Facu Regalia had a disappointing GP2 season opener in Bahrain, on Friday morning engine issues cost him around seven tenths per lap in the first practice session.
As these problems continued in qualifying, Regalia could not improve his 10th row on the grid for Saturday´s race. Regalia was able to make a great start overtaking ten cars but, after two corners, another rival collided with the youn Argentinian and as a consequence he got a puncture and was forced to retire.
On Sunday, in race two, Regalia had to cope with new problems. Bahrain has never been an easy track to overtake other cars and car set-up didn´t help either, as the car entered by SFIF1 GP2 Team was quite difficult to drive in the dying stages.
However, he came away from Bahrain with some positives having experienced GP2 racing and gaining an understanding of how how tyre degradation works in the series, a key factor with these cars.
Facu Regalia: “On the whole this meeting was quite difficult. Race two, starting from the back after retiring on Saturday, was not an easy one either. I passed five cars but, as Marciello stalled on the grid, and I had to brake and could not take full advantage of my good start. Thank God I could avoid clashes the first two turns and start experienced a GP2 race. I really thought to overtake other cars would be possible, but oversteer and poor traction did not help for sure. Lap by lap it got even worse and the after the halfway point the car was really painful. As a result I was suffering hand cramps at the end, a painful shoulder and hand wounds. I could not overtake other cars but at least my starts were pretty good and they are very important for future meetings. I learnt how GP2 racing is and tire degradation. Anyway we need to improve several things, there is room for improvement in the car and in the team and we have already had some meetings about it. We have to turn the page because the season has just started. We need to confirm our engine is working properly and I hope that from now on things shall improve. Also I would like to take the opportunity to say hi to everybody in Argentina, other Latin American countries and all my fans all around the world”.
