Alexander Rossi still aims for the GP2 title

If F1 comes out of its imposed two-week summer break, it hasn’t been the case for the young American driver, who will only take a vacation between Monza and Russia: « No, no vacation. I’ve been working with the team and I had meetings in the United States. So I haven’t stopped last month. »

He had to, in fact, find the key to what went wrong during the Hungarian stage, which saw him finish outside the points in both races of the weekend: « It’s a good thing we had the break because we were able to work with the team on what wasn’t working. We made the necessary changes. So we hope to come back stronger. »

The Californian arrives at Spa-Francorchamps with a lot of ambitions, especially since this circuit traditionally suits his team, Racing Engineering: “We have fallen back to third place in the championship. The first priority is to regain our position. Then we obviously aim for our first victory of the season. The team won last year on the wet and was fast on the dry. There is a good package, and we must put everything together to make up for a disappointing weekend in Budapest.”

This underperformance in Hungary allowed Stoffel Vandoorne to increase his lead in the championship (194 points to 105). However, Alexander Rossi believes there is still room to catch up but that fate slightly favors him: “The gap was already large before Hungary. Now, it’s just bigger. So it doesn’t fundamentally change the situation. We’ll need a bit of luck to bridge the gap, but it’s GP2. Anything can still happen.”

He will thus benefit from an additional weekend to try to make a comeback in the championship since GP2 announced during the summer that an agreement had been reached with Bahrain to hold a second weekend there, just before the Abu Dhabi finale: « It’s great that they managed to replace Hockenheim. Moreover, we were performing well in Bahrain (editor’s note: 3rd and 4th). So it can only be a good thing for us. »

If the season hasn’t been perfect so far, he considers himself quite satisfied with his performances up to now: « It’s a good year. In Bahrain, we weren’t on the right strategy and couldn’t win. In Spain, I struggled a bit with tire degradation. In Monaco, we had a small problem during the pit stop while starting from pole. In Austria, we had brake problems throughout the weekend and at Silverstone, we weren’t really far off. In fact, Hungary was the only weekend where we didn’t fight for victory. So we just need to have a perfect weekend and it should come together. »

We couldn’t leave the young American without asking the inevitable question about his future and the discussions happening with Haas regarding a potential race seat for next year: « It’s a question I get a lot, and the answer is still the same for now: we are in discussions, but they are in discussions with many people. For now, their priority is assembling their racing team. So for us, it’s a game of patience. »

But while he shows patience, he remains cautious and explores other possibilities: « Haas is not the only F1 team we are talking to. F1 is clearly the priority. Therefore, we are working on backup plans. »

From our special correspondent at Spa-Francorchamps