Jordan's Track Talk

Tag: F2 Champion

  • F2 – Qatar – Round-Up

    Practice-

    Leonardo Fornaroli kicked off his Lusail weekend in strong form, setting the fastest time of the free practice session with a 1:38.656.
    The Invicta Racing driver completed that time with his final lap of the 45 minute outing, with Hitech TGR’s Dino Beganovic in second and Rodin Motorsport’s Alexander Dunne in third.

    After the first set of laps though, it was MP Motorsport’s Richard Verschoor who topped the timesheets with a 1:41.163, with Fornaroli in second, over two-tenths behind.

    Fornaroli then led the way with a 1:40.342, but it was close at the top, as Verschoor and Victor Martins went to within 0.080s off the Italian’s leading time.

    Luke Browning then took over at the top on a 1:39.701, while Verschoor made things even closer, going to within 0.009s of his title rival, as Fornaroli settled into P3.

    Browning lowered the time to beat on his next attempt with a 1:39.285, and this time he was followed by the Invicta pairing of Fornaroli and Roman Stanek.
    The Hitech TGR driver then ducked into the pitlane after that lap but the Championship leader continued on and went fastest on a 1:39.064.

    Browning had then been on a quicker lap but ran wide in the final sector. However, his teammate Beganovic continued to fly the Hitech flag going to P2, 0.044s off Fornaroli’s time.

    As the session entered its final stages, the drivers were still finding time on their hard tyres, with Dunne jumping up to third.
    Fornaroli continued to set the standard and improved to a 1:38.656 on his final lap, although Beganovic closed to the gap to 0.102s moment later.

    Qualifying-

    Oliver Goethe claimed his maiden FIA Formula 2 Aramco Pole Position Award, logging a 1:36.115 for MP Motorsport.

    Championship leader, Leonardo Fornaroli had been fastest for much of the qualifying session but was bested by just 0.040s to wind up second, ahead of ART Grand Prix’s Victor Martins in third.

    PREMA Racing’s Sebastian Montoya set the early pace before the Invicta Racing duo of Roman Stanek and then Fornaroli went quicker still. The pair were split by Jak Crawford, but it was the Championship leader that went P1 on a 1:37.850 after the first laps.

    Martins delivered a 1:37.512 to go to the top on his second attempt, until MP Motorsport teammates Oliver Goethe and Richard Verschoor went 1-2.

    Stanek put Invicta back on top with a 1:37.189, but teammate Fornaroli once again went quickest of all, this time laying down on a 1:36.996.
    Several drivers began to peel into the pitlane to bring their first run to a close, but Goethe went to within 0.075s of Fornaroli on his third flying lap, improving to P2.

    Into the final 10 minutes and everyone returned to the track with fresh Soft tyres and Dino Beganovic delivered a time good enough for provisional pole on a 1:36.826.

    Fornaroli was flying behind though, and he went back to P1 on a 1:36.307. Stanek cut the gap down to 0.214s in P2, while Goethe delivered the third-quickest time to go ahead of Beganovic.

    Goethe though found enough time to go in front of Fornaroli as both drivers improved on their final attempts, just 0.040s between them in favour of the MP driver as he set a 1:36.115.

    However, Goethe was handed a grid penalty following the conclusion of qualifying, as he impeded Martinius Stenshorne at Turn 6. It then promotes Leonardo Fornaroli for pole position in the feature race.

    Sprint Race-

    Duerksen got the best launch from the front row to take the lead from Verschoor, while Nikola Tsolov slotted into third place on the run to Turn 1.

    Championship leader, Leonardo Fornaroli went wheel-to-wheel with teammate Roman Stanek on the opening lap and attempted a move on the second tour, though was unable to clear his teammate as the Invicta Racing pair fought over seventh place.

    Onto Lap 4, and with DRS enabled, Verschoor had clawed his way back to within a second of Duerksen and he swept back into the lead at Turn 1.

    The MP title-hopeful was comfortably the fastest driver on track in the following laps, extending his advantage over the pack to two seconds.

    Further back, a wide moment at Turn 4 on Lap 12 lost Victory Martins P11 to Dino Beganovic and on the following tour he was passed by Gabriele Mini, dropping him to 13th.

    Lap 14 and a collision between TRIDENT teammate Laurens van Hoepen and James Wharton left the latter beached in the gravel at Turn 1. It brought out the Safety Car and wiped out race leader Verschoor’s four-second advantage.

    Stanek opted to pit, the only driver from inside the top 10 to fit the softs, while Arvid Lindblad, Oliver Goethe, John Bennett, Luke Browning, Cian Shields and Kush Maini also fitted the red-marked tyres. The DAMS Lucas Oil driver did however come to a halt before racing resumed, extending the Safety Car period.

    Racing resumed entering Lap 17 with Verschoor retaining his lead over Duerksen with seven laps to go. By Lap 20, the advantage was back out to 2.4s with Tsolov trailing by a further second in P3.

    A spin for Shields on the exit of Turn 5 brought out the Safety Car once more, bringing the pack back together and setting up a final lap shootout.
    Verschoor got things back underway and the fight for the podium places heading into Turn 1 was on.

    Tsolov was rounded by Villagomez, who ran wide ahead of Turn 2 but claimed the place, whilst the Bulgarian driver went wide himself and fell from third to 10th.

    The Dutch driver was untroubled though, taking the Lusail Sprint Race victory ahead of Duerksen and Villagomez after his final lap pass on Tsolov.

    Feature Race-

    It was a great start from Martins, taking the lead from Fornaroli going into Turn 1, while Dunne took P4 for Oliver Goethe at Turn 3.

    The Rodin driver was chasing Roman Stanek for third, but ran wide at the final corner. It allowed Goethe and Nikola Tsolov to close in, although Dunne was able to hold off the chasing pair.

    Martins then set the fastest lap and by the start of lap 3, he had built up a 1.7s gap to Fornaroli, with the Italian coming on the radio to complain of his soft tyres to his Invicta tam.

    Further behind them, Sebastian Montoya used the DRS to good effect to get ahead of Tsolov for P6 into Turn 1.
    Martins was 4.1s clear of Fornaroli by the start of Lap 5, and it looked like Invicta were struggling on the soft tyres, as Dunne overtook Stanek for P3 into Turn 1.

    The pit window opened up at the end of Lap 6 and Fornaroli, Dunne, Montoya, Verschoor and Duerksen came in to swap to the Hard tyres.

    The race leader was in on the next lap, joined in the pitlane by Goethe and Stanek. It was a slow stop for Martins, but he was still able to come back out ahead of Fornaroli and Dunne.

    At the front of the field, Dino Beganovic was the lead driver on the alternative strategy and by the end of Lap 10, he had built a 7.1s lead to Arvid Lindblad.

    But in the battle for the net race lead, Fornaroli and Dunne were closing in on Martins, the Championship leader 1.4s behind by the start of Lap 11.
    Verschoor was looking to fight his way through the field and having overtaken Villagomez, he bided his time before overtaking Stanek, putting him in a net P7.

    The Safety Car was then deployed on Lap 15, with Oliver Goethe having stopped on track, just as Dunne and Tsolov were given five-second time penalties for an unsafe release in the pitlane.

    Racing resumed on Lap 17 of 32, and Beganovic once again was showing good pace, and had built a 1.7s lead to teammate Luke Browning by the start of the next lap.

    Martins was now up to fifth, leading the drivers who had pitted, but he was struggling to overtake Laurens van Hoepen, allowing Fornaroli to close in on the Frenchman.

    Beganovic was 4.2s clear of Browning at the start of Lap 22, while Fornaroli was now 1.1s behind Martins, just as Lindblad on his Soft tyres, continued to reduce the gap.

    But by Lap 25, the option tyre runners were starting to struggle, as Dunne closed in on Lindblad for seventh on the road. However, the Campos Racing driver held him off at Turn 1.

    In the battle for the net race lead, Fornaroli was now within DRS range of Martins, while Dunne went to the inside of Lindblad at Turn 1 to take seventh place.

    After a superb stint, Beganovic was called in to fit the softs at the end of Lap 27, coming back out in P12. Browning and Bennett then pitted on Lap 29, leaving Martins and Fornaroli to fight for the race win.

    However the ART driver was 1.1s clear of Fornaroli, as Dunne closed in, looking to build the five second gap he needed to keep third ahead of Lindblad. But out in front, Martins had done enough to win the Feature Race, but the day belonged to Fornaroli, as he claimed the 2025 FIA Formula 2 title by finishing second.

  • F2 – RND 14 – Day 2 & 3

    Day 2-

    Getting a better launch off the line, Vesti stole the inside line into Turn 1 and went side by side with Fittipaldi, though the Rodin Carlin driver emerged out of Turn 3 ahead.

    Capitalising on their duel, Hadjar and Verschoor made it four wide down the back straight. Both managed to slip past either side of Vesti and demote the title contender to fourth. In contrast, Championship leader Pourchaire was already on the cusp of points, climbing from P14 to ninth.

    The Safety Car was deployed at the end of the opening lap after Juan Manuel Correa spun at Turn 3. Victor Martins found himself caught up in it leaving him with nosecone damage and forcing him to pit for repairs.

    Back to racing conditions on lap 6, Fittipaldi aced his restart, immediately pulling half a second clear of Hadjar. Vesti wasted no time making up for lost ground, squeezing up alongside Verschoor down to Turn 6 to snatch third.

    On the fringes of the points, Jack Doohan steadily made his way up from P10, swooping ahead of Ayumu Iwasa after the DAMS driver went wide out of Turn 9. Meanwhile Pourchaire was trying to put together a charge of his own, going late on the brakes to wrestle eighth from Kush Maini and nosing his own way past Iwasa for 7th.

    Told to push for the fastest lap, Vesti began hunting down Hadjar and was on the Hitech Pulse-Eight driver’s tail by the time they reached Lap 10. Hadjar opted to go early on the defence but couldn’t stop the Mercedes junior’s charge, as Vesti took third around the outside of Turn 9.

    Vesti loomed large in Fittipaldi’s mirrors and was eyeing up moves for the lead. A lock up by the Rodin Carlin car handed Vesti a chance, but he too locked up through the Turn 5 hairpin. Fittipaldi tried to break the tow, but another mistake at the same corner three laps later was the moment for Vesti.

    Benefitting from better grip, he dived up the inside of the Brazilian into Turn 6 to snatch the lead. Instantly breaking free of Fittipaldi behind, Vesti pulled out of the DRS window and reached the chequered flag a comfortable 3.8 seconds clear of the Red Bull Junior.

    Day 3-

    Doohan held the lead comfortably at lights out while Kush Maini cleared Martins to take second, with the latter opting for mediums for the start. Further back, Vesti was up to eighth at Turn 1, passing Richard Verschoor having also started on the yellow-walled tyres.

    Starting on the softs, Pourchaire was on the cusp of the points by the end of the opening lap, but an opportunistic Oliver Bearman snatched 10th from the ART driver to leave him 11th going into lap 2.

    Those on softs nursed their tyres in the early stages, and Iwasa was in as soon as the pitstop window opened on lap 7, he was joined by Pourchaire both swapping to the medium compound tyres and rejoining in 19th and 20th respectively.

    Zane Maloney, Isack Hadjar and Dennis Hauger made their way to the pits on lap 9 for their mandatory stops, but a slow release for the Hitech driver dropped him behind the Norwegian on pit exit.
    Pourchaire was ahead of all three after a dive to the inside of Hauger at Turn 5 as he continued to make the most of his fresh rubber.

    Having led from the start, Doohan relinquished the lead on lap 10 to fit the mediums. The Australian was back out in 12th position, three seconds clear of Maini, who found himself under pressure from Iwasa.

    Now in clear air, Vesti set about closing the gap to new leader Martins who was six seconds up the road. That gap was down to four seconds by lap 15 as the PREMA driver took a minimum of two-tenths of a second per lap out of the Alpine Junior’s advantage.

    After forcing Iwasa to depend one lap earlier, Maloney was pressuring the Dams for P5 on the road as the Japanese driver desperately attempted to keep him back. The Rodin Carlin man fought his way by at Turn 6 and was late on the brakes at Turn 9 in his efforts to keep the position, but Iwasa bravely fought back around the outside to hold on.

    On lap 26, Vesti managed to pass Pourchaire into Turn 6 and once again, Pourchaire slipstreamed his way past by Turn 9. It was third time lucky for Vesti as he waited for DRS out of Turn 8 to clear his championship rival and claim fifth position.

    Entering the final lpa of the season, Vesti drew to within DRS range of Maloney in the fight for third. The Bajan driver went defensive into Turn 6 opening up the chance for Vesti on the run to Turn 9. The pair banged wheel on corner exit, sending Maloney into a spin and leaving the PREMA driver in third.

    Doohan secured a comfortable victory by 3.8s from Martins with Vesti rounding out the podium, but it was Pourchaire and ART Grand Prix’s day, as they secured the double with the Drivers’ and Teams’ titles.

  • F2 Champ, Drugovich AM’s reserve

    Felipe Drugovich will become one of Aston Martin’s reserve drivers after the team announced the newly-crowned 2022 Formula 2 Champion as the first member of their Driver Development Programme.

    The Brazilian is expected to substitute in for Lance Stroll in FP1 at the season-ending Abu Dhabi Grand Prix and the will also be taking part in the Young Driver Test as Yas Marina the week after.

    Looking at 2023, Drugovich will be testing Aston Martin’s 2021 AMR21 car and attend Grand Prix as part of their AMF1 Driver Development Programme – the teams new junior academy.

    Becoming a member of the AMF1 Driver Development Programme is a fantastic opportunity for me – and only adds to what has been an extremely enjoyable and successful 2022 season. Winning in Formula 2 has long been regarded as the best possible launchpad into a career in Formula 1, and I see my role at AMF1 as giving me all the tools to take that crucial next step. For me, 2023 will be a learning curve: I will be working with the F1 team, but my primary goal is to learn and develop as a driver. I hope that will give me an opportunity to race in Formula 1 in the future.

    Felipe Drugovich on his news.

    Felipe has shown incredible talent, determination, and consistency to win this year’s FIA Formula 2 Championship – I particularly remember his fantastic Sprint and Feature victories at Barcelona in May, which were hugely impressive. We are delighted that he is joining us as a member of our Driver Development Programme, and we look forward to welcoming him as part of our team in Abu Dhabi this November.

    Team Principal, Mike Krack

    We have watched and admired Felipe’s path to success in Formula 2 this year, and we aim to provide him with all the skills and experience necessary to be able to take the next step in his career. In the fullness of time, it would be the ultimate validation if he were to become a Formula 1 driver, joining the great pantheon of Brazilian racing drivers such as Emerson Fittipaldi and Ayrton Senna.

    Executive Chairman, Lawrence Stroll

  • Overview F2 2021

    With the season over and the year coming to an end let’s take a look back of the Formula 2 2021 Championship and see who were our winners across the weekend, how many retirements we had and my opinion on who is the driver of the weekend!

    Sakhir–

    Bahrain saw the rookies Liam Lawson win the first Sprint Race and Oscar Piastri win the second Sprint Race with Guanyu Zhou winning the Feature Race.

    Lots of drama over the weekend which included some daring moves where people got away with where as others race ending early.

    Over the course of the weekend my driver of the weekend is Liam Lawson, his first race weekend in F2, he qualified P8 then went to win the first Sprint, the second one wasn’t as good which saw him score no points and then the Feature Race he finished 3rd, after the weekend he walked away in P2 in the standings.

    Monte Carlo-

    The lovely Monaco saw Zhou win the first sprint race, Ticktum win the second and Pourchaire win the feature race.

    Pourchaire didn’t just win the feature race, his weekend started when he got pole position. But the tight walls of Monaco wasn’t as kind to some we saw 4 retirements in the first Sprint Race. The second saw 7 retire. Then the Feature Race saw 4 retire.

    My driver of the weekend is… Oscar, even though he didn’t win and he didn’t need to he still got on the podium twice and managed to put himself in a good position for the second sprint race.

    Baku-

    We went back to Baku for the third round of the season in which we saw, Shwartzman take the first Sprint Race win, and then Juri Vips take BOTH Sprint Race 2 and Feature Race wins.

    Baku brought the drama for everyone but HiTech, the team managed to stay away from it all. There was 4 retirements in SR1. 6 in SR2 and 3 in the feature race.

    My driver of the weekend got picked very quickly because he managed to win two races. Its Juri Vips, I feel like this was his best weekend in F2 this year and he fully deserved the wins he got.

    Silverstone-

    The 3 winners at Silverstone were: Robert Shwartzman SR1, Richard Verschoor SR2 and Guanyu Zhou for the Feature Race.

    Silverstone managed to catch quite a few of the drivers out but not as many as the previous races we have had as we saw 5 retire in SR1. 3 in SR2 and none in the Feature Race.

    Ah I feel like there is two drivers of the weekend, one being Richard Verschoor he deserved his win in the sprint race, and the other being Dan Ticktum he didn’t win but he did manage to get on the podium twice which Oscar done back in Monaco.

    Monza-

    Round 5 and our winners at Monza were: Théo Pourchaire SR1, Jehan Daruvala SR2 and Oscar Piastri Feature Race.

    Monza wasn’t as kinda as Silverstone was we had 7 retire in SP1. Only 2 in SP2, and 6 in the Feature Race.

    I think my driver of the weekend would be, Guanyu Zhou he finished 2nd in Sprint Race 1 and the feature race. And he still managed to grab a point in the second feature race.

    Sochi-

    Well, I think we will all remember Sochi for a very long time and not for the good reasons. When we finally did get racing we only had 2 out of the 3 races. The first and only sprint race won by Dan Ticktum and the Feature Race winner were we saw Oscar Piastri take back to back feature race wins.

    Even though we had two races, we still had retirements 4 in Sprint Race 1 and 4 in the Feature Race.

    Dan Ticktum would be my driver of the weekend being the first out of all the drivers, he obviously finished 1st in the first race and then 5th in the feature race so he managed a good lot of points considering the conditions they had to deal with on the Saturday.

    Jeddah-

    A new track for the drivers but it was Marcus Armstrong who took the first Sprint Race win, and Oscar Piastri taking both the second Sprint Race win and the Feature Race win.

    With it being a new track to all drivers its to be expected that we have retirements over the weekend, 4 drivers retired in Sprint Race 1, 7 in Sprint Race 2 and 2 in the Feature Race.

    This is probably the most easiest choice i’ve had to make in a while, Oscar Piastri would be my driver of the weekend, I think the Jeddah weekend showed people how talented he really is (if they already didn’t know). He won two races, the latter making it 3 back to back to back feature race wins, he stuck it on pole as usual and just done everything right this weekend.

    Yas Island-

    The weekend where we saw our 2021 Champion crowned! But the race winners were: Jehan Daruvala SR1, Guanyu Zhou SR2 and Oscar Piastri won the final Feature Race of the season.

    The first Sprint Race was quite calm considering Formula 2! We only had two retirements. We then had a crazy second Sprint Race where we had four retire (one being the champ himself) and the Feature Race we had three retirements.

    My driver of the weekend would be, Oscar again and not just cause he got crowned the champion, but because he deserved it, the first Sprint Race saw him battle his own team-mate for the championship in the race which decided it all and Shwartzman was not going to let him have it so easy.

    Overall-

    I mean what a year! So many rookies joining us and them winning/ being on the podium/ scoring points, but also the drivers who have been with us longer, we have definitely been blessed with a fantastic set of races this year. I already can’t wait for next season to start and we haven’t even had all the announcements yet! Hopefully next year will be just as good.

  • Oscar Piastri F2 2021 Champion

    WOW! We all knew it was coming but OSCAR PIASTRI IS FORMULA 2 2021 CHAMPION!

    Oscar now has THREE back to back titles, with his first being in 2019 Formula Renault Champion, 2020 Formula Three Champion and now 2021 Formula Two Champion

    What a drive from Oscar, he could of just left it in the points but noo, Oscar wanted to be on the podium which I make him right!

    Oscars had a brilliant year so far with 5 pole positions and 5 wins so far, it’s like he wants to keep on going! We still have two races left, a sprint race later today and a feature race tomorrow where Oscar is on pole!

    My Opinion-

    Wow, Oscar is just unstoppable, he fully deserves this championship! His year has been amazing it’s gutting to see that he won’t have a seat next year as he does deserve it, hopefully we see him with a seat in 2023.