“Truly, it is not putting on any pressure”. That is what Victor Martins instructed Motorsport.com ahead of the System 2 season which he entered as one in all many drivers tipped to battle for championship honours in 2024.
Finally, he was the highest-placed 2023 driver to return for the model new season, having accomplished fifth on 150 components, an entire 20 higher than future Haas F1 driver Oliver Bearman. This after profitable the sooner 12 months’s F3 title!
However, the season has to this point did not dwell as a lot because the lofty expectations with the opening 5 rounds guaranteeing that the rest of the advertising and marketing marketing campaign was merely a hurt limitation prepare.
Whereas this may, partly, be put all the best way right down to the clear points that ART was having in getting in management with how best to utilize the all-new F2 chassis, it’s often doable that each one the pre-season hype had the reality is crept under the Frenchman’s pores and pores and skin.
Lastly, a run of merely 4 excessive 10 ends within the opening 10 races of the season derailed any hope that Martins had of gaining an F1 promotion, an opportunity that turned an actual actuality when Esteban Ocon’s Alpine exit was confirmed following Might’s Monaco Grand Prix.
Alpine ultimately appeared in-house for Ocon’s substitute, lastly deciding on Jack Doohan in August – nevertheless this adopted what was extensively thought-about as a shootout check out between the Australian and former F1 driver turned Alpine World Endurance Championship pilot, Mick Schumacher. Phrase the scarcity of Martins on this.
Jack Doohan will companion Pierre Gasly at Alpine for his rookie F1 season
{Photograph} by: Andrew Ferraro / Motorsport Photos
Whereas Martins had unquestionably suffered with poor luck throughout the early part of the 12 months – an engine failure in Bahrain, being caught out by crimson flags in Australian qualifying and being the innocent bystander in a Monaco lap one crash – there have been moreover very expensive errors from himself like a lap one crash in Saudi Arabia and a woeful qualifying at Imola.
Combined, this appeared to put Martins out of competitors for a seat which, for lots of, was his to lose should it transform on the market.
However, the Frenchman has since transform a tantalising prospect as quickly as additional, with an uptick in kind seeing him transform one in all many F2 kind drivers with 4 second-place finishes throughout the remaining eight races.
Now eighth throughout the championship, Alpine has seen adequate to put Martins as its candidate for the WEC rookie check out which is ready to occur in Bahrain on 3 November.
Alpine endurance employees principal Philippe Sinault talked about: “We have got the possibility to run Victor Martins throughout the Rookie Examine session. He is an excellent driver everyone knows properly, Alpine Academy member and dealing fairly a bit with the System 1 employees throughout the simulator.
“We want to give him a model new experience behind the wheel of an endurance prototype and he’ll be succesful to convey a up to date perspective to our Hypercar, which is always fascinating at this part of the programme.”
This may present a potential subsequent step for Martins, with solely an F1 reserve place displaying seemingly throughout the transient time interval.
And the opportunity of securing a WEC race seat is a sensible prospect, with not too way back appointed sporting director Nicolas Lapierre retiring from his driving place creating one opening, and the best way ahead for Schumacher and questions over whether or not or not Mercedes would allow Jules Gounon, who’s the current reserve driver and has various outings to his title already, to complete a full advertising and marketing marketing campaign creating extra space.
Alpine is fourth throughout the 2024 Hypercar standings
{Photograph} by: Andreas Beil
Speaking of his preliminary different throughout the check out, Martins talked about: “I am super happy with this opportunity, and I am very grateful to Alpine Endurance Group for allowing me to proceed learning on the planet of motorsport.
“It’s a probability for me to proceed to assemble my experience with new engineers and a model new automotive, along with an opportunity to point my potential.”
Nonetheless whereas the possibility to compete in WEC and the enduring Le Mans 24 Hours are liable to be a sexy prospect, Martins conceded: “Although I am very focused on my single-seater journey, it is an issue that I accept with pleasure and I hope that we’ll maximize the Rookie Examine day, every on my aspect for learning, however along with allow the employees to have good data as part of their development.
“I’m unable to attend to seek out this Hypercar, which appears to be very fast!”
So is Martins the WEC reply that Alpine is on the lookout for, or is he merely a discipline ticked for the rookie check out?
Correctly, the reply may make sure to every. He is the very best reply to fill the potential driving void for the long term and can seemingly transform a top-level experience in WEC. Nonetheless given that even throughout the assertion launched by Alpine confirming his check out he is pouring chilly water on the prospect of a swap at this stage of his occupation, plainly a full-time crossover simply is not foremost on his radar.
Whereas there is no harm in working a third F2 season, it is not one factor that is thought-about in a broadly optimistic gentle, which implies that many drivers linked to F1 teams fall instead into reserve roles, with numerous ranges of testing programmes to take care of their hand in and think about their F1 potential.
Merely as was the case with Doohan, that’s the most likely chance for Martins.
So having answered certain to him being the very best reply to Alpine’s points – which he undoubtedly has the potential to be – the reply to the question, will he be the eventual reply, could be a no at this stage.
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