Interview
Palmowski labels Campos 1-2 finish ‘long overdue’ after ‘extremely stressful’ Race 2 in Las Vegas
Bouncing back from her disqualification for a technical nonconformity in Race 1, Alisha Palmowski fought hard to complete a deserved 1-2 finish for Campos Racing alongside Chloe Chambers.
While her teammate seemed to dominate the race with relative ease, Palmowski found herself caught in an intense battle with Ferrari’s Maya Weug, forcing her to defend relentlessly.
Weug did succeed in overtaking her for second place, but Palmowski would not give up the position easily. She stayed close and within a few corners, the Red Bull Racing driver had snatched back the spot and clung on until she crossed the line.
Reflecting on the day, she explained: “It was an extremely stressful race, I’d say. I feel like I’ve aged 20 years in the last half an hour! For whatever reason, I just lacked a little bit of pace.
“I felt quite good in the opening stint – the first quarter to a third of the race – but then just struggled from there. I think I know where I’m losing out, but I’m just not sure why.
“It obviously doesn’t matter now – we still came away with P2. I was under a lot of pressure for a long time but I kept my head together. I just want to review the data and see for next year what I was doing wrong, if I was doing something wrong, and what we can improve on for next year.”
Although she missed out on the Rookie of the Year spot by 18 points to McLaren's Ella Lloyd, the 19-year-old has been confirmed as one of next season’s drivers. However, she will no longer be teammates with Chambers as the American has completed her two year stint in the series.
As a pair, their turnaround from Race 1 to Race 2 around the challenging circuit could not have been more stark. They made contact in Race 1, causing Chambers to retire before Palmowski was disqualified as her car breached the Sporting Regulations and Technical Regulations.
Any tensions were quickly forgotten as they both started Race 2 on the front row and maintained their positions to bring home a 1-2 finish for Campos, with their other teammate Rafaela Ferreira taking another two points down in P9.
Remarkably, this marks the team’s only 1-2 finish since the opening race of the season in Shanghai, their third double podium of the campaign and fourth points-scoring race across their trio.
“It was long overdue to be honest,” Palmowski said of the strong result. “We should have achieved this multiple times this year so I’m just really glad to finally make it happen.
“I thought I was going to ruin it and drop down to P3 when I was fighting with Maya, but it was an extremely fair battle and was just really enjoyable. I feel relief for the team, and just a big thank you to Campos for the whole season, for all the work that they’ve put in.
“I think I’ve just learned absolutely loads. I generally feel a lot more comfortable in this environment now. I feel like it’s all becoming a bit more second nature instead of a shock to me.
“Every lap that I do in the car, I gain more and more confidence. I’m more and more comfortable with every race weekend, so I’ll just go in with a much higher confidence level next year. The people I’m fighting won’t be here next year so hopefully I’ll be on that top step.”