Tag: F2

  • F2 Post-Season Test

    The final lot of testing for Formula 2 has came to an end today, after 3 days of testing in Abu Dhabi, lets take a look at how they got on…

    Day 1-

    Returning to MP Motorsport, Drugovich set the benchmark during the opening 30 minutes posting a 1:35.577.

    There were several red flags during the morning session of the first day, with Clèment Novalak, Amaury Cordeel, Frederick Vesti and Thèo Pourchaire all stopping on track at some point, as well as a coming together between Jüri Vips and Formula 3 champ, Dennis Hauger.

    Vips, had briefly set the 3rd fastest time but after the collision he then fell to 6th. Virtuosi’s Doohan jumped to third, ahead of Carlins Liam lawson and Ralph Boschung closed the top 5.

    During the afternoon sessions, there were two stoppages quite early on where Cordeel and Vips both needing red flags.

    Olli Caldwell was the early pace setter with a 1:40.217 before being replaced by Daruvala. Vesti took the times below 1m 38s for the first time, he then saw Daruvala drop a 1:36.063 which saw him return to P1.

    Drugocich and Pourchaire briefly bumped the Prema down to second but Daruvala managed to make his way up to first again, Doohan then got in on the action and moved his way into third to finish as the quickest rookie for the second session in a row.

    Day 2-

    The morning session got started off and it was very much the same, as Drugovich, Doohan and Daruvala took up the familiar top 3 positions. There was several stoppages during the session with Frederik Vesti, Juan Manuel Correa, Guilherme Samaia, Ayumu Iwasa and Sargeant all requiring red flags during the 3 hour stint.

    Drugovich increased his lead at the top, he improved to a 1:35.614. Théo Pourchaire moved to fourth after putting on a new set of tyres. Carlin’s Liam Lawson beat his old HiTech team-mate Jüri Vips to fifth.

    Now onto the afternoon session, it was led by Carlins rookie Sargeant who jumped to the top of the leaderboard in the final half hour of the session with a 1:36.155. Joining him up there, Daruvala for the fourth consecutive time in the top 3!

    But it was Lawson who set the afternoon pace with a 1:36.802 but eventually fell to P6, ahead of Doohan. Vesti, Hughs and Teppei Natori all caused stoppages in the afternoon session but that didn’t stop seven of the 22 drivers breaking the 50-lap mark.

    Day 3-

    The most coolest day out of the 3, where we saw Doohan and Drugovich once again dominating going first and second during the early stages of the session. Doohan’s time of a 1:36.110 was enough to make it P1 with Drugovich just 0.029s off, and Ralph Boschung went to 3rd with less than a tenth off as well.

    The Carlin duo, Lawson and Sargeant finished in fourth and fifth, the top 5 of the session being separated by less than a tenth. Luckily for the teams and drivers there were no red flags during the morning session which meant half of the field had completed more than 50 laps.

    Now onto the afternoon session and we had newcomers Van Amersfoort Racing on top, as Cem Bolukbasi set a 1:37.978 being the benchmark. But it was Drugovich and Daruvala who once again finished first and second with the MP driver setting a 1:36.342.

    Boschung and Mercedes junior, Frederik Vesti caused only two stoppages in the afternoon which still meant a lot of running left in the final session and Jüri Vips took full advantage of that as he topped the lap count with 56 and finished fourth.

    Formula 3 Champ, Hauger enjoyed his strongest session yet finishing 3rd with Prema, whilst Roy Nissany completed the top 5 with Dams.

  • Van Amersfoort Racing joins F2

    The Formula 2 Championship promoters have confirmed that Van Amersfoort Racing will replace HWA Racelab entry and assets for the 2022 Formula 2 season. The Dutch team will be running for the first time this week in the post season test taking place in Abu Dhabi.

    This follows two months after Formula 3 announced their grid that Van Amersfoort Racing will be joining F3 next season (2022).

    VAR started over forty years ago, with a number of different drivers coming through. From the likes of Jos Verstappen, Max Verstappen, Charles Leclerc, Mick Schumacher, Dennis Hauger and Jonny Edgar all having driven for the team over the years.

    FIA Formula 2 Championship CEO Bruno Michel said: “I am very pleased to welcome Van Amersfoort Racing to the Championship. I am certain that they will be a great addition to our grid, with them also competing in Formula 3 from next year. Joining F2 is always challenging, but their expertise and professionalism will undoubtably help them get to grips with the category quickly. I would like to take this opportunity to thank HWA RACELAB for their collaboration for the past two seasons, and I wish them success for their next challenge.”

    Rob Niessink, CEO of Van Amersfoort Racing adds: “After having recently announced our entry into the FIA F3 Championship, it now is an absolute pleasure to become part of the FIA F2 Championship as well. We are simply proud and consider this step as an important milestone in the long history of our team. It will be a challenge we don’t take lightly, and it might not come as a surprise that watching “our” F2 cars leave the pit-lane for the first time during the upcoming post-season test at Abu Dhabi will be a big moment for us. I want to thank Bruno Michel and HWA RACELAB for their support in making this happen.”

    My Opinion-

    I have heard of the Dutch team before with some drivers having driven for them in the past shows only good things. With them joining both Formula 2 and 3 grids it only shows good things in my opinion, looking back on the history of their drivers, it looks like they take time in spotting which drivers they want and they are all very talented now…

  • Sargeant to Carlin 2022

    Another driver announcement for Formula 2 for the next season and that is Logan Sargeant who is joining Carlin! The American will be making his debut with the team later this week during post-season testing.

    The Williams Academy driver has raced for the team in British Formula 4 and in his first season in Formula 3. Logan gained his first experience in F2 in the penultimate round of the 2021 season in Jeddahn with HWA Racelab.

    Sargeants year in F3 with Charouz Racing System was successful, he managed to claim four podiums and a win in the season finale at Sochi, he was a title contender in 2020 with Prema finishing 3rd overall with six podiums and one win.

    Before joining Carlin for testing, Sargeant is taking part in the young drivers test with Williams.

    “This is an incredible week for me!” said Sargeant. “To get my first taste of the FW43B today (Tuesday 14th) and then follow that up with three days testing in my new F2 car is just incredible. I can’t wait to re-join Carlin who have been so strong in F2 and get to work on our 2022 programme. Big thanks to Trevor, my management at Infinity and of course Williams Racing for this incredible opportunity.”

    My Opinion-

    I don’t think anyone doubted he wouldn’t get a seat for next year, and his got a good one at that. Carlin have had a good season this year, with wins and podium and finishing 3rd overall in the teams. I’m going to be looking at how he does with the Carlin car hopefully he can learn a lot in testing about the team and car!

  • F2 Abu Dhabi- Day 2 & 3

    Our final race days for Formula 2 are over unfortunatley but that didn’t mean they weren’t crazy! Lets take a look…

    Day 2-

    Sprint Race 1-

    Well, Daruvala got a brilliant launch as soon as the lights went out, taking the lead into Turn 1, however his team-mate didn’t get as good of a start, it saw Dan Ticktum dropping down the field.

    Piastri was looking to wrap up his title during this race, he managed to get up to 6th form 10th at the start, in doing this he was behind his team-mate who was also battling for the championship.

    Both Prema’s knew what they had to do, they both climbed up the field, after Shwartzman built up a gap between him and Piastri, he then took the final podium place from Lawson.

    But that didn’t last long as Piastri responded and overtook Lawson on the following lap and was back in the tracks of Shwartzman. Both Prema’s looked happy in third and fourth until Piastri spotted a late opportunity and decided to take it at Turn 9 in which the Australian took the final podium spot.

    The top 10 were: P1: Daruvala, P2: Drugovich, P3: Piastri, P4: Shwartzman, P5: Lawson, P6: Ticktum, P7: Pourchaire, P8: Zhou, P9: Boschung, P10: Armstrong.

    With Oscar finishing 3rd this saw him wrap up the title, making him a 3 time champion in 3 years. With Armstrong finishing 10th this saw him on pole for sprint race 2.

    Sprint Race 2-

    A very crazy start for the second sprint of the day, but not for the race leader, Marcus Armstrong zoomed off into the distant leaving the rest of the field to battle it out.

    Boschung and Zhou who was in 2nd and 3rd held their positions well, but everyone behind them wanted action, the newly corwned champ sent his Prema down the outside but a four car wide brawl saw him almost get pushed into the wall…

    Even though he missed the wall, the Aussie came away with minor damage as he banged wheels with Lawson, which saw him drop down to 13th where as the Hitech went to 8th, Piastri was then found to be at fault and handed a 5sec time penalty.

    The grid was given time to breath and cool down as a safety car appeared due to contact between Deledda and Caldwell at Turn 9, the HWA was forced to retire but Caldwell carried on.

    Once the racing resumed Piastri started his charge in which he gained two spots from Nissany and Vips. That didn’t last long as Vips and Nissany came back at Piastri which saw the trio clip wheel, and only Nissany survived, this brought out another safety car as Vips and Piastri climbed out of their cars.

    Before the safety car came out Zhou managed to get ahead of Boschung, but once the safety car went away, Zhou was promoted to first as Armstrong then had problems with the car which saw him pull over.

    The top 10 is as follows: P1: Zhou, P2: Shwartzman, P3: Boschung, P4: Ticktum, P5: Drugovich, P6: Lawson, P7: Daruvala, P8: Doohan, P9: Pourchaire, P10: Viscaal.

    Day 3-

    Piastri wanted this race to be one to remember as it is his last in F2, and that he did he got away superbly.

    Doohan starting P2, was the only one of the mediums, he was the only one with them out of the top 5 so he managed to cling on to P2 for three corners of wheel-to-wheel racing but Zhou was not giving up, the MP rookie clipped the curb in which he picked up a chunk of marble and went spinning off into the barriers.

    Racing resumed when the safety car went in, the pit-stops started going on as Lawson was the first to ditch the super-softs on lap 7 which saw him back on the grid in 20th.

    The crossover between prime and the alternate startegies started to arrive with seven laps to go, Armstrong headed in to collect the super-softs and began to pick the drivers with the mediums, he took places off Boschung and Lawson within a lap.

    The full top 10 as follows: P1: Piastri, P2: Zhou, P3: Drugovich, P4: Pourchaire, P5: Shwartzman, P6: Ticktum, P7: Armstrong, P8: Vips, P9: Boschung and P10: Verschoor.

    That concludes the 2021 Formula 2 season now, with Piastri taking the championship, his team-mate coming home in 2nd and Guanyu Zhou in 3rd who will be graduating to Formula 1 next year!

    With the teams championship, Prema wrapped it up last weekend in Jeddah, Uni-Virtuosi managed to pinch 2nd from Carlin, which Carlin then ended up 3rd.

  • 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.

  • F2 Abu Dhabi- Day 1

    Our first day of cars on track is over and it was our last free practice and qualifying of the year, lets take a look on what happened!

    Free Practice-

    Championship leader, Oscar Piastri got the start he wanted this weekend by finishing fastest in free practice, the 1:36.800 was enough to beat Jack Doohan to P1, with Christian Lundgaard in third.

    The second weekend in a row both MP’s went out first to get a feel for the track with Clèment Novalak setting the benchmark at 1:59.442.

    But his team-mate Jack Doohan topped the times at the end of the first run of flying laps with a 1:37.702 ahead of Marcus Armstrong and Ralph Boschung.

    Lundgaard beat Piastri to P1 halfway through the session and he was the first to break the 1m 37s but the Prema driver fought back and re-gained the position by 0.005s.

    As the session went on the track conditions were improving after heavy tyre wear, this saw lots of fast times coming through but it was Oscar who stayed at the top.

    Qualifying-

    Oscar Piastri finished his last qualifying session in Formula 2 with a FIFTH consecutive pole position lapping a 1:35.077, in which he now has four extra points to add to his tally, one step closer to claiming the Drivers title! It was Jack Doohan who impressed the most with him qualifying 2nd in only his second qualifying session in Formula 2 with Guanyu Zhou finishing off the top 3.

    PREMA was the early pace setters, with Piastri setting a 1:36.044 ahead of his team-mate and championship rival Robert Shwartzman and Carlins’ Jehan Daruvala.

    The times kept coming during the half hour, with improvements being made but none dethroning Piastri. The grid then went in to the pits to change tyres etc so they could come out on a fresh set and see if they can improve their times.

    The final top 10 for the feature race on Sunday are: P1: Piastri, P2: Doohan, P3: Zhou, P4: Shwartzman, P5: Boschung, P6: Pourchaire, P7: Lawson, P8: Drugovich, P9: Ticktum and P10: Daruvala.

    So for our first Sprint Race tomorrow we have an all Carlin front row, with Jehan Daruvala in P1 and Dan Ticktum in P2. Drugovich in P3 and Liam Lawson in P4 making that our second row.

    All eyes are on to tomorrow now, with the battle heating up between the Prema team-mates for the championship!

    Formula 2 Championship - Round 8:Yas Island - Practice & Qualifying : News Photo
    ABU DHABI, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES – DECEMBER 10: Oscar Piastri of Australia and Prema Racing (2) drives during qualifying ahead of Round 8:Yas Island of the Formula 2 Championship at Yas Marina Circuit on December 10, 2021 in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. (Photo by Clive Rose/Getty Images)
  • Verschoor back in F2

    Well, Mr Richard Verschoor is back in Formula 2 this weekend, he is filling in for Enzo Fittipaldi in the Charouz car.

    Fittipaldi suffered a broken heel and a lesion to his left eyebrow after a collision with Theo Pourchaire at the start of the Feature Race in Jeddah last Sunday, which means Fittipaldi wouldn’t be taking part in the final round of 2021 in Abu Dhabi.

    Verschoor, has had a really good first season in Formula 2 in which he won a Sprint Race at Silverstone earlier this year, his currently sat in 10th in the championship with 55 points. He drove six rounds with MP Motorsport before having to pull out form Formula 2 due to sponsorship.

    The Dutch driver has gained experience in ADAC F4, Italian F4, Formula Renault Eurocup and the Toyota Racing Series before spending two seasons in Formula 3 with MP.

    “First of all, I would like to express my thoughts to Enzo,” said Verschoor. “I hope he will recover well and very soon. I’m happy to be back racing and excited to do so with Charouz Racing System, hopefully, we can end this season together on a high.”

    Team owner Antonin Charouz added: “On the eve of the last round of the year, we have been forced to change our line-up, as a consequence of Enzo’s injury in Jeddah. On behalf of the whole team, I wish him again a speedy recovery, hoping to see him return on track as soon as possible. At the same time, I’m glad Richard will join our squad for this weekend in Abu Dhabi. We saw him racing during this year in the FIA Formula 2 Championship and I have to say he delivered some very interesting performances. At the wheel of the other car, we’ll continue to count on Guilherme, and we’ll do our best to support his hunt to first personal points in the series.”

    My Opinion-

    I’m so glad to see Richard back on track, none of the fans like to see a driver leave before the end of the season due to money especially one doing so well like Richard. I’m happy he gets this chance again, and hopefully this will lead to a confirmation on what he does in 2022.

  • Jake Hughes back in F2

    Another Formula 2 race week, another driver change! And its for HWA Racelab again, Jake Hughes will be back in car number 22 for the final weekend of F2 in Abu Dhabi.

    Hughes first made his debut in F2 at Sochi in 2019 and finished P12 in the feature race, he then made a return this year in Monza and as well as Sochi in which he scored his first Formula 2 points.

    The Brit, has spent two years with HWA’s Formula 3 outfit in which he scored three wins and eight podiums across 2019 and 2020.

    He is currently the ROKiT Venturi Racing reserve driver in Formula E and is also the simulator driver for Mercedes’ F1 and championship-winning Formula E outfits.

    “I’m really excited to be racing with HWA RACELAB again this weekend,” Jake said. “It’s going to be an emotional weekend with the team as they make their final appearance in the championship – and having raced in both F3 and F2 with HWA since 2019 it’s going to be sad to see them depart. I’m hoping to end the season positively with the team and I always enjoy coming to Abu Dhabi. The changes to the circuit will hopefully make the racing more exciting and if we can end the weekend with more points on the board then it will be a successful outing!”

    My Opinion-

    I think this is great, we saw back in September that he got comfortable with the car and was able to score some points so maybe the same again this weekend? I’m looking forward to seeing what he does this weekend!

  • F2 Jeddah- Recap Day 2 & 3

    This now concludes round 7 of 2021, lets take a look at the two Sprint Races and the Feature Race in Saudi Arabia.

    Day 2-

    Sprint Race 1- Lawson and Armstrong lined up together on the front row which saw them go wheel to wheel heading into the first turn but it was Marcus Armstrong who led the the Sprint Race.

    We got to Turn 4 where we had a Safety Car as a collision ended Samaia and Sato’s race which was caused by Olli Caldwell tagging Samaia’s Charouz, Caldwell was then handed a 10 second time penalty for this collision, so not the best start for Caldwells first weekend in F2.

    By the end of Lap 3, the safety car headed into the pits but there was further drama going on as Championship challenger Zhou spun and found himself facing the wrong way which he then dropped to back of the grid.

    During this chaos Boschung pulled a move on Vips for P3 but this didn’t stop Vips as he came for Boschung to get back the final podium place. Boschung then started to loose speed and started to tumble down the order. The next retirement was Pourchaire as he lost control at Turn 22 and hit the wall which brought out a second safety car.

    The top 10 of the Sprint Race was: P1: Armstrong, P2: Lawson, P3: Vips, P4: Drugovich, P5: Daruvala, P6: Shwartzman, P7: Lundgaard, P8: Ticktum, P9: Piastri and P10: Viscaal. However Daruvala got a penalty which was added on at the end of the race which saw him finish P10, so he starts the second Sprint Race on pole position.

    Sprint Race 2:

    Daruvala knew what he had to do as soon as the lights went out, he kept P1 going into the first turn. However Trident driver, Viscaal was unable to hold onto 2nd and dropped two places behind Piastri and Lundgaard.

    Armstrong was looking to build on from his brilliant sprint race earlier on in the day, unfortunately it didn’t turn out that way, as he was an innocent bystander in a four car crunch which saw F2 newbie Clement Novalak, Alessio Deledda and Samaia all getting caught up in the collision and forced to finish their race there.

    After the Safety Car went in Piastri was very close to Daruvala. But the action behind them was still going on with Drugovich stealing P7 away from Vips. Vips wasn’t ready to give up that spot as he started to re claim the position but the Estonian driver got too close to the back of the Virtuosi car which saw his front wing be ripped off and become the fifth retirement of the race.

    Daruvala then got another five second time penalty for leaving the track and gaining an advantage, as well as Lungaard handed the same punishment too. This didn’t stop Piastri though, he wanted to do this on track and not wait till the end of the race, and he did he took the lead of the race coming out of Turn 1 and built up a 1.5s gap.

    The race ended under the Safety Car due to Liam Lawson loosing the rear of his HiTech at Turn 13 where he spun into the barriers with two laps left, meaning the top 3 finishers from the first sprint race did not finish the second sprint.

    The top 10 of the Sprint Race 2 was: P1: Piastri, P2: Viscaal, P3: Shwartzman, P4: Ticktum, P5: Doohan, P6: Pourchaire, P7: Fittipaldi, P8: Zhou, P9: Boschung and P10: Drugovich. With fastest lap going to Piastri.

    Day 3-

    Well, where do we even start, first of all the race was delayed due to replacing the concrete barrier at Turn 13 in which we saw Liam Lawson have a crash there in Sprint Race 2.

    Once we got going finally, the racing didn’t continue for long, as Theo Pourchaire stalled on the grid which led to a big accident involving himself and Enzo Fittipaldi which saw the race be red-flagged.

    Because of the first delay and then the red flag we finally went racing again but only 20 minutes + 1 lap, 10 minutes in we got a safety car which saw quite a few drivers take their mandatory pit stop including championship leader Oscar Piastri, but because of the crash which involved Olli Caldwell and Guilherme Samai. The race then got red-flagged and then decided the race would not continue.

    So half points would be awarded and they would take the grid positions from lap 5, which saw Oscar Piastri in 1st, Rober Shwartzman in 2nd and Ralph Boschung in 3rd.

    The full top 10 are: P1: Piastri, P2: Shwartzman, P3: Boschung, P4: Zhou, P5: Drugovich, P6: Vips, P7: Lundgaard, P8: Armstrong, P9: Lawson, P10: Ticktum.

    Oscar Piastri is still leading the championship with a gap of 51.5 points to his team-mate Shwartzman, we then have Guanyu Zhou in 3rd and Dan Ticktum in 4th. Prema have now won the teams championship for the second year in a row!

    The main thing we can take away from this weekend in F2 is that Theo Pourchaire and Enzo Fittipaldi are okay, even though Fittipaldi does have some injuries i’m looking forward to them returning to the race track.

  • F2 Jeddah- Day 1

    Our first day of having Formula 2 cars back on track today and I don’t think we was disappointed. All 22 cars took to the new track in Saudi Arabia with 4 of the drivers moving up from Formula 3.

    Free Practice-

    We had a bit of a delay to the start of our Friday due to temporary operational delays but once we got started it was Armstrong who led the grid out onto the 46 degree track!

    Twenty of the drivers went back into the pits after the installations but both MP drivers Novalak and Doohan went round the circuit for another lap to get to terms with the car/grip of the track.

    One of the four debutants didn’t have the best afternoon, Logan Sargeant lost control of his HWA in Sector 3 where he collided with the wall which caused a Red Flag.

    PREMA are just on fire this season but it being their other driver Robert Shwartzman who topped free practice with a 1:42.623 ahead of Ralph Boschung and Carlin’s Dan Ticktum.

    The full top 10 were: P1: Shwartzman, P2: Boschung, P3: Ticktum, P4: Drugovich, P5: Armstrong, P6: Vips, P7: Zhou, P8: Doohan, P9: Lundgaard, P10: Piastri.

    Jack Doohan of Australia and MP Motorsport drives during practice ahead of Round 7:Jeddah of the Formula 2 Championship at Jeddah Corniche Circuit on...
    JEDDAH, SAUDI ARABIA – DECEMBER 03: Jack Doohan of Australia and MP Motorsport (11) drives during practice ahead of Round 7:Jeddah of the Formula 2 Championship at Jeddah Corniche Circuit on December 03, 2021 in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. (Photo by Dan Mullan/Getty Images)

    Qualifying:

    WOW, the amount of close calls I saw during the Qualifying session I had to hold my breath, this track is something else…

    Moving on to the result of qualifying, Oscar Piastri lapped a 1:40.878 so he claims his FOURTH pole in a row he is now the only second driver to do this! His team-mate Shwartzman will be starting next to him on Sundays Feature Race.

    It looked like Shwartzman had pole position during the majority of qualifying as no-one was improving their times until Pourchaire came all along and took it off him, but the Russian came fighting back and got pole position again.

    Zhou had been struggling quite a bit during this session, it may be because of temperature and getting the heat into tyres? The first half of the session he was down in 9th but once he pitted and came out with fresh tyres he managed to get 3rd on his first run.

    The top 10 for Sundays Feature Race are as follows: P1: Piastri, P2: Shwartzman, P3: Pourchaire, P4: Lundgaard, P5: Drugovich, P6: Zhou, P7: Boschung, P8: Vips, P9: Armstrong, P10: Lawson.

    So for tomorrows first Sprint Race we have Liam Lawson on pole position with Marcus Armstrong in second and Lawson’s team-mate Juri Vips in third!

  • F2, F3 announce ’22 calendar

    So with Formula One announcing their calendar for next season, Formula Two and Three have announced theirs!

    Formula Two will have a total of 14 rounds, which will see two races each round, so a total of 28 races, it will make the most sizeable calendar since the launch of the championship in 2017.

    The season will kick off in Bahrain on the weekend of 18th March and with it finishing on the weekend of 18th November in Abu Dhabi. F2 will be going to two new tracks which are Imola and Zandvoort.

    CEO Bruno Michel said: “I am pleased to present the largest calendar we have ever had in Formula 2, with 14 rounds and 28 races. This results from a strong will from our stakeholders to have F2 race alongside as many Formula 1 Grand Prix as possible.”

    F3 will have a total of nine rounds, which makes it an 18 race championship. Again F3 will start in Bahrain on the same weekend as F1, it will end on the weekend of 9th September in Monza, just like this year. Also F3 will be at two new circuits next year and they are Zakhir, Bahrain and Imola, Italy.

    CEO Bruno Michel said: “Our 2022 Formula 3 season will start at the Bahrain International Circuit, at the opening round of the FIA Formula 1 World Championship and the new Formula 2 campaign. It will be very exciting to start all together.”

    My Opinion-

    I’m very much looking forward to both F2 and F3 next year, especially with both series racing at new tracks and both of them being on the same weekends as F1.

    With F2 this year there has been pretty big gaps, the season started end of March and then the next race weekend was 20th May. And then again currently we are on our 4th week of a 10 week break until the season comes back for the last two rounds. So they have planned it well so there isn’t as big of breaks.

    With F3 they started quite late this year compared to next, they started in May where as next year they will be starting in March. They have been able to bring a couple more races in to make the season a bit longer without big gaps.