Jehan Daruvala Interview: 'Had the time of my life in F2, need to make a sensible decision for my future'

If you are a junior driver looking for a big break in Formula 1, 2023 is your best chance. Six Formula 1 teams had/have at least one vacancy for the upcoming season — that’s more than 50% of the teams in the paddock.

The domino effect from Sebastian Vettel’s unexpected retirement and Mclaren’s expected release of Daniel Ricciardo has seen vacancies crop up at Alpine, Williams and AlphaTauri apart from Aston Martin & Mclaren. Haas is yet to decide on Mick Schumacher, too.

Despite this situation, the prospects for 2023 seem bleak for India’s Formula 1-hopeful Jehan Daruvala. In an exclusive interview with Firstpost, Jehan Daruvala confirmed that he wasn’t in conversation with either of the teams with a vacancy for 2023. He admitted, “I needed to win the Formula 2 championship this year to race in Formula 1 with AlphaTauri in 2023 – and of course, I’ve failed to win. Unfortunately, I didn’t get the chance to fight for the championship as I would’ve wanted to. But it is what it is, that’s racing.”

Last week, AlphaTauri announced an extension for Jehan’s former Formula 2 team-mate (Carlin, 2020), Yuki Tsunoda. The Japanese driver will race for the Red Bull-funded team for a third consecutive season. One assumes that Red Bull Racing were waiting to see how their junior drivers perform in Formula 2 in 2022 before deciding on Tsunoda for 2023. A broad consensus is that Tsunoda didn’t set the track on fire but the lack of results for juniors in Formula 2 prompted Red Bull to go unchanged for next season.

Jehan offered more perspective on missing out on the AlphaTauri seat, “If (Felipe) Drugovich can win the Formula 2 title (in 2022) & still not go to Formula 1 (in 2023), I’m not going to Formula 1 finishing fifth*. Frankly, I have no idea what I am going to do in 2023. Formula 1 (a full-time race seat) isn’t on the cards next year so I am looking at other options.”

But even if Jehan might not be the third Indian to race in Formula 1, he is probably the most successful Indian in single-seaters.

(* the last round of the 2022 Formula 2 season will be held in November at Abu Dhabi so Jehan’s final classification in the Drivers’ Championship could change)

Jehan Daruvala takes his FOURTH win in Formula 2 *

The @redbullracing Academy driver managed to avoid all the chaos and carnage of the Feature Race in his quest for victory *#ItalianGP #F2 @DaruvalaJehan pic.twitter.com/0HGbm9ynvX

— Formula 2 (@Formula2) September 11, 2022

Formula 2 career

After finishing 3rd in the FIA Formula 3 Championship in 2019, Jehan graduated to Formula 2 in 2020. He spent the first two seasons with Carlin — registering 7th as his highest championship classification in 2021. For 2022, he switched to the reigning Teams’ Champions, Prema — also the team that clinched the last two Drivers’ Championships with Mick Schumacher (2020) and Oscar Piastri (2021).

Understandably, the expectations from Jehan for 2022 were to follow the steps of his predecessors. Helmut Marko, the Head of Red Bull’s junior driver program, reiterated each time I spoke to him that the target for Jehan in 2022 was to win the Formula 2 Championship. During one of our pre-season chats earlier this year, Jehan also confirmed that his sole target was to win the 2022 Formula 2 championship and be in Formula 1 in 2023 on merit.

However, with one round to go (Abu Dhabi), Jehan is 5th in the Drivers’ Championship with 126 points. Jehan explains, “Honestly, considering the pace we’ve had and bad luck through the year, I am still in the frame to fight for third in the championship and that is quite astonishing.”

At the #F2 weekend in Monza:@DaruvalaJehan scored 31 pts
– Max. poss. pts: 39
– His highest score for a race meet in F2
– Added ~30% more pts to his overall tally

He’s 5th in the standings:
– 3 points behind Ayumu Iwasa
– 9 points behind Logan Sargeant

(pic: James Gasperotti) pic.twitter.com/ro17sWoi3I

— Kunal Shah (@kunalashah) September 12, 2022

Feature Race win in Monza

The Italian round at Monza (9-11 September) brought some fantastic news for Jehan as he put on his most-dominant performance ever. He scored a podium in the Sprint Race on Saturday and drove to his first-ever Feature Race win on Sunday.

Reliving the triumph, Jehan said, “I would probably say it was the most-happy racing day of my life! I’ve not celebrated a win as much in a long time. First, it was the feature race. Second, the struggles we’ve had through the season — and leading up to Monza. It was a really tough time in my racing career. So to score a podium & finish off the weekend with a win was fantastic. I was competitive all through the weekend & we deserved this result after a lot of bad luck through the season.”

The win wasn’t a straightforward one and Jehan explained further, “The race was a mix of fortunes and misfortunes. On lap 1, I had contact with (Jack) Doohan and my bargeboard was hanging off the car and flapping — and I had decided to pit for a change at the end of the lap, otherwise I was risking a black-orange flag. But when I went through Ascari, my bargeboard flew off thanks to the speed, and it wasn’t a hazard any more. So I got rid of the bargeboard but I had less downforce for the race.

“Then the Safety Car came out — and I made the call to pit. And soon, the race was Red Flagged — and that was good for me because I could re-attach my bargeboard. But then again post-race, I had to go see the Stewards for my incident with Doohan. For two hours post-race, I was a bit tense and memories of Austria came back to my mind (where he lost the race win due to a post-race penalty). For once, luck was on my side & I didn’t get a penalty for a lap 1 incident. It was a tense race and I was very happy to score the win.”

An ecstatic Jehan explained his post-race win celebrations, “On the in-lap, I’ve never waved to the crowd as much ever in my career — I think I had my whole hand out of the cockpit! As the commentator rightly said, I think I punched out the frustration of the entire season in that one race.

“Technically, I won the Feature Race in Austria before I got the penalty (for grid infringement) — but I still did win it on track. At Monza, even though I got lucky with the Safety Car, I won the race on merit. It meant a lot to win the Feature Race. It’s another box ticked in my Formula 2 career. I’ve had many podiums & race wins in Formula 2 and to finally win a Feature Race meant the world to me.”

Yesss, P1!