned before is firstly to fix qualifying, which was maybe the biggest issue before. We don’t really look into results because then you put maybe a sort of pressure that isn’t helpful. Obviously pressure is always helpful. But for myself, first I want to fix qualifying. I know that I’m doing the best, and then we’ll be looking into results and put expectations.” He pointed out.
On his longstanding partnership with Van Amersfoort Racing
When asked about his fifth overall season with Van Amersfoort team, Villagómez spoke about his confidence in himself and the team, “I think it’s an advantage for sure because I’ve been working with the same people over and over. I know everyone and yeah, sometimes it’s good to get a fresh start and maybe that boosts a little bit of confidence. But for myself, I know what I need to go through.”
“I know everyone quite well. So we can just focus on maybe other areas and spend more time in things that could bring more performance instead of like getting to know the team or getting comfortable with some teams. Like we’ve seen, there’s some quite strong competitors this year, and maybe they adapt quite quick. But maybe it’s the other case, you know, maybe the relationship. We’ve seen that drivers jump from one team to another one, and they don’t perform the same as with the previous team.”
On the history of Van Amersfoort racing
“I don’t think you realise how much they’ve been through until kind of this year that they showed us like a video that they’re going to be releasing. And like Jon said, it’s super great. I think it motivates drivers a little bit more, and hopefully, we can be part of those drivers in the future.”
