Jordan's Track Talk

Category: Formula Two

  • F2 Monaco- Day 1 & 2

    Wow what a long break that was from the first race! I know we had testing in April but even with that what a long time! Anyways i’m happy to see the F2 cars back on track and even more so in Monaco!🤩

    Day 1-

    First up we had free practice heres what happened! First of all there was three stoppages in the opening 20 minutes of the session, where Marino Sato came to a halt on track which brought out a red flag. The second stoppage was required after Gianluca Petecof’s Campos went up into smoke. Then the final stoppage was because Bent Viscaal managed to clip the wall so the VSC was required.

    The results from free practice was Shwartzman first with a 1:22.041, he was followed by Ticktum with a 1:22.564 and then he was followed by Vips who had a 1:22.628!

    Now onto Qualifying, they had to split the grid up into two qualifying groups because it is standard for Monaco.

    The 17 year old, Theo Pourchaire will start the feature race in pole position on Saturday afternoon making him the Formula Two’s youngest ever pole sitter in Monaco! In P2 is Shwartzman who topped qualifying group B with a 1:21.403, behind him is Piastri in P3 with a 1:21.443.

    Day 2-

    Now onto day 2 which is just made up of one sprint race and its a reverse grid of how the top 10 qualified, meaning Zhou will start P1 and let me tell you I think he was very happy with that as thats where he finished at the end of the 30 laps.

    Robert Shwartzman didn’t have a lucky day today as he pushed too hard and whacked the wall of Casino Square, which forced him to retire after attempting to get back out. Lundgaard got away brilliant at the beginning however that all came to a crashing hault when he started to have smoke come from the back of his car, which brought him to a stop with a yellow flag. Petecof doesn’t seem to be having a good weekend here in Monaco as he collided with the wall and stopped on the track which brought out a full safety car which could of potentially changed the entire race… There was then a fourth retirement by Marino Sato as he put his car into the wall.

    It ended up being a 1-2 podium for UNI-Virtuosi and they was joined by Williams test driver Roy Nissany in his first Formula 2 podium. Starting in P1 for tomorrows second Sprint Race is Marcus Armstrong after pulling off a last minute and risky move on Daruvala, Armstrong will be next to Liam Lawson as he is starting P2 tomorrow and then Oscar Piastri in P3…

    The second sprint race tomorrow will be starting at 7:20am (BST) and 8:20am (CEST) and for the feature race it will be 16:15pm (BST) and 17:15 (CEST)

  • Barcelona F2 Testing

    This weekend we have had the F2 cars back on track at Barcelona for some more testing, once again it was split into morning and afternoon sessions with a total of 18 hours of track time across the weekend.

    Day 1- A bit of a foggy start to the morning session, with teams letting the drivers out for an install lap. Campos shot out on track as soon as it was clear, followed by MP Motorsport however MP didn’t get to set a competitive time as Carlin’s Jehan Daruvala stopped at turn 1 which brought out the first red flag of the weekend. Following the first red flag there was then another as Piastri stopped at turn 3 but he did manage to set a good time overall. After having two cars back in the garage safely Lungaard headed out onto the circuit and posted the quickest time of the morning setting a time of 1:29.606. The morning session finished with Lundgaard at the top with a 1:29.594, followed by Drugovich with a 1:29.772, then followed Vips with a 1:29.988.

    Once the afternoon session got the green light MP were the first team to get back onto the track, with both drivers getting a fast run out of the way. Verschoor charged his way to the top of the table after his fifth lap and then was backed up by his teammate Zendeli. A little while later Zendeli lost control of his MP and managed to tag the barrier… There was then another red flag shortly after this as Nissany lost control at Turn 9 and touched the wall too. Lundgaard was the one to bump Verschoor down to P2 with a lap time of 1:29.827, Verschoor ended up with a 1:30.165 and was very closely followed by Theo Pourchaire with a 1:30.167.

    Day 2- The morning session of Day 2 was the opportune time for some Qualifying simulations, with fresh hard tyres on, the field quickly went out to get a feel for the circuit with Zendeli setting an early pace of 1:29.440. He was shortly knocked down the order after Boschung went two tenths quicker. Half way through the session you saw the teams switching to the mediums however their runs were halted as Nissany spun at Turn 3 and found himself stuck in gravel which brung out a red flag. The session ended with Verschoor on top with a 1:28.280 then followed by Ralph Boschung with a 1:28.474 and then Felipe Drugovich with a 1:28.544.

    The afternoon session is more based on the longer runs to gather data, so to start the session off, Petecof got things under way with a 1:30.684. There were three disruptions in this session with Deledda spinning at turns 12 and 1, and Shwartzman stopped at turn 3. Once things got restarted again the Charouz Racing System pair went first and second with Beckamnn having a 1:29.384 and Samaia with a 1:29.510. Verschoor then made it to P3 with a 1:29.951 and that finished up the second day.

    Day 3- The last day of testing wasn’t as bright as the second day, which led to us seeing some rain at the end of the first session. The field headed out at the earliest opportunity with them switching to their final set of mediums. Their was a brief stoppage which we saw HWA Racelab’s spun at the first turn which brought out a red flag. Action soon resumed, with Drugovich taking control, he was the first the driver to break the 1m 28s barrier for the first time in Barcelona with a 1:27.945. Lundgaard was next to follow, he took a qualifying simulation however he couldn’t nail all three sectors, he managed P2 with a 1:28.285. Lundgaard wasn’t at P2 for long as Piastri came out on fresh medium tyres and set a 1:28.105.

    The afternoon session got underway and the long runs soon started, the HWA Racelab duo set the benchmark times leading with 1:30.346 and 1:32.183. There was a brief stoppage in the opening hour of the session as Lawson touched the wall at Turn 5. He managed to get back out there but then came to halt between turns 8 and 9 with 15 minutes to go. There was a third red flag of the afternoon for Verschoor who stopped at turn 7. The top 3 for the end of the session were Viscaal with a 1:30.280, Nannini with a 1:30.346 and Sato with a 1:30.943.

    In my opinion I believe HiTech, MP Motorsport are strong and so is Lundgaard, all of them seemed to be consistent over the weekend whilst doing simulations and tests. I’m looking forward to the next race weekend and its in Monaco on the 22nd of May.

  • Day 3 Bahrain- F2

    What a weekend it has been in Formula Two, it feels so good to have it back on TV! On a Sunday we now have a feature race and let me tell you it did not disappoint..

    The three drivers on the podium were Guanyu Zhou, Dan Ticktum and Liam Lawson. It was touch and go whether Zhou would take the win or not but he managed to hold on to it making it his first Feature Race win.

    A safety car brought a stop to Lundgaard and Zhou’s fight for first after Roy Nissany was clipped by Shwartzman which forced him to retire, Shwartzman however didn’t need to retire but was handed a drive-through penalty.

    There was a second safety car after Gianluca Petecof retired, which shook up the order massively as Armstrong was leading with Piastri and Verschoor behind him, however Armstrong quickly dropped back after the restart as Verschoor took the lead on the softs.

    Zhou eventually took back the top spot after Verschoor couldn’t defend anymore. Verschoor then had to defend from Piastri however Piastri was more focused on defending Ticktum, which didn’t end well after they come together at Turn 2 which then led to Piastri spinning off and then out of the race, Ticktum got away unscathed.

    One person who massively impressed me over the weekend was Liam Lawson, he is very talented and one to watch out in the future for sure…

    Next up we have three day testing in April, then after that the second race weekend is in May and they head to Monte Carlo.

  • Day 2 Bahrain- F2

    Second day is done!✅ On a Saturday we have both sprint races.

    Sprint Race 1- First sprint race of the season and let me tell you it did not disappoint… Liam Lawson got away beautifully, he started P3 and finished P1 making his Formula 2 debut one to remember! Jehan Daruvala and David Beckmann completed the top three.

    One person that stood out to me was Robert Schwartzman, he didnt have much luck on Friday however he started P11 and finished P4 just missing out on a podium 😕.

    There was four retirements in total, that included Pourchaire, Armstrong, Boschung and Verschoor all different reasons however not a good start to the season, every point counts…

    Sprint Race 2- Now onto the second sprint race of the weekend… Once again another race with drama and amazing overtakes. Reigning Formula 3 champion Oscar Piastri took the win after overtaking Guanyu Zhou. However, Zhou fell to third after Lungaard made a last minute move, making it an all Alpine academy podium.

    One person who stood out to me this sprint race was Richard Verschoor who started 22nd and finished 5th! He was unlucky in the first sprint race with a DNF but he brought it back in the second!

    First lap battles- Unfortunately two drivers were out after turn 1 as they collided and they were Robert Shwartzman and Dan Ticktum, it ended up bringing out the first safety car of the race.

    The next collision was Zendeli and Lungaard, Zendeli was clipped by Lungaard and then suffered a puncture. However Lungaard suffered a 10 second time penalty which he served in the pits later on.

    Next up we have the feature race which is today and the starting grid is below :)

  • Bahrain Day 1-F2

    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!

  • The Final 3

    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.

  • Pre-Season Testing F2

    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…

    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 RacingRobert Schwartzman & Oscar Piastri
    Uni-Virtuosi RacingGuanyu Zhou & Felipe Drugovich
    CarlinDan Ticktum & Jehan Daruvala
    Hitech Grand PrixLiam Lawson & Juri Vips
    Art Grand PrixChristian Lundgaard & Théo Pourchaire
    MP MotorsportTBA & Liam Zendeli
    Charouz Racing SystemDavid Beckmann & Guilherme Samaia
    DamsRoy Nissany & Marcus Armstrong
    Campos RacingGianluca Petecof & Ralph Boschung
    HWA RacelabMatteo Nannini &Alessio Deledda
    TridentTBA & TBA
    Updated Formula Two drivers

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

  • Formula Two news

    Teams:Drivers:
    Prema RacingRobert Shwartzman and Oscar Piastri
    Uni-Virtuosi RacingGuanyu Zhou and Felipe Drugovich
    CarlinDan Ticktum and Jehan Daruvala
    HiTech Grand PrixLiam Lawson and Juri Vips
    Art Grand PrixChristian Lundgaard and Théo Pourchaire
    MP Motorsport*TBA* and Lirim Zendeli
    Charouz Racing System*TBA* and *TBA*
    DAMSRoy Nissany and Marcus Armstrong
    Campos RacingRalph Boschung and Gianluca Petecof
    HWA RacelabMatteo 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.

  • Formula Two

    Teams:Drivers:
    Prema RacingRobert Schwartzman and Oscar Piastri
    Uni-Virtuosi Racing*TBA* and Felipe Drugovich
    CarlinDan Ticktum and Jehan Daruvala
    Hitech Grand PrixLiam Lawson and Jüri Vips
    Art Grand Prix*TBA* and Théo Pourchaire
    MP Motorsport*TBA* and Lirim Zendel
    Charouz Racing System*TBA*
    DamsRoy Nissany and Marcus Armstrong
    Campos RacingRalph Boschung and *TBA*
    HWA RacelabMatteo 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.

  • Formula Two drivers

    Since my last post regarding Formula Two drivers for the 2021 season there has been three more drivers which have been announced since:

    Teams:Drivers:
    Prema RacingRobert Schwartzman and Oscar Piastri
    Uni-Virtuosi Racing*TBA* and Felipe Drugovich
    Carlin*TBA* and Jehan Daruvala
    Hitech Grand PrixLiam Lawson and Jüri Vips
    Art Grand Prix*TBA*
    MP Motorsport*TBA* and Lirim Zendel
    Charouz Racing System*TBA*
    Dams*TBA* and Marcus Armstrong
    Campos RacingRalph Boschung and *TBA*
    HWA RacelabMatteo Nannini and Alessio Deledda
    Trident*TBA*

    HWA Racelab has announced there 2021 Italian duo they have signed Alessio and Matteo, Matteo is doing F2 aswell as F3 with forty five races in total, meaning he is going to be very busy… Matteo has already driven for HWA in Bahrain at post season testing getting his first taste of Formula Two, however it is his second season for Formula Three.

    Deledda has spent the past two seasons at Campos Racing in Formula Three. He first started his carreer on two wheels then decided to go to four which he then took part in the Italian F4, aswell he has experience from in both Formula Renault Eurocup and Macau Grand Prix.

    Also Marcus Armstrong joins DAMS for his second season of Formula Two, he has switched from ART Grand Prix. He had an on and off season last year with taking two podiums within the first four races. Marcus drove for DAMS at Bahrain for the post season testing and he convinced them to sign for him in 2021.

  • F2 drivers and more…

    So far not all the drivers for Formula 2 has been announced yet, but so far the drivers are:

    Teams Drivers
    Prema RacingRobert Schwartzman and Oscar Piastri
    Uni-Virtuosi Racing*TBA* and Felipe Drugovich
    Carlin*TBA* and Jehan Daruvala
    Hitech GrandPrixLiam Lawson and Jüri Vips
    Art GrandPrix*TBA*
    MP Motorsport*TBA* and Lirim Zendeli
    Charouz Racing System*TBA*
    Dams*TBA*
    Campos RacingRalph Boschung and *TBA*
    HWA RaceLab*TBA*
    Trident*TBA*

    So we have 14 spaces left for F2 2021 season… it will be interesting to see who gets announced next, especially after the fact that Mick Schumacher, Yuki Tsunoda and Nikita Mazepin all got promoted to F1 for this year.

    The FIA Formula 2 championship promoters announced in December that these eleven teams above have been selected for 2021-2023 seasons, the same teams which competed in the 2020 season.

    Formula 2 have eight races for this year, it will have three races per weekend the weekend format is the following: Friday sessions, you have one free practice session of 45 minutes and then a qualifying session of 30 minutes. Saturday will have two sprint races. The feature race will now take place on a Sunday morning before Formula One.

    Some may think well what about starting grids? That is all sorted… The results from Fridays qualifying will be the starting grid for the feature race on a Sunday. The starting grid of Saturdays sprint race 1 will be determined by reversing the top 10 finishers of Fridays qualifying session results. Finally, Saturdays sprint race 2 will be determined by reversing the top 10 finishers of sprint race 1.

    Personally I think this is such a good idea, it makes the championship more exciting by reversing the top 10 round, i am looking forward to the F2 season this year and seeing who else gets announced. The first race for the Formula Two Championship is the 26th-28th March at Sakhir, Bahrain.