Marcus Armstrong finally got the reward for what he felt he was “always capable of doing” with a first Formula 2 victory in Saudi Arabia over the weekend.
It was a long time coming for Armstrong since making the jump to F2 last year.
Before Saudi Arabia, the young Kiwi had claimed three podiums in the category, two of which came in the spree of his first four races.
But he had been made to wait for the elusive debut win.
He battled a fair share of harsh point-less streaks the last 12 months, yet he always felt he had the car under him to win when the time was right.
“I was always capable of doing it. It was just a matter of putting it all on the table and doing what we can do,” Armstrong said.
Armstrong delivered DAMS’ first win as an F2 team since Silverstone last year.
“To see the smiles on a lot of my engineers’ faces, and my mechanics as well, it’s a great reward for a lot of work that hasn’t really been rewarded so far this season.”
For some drivers, breakthrough wins can be a turning point for their self-confidence.
For Armstrong, that’s not so much the case.
“I don’t think [the win] is going to change a lot in terms of my confidence.
“Obviously, a trophy is only a representation of what we’ve been working towards.
“It’s not going to give me a massive boost of confidence in other words. It’s going to be nice to put next to the TV though.”
The rest of Armstrong’s Arabian desert weekend didn’t quite go as swimmingly as race one.
He was taken out on lap one of race two and then finished eighth in a crash-shortened feature race, which was reduced to five laps.
The brand-new Jeddah Street Circuit proved to be a car-wrecker for almost every category.
“The track is pretty mental,” Armstrong told NewsTalk ZB on Monday.
“When we did the track walk on Wednesday, we all sort of looked at each other and went ‘Woah, this corner here – turn 22 – if there’s going to be a crash, it is 100 per cent going to be here.’
“I almost crashed there about 20 times since Friday.
“It’s just a super high speed track, and when the walls are that close, accidents are always going to happen.”
Armstrong has one more weekend in Abu Dhabi before class is out for his sophomore F2 year.
Armstrong then returns to New Zealand in late December, having secured a Managed Isolation spot.