Photo: Joe Portlock / LAT Images / FIA F2 Championship

The FFSA, France’s motorsport governing body, has announced the creation of a new karting contest called the Anthoine Hubert Trophy.

Anthoine Hubert was a Renault Formula 1 junior who won the French Formula 4 title in 2013, then was a four-time race-winner in Formula Renault Alps, came fifth in the FR2.0 Eurocup, was seventh in the Masters of Formula 3 and eighth in the FIA European F3 championship before winning the GP3 title in 2018.

He stepped up to Formula 2 for 2019 and took two wins in his first 10 races, but the 22-year-old was killed in a crash that occurred during the feature race at Spa-Francorchamps on August 31.

At the end of the year, F2 created the Anthoine Hubert Award, which goes to the highest placed rookie in the championship each season.

The Angerville karting track in France changed its name to Circuit International Anthoine Hubert in August 2020, and it will host the inaugural Anthoine Hubert Trophy this year on May 9-12. There will be four levels of vehicles competing: KZ2 shifter karts, Senior class karts, Nationale class machines and the 60 group of Mini karts.

Alongside the racing there were will be workshops at the event, and the FFSA and the family of Hubert plan for the trophy to become an annual feature in the French karting calendar which can rival Italy’s long-running trophy events for karts.

Hubert’s karting career included twice coming third in the CIK-FIA Under 18 world championship and winning several domestic titles.

The post New karting trophy named after Anthoine Hubert launched in France appeared first on Formula Scout.

Photo: Dutch Photo Agency

Yuki Tsunoda has dedicated his Formula 2 pole at Spa-Francorchamps to the late Anthoine Hubert, who tragically died at the circuit a year ago.

Red Bull junior Tsunoda secured his second pole of the season in a session interrupted by several early red flag periods.

The comments, made in the post-qualifying press conference, came as the paddock marked a year since Hubert’s passing.

“Of course really happy to take a pole,” said the Carlin driver. “It’s a really exciting track. Most of the corners are high-speed. For me, this round is a bit special; special motivation for me compared to other [rounds] because this race is honestly only for Anthoine.

“This qualifying and tomorrow’s race is just racing for Anthoine, and I’ll do my best.”

It was a statement echoed by many not only in F2, but also racing in Formula 1 and FIA Formula 3 Championship this weekend.

Tsunoda also spoke abut how the mentality he approached the stop-start qualifying session with.

“On the first set [of tyres] it was quite a messy session, a few red flags. It was hard to put it all together. Also track condition was a little bit messier around there but I still tried to [stay] calm and focused for the second set.

“I’d already got good confidence in the car set-up and good car balance so I just put it all together.”

Tsunoda’s fellow Red Bull juniors had a less fruitful session, with his Carlin team-mate Jehan Daruvala qualifying ninth and DAMS’ debuting Juri Vips failing to set a laptime at all after his car failed on him.

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Photo: Joe Portlock / LAT Images / FIA F2 Championship

Anthoine Hubert will be remembered across Formula 1, Formula 2 and Formula 3 at this weekend’s Belgian Grand Prix, one year on from his death at Spa-Francorchamps.

Hubert was killed in a crash at the start of the F2 feature race last year, which also left rival Juan Manuel Correa with serious leg injuries.

A minute’s silence will be held on the grid in memory of Hubert ahead of the F2 race this Saturday, and also before the F1 race on Sunday.

Hubert was part of the Renault Sport Academy and tested F1 machinery with the French manufacturer. He was also close with a number of drivers on the F1 grid, coming up through the French karting ranks with the likes of Pierre Gasly and Charles Leclerc.

A special logo will be carried on every car across F1, F2 and F3 at Spa, incorporating Hubert’s initials, F2 race number and the star that was a key part of his helmet design.

F2 has also confirmed that the number 19 that Hubert used during his 2019 season with Arden has been permanently retired. The championship had already opted against using the number this season.

The post Anthoine Hubert to be honoured over Belgian Grand Prix weekend appeared first on Formula Scout.

Photo: Francois Flamand / DPPI

The double win by David Vidales in his first Formula Renault Eurocup weekend at Imola is arguably the most impressive single-seater racing debut in recent history.

Three times a runner-up in CIK-FIA international karting events, the 18-year-old Spaniard has had to wait for his car racing break, having first tried out for the Ferrari Driver Academy in Formula 4 machinery four years ago.

Following a late switch to Formula Renault from the Formula Regional European Championship and missing the first round at Monza, Vidales grasped his opportunity at Imola, making the most of the quick package provided by JD Motorsport. Just as impressive as his speed was how he handled race starts, restarts and pace management under the pressure of a race weekend.

It got Formula Scout thinking about the best single-seater debut weekends this century, and we’ve picked out 10 of them below.

It’s difficult to find anybody besides Vidales who’s won in a proper Formula Renault championship (at the main two-litre level) in Europe on their first weekend in a single-seater: Ben Barnicoat won an Autumn Cup at Rockingham in 2013 in a field of of six cars, while Antonio Fuoco’s debut Formula Renault Alps win earlier that year was preceded by outings in the PanamGP Winter Series, just as Max Verstappen and Lance Stroll made their debuts in the Florida Winter Series a year later.

That proves how difficult Formula Renault has been for direct graduates of karting to get to grips with, and we begin our list with a driver that did at least come close to a debut win.

Jules Bianchi
French Formula Renault 2007 (Nogaro)

Photo: DPPI / Renault Sport

Spotted in karting by Nicolas Todt, a 17-year-old Bianchi was placed in Formula Renault 2.0 in his native France for his first season of single-seaters with the SG Formula team. In the first round at Nogaro, he couldn’t pick up a win, with both races going instead to the more experienced Matthieu Arzeno. But Bianchi missed pole for the first race by less than a tenth of a second, then finished just over a second adrift of Arzeno in race one, and seven seconds clear of third-placed Tristan Vautier. In race two he finished third and set the fastest lap. Bianchi then dominated the following round at Ledenon to take a championship lead he wouldn’t surrender.

Incidentally, his second and third places on debut were a repeat of what Edoardo Mortara had achieved in the possibly more-competitive Italian championship at Mugello a year earlier. When Bianchi stepped up to the F3 Euro Series for 2008, Mortara edged Bianchi by by 2.5 points to be championship runner-up behind Nico Hulkenberg.

Nico Hulkenberg
Formula BMW ADAC 2005 (Hockenheim)

Photo: BMW AG

He’s stepped away from Formula 1 with the unwanted record of the most starts without a podium finish, but Hulkenberg still possesses one of the most impressive junior single-seater records of the 21st century. His reputation was one built not only through his A1 Grand Prix, Euro F3 and GP2 titles, but also by winning the Formula BMW series in Germany as a rookie.

Over the season, Josef Kaufmann Racing’s Hulkenberg was pushed closely by Mucke Motorsport’s second-year Red Bull junior Sebastien Buemi – with just five points between them at season’s end. But Hulkenberg had made the better start as a single-seater novice in round one at Hockenheim. He won the first race from pole position ahead of Buemi, then claimed race two from second on the grid, setting the fastest lap as he finished four seconds clear of his future F1 team-mate Sergio Perez.

Marcus Ericsson
Formula BMW UK 2007 (Brands Hatch)

Photo: ChristianB_7

Ericsson might have got some stick as an F1 driver, but he had begun his single-seater debut as a very serious prospect indeed. As a karter in his native Sweden, he picked up backing from Indianapolis 500 winner Kenny Brack, who secured Ericsson a drive in Formula BMW UK with Fortec Motorsports for 2007. Ericsson’s aim was to try to win by the end of the season, but after finishing third in the first race at Brands Hatch, he qualified on pole for race two and won it by some five seconds despite losing the lead to Henry Surtees at the start.

Brack might have been a little biased, but he described Ericsson as “the best young talent” he had ever seen. Over the rest of the year, his protege lived up to that, defeating Josef Kral to win the championship with a spate of late victories. The two rivals would be reunited as GP2 team-mates just a couple of years later.

Richard Bradley
Formula BMW Pacific 2010 (Sepang)

Photo: BMW AG

Asia’s Formula BMW equivalent might not have been as prestigious as its European counterparts, and Bradley never even got close to F1, but two of the drivers he beat convincingly on his single-seater debut certainly did. After Red Bull signed Carlos Sainz Jr and Daniil Kvyat to its junior team for an assault on FBMW Europe with Eurointernational in 2010, it took them along to the Malaysian Grand Prix in April for a bit of early practice.

The two young bulls must have fancied their chances of a win on their car racing debuts, but so clearly did British karter Bradley, who had headed east and picked up a racing licence from Singapore for his step into single-seaters with Eurasia Motorsport. The 18-year-old beat Sainz to pole position by nearly half a second and then opened up a four-second advantage during the 10-lap race, setting the fastest lap in the process. It was a similar story in race two, with Sainz actually slipping to fourth place at the end and finishing just ahead of Kvyat.

Sainz and Kvyat returned to Sepang for revenge a month later, splitting the wins between them in a quadruple-header, but Bradley also went on to defeat Sainz once more for a win on his adopted streets of Singapore. He also claimed the championship – ahead of 14-year-old Oscar Tunjo – and later raced in Super Formula in 2013 before forging a successful sportscar career.

Raffaele Marciello
Italian Formula Abarth 2010 (Misano)

Where Sainz and Kvyat had failed, their former karting rival Marciello succeeded later the same month in his native Italy with the support of the newly-expanded Ferrari Driver Academy. Just like Vidales, Marciello started his car racing career with JD Motorsport, in this case in the new Formula Abarth series.

In a wet qualifying session at Misano, 15-year-old Marciello had been beaten to pole position by Kevin Gilardoni by over two seconds, but in the race, he reeled in his rival and stole the win away on the very last lap. The pair were 25 seconds clear of the driver in third. Third in race two, Marciello would win just once more all season and finished third in the standings, while fellow FDA recruit Brandon Maisano – two years older – took the title.

Marciello’s single win was bettered by Alessio Rovera’s debut double in 2013 en route to the title, but the series was by then a shadow of its former self with Formula 4 on the horizon.

Matheo Tuscher
Formula Pilota China 2011 (Guangdong)

A year after its introduction in Italy, a Formula Abarth series was created for Asia and Swiss driver Tuscher dominated it aged just 14. His competition over the season wasn’t the strongest – runner-up Luis Sa Silva had plenty of prior experience in Asian Formula Renault, but would struggle when he later headed to Europe.

But on his debut weekend in a single-seater at Guandong in July, Tuscher had to see off some serious opposition to win both races: Future DTM ace Lucas Auer had already made a winning start in the rival FBMW-based JK Racing Asia Series, and Jenzer Motorsport team-mate Robert Visoiu was already a race-winner in the Italian Abarth series.

But Tuscher won both races, leading home Visoiu in race one and Auer in race two. He won six of the subsequent 10 races on his way to the title, and then turned up in Jonathan Palmer’s Formula Two in 2012 and claimed pole on his Silverstone debut, eventually finishing second in the standings. After stints in GP3 with Jenzer and Rebellion’s LMP1 squad, he hasn’t raced since celebrating his 20th birthday at the end of 2016.

Anthoine Hubert
French Formula 4 2013 (Le Mans)

Debut winners are more common in French F4 than in rival series within Europe, with the FFSA Academy welcoming a largely new crop of drivers each season. Last year, Hadrien David won twice at the first round – though not before he’d taken three wins from four races on his actual single-seater debut in the South East Asia F4 series. Six years earlier, Hubert had similarly lived up to his billing as pre-season favourite after the karting career in which he’d been a close rival of Charles Leclerc.

With the first round taking place at the championship’s home circuit Le Mans, and most drivers therefore knowing the track relatively well, Hubert was actually beaten in qualifying by Russian driver Kirill Karpov. On second-fastest times he still lined up on pole for the first race and finished seven seconds up the road from Karpov. He went from 10th to fifth in the reversed-grid race two, then triumphed again in race three ahead of Jules Gounon – who would become his closest rival. But Hubert followed Le Mans with another double win in Pau and a stunning hat-trick at Spa-Francorchamps and won the title convincingly.

Giuliano Alesi
French Formula 4 2015 (Ledenon)

Photo: KSP – Guillaume Veuve

With only a modest karting record to his name, Alesi’s double win on debut in French F4 was rather more surprising than Hubert’s – and it still is looking back on it today. But the statistics were even more impressive, beginning with Alesi topping qualifying before winning the first race by a margin of five seconds ahead of eventual champion and talented second-year driver Valentin Moineault. As well as father Jean, Alesi was congratulated afterwards by Alain Prost, who handed him his winning trophy on the podium. Contact at the start forced him to retire from race two, but he won from the front again in race three, this time in a red-flagged wet race.

The wins would prove a false dawn for Alesi, who scored just one further victory all year and finished fourth in the standings – results that didn’t exactly justify the leap up he made to GP3 for 2016. The season’s stand-out rookie would instead be the driver who won that second race at Ledenon, a relatively unknown Sacha Fenestraz.

Lando Norris
MSA Formula 2015 (Brands Hatch)

Photo: Jakob Ebrey Photography

As the world karting champion, Norris’s single-seater debut in the first ever MSA Formula (later British F4) event was highly anticipated. With the benefit of a comprehensive testing programme in both Formula Renaults and Carlin’s new Mygale F4 car, the 15-year-old lived up to expectation with two victories at Brands Hatch. In qualifying though, he was upstaged by relatively unheralded JTR driver Dan Baybutt, who was a whole three tenths of a second quicker around the short Indy layout in damp conditions.

Normal order was restored in the race, with Norris grabbing the lead at the start and then resisting mid-race pressure from Matheus Leist, who ultimately lost second to another single-seater debutant Dan Ticktum. While Ticktum charged from seventh to second in race two, Norris actually slipped from eighth to ninth – quiet reversed-grid encounters would become a feature of his run to the title as he saved new tyres for the other races. In race three, he lost the lead at the start to James Pull, but regained it to take his second win.

Thereafter, Norris’s run to the title was almost a little underwhelming relative to the hype – and factoring in his circuit knowledge from Ginetta Juniors – but it didn’t him take long to disprove any doubts.

Francesco Pizzi
Formula 4 UAE 2020 (Dubai)

Over the years, ‘winter’ series have been a popular place for drivers to make their first race starts in single-seaters, whether it’s a cold and wet November day at Snetterton or in warmer climes. Today, series like F4 UAE give drivers the chance to get a proper championship title under their belt – a chance taken in full by Pizzi at the start of this year. The grid for the opening round in Dubai in January might not have included many star names, but some drivers did have prior F4 experience and so Pizzi’s hat-trick with Xcel Motorsport was impressive.

None of his wins actually come from pole position, as he was beaten by Hamda Al Qubaisi in qualifying, and he twice inherited leads after mistakes or contact for others. But even the unforseen cancellation of race four due to rain didn’t wipe the shine off his debut, and he continued to prove himself on the way to the title.

Pizzi’s performances convinced Van Amersfoort Racing to sign him for Italian F4, and he will start among the favourites when the season finally begins at Misano this weekend. But look out for another young Italian potentially winning on his single-seater debut, with karting hotshot Gabriele Mini one of four car racing newcomers fielded by Prema.

Legends who won first time out

By Elliot Wood

Single-seaters wasn’t most drivers’ entry into car racing until the creation of Formula Ford, a deliberately affordable formula that could be repeated across the globe, which meant a lot of drivers before 1968 had experience in sports or touring cars before trying out open-wheel racing.

There were some pretty high-profile examples, with 1961 Formula 1 world champion Phill Hill counting a lapped seventh place in the 1958 French Grand Prix as his single-seater debut. Two years prior, Innes Ireland had got the call up from Team Lotus to race in the Dutch GP and the sportscar star finished fourth.

It was a similar story in America, where the drag and midget racing scene was highly competitive and the very best of those drivers would then move straight into IndyCar. Pat Flaherty and Rodger Ward, who both won the Indianapolis 500 when it was part of the F1 calendar, claimed top 10 finishes on their single-seater debuts in IndyCar.

There were some exceptions to this trend, most notably British racing knights Stirling Moss and Jackie Stewart. Moss (pictured above) entered two hillclimbs in 1948 before winning his heat and the final in the 500cc Formula 3 round at the Brough airfield circuit. Stewart matched that feat in a BARC British F3 race at Snetterton in 1964.

Perhaps more impressive than them was Emerson Fittipaldi, who won his first Formula Vee race in Brazil in one of his family’s Fittipaldi chassis. The Fittipaldi clan’s feats inspired later generations of talent in the country, and Rubens Barrichello became a star to watch after winning the 1989 Brazilian FFord season opener.

In Canada there were similar parallels, with Gilles Villeneuve wiping the floor in his rookie Quebec FFord season in 1973 and then Paul Tracy doing the same in the national championship in 1985.

The final year of the 20th century provided two drivers who were almost immediately courted by F1.

Spanish karting star Fernando Alonso, who like Vidales now was 18 at the time, chose the Euro Open by Nissan series for his debut season in single-seaters. The series would later be known as FR3.5 and Formula V8 3.5, and Alonso’s arrival in the then-Nissan-powered category certainly raised its profile.

The first round of the season was at Albacete in Spain, the location of the test that earned Alonso a seat with Campos Racing (which has a watchful eye on Vidales now). He was beaten to pole for his first ever race by just 0.046 seconds, and while he didn’t complete that race, he responded later that day with a dominant 10.556s success from fourth on the grid. Five more wins that season earned him the title, and he was racing in F1 by 2001.

Anthony Davidson had a longer route to the pinnacle of single-seaters, but was just as impactful. The Briton started his career off in FFord and won his first six races from pole. Class victory in his first FFord Festival appearance was followed by overall victory in his second, and he was soon signed by British American Racing.

He was placed in various F1 test and development roles with the team – as well as being loaned to Minardi for two F1 races in 2002 – through to its Honda take-over in 2006. The next year, he was finally given a full-time race seat in Honda’s B team Super Aguri, but after 21 races and no points, the operation folded and Davidson returned to test and simulator duties as well as embarking on a successful sportscar career. His first F1 chance came at the expense of Justin Wilson, who also won on his single-seater debut in the Formula Vauxhall Junior Winter Series in 1994.

The post Ten of the best junior single-seater racing debuts appeared first on Formula Scout.

Photos: Renault Sport

Following the news that Renault has lost Daniel Ricciardo to McLaren for 2021, it’s natural to assume that the team will be looking for a high-profile replacement. In the long term, youth could be the answer it needs

Sebastian Vettel’s decision to not agree to a new contract with Ferrari for 2021 has thrown Formula 1’s driver market wide open, with moves for Carlos Sainz Jr (to Ferrari) and Daniel Ricciardo (to McLaren) already agreed.

While there are many drivers out of contract elsewhere at the end of this year, the focus for now is on who will complete Renault’s line-up alongside the returning Esteban Ocon. The Frenchman has two-and-a-half seasons of race experience under his belt with Manor and Racing Point, and will plan to establish himself again on track and at Enstone this year.

Four-time world champion Vettel and former Renault drivers Fernando Alonso (a two-time champion with the team) and Nico Hulkenberg are already being linked to the second Renault seat, as is talent from within the manufacturer’s own under-pressure driver development programme.

Other drivers to have previously raced for Renault in F1 include Alain Prost, Rene Arnoux, Jean-Pierre Jabouille, Eddie Cheever, Patrick Tambay, Jarno Trulli, Jenson Button, Jacques Villeneuve and Robert Kubica.

Formula Scout presents five young drivers, and an older Renault-known star, who should be in consideration for a 2021 seat…

Guanyu Zhou CHINA 20y/o
2020 F2, 7th in 2019 F2, 8th in 2017 & ’18 FIA European F3, 8th in ’17 Macau GP, 6th in 2016 TRS, 2nd in 2015 Italian F4

Photo: F2 Media Service

Photo: Renault Sport

A former member of the Ferrari Driver Academy, Guanyu Zhou was a surprise package of 2019, when he took it to the established Formula 2 stars in his rookie campaign. He is one of the many drivers on Renault?s books and is now its official test driver, making this move the most logical.

He showed consistent progress in his three years in FIA European Formula 3, but didn’t leave the series with many expecting him to perform as strong as he did in F2. His first year with Virtuosi Racing featured five podiums, and a pole at Silverstone, and while victory never came his way he did put in one of the performances of the season in the Barcelona feature race.

Now, to convince Renault he is F1 standard, he needs to show that he can win races on a regular basis at that level. It won’t just be a case of making the most of when he is in a winning position, but taking strong results when luck isn’t going his way.

Of the few times where he could have won in 2019, Barcelona was the clearest case and he led on merit. Unfortunately those occasions did become less frequent as the year progressed.

Zhou not only has a year of F2 experience under his belt now, but put in more laps than all but the Prema drivers during pre-season testing. This will be crucial with the time spent out of the cockpit due to the current coronavirus crisis, as adapting to the changes that F2’s new 18-inch wheels bring will be all the more important with a lack of factory simulator access.

Talking of simulators, Zhou won F1’s first Virtual Grand Prix for Renault. And in real life he would become China?s first F1 driver ? an important market for both the series and the manufacturer. It would make for a much-needed feel-good story within F1, would strictly speaking be the first driver to progress into the series having impressed on the game and the sponsorship potential that comes with it could be crucial to Renault?s long-term presence in the world championship.

Christian Lundgaard DENMARK 18y/o
2020 F2, 23rd in 2019 F2, 4th in ’19 Macau GP, 6th in ’19 FIA F3, 2nd in 2018 FR Eurocup, 2017 F4 NEZ champion

Photo: F2 Media Service

Photo: F2 Media Service

In the discussion of underrated drivers in the junior ranks, Christian Lundgaard is regularly named. The Dane was on the pace immediately in FIA Formula 3 last year and would have become the series? first winner were it not for a penalty.

While finishing sixth in the FIA F3 Championship standings does not sound particularly impressive on paper, there are a fair few caveats to consider. Lundgaard was inexperienced at F3 level in comparison to many of his contemporaries, and his ART Grand Prix team did not turn out to be the title-challenging force it had been for in predecessor series GP3.

In fact, no driver was really going to get a look in to the top three in the F3 points last year such was Prema’s dominance, and Lundgaard was therefore only one point off being second best of the rest.

Renault placed its faith in Lundgaard during his rookie car racing season, in which he dominated the North European Zone and Spanish Formula 4 championships, and getting him all the way to F1 with the works team from there would be a good justification for a junior programme which is yet to create an F1 graduate.

The 18-year-old’s impressive maiden F3 campaign ? in which he firmly shaded Renault stablemate Max Fewtrell after losing the Formula Renault Eurocup title to the Briton as a rookie the year before – had cemented his place as one of the top drivers on the team?s books and bagged him a move up to F2 before Fewtrell.

Going against Lundgaard for an F1 drive though is of course his lack of F2 starts. We should have had a picture of his place in the order by now, but the delayed season and his failure to attend pre-season testing due to being quarantined means we only have two starts from last year to go off. They were tricky, but not discouraging, and like Zhou he has already been called up to test for Renault in the real world and race for the team in the virtual one.

Jack Aitken BRITAIN/SOUTH KOREA 24y/o
2020 F2, 5th in 2019 F2, 2nd in 2017 GP3, 15th in ’16 FV8 3.5, 2015 FR Eurocup champion, ’15 FR2.0 Alps champion

Photo: F2 Media Service

Photo: Williams Racing

Jack Aitken was a Renault test driver until last winter, when he left the team to take on a reserve role at Williams.

He was inducted into the Renault Sport Academy as one of the founding members in 2016 as reigning Eurocup champion, but could not see a way into a race seat as the team brought in Ricciardo and Ocon. But perhaps the greater opportunity to step up now lies at his former team.

Last year was one of his most impressive on track, taking a resurgent Campos Racing to the top step of the podium three times in F2 and coming sixth in Formula Scout’s end-of-year top 50 list of junior single-seater drivers.

He is popular, marketable (as a British-South Korean) and is one of the more experienced drivers on this list. The drives he produced to take victories at Baku, Silverstone and Monza in 2019 were all classy for vastly different reasons ? and included F2’s overtake of the year to win at home.

Sticking with Campos for this season was a risk given a title campaign would still be an act of giantkilling on Aitken’s part, but that’s the kind of performances that earn F1 seats and would strengthen the leadership credentials that Renault sorely needs.

Aitken knows the team at Enstone well, as well as the race-side operation, and is of the same mould as some of Renault?s recent drivers, making him a strong figure to place into the car.

Going against him is having to rebuild the bridge with Renault ? having left for a team he must have felt more confident of getting a race seat with. However, the kind of behind-the-scenes efforts that would be required to bring the two parties back together would be exactly the sort of story that Renault could do with right now, having changed its F1 line-up every year since its 2016 return.

Pascal Werhlein GERMANY/MAURITIUS 25y/o
18th in 2017 F1 – currently 14th in 2019-20 FE, 12th in 2018-19 FE, 2015 DTM champion, 2nd in 2012 F3 Euro Series

Photo: Manor Racing Press

Photo: Mahindra / Spacesuit Media

Pascal Wehrlein has some unfinished business with F1, and is still young enough for a return to generate a legitimate buzz.

He was brought into F1 originally by Mercedes-Benz through the DTM, a touring car move which came at the expense of an impressive-looking FIA European F3 campaign, and was placed at backmarker team Manor in 2016 when he was 21 years old.

His unconventional path mirrored Paul di Resta’s, a driver who perhaps should have also had another proper F1 opportunity.

When Wehrlein earned his F1 promotion, Ocon was the driver who was put in Mercedes’ DTM line-up in his place. That only lasted half a season, as he was then also promoted to a Manor seat, and immediately outshone team-mate Wehrlein.

Werhlein was no slouch, with a DTM title and an F1 points finish already to his name, but it was Ocon who earned a move up the grid to Force India for 2017. Nico Rosberg’s retirement also briefly put him in contention for a factory Mercedes seat.

Instead he bounced back at Sauber, although started badly with a pre-season injury, and had little say in keeping his seat for a second year as the team strengthened ties with Ferrari. That prompted a DTM return and an inspired move to Formula E.

While recent results have not been stellar, primarily due to the Mahindra team slipping down the order, Wehrlein has been a star of the series and made a big impact when he debuted with a near-win on his second start and a pole position.

It’s unfortunate that he still does not to have a win to his name, and he richly deserves one, and he has been stronger than ever since leaving Mercedes at the start of last year to join Ferrari’s F1 fold as simulator driver. A reunion with Ocon at Renault could bring both drivers and the team up to new heights.

Sacha Fenestraz FRANCE/ARGENTINA 20y/o
2020 SuperF, 2019 Japanese F3 champion, 6th in ’19 Super GT300, 3rd in 2018 Macau GP, 2017 FR Eurocup champion

Photo: Super Formula

Sacha Fenestraz is another former Renault junior with unfinished business and with a return story with feel-good elements.

He’s half-French, which makes him desirable to a team that wishes to promote talent from its home country (at least on the engine side) and wants someone who integrates well into the squad and as team-mate to Ocon.

The 20-year-old spent one year as a Renault junior in 2018, a place earned by winning the previous year’s Eurocup title, and his departure was as a result of being dropped after one underwhelming season in European F3 and a Macau Grand Prix podium.

Fenestraz needed to rebound last year, and did it in style. He moved out of the Surrey apartment he shared with Lando Norris and relocated to Japan to tackle Japanese F3 with debuting team Motopark. Five wins in the first six races marked him out as title favourite, and a continued podium presence made him a dominant champion.

Adding a sportscar campaign with Kondo Racing in Super GT’s secondary GT300 class helped build up a reputation that meant all of the local manufacturers were wanting his signature for 2020.

He settled on Toyota’s offer, and will race this year for Kondo in Super Formula and for TOM’S in Super GT’s top class. These are seats that are not only very well deserved, especially after what was arguably a harsh drop by Renault, but could also realistically carry him to the title as a rookie in either category.

It is a bit of an outside bet for him to be considered by Renault, but not one that would be totally unusual given Japan’s premier single-seater series has been used as a holding ground in recent years for F1-bound talent. Fenestraz also didn’t entirely end his links with Renault at the end of 2018, as last year’s GT3000 drive came in a car provided by partner manufacturer Nissan.

And one that missed the boat…

Pierre Gasly FRANCE 24y/o
2020 F1, 7th in 2019 F1, 15th in 2018 F1 – 2nd in 2017 SuperF, 16th in 2016-17 FE, 2016 GP2 champion, 2nd in 2014 FV8 3.5

Photo: Red Bull Content Pool

Photo: Red Bull Content Pool

Another young Frenchman who could have been in the frame is Pierre Gasly. However the 24-year-old has had a publicly known feud with Ocon in recent years, which might be too much to overcome to make this move across the F1 paddock likely.

Gasly?s 12-race stint with Red Bull Racing last year does not do him justice, but nor did it rid his reputation as a choker, yet his performances with AlphaTauri either side of that drive show he is more than deserving of being an F1 driver.

The resilience he showed from his failed stint at the A-team should make a transition to the higher-pressure environment of Renault easier than he found his last shot at machinery with podium potential, but would come at the cost of his relationship with Red Bull’s engine supplier Honda and the energy drink brand itself – an already flexible tie that doesn’t need to be cut.

He does have experience in the Renault ladder, having won the 2013 Eurocup and finished runner-up in FR3.5 a year later, and fits the bill nicely (Ocon situation aside) for what Renault actually needs. Such a move would also make him the third driver in as many years that Renault has poached from Red Bull, following on from McLaren-bound Ricciardo and Ferrari-bound Sainz.

And one that should have been on this list…

The unfortunate omission from this list is Anthoine Hubert ? a promising driver who was hot property in F2 last year but was tragically killed at Spa-Francorchamps. Hubert was bound for a seat at a top team this season and would have been a title contender, and it would have been exciting to see how he would have added to his two 2019 wins at the struggling Arden.

Given Ricciardo’s frustrations from his first year with Renault, and the slim chance of him being in a race-winning car this year, the Australian may have left the team even if Vettel’s Ferrari departure hadn’t occurred, and Hubert would have taken his place.

Additional?reporting by Elliot Wood

The post Five young drivers Renault should take a F1 chance on appeared first on Formula Scout.

Photo by Gareth Harford / LAT Images / FIA F2 Championship

The FIA has released the findings of its investigation into the accident in which Formula 2 driver Anthoine Hubert lost his life at Spa-Francorchamps last year.

The investigation found no evidence that any of the drivers involved “failed to react appropriately” to the yellow flag signals or the circumstances on track.

It said that “a chain of events resulted in a protracted and complex crash sequence”, with “multiple contributory factors” and “no specific cause”.

“The dynamics of the car-to-car impact in terms of speed and trajectory were such that an extremely high level of energy was transferred and dissipated, translating into non-survivable trauma to Anthoine Hubert and very serious injuries to Juan Manuel Correa,” according to a summary of the findings.

The investigation found “a reasonable probability” that a loss of pressure in the right-rear tyre of Giuliano Alesi’s car contributed to him losing control on the exit of Eau Rouge.

With Alesi’s car impacting with a barrier and rebounding into the track after Raidillon, both Ralph Boschung and Hubert moved to the right and into the run-off area in avoidance. Boschung slowed more abruptly than Hubert, and Hubert made a further move to the right, but they made contact with each other.

The contact removed Hubert’s front wing and he lost control, hitting the barriers to the right at 216 km/h at an angle of approximately 40 degrees.

The investigation found that the following Correa hit debris from Alesi’s car on the exit of Raidillon, which resulted in front-right suspension damage and the loss of the front wing on his car.

After losing control and veering to the right, Correa hit the left-hand side of Hubert’s “virtually stationary” car at 218 km/h at an angle of approximately 86 degrees.

Hubert’s car experienced a force of 81.8g and accelerated to 105.4 km/h before a further impact with the barriers.

“The reaction of marshals and race control in deploying signaling and rescue services in relation to the accident is considered timely and good,” the report said.

The FIA statement in full:

The FIA?s Safety department has completed its investigation into the accident in the FIA Formula 2 Championship race at Spa-Francorchamps on 31 August 2019, in which French driver Anthoine Hubert suffered fatal injuries and Juan Manuel Correa from the United States was seriously injured

The investigation included interviews with those involved, inspection of the physical evidence, analysis of available video material, as well as examination of the data from the team Data Logger and Accident Data Recorder. This investigative work has been peer-reviewed by the FIA Research Working Group, chaired by Professor G?rard Saillant. The findings were approved by the FIA Safety Commission, which is led by Commission President Sir Patrick Head, and presented to the World Motor Sport Council.

The investigation focused on the four cars that were involved in the accident – #19 driven by Anthoine Hubert, #12 driven by Juan Manuel Correa, #20 driven by Frenchman Giuliano Alesi, and #21 driven by Switzerland?s Ralph Boschung.?

During the opening lap, an unrelated incident involving a slow-moving car caused a yellow flag at Turns 12 and 13 (Fagnes). The race leader began lap 2, at which point sector 1 was under a green flag.

The accident sequence, which lasted a total of 14.6 seconds, was initiated on lap 2 when Giuliano Alesi lost control of his car on the exit of Turn 3 (Eau Rouge), initially spinning and leaving the track on the left-hand side, before impacting the barrier rearwards 1.9 seconds after the loss of control and rebounding onto the track after Turn 4 (Raidillon). The investigation has highlighted a reasonable probability that a loss of internal pressure of the right rear tyre contributed to the loss of control of Giuliano Alesi?s car.

Following the impact of Giuliano Alesi?s car with the barrier, the debris from broken components was spread onto the race track. In an attempt to avoid Giuliano Alesi and the debris, Ralph Boschung and then Anthoine Hubert moved to the right, leaving the track and entering the run-off area of Turn 4. The reaction of Ralph Boschung and Anthoine Hubert to the accident of Car #20 started prior to the yellow flag being deployed, due to the proximity of these cars at the time of the incident. The yellow flag was deployed by the marshals at Post 5 (Turn 4) 1.8 seconds after the impact of Giuliano Alesi?s car with the barrier.

During this manoeuvre, Ralph Boschung slowed more abruptly than Anthoine Hubert, who took action to avoid a collision by moving further to the right. Despite this move, Anthoine Hubert made contact with the back of Ralph Boschung?s car, losing his front wing?and causing a right rear tyre puncture to Ralph Boschung ahead.

Travelling at 262 km/h and with his front wing missing, Anthoine Hubert lost control and was set on a trajectory towards the barrier on the right-hand side of the Turn 4 exit run-off area, which he impacted at an angle of approximately 40 degrees at a speed of 216 km/h, generating a peak force equivalent to 33.7g.

Following the impact and energy absorption by the barrier, the car was ejected and continued to travel in the racing direction while rotating, such that the left-hand side of the chassis was facing oncoming cars in the run-off area of Turn 4.

In the meantime, Juan Manuel Correa was approaching the scene of Giuliano Alesi?s accident. He was travelling approximately on the racing line, towards the right-hand side of the track on the exit of Turn 4 when he hit debris left behind from Giuliano Alesi’s car. The impact with the debris was approximately 1.5 seconds after the yellow flag had been deployed and it resulted in front-right suspension damage and the loss of the front wing, causing Juan Manuel Correa to lose control. His car veered to the right, off track and into the run-off area of Turn 4, setting him on a trajectory that would result in the car-to-car impact with Anthoine Hubert 1.6 seconds later.?

Juan Manuel Correa hit the left-hand side of Anthoine Hubert?s car at an approximate angle of 86 degrees and a speed of 218 km/h, while the car of Anthoine Hubert was virtually stationary. Car #12 (Juan Manuel Correa) and Car #19 (Anthoine Hubert) experienced a resultant peak force equivalent to 65.1g and 81.8g.

Following the car-to-car impact, Anthoine Hubert?s car was accelerated to 105.4 km/h and struck the barrier a second time before rebounding back towards the track.

Double yellow flags were deployed 2.5 seconds after the car-to-car impact, followed by a red flag 2.7 seconds later as Car #19 (Anthoine Hubert) came to rest on track on its left-hand side, with Car #12 (Juan Manuel Correa) stopping in an inverted position on track 2.6 seconds later.

The medical and rescue response started 12 seconds after the initial loss of control of Car #20 (Giuliano Alesi), immediately after the double yellow flag was deployed and prior to Car #12 (Juan Manuel Correa) coming to rest. The first on site medical evaluation of Anthoine Hubert was conducted 54 seconds after the red flag.?

At 16 seconds after the deployment of the red flag, a fire started under Car #12 (Juan Manuel Correa) due to a fuel leak. The fire was extinguished by a marshal within 2 seconds and the first on site medical evaluation of Juan Manuel Correa was conducted 69 seconds after the red flag.

The first extrication team arrived at the scene within 2 minutes of the accident occurring.

In summary, the findings of the investigation are as follows:
??? ?A chain of events resulted in a protracted and complex crash sequence involving four drivers, which ultimately led to a high-speed ?T-Bone? type impact between the cars of Juan Manuel Correa and Anthoine Hubert.
??? ?The dynamics of the car-to-car impact in terms of speed and trajectory were such that an extremely high level of energy was transferred and dissipated, translating into non-survivable trauma to Anthoine Hubert and very serious injuries to Juan Manuel Correa.
??? ?There was no single specific cause but multiple contributory factors giving rise to the severity of the accident were identified, following a detailed analysis of the various phases of the accident.
??? ?The investigation found no evidence that any driver failed to react appropriately in response to the yellow flag signal or to the circumstances on track.
??? ?The reaction of marshals and race control in deploying signaling and rescue services in relation to the accident is considered timely and good.

Safety improvement is a continuous process, therefore conclusions drawn from this accident and others like it from around the world will be integrated into the ongoing work of the FIA to further develop motor sport safety. In 2019 the FIA Safety department conducted investigations into 28 serious and fatal accidents related to circuit racing, supported by the ASN (National Sporting Authority) in each country.

The post FIA releases findings from investigation into Anthoine Hubert’s fatal F2 accident appeared first on Formula Scout.

Photo: Renault F1 Team

Renault is entering the fifth season of its Formula 1 return as a constructor this year, and so is its young driver programme. No member has graduated from junior single-seaters so far – but is that set to change?

The statistics from the revived Renault Sport Academy look bleak as its enters its fifth year of activity: 16 drivers (and one affiliate) have been through its development programme since 2016 and not a single one has (yet) gone on to race in F1.

Former Red Bull talent Daniel Ricciardo and Esteban Ocon, who was a junior driver back when the Enstone-based team was owned by Lotus, are signed to drive for the F1 team in 2020, and it seems like they will be there for the forseeable future. That is, of course, unless Ricciardo sets off a wild chain of events in the driver market for the second time in two years.

Renault’s struggle to bridge the canyon-like gap to F1’s top three teams – Ferrari, Mercedes-Benz and Red Bull Racing – has been well documented, and its high-class driver signings have coincided with high-level personnel sackings and occasional stories of technical mishaps. With all that, it slumped to fifth in the constructors’ standings behind its customer McLaren in 2019 and was even almost beaten by Red Bull’s second team Toro Rosso. It ended up an eye-watering 326 points behind Red Bull in the latter’s first season post-Renault power. That kind of underperformance can only be described as dismal.

There are plenty of questions that should be asked of the F1 team and why it’s not risen higher in the competitive order. But the Academy should also be scrutinised, especially why it has not yet provided the talent Renault would like to promote to F1.

Now there are a few caveats at play here. While they did reach F1, the likes of Ocon, Sergey Sirotkin and Robert Kubica (if you consider his comeback a second career, having been a Renault junior and racer the first time around) do not count.

They all tested with Renault on numerous occasions but were not part of its modern-day driver academy at any point. Ocon did make his F1 test and free practice debut with Lotus, having been guided from karts by the closely-linked Gravity scheme, but it was then Mercedes that contributed more to him ultimately racing in F1.

It should also be addressed that one of the most promising drivers Renault had placed under its wings is sadly no longer with us. The marque has made it clear that it wants to promote French talent, and Anthoine Hubert earned his place (having previously been an affiliate) by winning the 2018 GP3 title. He proved himself even further from the off in Formula 2, winning two races at the struggling Arden team. There was considerable paddock interest for his 2020 signature before the season’s summer break, and he would likely have been a title contender this year had the events of Spa-Francorchamps not occurred.

Building a successful young driver development programme (promotions to F1 being the absolute definition of success here) can take time, and different teams go about it in different ways and with varying success. Red Bull has (in)famously had numerous drivers in and out of its stable. McLaren has taken youngsters all the way through their junior careers and, of course, won its last F1 world championship with its most successful graduate Lewis Hamilton. But it has a changed reputation in the last decade after failing to keep faith in its juniors – namely Kevin Magnussen and Stoffel Vandoorne – once they’ve reached F1.

Mercedes is an interesting case, because it was close to promoting Ocon directly into the main team for 2020 but opted on retaining Valtteri Bottas, enabling Ocon’s Renault move. Ferrari had a few near-misses with having a young driver make the main team: Sergio Perez defected to McLaren for 2013 while impressing with Sauber, and Jules Bianchi was never given the opportunity to work his way to the Scuderia before his death. Even Williams’ ad-hoc programme has had bankrolled success via Lance Stroll, and its previous setup for test drivers trained Nico Rosberg, Nico Hulkenberg and Bottas.

F1 young driver programmes round-up (driver = graduate of programme)

The post The F1 driver academy programme that must deliver soon appeared first on Formula Scout.

Formula 2 has started the year with a documentary series on F1 TV following its 2019 season, focusing on the championship frontrunners and the impact that the black day at Spa-Francorchamps had on the paddock

For a show titled Chasing the Dream, there’s an inevitable focus on “living in a nightmare”, as series CEO Bruno Michel says it, due to the events at Spa-Francorchamps which resulted in Anthoine Hubert’s death and Juan Manuel Correa’s heavy injuries.

The five-episode F1 TV-exclusive series tackles the 2019 F2 season in chronological order, meaning the impactful Spa weekend – which is tackled with care – is kept to episode four.

This means the show begins with the Bahrain season opener, and the oft-repeated ‘F2 is the best single-make championship anywhere on Earth’. Sadly, the series’ scale of importance and speed isn’t shown enough, rather focusing on drivers’ home lives and Ross Brawn soundbites.

It’s an approach that would work with Formula 1 as the subject, given those drivers are already established characters, but viewers new to F2 need to invest more in the drivers’ on-track exploits before exposure to the mundane elements of their lives.

Arden’s Tatiana Calderon and DAMS’ Nicholas Latifi do make great on-screen impressions from the off, one for delivering a back-to-basics explanation of F2 better than Brawn’s and the other for showing down-to-earth charisma that F1 will get to enjoy in 2020.

Of the scant on-track action used, the race highlights are choppy in episode one and difficult to follow. This may be a case of editors having a tricky job tying live commentary to non-TV footage. Thankfully, the other episodes don’t suffer the same fate.

Photos: FIA Formula 2

Music is used almost constantly to illustrate the action, or dialogue, and Bahrain is dubbed with country and western riffs.

The narrative pauses for the first of several side-steps into drivers’ everyday lives across the series, with episode one’s example being ART Grand Prix’s Nyck de Vries in a headband lounging on a boat in Sneek and chatting about Christmas dinner with 2018 F2 champion George Russell. While it isn’t really a convincing example of “being a 24-year-old guy like everyone else”, de Vries gives insight into his motivations that will leave followers of his career reading between the lines.

The audience also gets to follow de Vries on his way into the paddock for round two in Baku, and it’s one of the rare instances where the series explores some gripping visuals and backgrounds, and utilises slow-motion on-track footage.

Being with the drivers inside a team truck, or the green room pre-podium (or even a minivan between paddocks at Silverstone later in the series) is another example of the series at its best as we get to see the drivers interact with each other. From a journalist’s perspective, it’s scenes like this that make you want to jump into the screen and straight into the paddock action.

Episode two begins with the Monaco round, and Arden driver Hubert’s at-home life is explored via a stay with his girlfriend. This is more effective than other similar segments, as once again it leans on interactions between the drivers and people that are close to them rather than isolated straight-to-camera pieces.

There are two big stories of the Monaco weekend, and the documentary surprisingly skips over the quirky tale of de Vries winning in Formula 3 driver David Beckmann’s overalls rather than his own after ART accidentally binned them.

Photo: Carl Bingham / LAT Images / FIA F2 Championship

Hubert’s win is covered with far better context, and some beautiful shots of his post-race celebrations, before the episode takes an unexpected trip to the Canadian Grand Prix, albeit with good reason due to the presence of local Latifi and his ultimately significant Williams practice outings.

Rather than exploring the Canadian’s relatively unknown but interesting background story, the episode examines Virtuosi Racing driver Guanyu Zhou’s shoe collection in his London home and a brief round-up of the racing at the Red Bull Ring.

Episode three begins at Silverstone, and is the most exciting episode when it comes to watching cars on track. Luca Ghiotto (Virtuosi) and Jack Aitken (Campos Racing) have their charges to victories detailed in epic style, and with some much needed scale, and both drivers also share some personal thoughts which add to the feeling of being present in the action.

Calderon gets more time in the limelight, before the Hungaroring round is rushed in to the running time to free up the fourth episode for Spa-Francorchamps and Monza.

Many potential viewers will be more curious about this episode than any other, and it is a great tribute not only to Hubert, but to his Arden team and everyone working in F2, as it shows how painful it was to return to racing just a week later at Monza.

Contributions from significant F1 figures, including the series’ CEO Chase Carey, reflect how that weekend was painful for people in motorsport across the world, but its the use of interviews from Hubert’s team-mate Tatiana Calderon, F2 & F3’s head of communications Alexa Quintin and her boss Michel that instantly leave a lump in the throat.

Capturing Lewis Hamilton and Esteban Ocon’s shocked live reactions to the crash hits hard, and Arden F2 team manager Kenny Kirwan’s and Correa’s recollections of the immediate aftermath highlights how brave both were and still are – especially the latter given his involvement in the crash put him in excruciating physical pain and eventually a coma. The filmmakers cut the music for this episode, with a shot of a slowly closing garage door encompassing darkness telling a thousand words.

The solidarity of the paddock in Monza is shown just as strongly as the loss of Hubert at Spa.

Ending the series is an episode that focuses on the title battle, and some more revealing dialogue from champion de Vries. This time he’s joined by Latifi and Ghiotto in showing his true feelings in an unexpected way, as well as an encouraging chat with an upbeat Correa who’s still in rehabilitation from the injuries to his legs and lungs sustained at Spa.

Making the admittedly niche F2 into a documentary topic for the first time obviously comes with its difficulties, especially when trying to give 10 relatively unknown drivers some significant screen time when off-track. In doing so, the series goes some way to achieving its goal of telling the stories of commitment required to ‘chase the dream’, but also sometimes ignores the appeal of the on-track product of single-seater cars racing closely at some of the world’s top circuits.

The post F2: Chasing the Dream series review appeared first on Formula Scout.

10. Nicholas Latifi

Photo: Dom Romney / LAT Images / FIA F2 Championship

Photo: Joe Portlock / LAT Images / FIA F2 Championship

Re-entry (16th in ’17)
Took four wins and second overall in F2 before F1 graduation

Compared to the drivers that graduated from Formula 2 one year ago, an air of ambivalence met the news that Latifi will step up to Formula 1 in 2020, but it’s easy to forget how strongly he started the season.

After a 2018 season that was hampered by illness, but ended with him comparing favourably to team-mate Alex Albon nonetheless, Latifi needed to prove a point in 2019 and do enough to secure his superlicence.

Yes, this was his fourth full year in the series, all with the same team, but his three wins in the first three rounds – the feature races in Bahrain and Barcelona and the Baku sprint – was a genuinely impressive haul, and one that put him 39 points in front of Nyck de Vries.

His lack of a pole position – not just this season but across his entire F2 career – has rightly been a cause for criticism. But it does mean that all four of his 2019 wins – he added another feature race win in Hungary – had to be worked for, and showed his prowess in racing situations.

Unfortunately, he undid most of his early hard work with a shockingly scrappy weekend in Monaco, and having been spun around by his team-mate in Austria, it took until Silverstone for him to get back on the podium. By then, he wasn’t sounding overly optimistic of reeling de Vries back in, and after another double non-score at Monza (after tangling with Guanyu Zhou), he effectively resigned all hope. Comfortable, no doubt, that he was on course for his F1 drive regardless.

Few will expect Latifi to trouble his new team-mate George Russell next year, but his 2019 wins proved that – helped by the guidance of the late Jean-Paul Driot – he’s grown from a driver with potential into a well-rounded racer.

9. Guanyu Zhou

Photo: Jerry Andre / LAT Images / FIA F2 Championship

Photo: Joe Portlock / LAT Images / FIA F2 Championship

Up 25
Euro F3 graduate impressed as F2’s leading rookie

After an underwhelming Formula 3 stint where he struggled to justify his status as a Ferrari junior, Zhou looked like a different driver in 2019 as he stepped up to F2 in Renault colours and starred as the championship’s top rookie.

Helped by a strong team in Virtuosi, he was on the pace from the start as his fourth place in the Bahrain sprint race showed, and by Barcelona he led the feature race on merit and scored his first podium.

More followed in the Monaco and Paul Ricard sprint races, and his progress was confirmed when he beat veteran team-mate Luca Ghiotto in a straight fight for pole at Silverstone.

A bad start meant he finished third again in that race, and his ultimate lack of a win, and lack of obvious improvement over the rest of the season, was a little disappointing. But another podium in the Abu Dhabi feature race showed he hadn’t lost his way, either.

While he said he found the tyres to be the hardest thing to get used to, maybe born of his lost lead in Barcelona, he impressed with how well he did get to grips with them for a driver who came from European F3 rather than GP3.

That gives him a platform to build on next year, when the main target has to be the superlicence points that could turn the prospect of China’s first F1 driver into a reality.

Further reading
How Guanyu Zhou became F2?s surprise star rookie

8. Christian Lundgaard

Photo: Joe Portlock / LAT Images / FIA F3 Championship

Photo: Joe Portlock / LAT Images / FIA F3 Championship

No change
Best F3 newcomer further grew his reputation

Although Lundgaard wasn’t a factor in the FIA Formula 3 title fight, he was, unlike the main protagonists, a total newcomer at this level, with the exception of his one-off GP3 appearance in mid-2018.

Historically, Formula Renault graduates, such as Daniil Kvyat and Jack Aitken, took time to find their feet in GP3, but Lundgaard had no such problems as he beat Prema’s European F3 converts to win the opening race in Barcelona – at least for a few seconds, until he was given a penalty for a virtual safety car infringement that demoted him to second.

Such a performance was the sort of thing Esteban Ocon or Charles Leclerc could do in their early F3 days, except after an even greater leap in power.

On that form, Lundgaard would have been a serious title threat, but ART struggled surprisingly to repeat that pace with any sort of consistency. When the team was strong at the Hungaroring, Lundgaard seized his chance, taking the win from pole ahead of team-mate Max Fewtrell.

Another pole position came in the hectic qualifying session at Monza, but an early tangle with Lirim Zendeli ultimately meant he would score no further points, and he finished sixth in the standings. A further sign of his ability came in Macau though, when he finished third in the qualifying race behind Juri Vips and Robert Shwartzman, and fourth in the main event.

His move up to F2, firstly for Abu Dhabi with Trident and then for 2020 with ART, is a strong sign of Renault’s belief in Lundgaard’s talent, and one that could give it a headache if he impresses again next year.

7. Anthoine Hubert

Photo: Joe Portlock / LAT Images / FIA F2 Championship

Photo: Joe Portlock / LAT Images / FIA F2 Championship

Up 2
Rookie shone with two special wins before fatal crash

It would be all too easy to inflate Hubert’s position as a result of his tragic loss in the horrendous Spa F2 crash. But the simple truth is that he was already on course for a place in this top 10, having impressed many with his performances in his rookie season.

It would not be an exaggeration to suggest that the F2 paddock lost its single greatest prospect on that dreadful day.

That’s not necessarily a status he held in the eyes of many at the start of the year, even as the reigning GP3 champion. And his chances of a strong campaign looked slim as he and the Arden team struggled for speed through pre-season testing. But Hubert arguably made a greater impression over the races that followed than at any previous point in his career, as?F2’s complexities played to the same strengths that led to comparisons with his hero-turned-mentor at Renault, Alain Prost.

He wowed in his first race as he went from 11th to fourth without a working radio, and such storming race drives from further back on the grid would soon become the norm. There was 15th to sixth in Barcelona, and then a win in the Monaco sprint race as he kept Louis Deletraz at bay, just. He repeated the feat next time out, on home soil, again after qualifying 15th.

Together with new partner HWA, Hubert was helping to drive the Arden F2 effort forwards, and in Austria he somehow joined de Vries on the front row. The points he scored for fourth the next day would be his last.

Despite the lack of funds that led him to Arden in the first place, F2’s top teams were chasing Hubert for 2020. That in itself speaks volumes of the impact he made in his last, unfinished, season.

Further reading
How Hubert was enhancing his reputation in the F2 pack
Anthoine Hubert: 1996-2019

6. Jack Aitken

Photo: Joe Portlock / LAT Images / FIA F2 Championship

Photo: Joe Portlock / LAT Images / FIA F2 Championship

Up 36
Bounced back with three giant-killing F2 wins?

After his tough debut F2 campaign with ART in 2018, few rated Aitken’s chances of bouncing back in 2019 with Campos Racing, but that’s exactly what he did.

Following his third win of the year in the Monza sprint race, it looked like he could have the momentum to snatch second place in the standings. To simply be in that position was an achievement in itself, even though his season ended with a whimper and fifth place overall. Though of a similar age, Aitken was fighting with drivers with more experience in F2, and thus a better knowledge of everything that it takes to succeed in the series.

Aitken firmly outperformed what Ghiotto had achieved at Campos the previous season, with he and engineer Jan Sumann working together to help push the team forward. Qualifying was still a weak point (although some progress was shown by the third places in France and Belgium) but Aitken didn’t let it get him down, instead placing confidence in his ability to move forward in the races.

Baku provided the best opportunity for that, and Aitken seized it to take the feature race win, as well as a sprint race podium. Further feature race podiums came with second in Spain and third in France and Hungary. Brilliant starts, great tyre management and bold racecraft were keys to his success, and all on show in his home sprint race win at Silverstone. His winning move on Louis Deletraz as rain began to fall was the overtake of the season.

His win in the Monza sprint race – an emotional one dedicated to his Renault colleague Hubert – was somewhat different, as he defended from behind after starting from pole. It put him fourth in the standings, just 13 points behind Latifi and two behind Ghotto, so he was unlucky to end up 55 behind, especially after being taken out by an errant Nikita Mazepin from a front row start in the Sochi sprint.

Further reading
How Campos and Jack Aitken became a force in Formula 2

5. Jehan Daruvala

Photo: Colin McMaster / LAT Images / FIA F3 Championship

Photo: Joe Portlock / LAT Images / FIA F3 Championship

Up 43
Rivalled illustrious team-mates in dominant Prema F3 side

Daruvala was expected to play third-best to his highly-rated, Ferrari-supported team-mates after joining Prema for FIA F3. The final championship standings would ultimately play out that way, but he was only a point behind Marcus Armstrong, and arguably provided a much stronger threat in the title race, briefly leading it at one stage as he and Robert Shwartzman proved hard to separate.

The first round at Barcelona went just as the form guide suggested, with his reversed-grid race victory coming only after he’d trailed home in seventh in race one. But then he was only narrowly beaten (by Jake Hughes) to pole at Paul Ricard, and took a second straight win in the race.

Having beaten Shwartzman in Austria, finishing second to Juri Vips at Silverstone put Daruvala two points ahead at the top of the standings, but a needless late tangle with Pedro Piquet in race two was costly, and he lost further ground at the Hungaroring.

He took pole at Spa, but finished only third as Piquet pulled away and Shwartzman overhauled him for second. He was second to Shwartzman once more at Monza, but that was enough to mean it was he, and not Vips or Armstrong, that would take the title fight down to the final round.

Daruvala was no match for his team-mates in Sochi but would still have taken a deserved second in the standings had he not had to start the race from the pits after inadvertently triggering the throttle learning procedure on the grid.

An injury kept him out of Macau and the Abu Dhabi F2 test, but it would be a surprise if he didn’t make the step up after his strongest season yet in cars.

4. Marcus Armstrong

Photo: Joe Portlock / LAT Images / FIA F3 Championship

Photo: Jerry Andre / LAT Images / FIA F3 Championship

Up 2
Second in FIA F3 a well-earned reward after trying season?

The expectations on Armstrong heading into FIA F3 probably exceeded his experience, but after a year in which nothing ever seemed to go his way, second in the standings and a convincing performance in the final round left a positive impression.

Being pipped to the Toyota Racing Series title by compatriot Liam Lawson at his third attempt was a difficult start to Armstrong’s year, and in FIA F3 he struggled to gain the upper hand over his Prema team-mates. Being turned around by Hughes while fighting for second at Paul Ricard was the first of many missed opportunities.

At the Red Bull Ring he dominated Friday, but pole became third in the first race after the “Indy 500”-style DRS-fest he expected turned out to be anything but. He was set to overcome an almighty battle with Shwartzman on the last lap to win race two when they collided and he came off worst.

By now, Armstrong was playing catch up in the title race, and he never really had the pace again to make amends. The race two wins at the Hungaroring and Spa were well-executed recoveries from qualifying nightmares, but luck seemed to be against him again at Monza when he was penalised for a safety car infraction after finishing second in a Prema 1-2-3, ending any lasting hopes.

The most impressive thing about Armstrong’s season was not his pace, but the 19-year-old’s refusal to let his head drop in the face of so many disappointments. He never stopped fighting, as shown by his Sochi performance, where he went from third to first to fourth and back to first to defeat Shwartzman in race one, and was second in race two to snatch championship runner-up honours from Daruvala.

The Macau Grand Prix was possibly peak Armstrong, who was rapid and on top in qualifying two until he hit the barriers, and then got held up at the start of the qualifying race, thwarting any possible fightback. In the main event he worked his way through to eighth, but even then, his old nemesis Lawson came from even further back to beat him.

While it will only be his fourth full year in cars, Armstrong’s step up to F2 for 2020 is entirely logical, and with an ART car underneath him, the expectations will be high once again.

3. Juri Vips

Photo: Joe Portlock / LAT Images / FIA F3 Championship

Photo: Joe Portlock / LAT Images / FIA F3 Championship

Up 2
Red Bull junior took the fight to Prema in FIA F3

Some feared that Vips wouldn’t be able to demonstrate his talent in FIA F3 after being placed by Red Bull at Hitech GP, and – thanks to the sheer dominance of Prema that transpired – it could be argued that he was indeed held back. But the Vips-Hitech combination was the only one to make the Estonian’s old Formula 4 squad sweat.

The promise was there in Vips’ race pace in the first couple of rounds, but it wasn’t until the Red Bull Ring that he and Hitech got qualifying sorted, and he converted third on the grid into a race one victory over Max Fewtrell and Armstrong.

It could hardly have been more timely, coming at his backer’s home venue in a week where former team-mate Dan Ticktum was dropped from his position higher up in the Red Bull pecking order. Vips was being talked about as a serious contender for a 2020 F1 race seat.

He followed it with another win at Silverstone, this time from pole as Hitech produced its strongest performance of the season in its own back yard. It put him within eight points of eventual champion Shwartzman, and it felt like he had the momentum on his side.

But points were dropped in a scruffy second race, and the rest of the season proved tougher than expected. Hurt by a lack of pace and several incidents, he didn’t even make it back onto the podium until he won the last race in Sochi from reversed-grid pole.

Question marks hang over that decline and whether it was him or the car or a combination of both, but Vips provided a reminder of his talents in Macau. Well-fancied after his impressive 2018 debut, he was the strongest driver of the weekend and was unfortunate not to win, instead adding his name to the long list of favourites who’ve been slipstreamed out of victory at a safety car restart.

While the rest of the FIA F3 stars step up to F2, Vips is set to be moved to Super Formula by Red Bull after contesting the final round. It would be a huge shame if such a talent is wasted trying to perform in such a tough series, but hopefully, his strong post-season testing form is a sign he can cut it.

Further reading
Could Juri Vips be Red Bull’s next shock F1 promotion?

2. Nyck de Vries

Photo: Joe Portlock / LAT Images / FIA F2 Championship

Up 11
Mated speed and maturity to clinch deserved F2 title

A lot has happened since 2012, when de Vries first made our Top 50 in his first season of car racing. For one, Max Verstappen has graduated from karts, made it to F1 and had nearly four seasons racing for wins with Red Bull. Yes, the road to this point was a long one, but that does little to take away from de Vries’ 2019: a triumphant crowning of his tumultuous career in junior single-seater racing. In fact, it probably made it all the sweeter.

He didn’t burst out the blocks like Latifi, a single sprint race win from the first three rounds arguably a disappointment. But his win in Monaco was well-deserved for his sheer speed there over the years, and the one that followed at Paul Ricard put him into a points lead that never really even looked threatened.

His season was not perfect. Tyre management was still a weakness on occasions – his lost win at the Red Bull Ring springs to mind – and as with his predecessor George Russell, the de Vries-ART combination was not as fast at some circuits (like Silverstone) as others.

The way in which de Vries actually secured the title was the standout part of his season. After the summer break, he began the latter part of the season by taking pole at Spa, a place where he was expected to go well on the account of past form. But after the tragic events of Saturday in Belgium, he never got to capitalise on his advantage.

A few days later at Monza, de Vries was excluded from qualifying after running out of fuel in a frantic session, sending him to the back of the grid. While rival Latifi got involved in contact, de Vries charged through to third place, a result he repeated on Sunday with a good slice of luck. He sealed the title with a long-awaited return to the top step in Russia.

With a point to prove after finishing fourth in 2018 as the top three went to F1, de Vries felt more at ease at ART than at Prema, and added a calmness and maturity to his game that was often missing in the past. Contributing to that perhaps was a total separation from his soured relationship with McLaren, instead joining forces with Mercedes for simulator work and, ultimately, a Formula E drive.

Given that he only finished 10 points behind Albon a year ago, added to the improvements he’s shown in 2019, de Vries arguably deserves his chance in F1 too. But with that Mercedes FE seat underneath him, and World Endurance squads also eyeing him after some impressive LMP2 runs, he’s got the potential to become one of the top professional racers around.

Further reading
The patience behind Nyck de Vries? long road to the F2 title fight

1. Robert Shwartzman

Photo: Carl Bingham / LAT Images / FIA F3 Championship

Photo: Joe Portlock / LAT Images / FIA F3 Championship

Up 14
Ferrari junior’s progression crowned with FIA F3 title

Shwartzman’s growth as a racing driver through his career to-date has been just as impressive as his increase in physical stature.

Under the guidance of the Ferrari Driver Academy, SMP Racing and his Prema team, he’s blossomed into a driver who won this year’s most competitive junior series with a consistency that few would have believed was possible from anyone at the start of the season.

Shwartzman was not champion because of his one-lap pace. His two poles, at the first and last rounds, were as many as anybody else achieved, but in the meantime, he couldn’t even get onto the front row. But like his Prema team, Shwartzman was at his devastating best in race-trim, and was almost always moving forward.

Aside from a solitary retirement, he finished every race inside the top eight, and all but one race in the top five. An outstanding record in a series with reversed grids.

Strong progress in Sunday races was Shwartzman’s strong suit, whether he’d won on the Saturday like in Barcelona, or finished fifth, like in Austria or at Silverstone. His consistency was most impressive in the first half of the season – five podiums in eight races and never outside the top five – yet this was when his points advantage over Vips and Daruvala was at its slimmest. But instead of crumble under the pressure as the year went on, Shwartzman just pulled away as his rivals made mistakes.

After the dream crowning on home ground in Sochi, he might conceivably have won in Macau too but for minor contact as the field funnelled through Mandarin.

A year ago, nobody had quite been sure what to make of Shwartzman’s late surge to third in the European F3 standings. Nobody can be in any doubt now that he’s one of the top few prospects below F1, and it’s surely only a matter of time – if he takes his form to F2 next year – before he’s in the top class.

Click here to view the rest of the 2019 Top 50

The post Formula Scout Top 50 Drivers of 2019: 10-1 appeared first on Formula Scout.

Photos: FIA Formula 2

While history may not suggest the 2019 Formula 2 season was as thrilling or yielding as many Formula 1 stars as 2018, it was not short of exciting races or future racing professionals.

Nyck de Vries was one of many experienced drivers taking one final shot at the championship. He, along with the likes of Luca Ghiotto and Nicholas Latifi, had watched as star rookies like Charles Leclerc and George Russell had beaten them in the past.

However, 2019 was the year the momentum swung back in favour of the series veterans, becoming the first year since 2012 that a rookie has failed to win a feature race in F1’s leading feeder series.

That’s not to say F2’s 2019 grid wasn’t short of rookies with high potential. Reigning GP3 champion Anthoine Hubert dragged the struggling Arden outfit, with HWA support, to sprint race wins before the tragic events at Spa-Francorchamps.

It’s impossible not to assess the 2019 season without addressing the race that will, unfortunately, define it forever.

Hubert was an outstanding man both on and off track. He was a credit to motorsport, and there’s no telling what he would have achieved in the future. Juan Manuel Correa is continuing his recovery from the Spa crash, and plans an F2 return.

We’ve compiled our list of the top 10 drivers of the 2019 F2 season, taking into account each driver’s team and level of experience within the series.

Key Percentage of team?s points scored (TP), Qualifying average (QA), Feature race average points (R1P), Sprint race average points (R2P)

10. Mick Schumacher GERMANY Prema
12th in standings, 53 points (1 win, 2 fastest laps, 1 podium) – TP 78%, QA 8.3 (9th),?R1P 0.9 (16th), R2P 3.9 (8th)

No driver came into the season with more expectation and pressure than Mick Schumacher. Not only is he the son of F1’s most successful driver, but he was entering as the dominant (albeit controversial) reigning FIA European Formula 3 champion.

The season started well. He was top rookie in Bahrain qualifying and he converted that into reversed-grid pole with a solid debut drive. Pole only led to sixth place in the sprint race, but this was expected given his inexperience of the Pirelli rubber at one of the most tyre degrading circuits.

In Baku, he performed the first of what would become his 2019 party trick. He spun out at Turn 16 in the feature race but blitzed his way through the field to fifth place on Sunday, including a statement move on his Prema team-mate Sean Gelael.

Schumacher was unlucky in nearly every feature race, from been taken out by Gelael at Paul Ricard to his car breaking down in Sochi. He ended the year with a miserable 10 points from the 11 feature races, two fewer than Gelael scored.

His sloppy Monaco weekend was the low point. After a season’s best fourth in qualifying, he caused a red flag in the feature race by clipping Arden’s Tatiana Calderon at La Rascasse.

At the Hungaroring he took an impressive maiden win from pole in the sprint race, and his scintillating charge at the Red Bull Ring from the back to finish fourth was the highlight of his year. He only qualified outside the top 10 twice, and 12th place in the standings is far from representative of the raw speed and racecraft Schumacher demonstrated throughout the year.

Now he’s got a year of experience, he’ll go into 2020 knowing a strong second season will propel him first in line for a 2021 Alfa Romeo Racing F1 seat. Schumacher’s only problem is that he won’t have Gelael alongside him next year, but his main rival for that F1 graduation in Robert Shwartzman, and that the new wheel and tyre sizes will require a lot of learning once again.

9. Nobuharu Matsushita JAPAN Carlin
6th in standings, 144 points (2 wins, 1 pole, 4 fastest laps, 5 podiums) – TP 61%, QA 6.6 (6th), R1P 9.8 (5th), R2P 2.9 (11th)

Nobuharu Matsushita returned to F2 this year after an unsuccessful rookie Super Formula season, with the clear aim of obtaining enough FIA superlicence points – something he would fail to achieve.

It didn’t take him long to adapt to the new F2 car introduced last year, and he took his second-ever series pole just two rounds in. However, reliability woes left him leaving Baku with no race points to go with those earned in qualifying.

His car then blew up in spectacular style in Spain, leaving him with just six points from the first three rounds.

Second place in the Monaco feature race put Matsushita’s year back on track, and he took his maiden feature race success two rounds later at the Red Bull Ring with an example of his exquisite tyre management skills. He would repeat this to take his second win of the year at Monza, fending off Callum Ilott and Luca Ghiotto in brilliant style.

Matsushita wasn’t able to deliver the raw pace or consistency required to mount a serious title challenge. He certainly had the worst of Carlin’s bad luck – for example when he was brutally fired off the road in Sochi – but he quite simply wasn’t quick enough to earn the last few superlicence points he needed.

8. Callum Ilott BRITAIN Sauber Junior Team by Charouz
11th in standings, 74 points (1 pole, 2 podiums) – TP 67%, QA 6.4 (5th), R1P 3.0 (12th), R2P 3.4 (9th)

After a strong debut year, Charouz Racing System (in Sauber colours) seemed to take something of a step backwards in 2019.

Callum Ilott’s team-mate Juan Manuel Correa was the first of its rookie duo to impress, making the Baku podium in his first weekend racing on a proper street circuit. This perhaps served as something of a wake-up call for Ilott, who picked up his own first podium at Barcelona a fortnight later,

Then in Monaco, Ilott put the team on the front row of a feature race for the first time. Unfortunately his car turned itself off on the grid, and Ilott was never able to take the start.

At Paul Ricard, he rose from the back to nick the final point in the sprint race, and at his home race at Silverstone he was on sprint race pole, but inevitably tyre management woes meant he finished in fourth, 0.656 seconds off the podium.

Following Correa being sidelined after Spa, Ilott carried the sole flag for the team in stunning fashion one weekend later at Monza. He was fastest in qualifying, but again he fell to fourth against far more experienced drivers.

Ferrari junior Ilott rounded off his strong end to the season with a podium from ninth on the grid in the Sochi sprint race and a brace of top-five finishes in Abu Dhabi.

Evidently his inexperience with the tyres, as well as his team’s, made it difficult for Ilott to convert his strong qualifying into regular podiums. However, with his speed he should be an outside 2020 title threat with the more competitive Virtuosi Racing.

7. Sergio Sette Camara BRAZIL DAMS
4th in standings, 204 points (2 wins, 2 poles, 2 fastest laps, 8 podiums) – TP 49%, QA 5.4 (3rd), R1P 11.7 (4th), R2P 6.1 (4th)

Sergio Sette Camara was the highest driver on our F2 top 10 list last year not to graduate to F1. Therefore, it was safe to say he was one of the title favourites pre-season.

If you were judging his year off the season opener and closer, you’d expect Sette Camara had been in the title hunt all year. However, that was far from the case.

After a strong double podium in Bahrain, his season quickly derailed. He spun behind the safety car in Baku after apparent contact with Luca Ghiotto, and had to put in a great drive to recover to sixth place from the back in the sprint race.

He scored zero points at Barcelona, but did visit the Monaco podium. At Paul Ricard, he took his first 2019 pole but was beaten by ART Grand Prix’s Nyck de Vries to victory.

It wasn’t until the Red Bull Ring sprint race that he claimed his first win of the year, and even that came a day after clumsily running into the back of DAMS team-mate Nicholas Latifi.

Errors of that kind are not expected from third-year F2 drivers, perhaps a sign of frustration that Latifi had usurped him.

Sette Camara ended the year in stunning style in Abu Dhabi, with an excellent, measured drive to victory from pole in the feature race and a fighting run to third in the sprint.

Had he delivered more performances like that, de Vries might have had a more difficult time. Sette Camara’s 2020 plans are still under wraps, but if he sticks around in F2, he needs to find a way to make every weekend like Abu Dhabi.

6. Nicholas Latifi CANADA DAMS
2nd in standings, 214 points (4 wins, 3 fastest laps, 8 podiums) – TP 51%, QA 5.3 (2nd), R1P 12.8 (2nd), R2P 6.6 (2nd)

You’d be forgiven for wondering why the title runner-up is sixth on our list. Had we made the list after the first three rounds, then Latifi may well have taken #1.

He won three of the first five races, and only started on the front row for one of those. He was demonstrating exactly the type of risk management and racecraft needed to mount a title challenge.

However, his raw pace was never enough to match de Vries or Ghiotto. His last pole position came in British F3 six years ago, and he’s spent 4.5 seasons in GP2/F2 now. He can at least take solace he only qualified outside the top seven once this year.

A barren six-race run mid-season stumped his title challenge, and he just didn’t have enough to take the fight with de Vries to the wire. Going into the summer break he did take a racey Hungaroring win, but didn’t demonstrate that verve enough.

Compared to rivals Ghiotto and Sette Camara, Latifi did suffer a relative lack of bad luck, but part of that has to be a result of him successfully keeping out of trouble.

Once he was confident he was in a strong enough position for a FIA superlicence, Latifi admitted to changing his priority from beating de Vries to the title to securing DAMS the teams’ crown, which he did with Sette Camara in Abu Dhabi not long after signing to drive for Williams in F1 next year. A lot can be read into what that approach says about Latifi.

In total he has amassed 99 starts, the fifth highest in the history of F1’s primary feeder series, and taken six wins in that time.

Importantly he did do a great job beating Sette Camara though, and although he’s got big financial backing, he has earned his place on the 2020 F1 grid. However, going up against George Russell in the same team won’t make for an easy debut.

5. Luca Ghiotto ITALY Virtuosi Racing
3rd in standings, 207 points (4 wins, 2 poles, 2 fastest laps, 9 podiums) – TP 60%, QA 5.6 (4th), R1P 11.7 (3rd), R2P 6.4 (3rd)

In terms of raw race speed, few could match the peaks Virtuosi’s Luca Ghiotto achieved in 2019. That was evident straight away in Bahrain when he came from seventh on the grid to win the sprint race and lead the championship for the first time.

He then ran into the back of Sette Camara in Baku under the safety car, and dropped from pole position to the back in dramatic style at Barcelona when a hit from Campos Racing’s Dorian Boccolacci added to a poor start.

Ghiotto then charged to fourth in one of the drives of the season. He took second in the sprint race, then in Monaco lost a vital podium to a minor technical infringement, and was penalised for a crash with MP Motorsport’s Mahaveer Raghunathan. His title hopes took another blow at Paul Ricard as he was wiped out of the feature race after contact with Correa.

He hit back in style in Austria, taking two second places, and won the Silverstone feature race. It was here where team-mate Guanyu Zhou provided the biggest challenge to his leadership. Virtuosi and DAMS had a clear advantage that weekend. Rookie Zhou took pole, but Ghiotto jad the lead into Turn 1, and went on to triumph in a thrilling battle with Latifi.

There was another star drive at Monza when he bounced back from a season-low 14th in qualifying to finish second on home soil, and won his final F2 race in Abu Dhabi using pace and superb tyre management skills.

His wheel-to-wheel skill will be missed as he moves to sportscar racing in 2020. It’s a crying shame his swansong year in F2 was so fraught with incidents and inconsistency.

4. Guanyu Zhou CHINA Virtuosi Racing
7th in standings, 140 points (1 pole, 2 fastest laps, 5 podiums) – TP 40%, QA 7.2 (7th), R1P 7.5 (7th), R2P 4.8 (6th)

The highest-placed rookie in the standings and the first-ever recipient of the Anthoine Hubert Award, Guanyu Zhou delivered solidly in his debut season.

Champions Russell and Leclerc have increased expectations for rookies, and Zhou is someone who came to F2 with no experience of Pirelli rubber, the weight of a nation on his shoulders, and a new manufacturer backer in Renault.

He had a brilliant barometer in Ghiotto alongside him, who quickly turned from teacher to rival such was his growth.

Even his development over the opening weekend in Bahrain was impressive. He qualified 17th but raced to 10th, then turned that into fourth in the sprint race.

Baku proved to be another learning exercise after some questionable car placement from Correa, but he was already leading races by the third round at Barcelona. He was beaten by Latifi and Aitken, but hung onto third to secure his first podium.

Zhou added two more podiums in successive weekends at Monaco and Paul Ricard, firmly establishing himself among the frontrunners. At Silverstone he then took his first pole, another milestone result for the Chinese driver.

He was back on the front row at Monza but made a rookie error when battling Latifi, which earned him a penalty. Redemption came in the sprint race by charging to fourth place from the back. Moreover, such mistakes were few and far between, and he arguably didn’t make any more of them than his far more experienced team-mate.

Zhou took his third and final feature race podium of the year in Abu Dhabi, and finished seventh in the standings. Satisfyingly for himself, he was well clear of Schumacher and Ilott, who had beaten him as Prema team-mates in F3.

A race win may have eluded him, but he produced numerous drives worthy of the top step of the podium. He’s likely to obtain that elusive victory if he remains with Virtuosi as expected for 2020.

3. Anthoine Hubert FRANCE Arden International
10th in standings, 77 points (2 wins, 2 podiums) – TP 100%, QA 10.2 (11th), R1P 5.1 (9th), R2P 4.5 (7th)

Photo: Joe Portlock / LAT Images / FIA F2 Championship

Having Anthonie Hubert in third place on our list, despite his weaker statistical record compared to some of the entries he’s above, might make it seem like his placing is skewed due to the events of Spa.

However, that could not be further from the truth. He was partnered with Arden, a team with a disappointing record in recent years. It was the ninth best scorer in 2018, with a pair of highly-rated drivers only 14th and 17th in the standings.

Despite fruitless pre-season testing, Hubert made an instant impression by storming from 11th to fourth in the Bahrain feature race – without a working radio.

Then there was the maiden win in Monaco, beating Carlin’s Louis Deletraz in a dramatic finish. His momentum appeared to have stopped at Paul Ricard with 14th in qualifying, but Hubert left the weekend with a second successive sprint race win.

One-lap speed wasn’t his or his team’s forte, but he still managed a stunning lap to qualify second in Austria. He fell to fourth in the race but it was another haul of points, while team-mate Tatiana Calderon failed to score or qualify higher than 17th.

Hubert had two pointless rounds at Silverstone and the Hungaroring, but such were the quality of his previous performances, he was already been courted for 2020 by a number of the top F2 teams.

That came as no surprise to anyone who’d followed Hubert not only in 2019 but throughout his career. From his textbook example of how to win a championship in GP3 the previous year to battling with fellow French stars Esteban Ocon and Pierre Gasly in karting. Anthoine Hubert will never be forgotten.

2. Jack Aitken BRITAIN/SOUTH KOREA Campos Racing
5th in standings, 159 points (3 wins, 1 fastest lap, 7 podiums) – TP 84%, QA 8.6 (10th), R1P 9.2 (6th), R2P 5.2 (5th)

Just like Hubert, Jack Aitken had to make do with a seat in a lesser-fancied F2 outfit. Once a frontrunning force at this level, Campos has lost its way in recent years without the resources of rivals, but the refreshed team was a race winner this year.

Campos wasn’t the only one licking its wounds, because Aitken was convincingly beaten by current Williams F1 driver Russell at ART last year, and in 2017 while they were GP3 team-mates.

But Aitken performed far better in a perceivably weaker team than during his time with ART. Perhaps with Campos’s full effort behind him and free from some top team pressure, he reminded everyone why he’s so highly rated by Renault.

Aitken was responsible for one of the overtakes of the season at Silverstone to pass Deletraz for sprint race victory, which was joined by the Baku feature race and Monza sprint race as wins for the 24-year-old.

The Baku performance, from eighth on the grid, involved Aitken expertly fending off de Vries while in the lead, and at Monza he came out on top in a thrilling tussle with Ilott and MP’s Jordan King, the latter whom is never an easy pass.

A poor final two rounds did little to tarnish Aitken’s stellar second season but did cost him fourth in the standings

Aitken was also consistently better than whoever Campos put alongside him. GP3 race-winner Boccolacci couldn’t match Aitken’s pace, and his successors Arjun Maini and Marino Sato didn’t even get close to the Brit or the points.

As with Sette Camara, it’s unclear but quite likely this is the end of the F2 road for Aitken, and if it proves to be, he can walk onto his next adventure with his head firmly held high.

1. Nyck de Vries?NETHERLANDS ART Grand Prix
1st in standings, 266 points (4 wins, 5 poles, 3 fastest laps, 12 podiums) – TP 96%, QA 2.9 (1st), R1P 15.4 (1st), R2P 7.0 (1st)

The start and end of Nyck de Vries’ title-winning season may have been disappointing, but there was little of that to be found pretty much everywhere else in-between.

Three wins in four races at Barcelona, Monaco and Paul Ricard mid-season gave him a point lead that he never relinquished. It wasn’t even a case of killer consistency or choosing caution in tight spots, just the simple fact that de Vries and ART was the fastest package this year.

Having said that, de Vries made a knack of avoiding incidents and credit must be given to ART for running such a reliable and efficient car and consistently executing strong race strategies.

Contrast this to de Vries’s 2018 season, where he lost potential wins in Azerbaijan, Spain and Monaco due to unforced errors. It’s a real sign de Vries has matured as a driver.

Five pole positions gifted him 20 points alone, and he converted the most important of those into a title-clinching win in Sochi. He was outside the top four in qualifying only twice, making it increasingly difficult for his title rivals to catch him.

The Dutchman has spent the last few years in the shadow of Leclerc, Russell and the likes of Norris who joined McLaren while he was still there, but he left Woking at the start of this year and made the most of it. The dominant way he won the F2 title made him an obvious pick for Mercedes-Benz’s Formula E team, and his LMP2 prototype performances in the World Endurance Championship have made him a Toyota sportscar target too. F1’s loss is definitely FE’s gain.

The rest…

Jordan King?was millimetres from making this list. Like Aitken and Hubert, he dragged underdog MP to the front of the field several times, taking two podiums on his way to ninth in the points – despite missing Monaco for the Indy 500.

Louis Deletraz was another to just miss out on our top 10 for the second successive year. He’s somehow still yet to win a race, thanks to losing in a photo finish with Hubert in Monaco, a beautiful overtake from Aitken at Silverstone and poor tyre management in Abu Dhabi. He compared well to Matsushita and is returning to Charouz in 2020 for a fourth year of F2.

Juan Manuel Correa put in one of the drives of the season in Baku – getting a podium on his first time racing at a proper street circuit. He followed it up with another second place at Paul Ricard. His plucky if inconsistent style proved effective.

Frenchman Dorian Boccolacci was outshone by Aitken but deserves another F2 chance, considering he spent the first half of this year fighting for his Campos future then dropping permanently off the grid after a Silverstone cameo with Trident.

Ferrari junior Giuliano Alesi?struggled on his graduation from GP3, but got better as the season went on. He ended 2019 with his season-best result of fifth, and was 15th in the standings for Trident. Expect a far better 2020 with HWA Racelab.

He’ll be partnered by series veteran Artem Markelov next year. The Russian made a welcome three-round return after briefly leaving for Super Formula, and earned a double points finish at Monaco with MP.

Sean Gelael?had statistically his weakest year at this level yet with just 15 points, and withdrew from racing at Silverstone.

De Vries’ ART team-mate Nikita Mazepin?was probably the biggest underachiever this year. He ran Hubert fairly close to the 2018 GP3 title but scored just 11 points in his rookie F2 season. He should stay on the grid in 2020, but it won’t be with ART.

As ever,?Ralph Boschung?came on and off the grid when his budget allowed. His string of three top-10 qualifying results to start the season was impressive but continued reliability issues once again limited his rewards to two points finishes.

Against all odds, Mahaveer Raghunathan?scored a point. But he also got enough penalty points to be banned for two rounds. He provided comic relief rather than a worthwhile sporting presence.?On the other hand, his pace had drastically improved by Abu Dhabi from his debut in Bahrain.

Alfa Romeo junior Tatiana Calderon?was poor all year, often only ahead of Raghunathan. A shame considering the flashes of speed she showed in GP3. As with team-mate Hubert, her races were usually stronger than qualifying, but it wasn’t enough.

Further reading
Why Red Bull should end its Super Formula experiment (October)
How Guanyu Zhou became F2?s surprise star rookie (August)
How Campos and Jack Aitken became a force in F2 (August)
How GP3 champ Anthoine Hubert is enhancing his reputation in the F2 pack (July)
The patience behind Nyck de Vries? long road to the F2 title fight (June)
Five things we learned from the 2019 Formula 2 season opener (April)

The post The Top 10 Formula 2 drivers of 2019 appeared first on Formula Scout.