Formula 2: Everything You Need To Know

Formula 2 is a single seater series, organised by the FIA. It often acts as a feeder season to F1, with seven of the current drivers started worked their way through F2 including Norris, Latifi, Tsunoda and Mazepin, with Leclerc, Russell and Schumacher winning the series. F2 used to be known as GP2 but was rebranded at the end of the 2017 season. There are 22 drivers from 11 teams, with three races across a weekend. F2 is a support race to F1, racing at 8 weekends across the year.

The Race Weekend

The race weekend consists of:

Friday: Practice and Qualifying

Saturday: Sprint Race 1 and 2

Sunday: Feature Race

F2 uses a reverse grid method to decide the starting grid for the sprint races, Sprint Race 1 reverses the top 10 finishers of Friday’s qualifying session (So P1 becomes P10), Sprint Race 2 reverses the top 10 finishers of Sprint Race 1 (so the winner of the first sprint race starts P10). The feature race then uses Friday’s qualification results.

There is still a huge incentive to qualifying as high up as possible, despite the reverse grids. There are more points available in the feature race, as well as additional 4 points for whoever qualifies on pole during Friday’s session. The feature race uses the FIA point system (so the same as F1), however there are only points available for the top 8 during the Sprint Races, in a 15, 12, 10, 8, 6, 4, 2, 1 scaling. There are also 2 points available for fastest lap in each race.

The Schedule

F2 is a support race to F1. This means they race at some of the F1 weekends. The schedule for the rest of the season is as follows:

10-12th September: Monza (Italy)

24-26th September: Sochi (Russia)

3-5th December: Jeddah (Saudi Arabia)

10-12th December: Yas Marina (Abu Dhabi)

F2 has also raced at: Sakir (Bahrain), Monaco, Baku and Silverstone this season.

The Teams and Drivers

Prema: Shwartzman and Piastri

UNI-Virtuosa: Zhou and Drugovich

Carlin: Ticktum and Daruvala

Hitech Grand Priz: Lawson and Vips

ART Grand Priz: Lundgaard and Pourchaire

MP Motorsport: Verschoor and Zendeli

Charouz Racing System: Beckman and Samaia

DAMS: Nissany and Armstrong

Campos Racing: Nannini and Boschung

HWA Racelabs: Aitken and Deledda

Trident: Viscaal and Sato

One thing that makes it a little more confusing is that some of the drivers are part of F1 Driver Academies. This often means their car liveries and race suits are that of the F1 team and not of their F2 team, for example the Red Bull and Alpine drivers. Here are the drivers in academies:

Red Bull: Lawson, Daruvala and Vips

Ferrari: Shwartzman and Armstrong

Alpine: Zhou, Piastri and Lundgaard

Williams: Nissany and Aitken

Alfa Romeo (Sauber): Pourchaire

The Car

All of the F2 cars are identical as it is a spec series. The Dallara F2 2018 chasis is used, with 18 inch rim Pirelli tyres and a Mecachrome 4.0 L V8 engine.

Some key facts about the car:

Dimensions: 5223mm (L) x 1900 mm (W) x 1097 mm (H)

Weight (inc driver): 755 kg

Engine: 3.4 litre

Acceleration: 0-100km/h in 2.90 seconds – 0-200km/h in 6.60 seconds

A new car was meant to be introduced for this season, however due to COVID (as a cost cutting measure) the chasis’ use was extended until the end of 2023.

In terms of tyres, each driver is allocated 6 sets of dry weather per weekend, with three sets of wet-weathers. There are four specifications available (super soft, soft, medium and hards) which are predetermined by Pirelli. There is also a mandatory pit stop each race, which only counts after 6 laps. DRS is also available to the driver.

Where To Watch

F2 is available to watch on Sky Sports F1 in the UK, ESPN in the US, and a variety of channels across the world which you can view here. You can also tune in on F1TV!

F2 is absolutely something to watch. The amount of talent in the series in insane and there are many future F1 World Champions in its ranks…. Make sure to tune in for the next weekend in Monza!