Interview
“No matter what this weekend I will still be proud” – Hausmann fulfilling childhood dream as she hunts down Race 2 points
Tina Hausmann was pleased to get her fifth points finish of the 2024 campaign on the board, finishing 10th in Race 1.
The Aston Martin driver kept her head down with a clean and quiet race but lacked the pace to make further inroads up the order.
Nevertheless, for Hausmann, Round 5 is a moment of triumph regardless of how her results pan out. Whilst visiting Singapore on a family holiday back in 2018, she told her parents that she wanted to race around the Marina Bay Street Circuit — a dream she’s now making a reality.
“I’ve been super proud and happy to finally be racing in Singapore,” she explained. “It’s been a dream since I was seven years old. Now to come back to Singapore and to fulfil this dream is amazing, I couldn’t be happier.
“No matter what this weekend, I will still be proud because I’ll fulfil my childhood dream. We have one point from Race 1, so we can do better. We have found something on the car again, we’ll fix it for tomorrow and see how much we can improve.”
Having struggled with a lack of running during Free Practice — only completing nine laps, the second lowest on the grid — Hausmann appeared to be on the backfoot initially.
Fortunately for the Swiss driver, she’d put in the groundwork long before she arrived on the Singaporean streets and stressed the importance of her efforts to overcome some of the physical challenges the humidity poses.
READ MORE: RACE 1: Pulling in full control as she delivers victory in Singapore
Asked about how she’s adjusted to the track from the beginning of the weekend, Hausmann replied: “I prepared a lot for this one. I felt quite confident already from the first lap here. It’s still a bit new to have a street circuit, so you have to get used to the walls and pushing your limits so that you’re a centimetre off the wall.
“There is still a bit of room for improvement, but overall I’m quite happy with the progress we’re making. It was just unfortunate that in FP, I could only do half the session because the fire extinguishers went off — sometimes you’re lucky, sometimes you’re unlucky. Now we look forward, we maximise tomorrow and we try to learn as much as possible from today.”
She added: “I did a lot of heat training back home in Switzerland. I think I was quite prepared to come here. It’s not that hot for me actually, it’s tough, but I think the heat training was definitely worth it because I don’t struggle as much as expected in the race.
“I have an ice bath here in the back, so that me when I jump in after the session. We prepared well for the heat and it’s not a big challenge now to race here.”
Starting one place back for Race 2, Hausmann lines up in 12th. With extra work to do to claim another points-scoring finish, she says the story of her race could be defined by those initial seconds straight off the line.
“A good start will be everything,” the 17-year-old commented. “Keeping the position should be manageable, but the start has to be perfect. Today we had a good start, but we can do better. I’m confident for tomorrow, it is how it is.”