The 'family' values that helped Campos Racing survive tragedy

“It was like an earthquake,” he says of Campos Sr’s death. “With the passing of my father, it was very difficult to stabilise the company and, at the same time, make it grow.

“Of course, when this kind of thing happens, you always think about what is the worst scenario that you can face, and obviously a lot of people thought that the company was not going to continue. Having responsibility for that many employees is a heavy weight.

“This was in January 2021, and we still had a lot of driver contracts to sign. It was very challenging to do so with the passing of my father, with the thoughts that all the drivers and managers had about us, and I totally understand – he was the face of the team.

“We went through the year, let’s say, quite successfully for what it was looking like at the beginning. And then we just improve in the following year, everything went a lot better.”

Campos points to two main factors in the team’s survival last year, leading on to an uplift in results with podiums from Ralph Boschung in F2 and a win for Davide Vidales in F3 this season.

“We’re like a family,” he says. “We’ve had all the people working here for a long time, some from the beginning, this is this was one of our luckiest points.

“Next year will be our 25th anniversary, and the commitment is really high because this is part of them. So without them, of course, we couldn’t move forward, but we did. I’m very proud of everyone in the team.

“To be honest, we already had a plan: we want to grow as a team but let’s say ‘grow down’ into the lower categories.

“When my father passed away, I was already working almost 10 years next to him, helping him in everything that I can, managing the drivers, giving a hand, listening, learning.

“We were getting ready for the next steps, he was handing over responsibilities – he wanted to enjoy racing in a different way and relax a bit – we just never thought that it was going to be so early.”

Through the difficult early results of 2021 to the setbacks of this season, when a neck injury derailed a promising F2 campaign for Boschung, Campos often thinks back to the advice of his father.

“When something was not going as planned, and I was very nervous complaining to him, he was always answering me with the same with the same sentence: ‘Let the things fall by its own weight.’

“This is translated from Spanish, meaning give everything the time that it needs, and everything will go to its own place – it will be fine.”

Though Campos is set to become an integral part of making the F1 ladder more accessible for women, the team’s new leader has ideas for how things can be further improved for up and coming talent.

“I have always said that we should move a little within the direction of MotoGP,” he emphasises.