ARE YOU A FAN OF FIA FORMULA 2

If you’ve been listening to my podcasts many of my fans, friends and family know that I absolutely love FIA Formula 2!

Ever since Formula 1 games added the element of its junior formula into the game I cannot get enough of Formula 2 action. Many of the racing community know that you need a lot of money to stay at the elite level of motorsport, but to reach F1 as a driver you need to go up the ranks. You can’t just magically clap your hands and be racing in a Formula 1 car, now that would be a dream. There’s a specific hierarchy to reach the top of the sport and in another post I’ll go even further down the chain and touch on Formula 3.

Let me give you a run down on how Formula 2 race weekend works for those who may not know.

Formula 2 is a one-make championship consisting of 22 dallara built identical cars, which have been used since 2018. These machines are powered by a 3.4L turbocharged V6 and trust me when I say these things are fast!

The weekend format

Friday’s have one ‘Free Practice’ session of 45 minutes in the morning and one ‘Qualifying session’ of 30 minutes during the afternoon. Two sprint races will take place on Saturday (morning and afternoon sessions) and will both consist of 120 kilometres worth of racing or 45 minutes worth of racing for the viewers, it’s pretty much whatever comes first with how it’s being recorded on tv.

As for the ‘Feature Race’ that takes place on the Sunday, just before the actual Grand Prix itself, this will be one hour long or 170 km (again whatever comes first). Each driver will have a compulsory pitstop in which all four tyres must be changed over by a two man pit crew. Unless, the driver has used wet-weather tyres during the ‘Feature Race’ they must use at least one set of each specification of dry-weather tyres during the race.

Grid positioning

With three races over the weekend and a 30 minute qualifying session taking place each event, the results of the Friday’s final classification of the intense qualifying session will determine the starting grid for the Sunday ‘Feature Race’.

The starting grid of Saturday’s Sprint Race 1 will be determined by reversing the top 10 finishers of Friday’s qualifying session results.

Lastly, the starting grid of Saturday’s Sprint Race 2 will be determined by reversing its top 10 finishers of Sprint Race 1. Yes, yes it’s getting a bit confusing here with all this reversing and so on for the regular onlooker but stay with me here…

The points system

The driver who takes pole position following the final classification of Friday’s qualifying session will be awarded with 4 points, as is already the case from previous seasons.

Sprint Race 1 and Sprint Race 2 of the Top 8 finishers will be awarded points, which is pretty much half of the real FIA F1 style points being (15, 12, 10, 8, 6, 4, 2, 1), while the Top 10 finishers of the ‘Feature Race’ will score F1 style points being (25, 18, 15, 12, 10, 8, 6, 4, 2, 1).

Now 2 points gets awarded to the driver who sets the fastest lap in each race. Any driver who is not classified in the top ten at the end of the race will not be eligible for points awarded for the fastest lap.

The maximum amount of points that a driver can score over a race weekend has been increased from 48 last season to 65 points this season, per race weekend. Now having more races during a race weekend can be a double edged sword. For example, I’ve raced on some weekends where I’ve had up to five races on one single weekend, but with minimal laps to race for the win. So, what I’m saying here is if you qualify on pole position, aim to convert Sunday’s pole position into a race win and just drive as hard as possible during the sprint races.

I’ll be absolutely shocked, for a matter a fact I’ll share a Insta video of me dancing, if a driver in Formula 2 this season can win every single race on a race weekend in 2021. It’s highly unlikely, but then again this is Formula 2 we’re talking about.

So, WHY watch F2?

As I touched on above, Formula 2 has now two sprint races and one feature race. The negative side to it all is it can tire the driver out mentally and physically as you’re essentially doing triple the amount of laps as you once where in previous seasons. The positive side to it all is you’ve got more races to have a shot at the championship. But, having one bad race weekend with lesser rounds (moving from 12 round to 8 rounds) can pretty much eliminate you from the championship.

If you’ve listened to me talking about F2 on my podcasts, remaining inside the Top 10 all season will be the hardest thing to do all year because the championship is so competitive as most of the drivers in the series are vying for one or two seats in Formula One. It is all about consistency with the new Formula 2 race format.

I know a majority of race fans only watch Formula One because it’s publicised everywhere, but if you go back a few years and remember how competitive the 2012 season was and if you enjoyed that, you’ll 100% LOVE Formula 2. You get multiple race teams on one race weekend like PREMA, UNI-Virtuosi and Carlin that can dominate the series, but there is still the chance that any team down the grid can win a race. Plus, you can also watch the future of Formula One before anyone else gets to see them in the F1 ranks!

Let me know your thoughts on the F2 Series. Catch you in the next one!

DH

Here’s a photo of Trident 2020 team mates Marino Sato and Roy Nissany banging wheels from last season. This is the type of action you’ll see if you watch Formula 2 in 2021