{"id":7766,"date":"2024-12-09T11:43:52","date_gmt":"2024-12-09T16:43:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/?p=7766"},"modified":"2024-12-12T11:46:36","modified_gmt":"2024-12-12T16:46:36","slug":"bittersweet-end-to-formula-2-season-for-crawford","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/2024\/12\/09\/bittersweet-end-to-formula-2-season-for-crawford\/","title":{"rendered":"Bittersweet end to Formula 2 season for Crawford"},"content":{"rendered":"

Texan second in Qatar Sprint Race but eliminated in both Middle East Feature rounds<\/em>
\nABU DAHBI, United Arab Emirates (9 Dec. 2024) \u2013 19 year old Texan Jak Crawford\u2019s second FIA Formula 2 Championship season came to a bittersweet conclusion this weekend, with a pair of strong runs in Sprint Races negated by early disappointment in both Feature events in back-to-back rounds in the Middle East.<\/p>\n

The young American finished second in last weekend\u2019s Sprint Race in the inaugural F2 event at the Qatar Grand Prix at the Lusail International Circuit, gaining two positions on the final lap.<\/p>\n

The Qatar event was Crawford\u2019s second-consecutive runner-up finish in Sprint Races, and third of the season as the Formula 1 hopeful was engaged in a terrific battle for position for most of the event before coming on strong at the finish.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was quite a crazy one,\u201d Crawford said. \u201cThere was a lot of action. It was tricky to pass as well, but eventually, I got the job done.\u201d<\/p>\n

The following day, though, he was eliminated by contact after 13 laps in the Feature race. The contact cost critical points and momentum against Crawford\u2019s pursuit of third in the 2024 championship after having qualified sixth for the Sunday Feature.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe weren\u2019t really the fastest, at Qatar, we missed a bit of pace, but we were definitely in the top five all weekend,\u201d said Crawford.\u00a0 \u201cWe had a slow stop, and we lost a lot of positions with the safety car, then I made a mistake on my side trying to go for a move that didn\u2019t work out, and I had to retire with damage.\u201d<\/p>\n

Returning to race action just one week later at the Yas Marina Circuit in Abu Dhabi,\u00a0 Crawford\u2019s push for points was frustrated by a suboptimal run in the all-important qualifying session. Crawford was fastest early in the 30-minute session, but ended up 16th\u00a0\u2013 putting him near the back of the grid for both weekend races as a grid penalty compounded the challenge.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe just missed the right tire window on my car, and we didn\u2019t find the optimum grip of the tires,\u201d Crawford said.<\/p>\n

Starting 20th, Crawford was 13th\u00a0and maintained that position for 15 laps, managing his tires, before he was able to put on a late-race charge that put him in a points-paying eighth-place. His closing laps featured a hard charge to the finish that included taking 12th\u00a0on the 18th of 23 laps,\u00a0 then improving four positions on the final lap through passes and penalties to score points in the final Sprint of the year as he gained more positions than any other driver.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was quite chaotic, and I was just trying to work my way though the chaos,\u201d he said. \u201cI found myself in 14th\u00a0after Lap 1, and there were a couple of penalties and a couple of people dropping off with tire deg, and I found myself in eighth at the end.\u201d<\/p>\n

The final Feature race of the weekend didn\u2019t help Crawfords points position as a technical issue with the brakes saw his race ending just a few laps after the start.<\/p>\n

Starting 14th\u00a0for Sunday\u2019s feature, Crawford was quick off the line before encountering problems.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had a good start, but I got hit from behind in the first corner, which spun me into someone else,\u201d he explained. \u201cAt that point, I was at the back, but I still had the possibility for a decent race. Then I had a brake failure. They turned off completely, and that was quite a scary moment. It was an unfortunate way to end the year, for sure.\u201d<\/p>\n

Crawford ended the 14-event campaign fifth in the points, with 21 top-10 finishes. He ended up with six podium finishes, highlighted by a Feature Race victory at Barcelona. His racecraft also impressed, as he was the top overaker of the year.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was definitely a tough season,\u201d Crawford said. \u201cWe had some bad moments, but there were also some very good moments with some good results. I\u2019m very, very happy at the end. It\u2019s just unfortunate what happened in the last two Features.\u201d<\/p>\n

Looking ahead to the 2025 Formula 2 campaign, which will mark Crawford\u2019s first time returning to the same race team, Crawford is hopeful that the team will up its game in qualifying and that he can fight for the title as he anticipates even more Formula 1 engagement in his role with Aramco Aston Martin.<\/p>\n

Ahead of that, Crawford, who continues to field interest from teams for a future in F1, will be getting additional time at Yas Marina\u2019s circuit this week.<\/p>\n

\u201cOn Tuesday, I\u2019m in the Young Driver\u2019s Test with the Aston Martin Formula 1 car, then I had three days of Formula 2 testing right after that, so there will be many days of driving at Abu Dhabi!\u201d<\/p>\n

Crawford then hopes to spend a few days in the U.S. for Christmas, before it\u2019s off to a well-deserved vacation prior to returning to DAMS Lucas Oil Racing for the 2025 Formula 2 champaign.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Texan second in Qatar Sprint Race but eliminated in both Middle East Feature rounds ABU DAHBI, United Arab Emirates (9 Dec. 2024) \u2013 19 year old [\u2026]<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":7767,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,58],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7766","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-jak-crawford-racing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7766","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7766"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7766\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7768,"href":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7766\/revisions\/7768"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7767"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7766"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7766"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7766"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}