You can now read news’s new interview column “På heimebane”. Here we meet well-known sports figures and ask them a series of questions about big and small things. Today: Formula 2 driver Dennis Hauger. Current with: New Formula 2 season, which starts with a sprint race on Saturday and main race on Sunday. We start with five fixed and quick questions: – Apart from sports, what do you spend most of your time on? – Simulator and training. I don’t really have much else in my life right now. – When was the last time you spent NOK 1,000 or more on a dinner? – It was at a “pre-birthday dinner” because I’m running a race on my birthday (March 17). Ate chicken and Crème brûlée. – What is the stupidest purchase you have made in the last year? – Father, that was a strange question. “Father” and I will maybe join together on an ice cream truck, so maybe it can be a stupid thing, but at the same time fun. – What can really piss you off? – I don’t know, I feel that I am quite a calm type. To be honest, I don’t have anything I’m extremely “attractive” to. – What is your most controversial opinion? – Father for some questions this was, then! No, I have nothing to contribute. Despite a disappointing season last year, the Norwegian still ran away with two victories. During the sprint race in Monaco, he became, among other things, the first Norwegian to win a car race in the principality. Photo: Cicilie Sigrid Andersen/news – You drive over 300 km/ten races, but what kind of driver are you in normal traffic? – Lots of roleplay. I haven’t got any dots on my driver’s license so far, so it’s approved. I manage to keep calm on the road. I get a burst of energy on the track – “How fast did you drive” is probably what many people have asked. How interesting is that? – It’s probably the last thing you think about. You have so many other tasks and procedures in your head, and just the technical details we have in each individual turn is something we have seen a lot more pressure on, of course. For us, it is much more impressive how high speed we have in corners, because we have such extreme road grip in a formula car. After all, we can maintain over 250 km/h in one turn. Therefore, it is not so impressive or difficult to drive 340 km/h on a straight road, it is more the ability to take the small hundredths and brake two seconds later at 340 km/h, that is what separates the drivers for me. – When we watch the Netflix series from Formula 1, we see stars who live luxurious lives with hustle and bustle. How does the life of the Formula 2 drivers compare to that of the Formula 1 drivers? – Not exactly the same. We have a budget that needs to be put in place, whereas in Formula 1 it is a little different, a slightly bigger circus even though we are in the same “paddock”. So it’s not entirely comparable, no. – It’s almost a new season. What did you focus on in particular before it broke loose? – It was good to get back in the car again. I had a long break over the winter, so it was good to work a little more with the team in the Netherlands. I have driven a number of simulations, and the test of the car was very good. The general feeling is pretty good, and I’m very excited to see how the first race turns out. Formula 2 driver Dennis Hauger is aiming for the title this season. Photo: Torbjørn Brovold / news – When we were here last, you were introduced to your new team MP Motorsport. I think it was your manager Harald Huysman who said that you had driven behind that MP car last season and said that you thought it looked very stable and nice. What has it been like to sit inside him? – All cars are of course slightly different when it comes to setup, but what I felt about the MP is that it suits my own driving style better. It also seems like that on the test, based on how our speed is. But of course, it’s going to be a long season and some cars and teams are faster on other tracks, and there’s always a bit of ups and downs. But the feeling and smoothness MP has in the car felt right to me. – Dennis Hauger and Formula 1 in the same sentence, how tired are you of hearing that? – No, I understand that there is a part of it in the media and the like, and that is where I want to go. But I also know that my job is to do the best I can this year. I’m in Formula 2 now and have to do as much as I can to get the opportunity to step up to. – Have you received any specific requirements about what you must perform this season? – No, no specific requirements, but of course you know what’s involved. You have to be “up there”, and regardless, I still go in with the attitude that I want to be up there and fight for that victory. The Formula 2 season starts on March 2 in Bahrain. After that, there will be 14 Formula 2 rounds, which will hopefully secure Hauger a place in the illustrious company. Photo: Torbjørn Brovold / news – Now there are perhaps ten or twenty other Formula 2 drivers saying that they have the same goals as you – fight at the top. Why does it have to end with you being the winner in the end? – I know I will enter the season with good flow after the tests, and know that when things feel right, and that things are going well for me and the car, I have always been up there fighting for victories and wins. So I feel in a way that I know I can be up there when things are right, and I just have to have that attitude. – Interest in motorsport has increased greatly in recent years. What do people most often misunderstand about the sport? – I definitely see that there are many more people than before who are interested, and that is of course very cool. I guess what people don’t understand to the same extent is the technical part of the sport and the work that goes into the small details. Most people probably don’t know how analytical you have to be in your work, it’s not just turning left and right, it’s not like a normal car, there are no aids or anything, so everything becomes extra heavy. And the printout you get when you drive at 250-300 km/h in a corner, it’s at the speed of a fighter jet… It’s perhaps something that’s not so easy to understand anyway, and I understand that, but it’s Anyway, it’s really cool to see the interest in the sport now. – In sports, people have different roles and approaches. Some may be very analytical, while others just “sit down and drive”. How are you? – I think when you get to a high level, and especially in the Formula sport, it is extremely analytical anyway. There are hundreds of people and engineers around the factories, especially in Formula 1. Everything is analysed. And that means that you have to be analytical in order to improve yourself. For my part, I’ve always been quite “smooth” in my own driving style, but I’ve also been quite analytical. When it’s a race weekend, I write down everything I think about, both when it concerns the car, but also when it concerns situations that arise. I have always been analytical. – You say that, during a race weekend, you write down everything you think about. It sounds extreme. Do you get any reactions to how careful you are? – No, then, it’s mostly about what I get the most out of analyzing. We analyze things using data, and then I write down everything that gives improvement potential in a particular turn, or when it concerns technique. I feel I get things into my head a lot more when I write it down. Also to be able to visualize or go through things afterwards just before I get in the car. – When it comes to physical fitness and that the body is important as a tool: I listened to a bit on Gympodden, and there you said that you couldn’t train too many of the big muscle groups, because then you get too heavy? – There are extreme G-forces when you drive, but it mostly affects the small muscles. We cannot weigh too much with the car, because there is a minimum weight with driver and car, and we want the driver to be a little light so that the weight of the car can be balanced. And that means that we have to work much more with the small muscle groups. It’s a bit different training than what many others do, especially the neck and everything like that we have a lot of focus on. When I’m training it looks absolutely sick, because I keep training like few others do. The 19-year-old cut ties with Prema after the unstable debut season and is ready to unleash a new season with MP Motorsport. Photo: Rodrigo Freitas / NTB – You have now put one season behind you in Formula 2. What is the most important lesson you have learned from what you experienced last season? – It is of course the knowledge and experience I was able to build up last year through all the bananas. It’s about what I want from the car, what should be the pit stop strategy and all that sort of stuff. Now I know straight away what I want and need. It has also been the main difference for me in the past, from the first to the second season in a class. As in Formula 3, when I became world champion there, it was in the second season that I saw it. – Were you surprised by how much competition there was in Formula 2, with “pointy elbows” and how rough your competitors were? – No, there are more people I have been with on the upward ladder and driven towards. I have raced against some of the competitors in the EC and WC in karting, and even though they are older than me, I have always been up there. – It is a marginal sport where the race can be over in the first turn if you are unlucky. When you do everything right, you prepare, you follow the meeting, you train correctly – and then you arrive on the day of the race – and then something or other happens that causes the race to be ruined after a short time. How does one feel then? – No, there are good and bad days. Of course it’s frustrating when things don’t go the way you want, but at the same time you know there’s a race next day or next weekend. One manages to press the reset button and think ahead. – Are you driven more by the feeling of avoiding disappointment and losing, or are you driven more by the pursuit of victory? – I think it is both. I think I have learned an extremely large amount from the defeats I have had, and I definitely think that these have made me much stronger mentally and a better leader. But then, of course, it’s always nice to chase that winner. The Formula 2 season started with qualifying on Friday at 17:25. On Saturday at 13.40 a sprint race will be run before the race weekend is concluded with the main race on Sunday at 10.30.
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