Rodin hails Maloney’s progress

Rodin Motorsport team principal Benn Huntingford has praised Barbadian driver Zane Maloney for the improvements he has made in this season’s Formula 2 Grand Prix racing.

Huntingford said Maloney was making fewer mistakes than he did last year, which he pointed out was the reason for the strong start to the season from the young driver.

The 20-year-old Maloney tops the drivers’ standings with 62 points, 15 clear of his nearest rival, Hitech Pulse-Eight driver Paul Aron, after winning both the sprint and feature races in the season opener in Bahrain, adding two points finishes in Saudi Arabia, and finishing third in the feature race in Australia.

Maloney had only 29 points at the same stage last season – his maiden – and Huntingford has been impressed with his driving this term.

“He’s been much more consistent,” the Rodin principal said. “Some of the rookie mistakes and things that happened last season, we aren’t seeing so much this season, which is really good and that all adds up to keeping us at the front.”

Rodin currently leads the team standings on 78 points after the first three rounds of the season.

“It was a good weekend for us (in Australia), and it was really good for us to come out of this part of the season and to go back into Europe with Zane still in the Championship lead, so really happy with how this weekend has gone,” Huntingford added.

F2 is the second tier to the Formula 1 world championship organised by the FIA, motor sport’s world governing body, and held on select circuits on the Grand Prix schedule.

The next race for Maloney and the rest of the drivers and their teams will be the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix from May 16 to 18 in the Italian city of Imola.

Until then, Huntingford said his team will spend the time trying to analyse the race data from the first three rounds and preparing for the European leg of the season to maintain their advantage.

“We will go back, go through things, prepare for the tests, try to fill in any gaps we’ve got with what we feel like we need to learn with the new car,” he said. “Try to carry all that forward and keep going into the European season with the same form.”

(CMC)