Category: Formula Two

So, the season is now fully underway, with the season starting in Bahrain. First up we have free practice and it went a bit like this….

Felipe Drugovich who drives for Uni-Virtuosi’s finished the fastest in the opening session, behind him with a 1:45.481 was Dan Ticktum who also has been announced today that his continuing with Williams to be their development driver. After an impressive pre-season testing Liam Lawson slid into third just two tenths short behind Ticktum.

The popular Ferrari Academy pair, Robert Schwartzman who drives for PREMA and Marcus Armstrong who drives for DAMS made it fourth and fifth.

Now onto qualifying… Guanyu Zhou has took the first pole position for the first race this season and for the second year in a row!! He stole pole from Lungaard by beating him by 0.003s, in third we have Felipe Drugovich.

There was a red flag near the end of the session and that was due to PREMA’s Robert Schwartzman came to a stop down the pit straight. Leaving the rest of drivers 5 minutes to get a time on the board.

Finishing 10th in Quali, David Beckmann will however start Sprint Race 1 from reverse grid pole tomorrow.

Come back for more updates tomorrow on both F1 and F2!

And finally F2 have all their drivers ready and announced for the first race of the season which is this weekend!!

Trident made a double announcement that they have re-signed Marino Sato for the 2021 season and as well they have announced they have signed Bent Viscaal for this seasons opener in Bahrain.

21 year old Sato is entering his second full season of Formula Two with the Italian team. Sato made his debut in F2 in the final part of 2019 the same year where he cruised to the Euroformula Open title where he had nine wins, eleven podiums, six poles and five fastest laps.

Viscaal made his F2 debut in the pre-season testing for Trident and now gets to do it in the first race of the season as well, his made the step up from Formula 3.

Richard Verschoor completes the line up for MP Motorsport, he is making his F2 debut this weekend. His moved up from Formula 3 after finish 9th last year and 13th in 2019.

Overall for the 2021 season we have 9 rookies, which is just under half the grid👀 its definitely going to be an exciting season for sure.

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So for the past 3 days, Formula Two has been testing there 2021 cars in Sakhir, Bahrain this year we have 6 hours of testing a day over the three days and they spilt it to 3 hours in the morning and 3 hours for afternoon testing. Testing went somewhat like this…

Day 1- As usual in the morning they all set off for their installation lap, then went back to the garage to do further works on their cars. However once things got started again, there was a red flag as Richard Verschoor came to a halt down the back straight in the lead up to turn 14. Once things got started again Dan Ticktum came out on top in the morning session.

MP were back out straight away in the afternoon session with Zendeli taking back his place at the top of the timesheets with a time of 1:45.010. Reigning F3 champion Piastri made his first appearance at the top of the charts towards the halfway point off the afternoon. However none of the Formula Two drivers could match Beckmann as the rookie finished the afternoon top of the tables with a 1:42.844

Day 2- Lungaard was a familiar presence at the top of the timesheets in the morning session, his time of 1:43.514 was only the start to his morning as he cemented his position in P1. Viscaal managed to sneak into second behind Lungaard towards middle way of the morning session. Marcus Armstrong was looking more comfortable with his DAMS car on the second morning as he finished in the top three, which beat his P9 on Monday morning.

13 cars went out on track when the lights went green in the afternoon session, however a red flag stopped the session after Petecof stopped at turn 13. After resuming the session there were a further two red flags as Lawson and Zhou both stopped on the track, however both managed to get back out onto track. Dan Ticktum topped the charts again with a 1:42.185 followed by his team mate Daruvala with a 1:42.619

Day 3- The final day of testing, and no one was messing about! Almost everyone headed out on track with Vips setting a 1:42.224. Although he didn’t stay up there for long as his team mate Lawson was quicker by 0.006s. However none of these finished top at the end of the morning session. It was indeed Marcus Armstrong, with a 1:42.173.

In the afternoon, only four drivers went out as soon as the lights went green, with Zendeli taking first place out of the four. Boschung, who drives for Campos darted round the track with a 1:44.905. However no one could top that in the final session of pre-season testing.

This season is going to be an interesting one in Formula Two, lots of rookies who are very talented but also lots of talented drivers who have been in F2 before. Just over 2 weeks to go till the start of all the action gets underway at Sakhir…

Double announcement from Charouz racing system, their all new 2021 drivers are David Beckmann and Guilherme Samia.

Beckmann new to F2, finished 6th last year in F3 with two wins and five podiums with Trident. The year before he finished 14th, which is a very big improvement. He also competed in the Porsche sprint challenge last year which he finished 13th overall. He debuted for Charouz back at post season testing in Bahrain which clearly left them impressed.

Samia has joint Charouz he left their rivals Campos racing to partner up with Beckmann. The 24 year old is a previous Brazilian F3 champion, with also having some experience in BRDC F3, European Open and Spanish F3.

This personally seems like a good move from the team partnering up someone with experience in F2 and someone completely new to F2. The pair will look to improve on the teams result as they finished 7th overall in the teams championship last year, with a total of 137 points and five podium finishes.

Teams:	Drivers:
Prema Racing	Robert Schwartzman & Oscar Piastri
Uni-Virtuosi Racing	Guanyu Zhou & Felipe Drugovich
Carlin	Dan Ticktum & Jehan Daruvala
Hitech Grand Prix	Liam Lawson & Juri Vips
Art Grand Prix	Christian Lundgaard & Théo Pourchaire
MP Motorsport	TBA & Liam Zendeli
Charouz Racing System	David Beckmann & Guilherme Samaia
Dams	Roy Nissany & Marcus Armstrong
Campos Racing	Gianluca Petecof & Ralph Boschung
HWA Racelab	Matteo Nannini &Alessio Deledda
Trident	TBA & TBA

Only 3 spots left in the 2021 season, I wonder who will get them… Keep checking for more updates

Teams:	Drivers:
Prema Racing	Robert Shwartzman and Oscar Piastri
Uni-Virtuosi Racing	Guanyu Zhou and Felipe Drugovich
Carlin	Dan Ticktum and Jehan Daruvala
HiTech Grand Prix	Liam Lawson and Juri Vips
Art Grand Prix	Christian Lundgaard and Théo Pourchaire
MP Motorsport	*TBA* and Lirim Zendeli
Charouz Racing System	*TBA* and *TBA*
DAMS	Roy Nissany and Marcus Armstrong
Campos Racing	Ralph Boschung and Gianluca Petecof
HWA Racelab	Matteo Nannini and Alessio Deledda
Trident	*TBA* and *TBA*

Gianluca Petecof has announced he will partner with Ralph Boschung at Campos racing. The 18 year old has scored 5 poles, 4 wins, and 14 podiums on his way to the title which got him promoted to Campos directly into Formula Two. Petecof graduated to single seats in 2018 which he then competed in Italian and ADAC Formula Four. He then went onto win the Italian F4 in the following season. Petecof announced early February that he wouldn’t carry his collaboration with the Ferrari Drivers Academy in 2021.

Christian Lundgaard stays at Art Grand Prix racing team for the 2021 season. The Alpine junior first teamed up with ART in the 2019 Formula Three Championship, which he finished sixth which included one win and two podiums. The team then went on to award him with a promotion into F2 and he impressed in his rookie campaign which he finished 7th overall with two wins and six podiums. Son of the 2000 European Rally Champion Henrik Lundgaard first joined the Alpine academy back in 2017. I definitely think that Christian is going to go far, i am looking forward to see what he does in another season of F2.

Another Alpine academy driver has been announced and that is Guanyu Zhou and he will be racing for UNI-Virtuosi Racing for a third season, he will be pairing up with Felipe Drugovich for the 2021 season. He got awarded the Anthoine Hubert Award for top rookie in 2019 after he finished the season in seventh place, and since then he improved by finishing sixth in the 2020 season. As well as being in the Alpine academy he served being the F1’s official test driver in 2020 through his position with Renault, he has had the luxury of driving the 2017,2018 and 2020 cars. It seems like Zhou has a lot of experience and confidence in F1,F2 and Alpine so i definitely think this another to watch out for.

Teams:	Drivers:
Prema Racing	Robert Schwartzman and Oscar Piastri
Uni-Virtuosi Racing	*TBA* and Felipe Drugovich
Carlin	Dan Ticktum and Jehan Daruvala
Hitech Grand Prix	Liam Lawson and Jüri Vips
Art Grand Prix	*TBA* and Théo Pourchaire
MP Motorsport	*TBA* and Lirim Zendel
Charouz Racing System	*TBA*
Dams	Roy Nissany and Marcus Armstrong
Campos Racing	Ralph Boschung and *TBA*
HWA Racelab	Matteo Nannini and Alessio Deledda
Trident	*TBA*

Art Grand Prix has announced that Théo Pourchaire will race for them in Formula 2, the frenchman was a surprise for the other formula three drivers last year as he became the champions youngest ever race winner at the red bull ring in round 2, before he challenged the others for the title, he unfortunately missed out of the title by just 3 points. At the end of the season he drove with ART at post season testing in Bahrain. It seems like Theo will be gunning for the top and prove that he may be young but he is very good at was he does, he is definitely one to keep an eye on in the future.

Carlin have signed up Ticktum for his second year in F2 after leaving DAMS. After finishing 11th last year with a race win and three podiums. He made his debut for them in formula two back when the three day post season testing was taking place which is where he impressed them to get the drive for 2021. Dan is a two time winner of Macau Grand Prix and also finished as the runner up in the European F3 in 2018.

Roy Nissany joins Marcus Armstrong at DAMS for the 2021 season. Nissany switches from Trident to DAMS after finishing 19th last season scoring only 5 points… He has a lot of experience in F1 as he is the Williams test driver, he took part in 3 free practice sessions last year for the team and also the young drivers test in Abu Dhabi.

14 spaces gone only 8 more to go, it will be interesting to see who else is going to be announced.