“I had nothing to lose”: Roman Staněk on strategy gamble, driving Super Formula cars at Suzuka and more
- Tarun Suresh
- 3 minutes ago
- 4 min read
Roman Staněk is the newest addition to a long list of drivers who’ve made the switch from the junior formulas in Europe to Super Formula. After racing in Formula 2 for three years, Staněk has joined the premier Japanese singe seater series with MK Buzz Racing, a satellite team to the long standing Kondo Racing outfit.
Staněk took some time to discuss the happenings of round 4 at Suzuka with DIVEBOMB after the race had concluded.
In the Free Practice 2 session yesterday, Staněk crashed out at the second Degner corner, but fortunately, the team pieced the car back together for qualifying.
“I think we had quite good three practice runs. We were just not able to put everything together. I also had a big crash in Degner 1, which didn't help me with the confidence for the first qualifying
“After you have a crash and then you just have one lap to perform in qualifying, it's very, very difficult.”
The Czech driver’s lack of confidence was unfortunately evident in his laptimes. Staněk was the slowest in his group in Qualifying 1 and would start from 21st on the grid.
“I was simply just, especially in the first sector, I wasn't on the limit. Throughout the lap, we had a lot of degradation. We are suffering from a lot of degradation. In the spoon corner, I just lost it and lost one second.”
Initially, during the race, Staněk was stuck in the back of the field, unable to make much progress. Similar to qualifying, tyre degradation seemed to be a challenge, “I had it on all four wheels,” Staněk remarked.
Later on during the race, light rain hit the tarmac of the Suzuka Circuit, and the grid was split between wet and slick tyres after the veteran driver Tomoki Nojiri beached his car on the gravel, struggling for grip during a safety car restart.
Staněk, however, was one step ahead of the drivers who switched to wets. He made the switch before the initial safety car period had even ended, taking him from last to seventh.
“I didn't have the best pace in the race. I was struggling. My start was very good in my first lap, but then, I just didn't have the speed.
“I had nothing to lose, and I saw an opportunity of a little bit of wet, and I just went for it, and I wanted to be the first one on the wet in case it was raining.”
While most of the field switched to wets thanks to the incidents with Nojiri, Igor Fraga, and Staněk’s early switch, it seemed like the wets were the right set of tyres.
However, during the safety car period brought out by Nojiri’s and Fraga’s incidents, the rain had stopped, and a clear dry line had started developing on the track. The six drivers on slicks were immediately much quicker leaving the drivers on wet tyres to fight for seventh or lower.
Staněk lost a position to championship leader Kakunoshin Ohta, but managed to secure eighth place across the finish line.
“We lost the chance because, to be honest, we could have fought for a win or for a podium if it was raining.
“It wasn't, but we managed to show everyone and to scare everyone. Everyone behind me was on the wet, so I was still in the game for points, which in the end is okay.”
The weekend is not over yet; there is one more round tomorrow. Staněk took us through his plan for tomorrow’s events.
“I'm really looking forward for the qualifying because this car to drive in the qualifying is something special. It's very fast, and it's very fun. We have to make sure we put the lap together in the qualy first of all, and then just do the race and improve it from today.
“We had some issues, but we will work and try to improve it together with my team and with my engineer in order to find more performance.”
Super Formula does not really give much room for testing during race weekends, with only two free practice sessions. Staněk does not seem to be bothered by it and thinks a similar schedule in F2 has made it easy for him to adapt to circuits easily.
“In Formula 2, you obviously cannot test as well as in Super Formula, so I'm quite used to come to the track, do one free practice and then straight into qualifying. So it was actually never a problem for me, and we could also see it in Motegi or Autopolis with only one free practice. I was able to perform quite well immediately in the qualy, so it's never a problem.
“Also, with the simulators today, you know you can learn the track a lot. Of course it helps, but I don't realise so much. I think it wouldn't make a difference if I was here for the test or not because I think that's my strong point for coming on the track and actually try to learn it as fast as possible, put the car on the limit and then go straight into qualifying.”
After this weekend wraps up, there is a mid-season test scheduled to be held at Fuji towards the end of June. Staněk lays down his plan for the test session and tackling Fuji.
“It's good because we can try many things, we can test some other stuff and then go to the race. I know Fuji very well from the simulator from a game called Le Mans Ultimate. I also race there quite often, so it's a nice track.
“I will just get some rest, do some training back in Europe in my home, and some work to do because I am also quite a busy guy because I work. I try to keep myself very active, and then try to see how the test will be.”
Staněk will be driving tomorrow in round 5; qualifying is scheduled to start at 10:25 AM JST, and the race at 2:45 PM JST.
