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Thoughts of a vice champion – Mathéo Tuscher

The Swiss driver reflects on his remarkable rookie season

This year's Formula Two runner-up spot went to Swiss rookie Mathéo Tuscher after a superb debut performance, a feat made even more impressive by the fact that he's only 15. As the championship's youngest ever competitor, he impressed from the very start to claim the first pole position of the season and before long was a regular visitor to the podium, amassing 11 of them in total including two wins. Here Mathéo reflects on his standout season that so nearly brought him title glory…

Mathéo Tuscher, a fantastic first season in Formula 2 - did you always think it would turn out so well at the start of the year?
I'm delighted to finish my first season in P2 as I never expected to be here. I've had a really good season. The first half wasn't as strong as the second because we had a few issues and I was still learning the car. But I worked really hard with my manager Jan and my engineer to overcome these. This is also only my second ever racing championship in my career so I'm really pleased with the result.   

We've seen a great relationship develop between yourself and Luciano Bacheta as the season has progressed - you must have learnt a lot from each other?
We have a lot of respect for each other in the paddock and even worked together at times to get the best set-up. It helped me a lot to be able to draw on Luciano's vast experience and we became almost like team-mates.

One of the standout performances of the year was your drive in the first race at Monza where you knew you had to win to have any chance of taking the title over to Sunday - what was going through your mind as you came through from fourth to first?!
The weather made the race very interesting! I had too much wheelspin at the start and saw that Luciano was already alongside me. I then braked going into the chicane but the track was really slippery, in fact I've never seen a track that slippery before, and I had no grip so went over it. After that I was P3 and just everything happened with places changing all the time! I wasn't as quick at the start of the race but I got faster and faster and was pleased to see the chequered flag.

And finally, any idea where you'll be racing next year? Maybe back with Formula 2?
We've got some meetings with teams from other championships so there are a few possibilities for me but we will see as we never expected to be in this position. It's a bit difficult to know what is the best thing to do but either way I've really enjoyed my time in the series and would like to thank all my friends and family and of course my sponsors.