Photo: Formula Motorsport Ltd

The points table never tells the whole story, but laptimes alone don’t either. What can be read in 2023’s data?

One of the reasons many point to for why none of this year’s Formula 2 title contenders landed Formula 1 seats for 2024 is that they did not make big enough steps up in their performances compared to 2022.

Third-year driver Theo Pourchaire won the title by 11 points after being championship runner-up and 101 points behind Felipe Drugovich (another driver yet to make it to F1) last year, Frederik Vesti climbed from ninth to second in the standings from his first season to his second, Jack Doohan went from sixth to third and scored 40 more points with two fewer races to do it in, and Ayumu Iwasa only moved up one place in the championship but was in title contention until the final round.

However other comparisons to 2022 (and to 2021 for Pourchaire) are even more telling about which drivers have become more competitive and who has got better at bringing home strong results even if their pace does not put them at the top.

Pourchaire was the second fastest driver over one lap in F2 during his rookie season, only behind Oscar Piastri. That year he was on average 0.407% off the absolute pace, but he only qualified on the front row twice in 2022 and slipped to being 12th fastest, on average 0.836% off the pace. And despite lacking consistency and strong starting positions, he still scored more feature race points than anyone but the champion.

The long-time Sauber junior mentally fumbled during that campaign, scoring just two points in the last seven races. He had shown enough to be considered the title favourite for 2023 despite that, but the question was whether he was going to build a title attack on searing qualifying pace like he relied on as a rookie, or top tyre management (he was on average the third fastest full-timer on long-run pace) as he did in 2022.

And now the season is done, we can see the answer was somewhere inbetween. Which doesn’t look impressive, but is what consistent points-scoring is built on. Pourchaire was truly outshone by his rookie team-mate Victor Martins in qualifying, with the latter taking three poles to Pourchaire’s two and being the fastest driver on average.

Qualifying ‘supertimes’

The post Who was fastest in Formula 2 in 2023? appeared first on Formula Scout.

Photo: Campos Racing

Ralph Boschung was back in the top 10 in Formula 2 qualifying at Monza thanks to a “bold” strategy he proposed to his team.

Although he qualified in seventh place at Spa-Francorchamps, the Campos Racing driver considered this as his first proper top 10 appearance since the second round at Jeddah, as not everyone was able to complete a timed lap before the rain hit the track at the Belgian round.

“Obviously, it’s been a while since I’ve been in the top 10 in quali,” he told Formula Scout after qualifying 10th at Monza, taking reversed-grid pole for Saturday’s sprint race. “Especially doing it the way we did, it’s a testament to how the car behaves.

“I think we do have a really good car because we did the lap without any tow. I was very happy with the way we took the strategy with the team. So all in all, I’m quite happy. Obviously, I still need to do the job tomorrow, but it’s a step in the right direction.”

Boschung went out on his own on both sets of tyres. Whereas he was down in 15th place once the first runs were completed, he then moved up 10th place. He benefitted from the fact that most other cars battled for track position and didn’t manage to get a clean lap, something he had foreseen.

“Actually, I was the only one telling them in the meeting before the quali that we should go out alone and do clean laps. But they were not entirely sure that that was the way to go. Then once we saw the mess in F3 I told them ‘look, when we go out, we just go out alone and do our laps’. That’s what we did. So they finally agreed with my decision; it was quite bold, but it paid off.”

After starting the season in great form with a sprint race win and a second place in the feature race at Bahrain, Boschung has struggled to maximise his package as his fitness isn’t at 100%. However, he is determined to end what could be his final F2 season – although a decision hasn’t been made yet – with strong results.

“I think [this year] we improved our race pace,” he said. “I showed it in Bahrain, in Jeddah; there have been some good races.

“I think the tyre deg will not be an issue. Obviously, the main straight will be the biggest factor with not having any tow if I still have the lead. So the ideal plan is to try and have a good start and try to pull a gap of at least 1.8, 1.9 seconds in the first lap and then try to manage the gap. It’s going to be very hard to be honest in Monza. In Bahrain, I did it and then I could pull away, but in Monza it’s completely more tricky.”

The post ‘Bold strategy’ got Boschung back in F2 top 10 in Monza qualifying appeared first on Formula Scout.

Photos: Formula Motorsport Ltd

The pre-season title favourite has always been near but scarcely setting the pace, and though he has maximised results his rivals have done an even better job of that and from a less competitive position

We are 14 races into the 2023 Formula 2 season, with 12 races still to go, and there are three firm title contenders at present although one of them is 20 points clear at the top.

The season’s frequent pacesetter has less than half of the points of the championship leader, who despite his success has faced troubles that mean 11 drivers have completed more race laps than him so far. The driver who is fifth in the standings did not even stand on the podium until the most recent race, while the early championship leader is now 15th in the standings and one of the slowest in the field.

Four of the first seven rounds were held on temporary circuits, and Bahrain’s abrasive asphalt also makes it a bit of an outlier but its status as venue of pre-season testing normally reduces the chance of surprises happening in the competitive order come race weekend.

So that leaves the Barcelona and Red Bull Ring events as perhaps the ‘most representative’, and F2’s usual leading force Prema won both races at Barcelona.

But there were wet-dry sprint races at both venues, and race pace at the Red Bull Ring was determined to a major degree by tyre choice in those conditions. But of course those who made the right choice, and then looked after their tyres, scored the big results. So who has been fastest so far in F2 2023?

The answer is ART Grand Prix’s reigning FIA Formula 3 champion Victor Martins, who sits seventh in the F2 standings with five podiums, a tally bettered by no one. He may have only scored in eight races out of a possible 14, but of the drivers who have been in the points more often, three of those have scored nine times and two have scored 10 times.

Single-lap pace

The post Who is really fastest going into the second half of F2 2023? appeared first on Formula Scout.

Photo: Formula Motorsport Ltd

Roman Stanek has been handed a three-place grid penalty for the Formula 2 sprint race in Monaco following a collision with Ralph Boschung early in Thursday’s practice session.

Entering Anthony Noghes, the final corner of the lap, the fast-approaching Campos Racing driver Boschung tried to take the inside line just as Trident’s Stanek turned in to start a flying lap.

The resulting collision pushed Stanek’s car into the barriers on the exit of the corner, eliminating both from the remainder of the session, and bringing out the red flag.

The pair were summoned to the stewards after the session, with Stanek being judged to have been “wholly responsible for the collision”, having failed to allow Boschung sufficient space.

Before visiting the stewards, Boschung told Formula Scout that while he was “very, very angry” he hoped nobody would be penalised for the incident.

“I think it was clearly a misunderstanding from both of us. I just saw a video where it was clear he was super-slow, so I go to the inside and there was a contact. He was preparing his lap, he had blue flags but then maybe he didn’t see me. I was on a push-lap and we collided.”

The Swiss driver added: “I lost a lot of laps today so I didn’t get a taste of the supersofts but it’s not my first time here, so I think I can still do something decent tomorrow. But I don’t think it’ll be as good as if I’d driven [the full session] today. I think I can still be in the top 10 and get some good points for Campos.”

Stanek was taken to the circuit’s medical office to have his injured right hand bandaged, with a further X-ray potentially being required in hospital to determine whether the hand is broken.

In addition to the grid penalty, two points were added to Stanek’s licence, bringing him to a total of four for the year so far.

To add to Trident’s misfortune, the team received a 500 Euro fine for an unsafe release of Stanek’s car into the path of Van Amersfoort Racing’s Juan Manuel Correa earlier in the session.

In this case, the stewards determined that “the lollipop man for Car 20 [Stanek] misjudged the speed at which Car 23 [Correa] was going to enter his pit box,” causing him to release Stanek’s car prematurely.

While the Trident team alerted Stanek to the situation by radio, preventing greater contact, there was still light contact between the two cars.

The post Stanek given grid penalty for Monaco practice collision with Boschung appeared first on Formula Scout.

Photo: Formula Motorsport Ltd & FV8 3.5

Ralph Boschung debuted in F2 in 2017 but only recently claimed his first victory – in his 96th race in the championship. Who else has had to wait a long time to win in single-seater racing’s second tier series?

Campos Racing’s veteran driver Ralph Boschung sits atop the Formula 2 standings after four races, and goes into this weekend’s new event in Melbourne full of confidence after years of unfulfilled potential, budget issues and injury.

He has been in the series since 2017, making his debut before IndyCar podium-finisher Christian Lundgaard, Super Formula sophomore Ren Sato and series rookies Kakunoshin Ohta and Cem Bolukbasi had even started their car racing careers.

In recent years, despite the COVID-19 pandemic, F2 has packed more races into its schedule while Indy Nxt has shrunk its calendar, and the amount of race starts a driver gets in an F2 season now is 10 more than what drivers in Formula V8 3.5 (nee Formula Renault 3.5) had just six years ago. It’s also not far from being three times the amount that GP2 and F2 predecessor International Formula 3000 featured two decades ago.

That means it would now take less than two seasons to rack up 50 F2 starts, and at present only 35 drivers since the 1960s have stayed that long in the second tier of single-seaters without winning a race. So who in the past has had to wait that long to win, and did that stop them from making it to the top?

Giacomo Ricci did eight races in World Series by Nissan in 2004 before a kind of side-step to Euroseries 3000, a series which used old F3000 cars and later became known as Auto GP. While the cars were second-tier machinery, drivers treated the series as a step before competing in the modern cars of GP2 and FR3.5 and so none of Auto GP’s seasons have been included in Formula Scout’s calculations.

After winning that series in 2006, Ricci didn’t have the budget for GP2 so headed to the United States and via a shootout got a seat in Atlantics, a then-rival to the USA’s other second-tier series Indy Nxt. But things started to go wrong behind the scenes, which he explained in an interview with Formula Scout about his career, and through an old friend eventually ended up in GP2.

Photo: GP2 Media Service / LAT Images

The David Price Racing team he drove for rarely challenged the top 10, and Ricci only had the budget for part-seasons, but when DPR relocated to Italy it became far more competitive. Ricci ended his second GP2 Asia season with a win on his 50th start at that level [pictured above], then did the same in the main series later in 2010. He’s now Trident’s team manager in F2.

Also having to wait a half-century for success was Felipe Nasr, who was competitive from the off but never quite made it to the front. He made the podium 20 times in three seasons, took until his 37th start to lead a race, and was fourth in the standings as a sophomore despite not winning. During his third season he won four times and led 128 laps, earning him an F1 seat with Sauber for the next two years.

Christian Danner raced in European F2 from 1981 to ’84 and made the podium seven times in 47 races to twice come fifth in the standings. Victory was elusive in his March cars, despite being a factory driver of the marque for two years, but when he stuck with one of their chassis for European F2’s successor Int. F3000 in 1985 it proved a rewarding choice as it only took five races to win. That breakthrough win came in the Pau Grand Prix, and three more wins followed to make Danner champion.

F1 then beckoned, but he failed to make an impact in 35 starts there and returned to the second tier in 1990 to race for Leyton House in Japanese F3000. He made the podium in his season there, then spent several years bit-part in IndyCar.

There are three drivers who took 53 starts to win, and the most significant of these is Pierre Gasly. After winning the 2013 FR Eurocup title, Gasly was added to the Red Bull Junior Team and went 1015 days without winning a race. He retained Red Bull’s support though that trying time as he was actually performing very strongly.

His Eurocup title earned him a seat in FR3.5 where he was championship runner-up as a rookie, making the podium in almost half of the races, and he then moved across to GP2 where his rookie season was also impressive with three poles in the last four rounds and four podiums. But he was only eighth in the points, and so a second season in GP2 then made sense to do.

With new team Prema, Gasly edged team-mate Antonio Giovinazzi to the 2016 title and picked up four wins on the way. However it was still not enough to convince Red Bull to put him in F1, and he instead picked up top-tier experience in Formula E and Super Formula. In the latter he came incredibly close to becoming champion as a rookie, forcing Red Bull’s hand to finally give him an F1 shot. He’s now a grand prix winner and has finally left Red Bull’s ranks to race for Alpine.

Like several others on this list, Gasly also contested a GP2 race that is considered a non-championship affair and so is not included in statistics for driver starts. Gasly was in fact the cause of this statistical discrepancy, as a spin after two corners in the 2015 season finale at Yas Marina Circuit led to a multi-car crash, the race being immediately stopped and then being declared void as barriers could not be repaired in time for a restart and less than a lap had been completed.

During the days of GP2 Asia, sometimes the quality of the field was lower than in the main series and it enabled drivers to pick up results they wouldn’t have managed against tougher opposition on European tracks. Roldan Rodriguez was one example, a driver who was an irregular scorer until joining Piquet GP for the 2008-09 GP2 Asia season. He started the campaign off with victory from pole at Shanghai, and came third in the standings with an average finishing position of 10.7.

Takao Wada debuted in Japanese F2 in 1977, made the podium on his sixth start in 1979, but did not finish in the top three again until the 1986 season opener. It then wasn’t until 1988, once the series had become Japanese F3000, that he claimed the first of two career wins. He retired from the series in 1993, having appeared in 90 races.

Only Max Verstappen has raced at the top level of single-seaters at a younger age than Josef Kral, who aged 17 and having raced in nothing higher than Formula BMW got an A1GP call-up for Team Czech Republic.

After that he did more learning with two seasons in International Formula Master, winning three races, then took on GP2. Points were rare, and he bowed out after three years with victory on his 58th and final second-tier start. He’s since raced GTs.

Photo: GP2 Media Service

Marco Apicella had a 52-race career in Int. F3000, of which two poles and 10 podiums were the highlights. But victory in his five years there were elusive and he switched to Japanese F3000 for 1992. It only took six races for him to become a winner, he won again the next year and made his F1 debut with Jordan. That race lasted less than a kilometre, but he returned to Japan and became champion in 1994. Unfortunately he then scored no points in his title defence the year after.

One of few women to win at this level, Pippa Mann scored three times in two FR3.5 seasons, then only made the top 10 three times in her rookie Indy Nxt campaign in 2009. But switching to Sam Schmidt Motorsports for her sophomore season unlocked more pace, and she followed up pole position for the iconic Freedom 100 oval race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway with two more poles, a win and a second place in the last three rounds to rise from 11th to fifth in the standings.

She made her IndyCar debut the following year, and seven of her 17 starts in the series have been in the Indianapolis 500.

10. Arie Luydenyk Jr THE NETHERLANDS/USA 62 races
Indy Lights (66 races): 1 win, 3 poles, 13 podiums, 1729pts   Top tier IndyCar (1 race)

Photo: IndyCar Series

Far more famous for his appearances on American dating shows than for his racing accomplishments, Luydenyk is the son of a two-time Indy 500 winner. He did make it to the Indy 500 in his own career, but never hit the highs his father did.

Luyendyk Jr’s Indy Nxt debut came in 2002, after two seasons in the fourth-tier USF2000 series and a handful of Formula Ford races in Europe. Making such a jump meant results were not to be expected straight away, but he exceeded expectations driving for his father’s own team with four second places and a pole to finish his rookie season as runner-up.

But such results became harder to achieve with each of the teams Luyendyk subsequently drove for. Two podiums and two poles in 2003 put him seventh in the standings, then he was third in 2004 with a further two podiums.

As the series moved away from having an oval-dominated calendar, Luydendyk became less competitive against drivers who were stepping up from series populated by road and street courses. He went 27 races and four years without a podium, before recapturing some of his old form in 2008. That season ended at Chicagoland Speedway, and with a first win for Luyendyk. After a few more Indy Nxt starts in 2010, the world of The Bachelorette beckoned.

=8. Fairuz Fauzy MALAYSIA 65 races
GP2 (62 races): 5pts   GP2 Asia (14 races): 1 win, 3 podiums, 25pts   FR3.5 (57 races): 1 win, 2 poles, 10 podiums, 181pts   Top tier A1GP (22 races): 1 win, 2 podiums, 57pts

Photo: GP2 Media Service

Much of Fauzy’s racing career has been intrinsicly linked to his home country, driving for Malaysian teams in various series.

A combination of a period of financial propserity in the nation, the timing of having multiple Malaysian-owned firms active in F1 including Lotus, and a handful of top results in competitive championships doing enough to dampen the pay driver label he would otherwise have meant Fauzy was a contender to race in F1 during the early 2010s.

He never made it, and it was never quite clear whether he was F1-ready based on his junior series results alone. And Lotus certainly didn’t believe he was after a year of testing as they prematurely released him from a five-year contract.

Fauzy debuted in GP2 in 2005, stepping up after taking one podium from 70 races in British Formula 3. He scored no points in his first two GP2 seasons, and in the meantime made his top-level debut for Team Malaysia in A1GP.

For 2007 he switched to FR3.5, and looked far more competitive with three podiums and a pole position. Fauzy then returned to A1GP duties alongside a season in GP2 Asia. At the infamous Sentul round, where changing weather and a deteriorating track surface required teams to equip cars with protective devices for wings, Fauzy earned his first win from reversed-grid pole in the sprint race.

After his A1GP duties concluded he came in late to the 2008 FR3.5 season, but made the podium in Monaco in his comeback race. There was only one points finish in the 12 races that followed, but then when Fauzy returned to A1GP – and now in a full-time capacity – he looked a significantly improved driver and started the season with victory and a second place.

Fauzy chose FR3.5 for his main programme again in 2009, and in the first four rounds only once finished higher than seventh. That result was a win from pole at the Hungaroring though, and consistent scoring and a few more podiums thereon led to him winning a five-way fight to be championship runner-up.

Following his year of auditioning for a Lotus F1 drive, Fauzy returned to all three of the second-tier series he had previously raced in but had patchy form that made it even more inconclusive about what his level was as a driver.

=8. Masahiko Kageyama JAPAN 65 races
Japanese F3000/FNippon (73 races): 2 wins, 2 poles, 8 podiums, 56pts   Top tier FNippon (19 races): 1pt

Photo: Demodori6

While the series that is now known as Super Formula has always been at the top level of Japan’s single-seater scene, for several decades it ran to F2 and then F3000 rules before joining F1 and IndyCar as a top-tier series in 1999.

Kageyama raced there from 1990 to 2001, and his two wins came in what was Formula Nippon’s final year as a junior series.

Success only arrived once he joined Team Impul for the 1997 season, having already become Japanese Touring Car champion with the team four years prior.

Three podiums and 16 points put Kageyama seventh in the ’97 standings, and he started 1998 with victory at Suzuka. He earned his first FNippon pole at the same track four races later, and converted that into a second career win, with his only other point that season coming in the final race which was also held at Suzuka. It was still enough to put him fourth in the standings, two positions behind his younger brother Masami.

Whenever the older Kageyama swapped single-seaters for cars with a roof he was more success-prone, winning two titles in the series that preceded Super GT and also coming third in the Le Mans 24 Hours for Nissan.

7. Nicholas Latifi CANADA 66 races
FR3.5 (23 races): 1 podium, 75pts   GP2/F2 (98 races): 6 wins, 21 podiums, 506pts   Top tier F1 (61 races): 9pts

Photo: LAT Images

In addition to the ‘non-championship’ Abu Dhabi race, Latifi’s career in the second tier also includes the infamous F2 race at Spa-Francorchamps in 2019 which Anthoine Hubert lost his life in and has also been scrubbed from the series’ stats books.

Latifi’s journey into motorsport meant he started competing seriously at a far later age than his peers, and learned much of the intricacies of driving from paper and theory-based work. But with a father who provided the funding to make up for any lost ground at each step of the motorsport ladder, he couldn’t rely on a late start as an excuse by the time he reached FR3.5.

• Feature: Why Nicholas Latifi’s rise to F1 is more remarkable than you think

A podium on his sixth FR3.5 start there proved to be a false dawn, and after a full season there he switched to GP2. There was a 27-race wait for his next podium, achieved in the 2016 GP2 season opener, then another 25-race wait for a follow-up to that.

But the continuity of staying with DAMS, who he ultimately spent four seasons driving for, helped Latifi continually improve and he finally claimed his first win in F2’s Silverstone sprint race in 2017. Nine podiums from 21 races that season put Latifi an impressive fifth in the standings.

In 2018 he and the team suffered a setback with the introduction of F2’s new car, but had got on top of it the season after and Latifi started 2019 by winning three of the first five races. Despite becoming championship runner-up behind Nyck de Vries, Latifi was firmly considered a pay driver when he stepped up to F1 with Williams in 2020.

6. Max Chilton ENGLAND 70 races
FR3.5 (1 race)   GP2 (62 races): 2 wins, 2 poles, 4 podiums, 176pts   GP2 Asia (12 races): 2pts   GP2 Final (2 races)   Indy Nxt (13 races): 1 win, 3 poles, 6 podiums, 258 pts   Top tier F1 (35 races)   IndyCar (83 races): 1351pts

Photo: Indianapolis Motor Speedway, LLC Photography

Another driver whose father paved the way to the top via some large-scale financial investments in their son’s career, Chilton is also the younger brother of former British Touring Car star Tom Chilton.

In 2009 the younger Chilton came fourth in British F3 with Carlin, a team his father became majority shareholder of and thereon became a maintay in Chilton’s career.

Although he first raced in GP2 with Ocean Racing Technology, once Carlin arrived in the series in 2011 he was back in their line-up and he came 20th in the standings that year. A singular fifth place was Chilton’s best result after 53 races in the second tier of single-seaters, but he and the team made a big jump up the order as 2012 began.

Chilton started the season with his first podium, and in round nine at the Hungaroring he won the feature race from pole. A further pole and another feature race win meant he came fourth in the points, and with the Marussia F1 team sponsoring Carlin through 2012 it was no surprise that Chilton then stepped up to F1 with Russian-owned manufacturer.

He lost his seat after two seasons, and returned to Carlin which was now competing in Indy Nxt. Doing an incomplete campaign prevented a title challenge, but Chilton was competitive in his outings – taking a win and three poles –  and did enough to earn an IndyCar seat for 2016. After two seasons and one top-five finish with Chip Ganassi Racing, he left the team to once again reunite with Carlin and lead their entry into IndyCar.

=4. Rio Haryanto INDONESIA 72 races
GP2 Final (2 races)   GP2 (89 races): 3 wins, 7 podiiums, 226pts   Top tier F1 (12 races)

Photo: Manor Racing

After winning the 2009 FBMW Pacific title, Haryanto became a junior of F1’s new Virgin Racing team and enter GP3 with the linked Manor Racing outfit. He won on his fourth start and as the team’s highest placed driver in the standings got a prize F1 test at the end of 2010.

Haryanto only scored five times in his sophomore GP3 season with the team, although took two wins and two further podiums, and was similarly inconsistent through his GP2 career.

After debuting in the single-event GP2 Final at the end of 2011, Haryanto made the full-time move to GP2 alongside Chilton in the Marussia-backed Carlin (with Marussia succeeding Virgin in ownership of the F1 team).

• Feature: The man to call when looking for F1’s next Asian driver

The highlight of his rookie season was pole in the wet at Spa, but his best race result was a fifth place, and moving to the Addax team for 2013 brought a first podium but less points and also a departure from Marussia’s ranks.

Signing with Caterham’s GP2 team in 2014 didn’t bring him into F1 contention with that brand, and the results were lacking again. Everything changed for Haryanto the year when he joined Campos Racing, instantly becoming a victory threat.

The long-awaited first win came in the sprint race of round one at Bahrain, and two more sprint race wins followed. Haryanto was the only driver of that year’s GP2 crop to land a full-time F1 drive for 2016, reuniting with Manor in the process, but budget issues meant he only lasted 12 races before losing his seat.

=4. Jerome d’Ambrosio BELGIUM 72 races
FR3.5 (7 races)   GP2 (58 races): 1 win, 1 pole, 7 podiums, 71pts   GP2 Asia (21 races): 6 podiums, 48pts   Top tier F1 (20 races)   FE (69 races): 3 wins, 2 poles, 9 podiums, 322pts

Photo: GP2 Media Service

D’Ambrosio has come a long way since his GP2 days, which were notable for a rare instance of a driver in a junior series losing their seat based on a lack of results (for one weekend only).

The Belgian’s first second-tier starts came in FR3.5 in 2006, contesting four rounds before switching to Euroseries 3000. He stepped down to Int. FMaster for 2007, and became champion, then headed to GP2 with DAMS.

Two podiums in the Asian series was an encouraging start for d’Ambrosio, and after a slow start in the main series he was runner-up in two sprint races in the final three rounds. That momentum continued into GP2 Asia over the winter of 2008-09, where he was championship runner-up with a pole and four podiums, and then he started the 2009 season with three podiums in the first four races. Nine points-free races followed, then three fourth places lifted him to ninth in the standings.

The Gravity Sport Management organisation that looked after d’Ambrosio’s career was heavily involved in the Renault F1 team at the time, and he was made one of its reserve drivers for 2010. Gravity also orchestrated a deal for d’Ambrosio to become a free practice driver for Virgin later in the year, but also pulled him out of his GP2 seat during the season for underperforming.

D’Ambrosio had actually broken his victory duck in the Monaco sprint race, but failed to score after that and Romain Grosjean was called up to replace him at Hockenheim. Once he returned to his seat, d’Ambrosio qualified on pole at Spa, made the podium at Monza and earned an F1 seat with Virgin for 2011.

He lasted one year racing in F1 before returning to his reserve role at Renault, now known as Lotus, and then raced in FE for six seasons. D’Ambrosio won three E-Prix, and his experience earned him a management role at Venturi after he stopped driving. He left the team and the series last year, and recently was signed by Mercedes to head up its F1 junior team.

3. Stephane Richelmi MONACO 73 races
FR3.5 (17 races): 6pts   GP2 (70 races): 1 win, 2 poles, 4 podiums, 201pts   GP2 Final (2 races)

Photo: Sam Bloxham/GP2 Series Media Service

The son of French Gravel Rally champion Jean-Pierre Richelmi had a single-seater career that was light on wins at every level he competed at.

He went through three years of FR1.6 and FR2.0 without a victory, but in Italian F3 won four times en route to second in the standings in 2010. From there he stepped up to FR3.5, scoring once in his rookie season, then moved to GP2 at the end of 2011.

It took 13 races to score his first points, and six races later he claimed his first podium in remarkable fashion at Hockenheim from 22nd on the grid. He made up eight places on lap six of the race, then another 10 places a lap later to move into second as he had gambled on starting using slick tyres on a drying track. Following his compulsory pitstop he dropped to fifth, but made it back to third in an inspired drive.

It was a one-off though, with Richelmi not featuring near the front again until 11 months later when he was second at Silverstone in the feature race. He was on pole next time out at the Nurburgring, but there was another long wait for further success.

DAMS was the team to beat in 2014, and Richelmi reaped the rewards of driving for them with pole at Barcelona and, finally, a first win at home in the Monaco sprint race. He stood on the podium one more time, while his team-mate became champion.

2. Ralph Boschung SWITZERLAND 96 races
F2 (99 races): 1 win, 6 podiums, 163.5pts

Photo: Formula Motorsport Ltd

Most of what there is to say about Boschung has been said recently, but it’s still worth recapping his career at this level.

Boschung ran out of budget one round before the end in his rookie season in 2017, then suffered the same fate two rounds from the finish in 2018.

The funding dried up after five rounds in 2019, but he was able to return to return for two rounds later in the year, then in 2020 he only contested the season finale as a last-minute stand-in for Jack Aitken who had been summoned to race in F1.

The elusive prospect of a full F2 season finally occurred in 2021 with Campos, and having greater financial stability was reflected in Boschung’s results. He came 10th in the standings with two podiums, and started 2022 looking even stronger. After making the podium for a second time at Imola, Boschung’s season was ruined by a neck injury that kept him out of his car for 12 races. On his comeback at Spa he immediately made the podium, showing the potential that year could have held.

Now fully recovered, and with a Campos team that is benefitting from a high-profile technical signing, Boschung started 2023 with that all-important victory, and he leads the championship after four races. Could he win the title?

1. Rene Binder AUSTRIA 98 races
GP2/F2 (75 races): 16pts   FR3.5 (38 races): 4 wins, 2 poles, 10 podiums, 366pts   Top tier IndyCar (6 races): 61pts

Photo: Sebastiaan Rozendaal/Dutch Photo Agency

Binder’s 75-race career in GP2/F2 featured not a single result of note, but once he headed to FV8 3.5 his results, and the perception of him, started to change.

Driving for the Lotus-branded Charouz Racing System team, Binder made the podium five times and came seventh in the standings in 2016. The opposition may not have been at the same standard as GP2, but it was more the differences between team peformances that influenced Binder’s ability to fight towards the front in FV8 3.5.

He continued with Charouz for 2017, and although he had no answer to team-mate Pietro Fittipaldi he was one of the contenders to be best of the rest. After four-and-a-half years of waiting, Binder won a race for the first time at Monza.

The next day he won again at the track, and later in the year won from pole at Circuit of the Americas and Bahrain. Only Fittipaldi won more races than him, and – almost unimaginable just a year prior – Binder then stepped up to IndyCar in a part-time drive with Juncos Racing.

Now Boschung has won, the closest active driver to threatening Binder’s record is Carlin F2 driver Enzo Fittipaldi on 40 starts.

The post The longest waits for victory in the second tier of single-seater racing appeared first on Formula Scout.

Photo: Formula Motorsport Ltd

Campos Racing was fined €5,000 at Formula 2’s Bahrain season opener for a pitlane incident during the feature race involving one of the sponsors of its driver Ralph Boschung.

According to the stewards document “a Campos sponsor (The Moon) team guest, left the area designated for guests” behind the team trolleys in the pitlane.

“He walked into the working side of the hot pitlane in the immediate vicinity of the medical car. He remained there with his back to potential race traffic taking photos. In that position, he also significantly blocked the left-side mirror of the medical car’s view into the pitlane. His location, actions, and the direction he was facing all created significant safety issues and put him at risk. He remained there until directed out of the area by a pit marshal.”

All members of The Moon now have suspended access denial to Formula 1, F2 and Formula 3 reserved areas this season.

Campos team principal Adrian Campos Jr shared his point of view about what happened with Formula Scout.

“Ralph was struggling financially. Now he’s not, and it’s thanks to these people [from The Moon]. These people have never been in a racing track and they need to be taught how to behave in a racing track during race event. The problem is that we have a limitation on the team staff and we can go very little people to the pitlane. During the race, we are focusing on our race and it’s very difficult for us to take care of them.

“The two times that we have been called from the stewards, it was the first one because he [Carl Runefelt] went to the pit wall and he couldn’t. Of course we told him you cannot be here, go to the place, but they already saw him,” he explained of a similar incident at the 2022 Baku round.

“[In Bahrain] there was one person that was coming with Carl and was also his first ever race. He saw the safety car and wanted to take a picture with it during the race. He got close to the safety car and obviously he cannot do that. That was the problem. That’s why we got the fine. He is paying it.”

“We just hope that the FIA is as strict as they are with them to the rest. Because all eyes are on them in this moment. Anything, any small detail, it’s not massive, things that normally happen in a race with someone, but everyone is following these people a lot.

“They have been posting some things on social media that they’re not allowed because of F1 rights. Everyone in F1 and the FIA are focusing a lot on them, which I think sometimes is not fair because, at the end, the guy just wanted to take a picture with the safety car.

“We cannot be looking at them during the whole race. We need to focus on our race. I think it’s a small, really small issue that became too big.”

The post Campos explains pitlane incident with Boschung’s sponsor appeared first on Formula Scout.

Photo: Formula Motorsport Ltd

Campos Racing got off to a great start to the 2023 Formula 2 season in Bahrain, as Ralph Boschung won the sprint race then finished second in the feature race.

Formula Scout spoke to team principal Adrian Campos Jr about the keys to the squad’s best weekend in the series since the 2019 Baku round when Jack Aitken won the feature race and was third in the sprint race.

“We have been working in the same way that we did in the last years. I think that now probably Ralph is better than he was last year,” Campos said.

“We have a good rookie next to him that is really, really quick. That is the main difference. Technically, we have to be honest that we’re doing the same [as before].”

Formula 3 graduate Kush Maini scored twice on his first weekend in F2, finishing seventh and fourth place in the two races.

Campos argues that Boschung’s F2 career has been extremely particular. Thus, his current statistics – one victory and five other podiums from 97 championship races – are not representative of his talent.

“We have to understand the situation of Ralph and where was he coming from. Because everyone is saying that he is the driver with more years in this championship and all this, and at the end, if we look back to 2021, it was the first year of the second time that he raced with us. It was his first ever season that he did complete in F2.

“He was always struggling in terms of budget and always never finishing the season. So that was his first ever season, let’s say, from the beginning until the end. Then following year, he couldn’t finish from half of the year. He lost six [rounds] if I’m not wrong. And then we are again trying to do another full season, which will be his second full season.”

In 2022, Boschung withdrew from the weekends in Barcelona, Monaco and Silverstone before handing his car over to Roberto Merhi for the rounds at the Red Bull Ring, Paul Ricard and the Hungaroring as he recovered from a neck injury.

Should he do every race in 2023, Boschung will have clocked 123 starts, of which 89 would have happened with Campos across 2017 and then the 2020 to ’23 seasons. He has already publicly said he intends this year to be his last in F2.

“I have to say that since the first time that he came to us back in 2017 until now, the evolution has been a lot,” Campos Jr stated.

“His main issue was that he was always focusing in financial things and being worried if he could race the following race or not. And now, finally, he’s fine and he can only focus on how to drive better, how to perform better and focusing in his health and in his physical shape.

“This is the difference that we really felt on him. He’s now focusing on what he needs to be focused and he’s delivering. So that’s the best thing.”

The post ‘Focusing on racing rather than budget’ has improved Boschung, says Campos Jr appeared first on Formula Scout.

Photos: Formula Motorsport Ltd

Theo Pourchaire said he “could have driven a lot faster” in his dominant F2 feature race win in Bahrain, and Ralph Boschung praised his car too after two podiums. But did the pair have a pace advantage?

There were two standout drivers in the opening Formula 2 round at Bahrain, and both came away with a dominant win. Campos Racing’s Ralph Boschung made the most of clean air following a good start from reversed-grid pole to win the 23-lap sprint race, and Theo Pourchaire converted his ominously large pole advantage into an ominously large feature race win.

Boschung ended a very long wait for what was his maiden F2 win, having made the podium just four times in the 95 championship races he had previously contested, but his presence at the front was no surprise given he had started 2022 strongly on the same track with fifth place in qualifying and two fourth places in the races.

After two rounds last year, Boschung was actually the third strongest driver on one-lap pace and seventh on race pace, and a round later he picked up his third podium from his last 10 starts. A neck injury prevented him from building on that through the season, but he’s now fully recovered and – as in 2022 – has even been asked if he has a car capable of fighting for the title with.

“I definitely think that the team gave me a car that, as we saw today, can win races,” Boschung said last Saturday.

“I also think pole positions is clearly a possibility, more than just one. Obviously the level is just so high and you can make the slightest mistake and then be nowhere in a race weekend. The car is there to do it. It’s just everything has to go together.”

He added: “I am confident, but I wouldn’t say it’s the most confident [I’ve been in F2]. Last year, the beginning of the year, I felt really confident. Since the neck injury, things changed a little bit. I see racing a little bit differently than I did before, and I think the confidence maybe takes a little bit of time to come back. But obviously winning like this is going to be a big boost to my confidence.”

Sprint race fastest laps

Boschung, despite finishing second, dropped 18s to Pourchaire in the second stint and ended up being 15th fastest in the field on race pace (0.445s/lap down on Pouchaire) and also fastest laps, where he was 1.629s slower than Pourchaire’s best.

Aside from the two-stopping Brad Benavides (PHM Racing by Charouz), Clement Novalak (Trident) and Richard Verschoor (Van Amersfoort Racing), the fastest drivers on both fronts were Pourchaire and Rodin Carlin’s podium finisher Zane Maloney.

Maloney came from 18th on the grid to finish third, and echoed a bold statement from Pourchaire that he “had a lot more pace at hand” in the second stint despite eight of his passes taking place during that stint.

“The car was unbelievable. I was really able to push the whole race without any degradation,” added Maloney.

Formula Scout went prodding for more details, asking the podium trio how the handling of their cars had changed through the race. Of particular interest was Pourchaire, who maintained a 1m50s pace for 14 consecutive laps and actually got faster at the very end of the race while others got slower as their tyres aged – supporting his claim he “could have driven a lot faster”.

“With my strategy, it was a bit different because starting on prime with high fuel, the car is not easy to drive the first few laps,” Pourchaire said. “But then just after the pitstop – [it] was around mid-race or something like that – you have less fuel, soft tyres, the car is much more easier to drive. And at the end, you have a bit of tyre deg. Even with less fuel, it’s difficult to drive because it’s very warm and the rear tyres are struggling. So you need to adapt your driving through the race.”

Boschung said: “For us, starting on the option with heavy fuel, usually it’s not ideal. It’s actually better to be with the option towards the end and really push the tyres to the limit. So I just had to be very careful with the rear axle the whole time. Usually the front is never an issue on the option. Then once I boxed going on the prime, the tyre is a little bit slow in general and I just had to manage the slips again.”

Photo: Campos Racing

The slips – i.e lateral sliding of the tyre during turning – increase the surface temperature and can increase also the wear and the stability of the tyre due to deformation of the sidewall. At a circuit like Bahrain, which has highly abrasive asphalt (which is therefore grippy), there are several tight corners such as the downhill Turn 10 left-hander which is particularly punishing on the tyres because of the tight apex even when drivers are off the brakes.

The comments from Maloney – in just his second weekend of racing in F2 – suggested his pace was set by those around him for much of the race, although his actual laptimes were usually faster than most on track.

“We started on the prime, but when you’re in such a big train, you’re just trying to stay where you are. There’s no sense in going for moves because then you just kill the tyre,” he said.

“On the prime, it was quite difficult to just stay behind the car, and if you didn’t, then you’re going to get overtaken. So it was more just follow the leader. Then when I boxed for options, they all undercut me so I had a bit of a gap. I could really push on. The balance was great on low fuel with the soft tyres.

“And to be honest, when I was coming through the field, I was thinking to myself ‘maybe in two or three laps, I’m gonna really drop off a cliff’, but that cliff never came and we were able to push to the end. So, to be honest, like Theo said, you need to change your driving throughout the race, and it’s a big difference from quali.”

There’s a lot to be learned from how all three of the podium finishers performed in the second half of the race, but the biggest question is to what degree it was individual brilliance and how much of it was down to strong baseline set-ups from the teams. The best way to assess if Pourchaire really had pace in hand was if Martins had been able to complete the feature race too, while Carlin looked rapid but also fragile at times and Campos have more than shown this kind of promise in the Middle East before. All eyes are now on Jeddah.

Race pace

The post Did Pourchaire and Boschung really have a pace advantage in Bahrain? appeared first on Formula Scout.

Ralph Boschung converted reversed-grid pole position into his maiden Formula 2 win on his 96th start in the season-opening sprint race in Bahrain.

Campos Racing driver Boschung was able to pull away from an intense battle behind that involved the charging ART Grand Prix duo of Victor Martins and Theo Pourchaire after they had dominated qualifying on Friday.

Boschung got away well enough from pole as Roman Stanek struggled away from second position in his first F2 start.

That opened the door for the DAMS duo of Arthur Leclerc and Ayumu Iwasa, who went side-by-side through the sweeping Turns 5, 6 and 7 with Iwasa eventually emerging ahead.

From eighth on the grid, debutant Martins already got up to fourth on the first lap and passed Leclerc at Turn 1 on lap three, when team-mate Pourchaire took fifth from Dennis Hauger having started 10th.

Two laps later, Pourchaire passed Leclerc, who then had to serve a stop-and-go penalty for having a mechanic on the grid too late before the start – a penalty also handed to Hitech’s Isack Hadjar.

Martins made a late move to the inside of Iwasa at Turn 1 on lap nine, but Iwasa fought back into Turn 5. Similar happened four laps later, but Martins this time persevered to get ahead by Turn 8 and snatch second place.

Pourchaire immediately went down the inside of Iwasa at Turn 10, but the Red Bull and Honda junior was again able to fight back, and Hauger could repass Pourchaire into Turn 1 on the next lap.

That meant that when Iwasa then locked up into the final corner, Hauger was in position to capitalise and gain third, with Pourchaire again only briefly able to get ahead of Iwasa.

Even once Martins was in clean air, Boschung could continue to increase his lead and finished up 10.8 seconds clear.

Hauger, who has taken over the MP Motorsport car used by Felipe Drugovich to win last year’s championship, used strong late pace to pass Martins for second place into Turn 11 on the penultimate lap.

Iwasa was 8.3s further back in fourth but still five seconds ahead of Pouchaire, who had to work hard to keep Hauger’s team-mate Jehan Daruvala at bay in the closing laps.

Boschung’s team-mate Kush Maini continues to impress on his F2 debut and finished seventh, with Enzo Fittipaldi coming from 13th to score the final point in eighth just ahead of his Carlin team-mate Zane Maloney.

Most of the drivers started the race on the soft option tyre, but Jack Doohan was one of three to opt for hards after qualifying down in 17th place. He finished 11th, just behind Juan Manuel Correa. Prema drivers Ollie Bearman and Frederik Vesti both pitted and finished 15th and 17th.

Race result (23 laps)

The post Boschung gets first F2 win in 96th start in season-opening sprint appeared first on Formula Scout.

Photo: Formula Motorsport Ltd

Campos Racing’s Ralph Boschung led the way in the first of two Thursday afternoon test sessions for Formula 2 at Bahrain.

The first session of the day was shortened to one hour-and-45 minutes, compared to two-and-a-half hours on previous days, and despite the warm temperatures of the early afternoon there was still a lot of track action.

Boschung was the driver to beat pretty much throughout, laying down a 1m45.063s lap just eight minutes into the session to put him 4.9 seconds clear of Trident’s Clement Novalak in second place.

MP Motorsport’s Dennis Hauger trimmed that gap down to 4.5s after 11 minutes, then Novalak improved to get within 2.875s of Boschung after a quarter of an hour had passed while Hauger improved in third place.

Boschung lowered the pace by 0.036s after 21 minutes, and soon after DAMS’ Ayumu Iwasa and Hauger became the third and fourth drivers to lap sub-1m49s.

The gap between the top two still stood at 2.879s after half an hour, but Novalak improved twice and with a 1m47.031s lap went 2.004s slower than Boschung. PHM Racing by Charouz’s Roy Nissany slotted into third behind him, two tenths slower.

ART Grand Prix’s Theo Pourchaire went fourth fastest and broke into the 1m47s at the 40-minute mark, with his team-mate Victor Martins going a tenth slower in fifth place before then setting a 1m47.053s to demote Nissany from third.

Only eight drivers had lapped sub-1m48s as the second half of the session begun, with the gap that covered Boschung and Novalak being larger than the one that covered second place down to 15th.

Van Amersfoort Racing’s Juan Manuel Correa went ninth fastest in the final half-hour, then team-mate Richard Verschoor became the 10th driver to lap in the 1m47s when he moved into sixth place with 17 minutes to go at the same time as Nissany improved by a slim 0.008s in fourth.

Hitech GP’s Isack Hadjar down in 21st place was the only driver to improve their pace thereon, meaning Boschung ended the session two seconds clear of the field.

Afternoon session results

The post Boschung on top by two seconds as last day of F2 testing begins appeared first on Formula Scout.