Photo: Monza

Franco Colapinto says he is “as ready as possible” for his Formula 1 race return with Alpine, taking over Jack Doohan’s seat, after testing with the team.

A month ago, Alpine and Williams conducted a two-day test at Monza using their 2023 chassis, which is regulated via F1’s Testing of Previous Cars programme.

Williams ran its juniors Luke Browning and Victor Martins, while Alpine evaluated its reserve drivers Paul Aron and Colapinto. At the time, Doohan was already coming under pressure and it has now been confirmed that for the next five rounds he will swap places with Colapinto before Alpine reviews its driver line-up again ahead of July’s British Grand Prix.

“Firstly, I want to thank the team for giving me the opportunity to drive competitively for the next five races,” said Colapinto, who contested nine grands prix with Williams last year before switching to Alpine on a multi-year deal.

“I will work hard with the team to prepare for the next race in Imola and the upcoming triple-header, which will no doubt be intense and a big challenge for everyone. I have stayed sharp, and I am as ready as possible with the team’s race support testing programme, as well as on the simulator at Enstone. I will do my best to get up to speed quickly and give it my all to deliver the best possible results alongside Pierre [Gasly].”

Doohan, who has failed to score in his seven grands prix with Alpine and is returning to a reserve driver role he previously held through 2023 and ’24, commented: “This latest chapter is a tough one for me to take because, as a professional driver, naturally I want to be racing. That said, I appreciate the team’s trust and commitment. We have long-term goals as a team to achieve and I will continue to give my maximum efforts in any way I can to help achieve those. For now, I will keep my head down, keep working hard, watch with interest the next five races and keep chasing my own personal goals.”

Flavio Briatore, Alpine’s executive director who as of this week is now assuming team principal responsibilities too, explained that rotating Colapinto and Doohan now will help the make a more informed decision about its 2026 line-up.

“With the field being so closely matched this year, and with a competitive car, which the team has drastically improved in the past 12 months, we are in a position where we see the need to rotate our line-up,” he said.

“We also know the 2026 season will be an important one for the team and having a complete and fair assessment of the drivers this season is the right thing to do in order to maximise our ambitions next year. We continue to support Jack at the team, as he has acted in a very professional manner in his role as a race driver so far this season.”

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Photo: Alpine F1

Alpine’s new Formula 1 racer Jack Doohan and reserve driver Paul Aron completed 2123 kilometres (1319 miles) of running between them at Yas Marina Circuit this month.

Doohan made his debut ahead of a full season on the grid in 2025, picking up critical experience. He did 68 laps in practice, following up on six other practice outings he has made with Alpine since 2022, then in his maiden qualifying session he was slowest in Q1 but only 0.803 seconds off the pace.

He described Friday at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix as “a very busy day”, and doing FP2 (since practice-only drivers solely contest FP1) a pleasant surprise.

“There’s a lot to understand and learn and it was good to get a lot of laps in across both sessions. FP2 was obviously new territory for me! I just tried to build up the laps and my first few runs in the second session were not the cleanest on my side but that is all part of practice.”

After qualifying, he was “of course not satisfied with the result, but it was a session of learning”. His team principal Oliver Oakes noted “that was an incredibly close qualifying today and is testament to the current level of competitiveness up and down the F1 grid” and that “we knew coming into Abu Dhabi it would be a learning weekend for Jack and he’s shown promise and grown in confidence with each session”.

Doohan finished the 57-lap race a lapped 15th. It was another result he was unhappy with but did not leave Oakes unimpressed.

“Thank you to the whole team for making the transition as smooth as possible. It was fantastic to get back racing, I have learned a lot and gained a lot of experience,” said Doohan.

Oakes added: “Jack did well today and showed promising pace, matching the cars around him on similar strategies. It’s a great learning for him to take into next year.”

Post-season testing followed, with Doohan and Formula 2 racer Aron driving for Alpine. They were eighth and ninth fastest, 0.758s and 0.765s off the pace respectively.

“It was a very long but productive day,” said Doohan, who did 137 laps. “I’m very pleased with our work, we sampled the 2025 Pirelli tyres with lots of interesting data and feedback to give. Huge credit to the mechanics and engineers who did an exceptional job today.”

“I have had a very good day in Abu Dhabi driving a F1 car for the first time,” enthused Aron. “Like every driver that drives a F1 car for the first time, I now realise just how quick these cars are and it was a lot of fun driving the A524 today. From a fitness point of view, there was a lot to get used to but, in the end, everything was fine on that front. Even with 121 laps on the board, I wanted to do more. We managed to go through our entire run plan. The engineers were happy, the pace seemed good, so I think it was a successful day overall.”

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Photo: Alpine

Jack Doohan will make his Formula 1 debut with Alpine one race early when he replaces Esteban Ocon for the season-ending Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.

Multiple Formula 2 race-winner Doohan was already due to replace Ocon next season after the Frenchman parted ways with the team and signed with Haas for 2025.

However, Ocon’s time at Alpine has now come to an unexpectedly early end. Alpine says this arrangement will release Ocon to drive for Haas in the post-season test that follows the race weekend at Yas Marina – an opportunity that had always been anticipated anyway – but it marks an unceremonious end to his tenure with the team with which he won the 2021 Hungarian Grand Prix.

After completing a two-year stint in F2, in which he won six races and came sixth and third in the standings, Doohan has not raced in any category in 2024, focusing instead on his reserve driver and private testing duties with Alpine. He has taken part in two free practice sessions this year, at Montreal and Silverstone.

The team has confirmed he will also take part in the post-season Abu Dhabi test as had been planned.

Doohan will be the first graduate from the Enstone outfit’s own academy to race for the team since Romain Grosjean made the step up from GP2 in 2009. He is one of five drivers confirmed to take part in their first full F1 seasons next year, along with Gabriel Bortoleto at Sauber, Ollie Bearman at Haas, Andrea Kimi Antonelli at Mercedes and Red Bull-contracted Liam Lawson.

Alpine announced during the Qatar Grand Prix last weekend that it has signed current F2 frontrunner Paul Aron to take over Doohan’s role as reserve driver for next season.

The post Jack Doohan gets early F1 debut with Alpine in Abu Dhabi appeared first on Formula Scout.

Photo: Alpine F1 Team

Alpine has promoted academy driver Jack Doohan to a Formula 1 race drive for the 2025 season.

Doohan has focused on his role as reserve driver for the team this year after two seasons racing in Formula 2 with the Virtuosi squad, finishing sixth with three wins in 2022 and improving to third in 2023 with another three wins.

He started his single-seater career as a Red Bull junior in 2018 but decided to split with the operation after finishing runner-up in FIA Formula 3 in 2021, moving to Alpine to improve his chances of opportunities in F1.

It’s a decision that has paid off as he becomes the first driver that the Enstone-based team has promoted from its young driver programme to a race seat since Romain Grosjean in 2009.

• Is Jack Doohan deserving of a 2025 F1 seat? (February 2024)

“I am so happy to secure promotion into a full-time race seat in 2025 with BWT Alpine F1 Team,” he said.

“I am very grateful for the trust and belief by the team’s senior management. There is so much work ahead to be prepared and ready and I will give my best in the meantime to absorb as much information and knowledge to be ready for the step up.

“It’s exceptionally satisfying to be the first graduate of the Alpine Academy to be in a race seat with the team and I’m extremely thankful to those who supported me along the way to make this a reality. It’s an exciting moment, a proud day for my family, and I look forward to taking it all in and pushing hard behind the scenes.”

Alpine recently appointed Hitech GP boss Oli Oakes as team principal, and he worked with Doohan when the Australian finished second in Asian F3 in 2019 before competing against him in FIA F3 and F2.

”We are very excited to promote Jack into the race seat from next season and, in doing so, giving him the opportunity to showcase his skill and talent in F1,” Oakes said.

“Jack will become the first driver to graduate from the Alpine Academy into a race driver position with the team, so that is exceptionally pleasing for the team and its young driver pathway.

“Personally, I have worked with Jack back in 2019 and I am fully aware of his raw talent and potential. He is a very hard worker behind the scenes and his commitment is hugely valued by the entire team. Alongside Pierre [Gasly], we have a well-balanced driver line-up with a good combination between youthful energy, experience, and pure speed. We look forward to working with both Jack and Pierre in order to keep developing the car and bring the team up the grid.”

The post Jack Doohan handed Alpine F1 race seat for 2025 appeared first on Formula Scout.

Photo: Renault

Jack Doohan is set to spend 2024 on the sidelines, committed to being Alpine’s F1 reserve driver as he aims for a spot on the 2025 grid. Will that plan work, and does he deserve a chance to race at the top level?

Having previously combined Formula 1 work with racing in Formula 2, Jack Doohan will redouble his involvement within Alpine’s F1 structure for 2024. He will support the development of the A524 car in the team’s Enstone simulator, will travel to race weekends and have an extensive testing programme in the A522 car from 2022. All is to be ready to make an eventual step to racing in F1 the following year, but is Doohan deserving of the seat he has his sights set on?

The Australian endured a troubled sophomore F2 campaign with Virtuosi Racing in 2023, failing to meet expectations results-wise. He had been aiming for the crown, but came third in the standings and was never really in the title fight. Nonetheless, that is not a reason for discredit when details are examined for the driver who won three of the last five feature races.

Last year’s F2 season featured the closest title battle in F1’s primary support series since the 2016 GP2 season. ART Grand Prix’s Theo Pourchaire and Prema’s Frederik Vesti took it to the season finale at Yas Marina Circuit, where the former triumphed. In addition, their respective rookie team-mates Victor Martins and Ollie Bearman also starred with blistering pace from early in the season. As a consequence, the achievements of others flew under the radar at times.

Alpine junior Doohan was one of those drivers who shone despite not driving for one of the two fastest teams, and he did so overcoming adversity. His plan for 2023 was clear: build on an already successful rookie season and take the title. However, it was all turned upside down during pre-season testing at Bahrain. The car was not behaving as it should, with pace to be found but seemingly not in reach.

Although he never went into much detail about what the issue was, Doohan repeatedly described it as a “fundamental” one. In fact, his car was not slowing down properly, and that heavily impacted how Doohan performed in the first four rounds.

Photos: Formula Motorsport Ltd

In 2022 he qualified on pole at Bahrain and fought for the feature race win in what was his third weekend in F2. When the 2023 season began at the same track he qualified down in 17th. His race pace was stronger, but not by enough to bring him up into the points when starting so far down the order.

Second place in the Jeddah feature race two weeks later, helped by other drivers’ mistakes, masked the seriousness of the situation. That was one of the highlights of his season, and trouble arose again on home soil in Melbourne and then in Baku.

It took a lot of time, analysis and the replacement of several parts of the car until everything was back in place. The Barcelona in-season test was a turning point. The car felt good again, and it could be pushed to the limit. With a 41-point deficit to championship leader Pourchaire eight races into what would be a 25-race campaign, there was no time to be lost. Therefore, crashing out from fourth place in the Monaco feature race the following round was a tough one to swallow. The accident led to a chassis change, but that would not undermine Doohan and Virtuosi’s confidence.

From there on, the team started scoring points consistently, and Doohan stormed to feature race victory at the Hungaroring, Spa-Francorchamps and Abu Dhabi. The first and third of those were wins were taken in almost dominant fashion from pole, but Spa was definitely his finest performance of the year. Rain early in qualifying left him 11th on the grid, but he stormed to first place with pace and a great strategy helped by a perfectly timed safety car period. It all came together for Doohan that Sunday at a venue where in previous years he had already had his best showings in the FIA Formula 3 Championship and F2.

Doohan ended up being the top scorer over the last five rounds with 96 points to his name. In comparison, Pourchaire scored 74. The haul was enough for Doohan to come third in the standings by three points over DAMS’ Ayumu Iwasa.

But there were lows in those five weekends. Doohan followed up his first two wins with a mistake on a slippery Zandvoort track surface that put him out of the feature race before it had even started. It was extremely painful for the Australian, who had dreamt of a late title charge. Then a lack of top speed at Monza hindered him and made it a survival battle just to score.

Photo: Formula Motorsport Ltd

Third in the standings, particularly given the gap to the top two, is definitely not what was expected from Doohan in his sophomore season. In 2022 he had blistering speed, some brilliant performances and was wanting to make his case to be in F1. Not being a title contender in 2023 killed that. However, there is much more to it than just the end result, and it is there that his value exponentially increases.

Doohan has made significant progress since first joining the F1 support paddock in 2020. He went from not scoring points that year in FIA F3 with the mildly competitive HWA Racelab team, resulting in him losing his long-held Red Bull Junior Team membership and being demoted to the status of an RBJT-supported driver, to being 2021 championship runner-up with Trident. Two months later he showed promising speed in his F2 debut with MP Motorsport in Jeddah, finishing fifth on his second start, then at Yas Marina Circuit he scored more points and was “a little bit disappointed” to qualify second.

A few days later he was snapped up by Virtuosi for the 2022 F2 season, and then in February of that year it was announced he was now a member of the Alpine Academy. Doohan developed on track and off the track under the eye of a new F1 team.

In 2023, he stayed calm and collected through adversity in the early stages of the season despite knowing that not winning the F2 title could diminish substantially his chances of becoming an F1 driver one day. He pulled his Virtuosi team together and was protective of it in the media sessions amid questions about the lack of performance, as he understood the car issues were not his team’s fault.

He is professional, mature and a hard worker. He analyses the situation and then acts in consequence. He is the kind of person who works tirelessly pursuing his goals. Those attributes are highly valued by racing teams in the process of deciding who are the best drivers to fill their seats. In addition, he has already a good sum of F1 car mileage under his belt, having completed private tests in Alpine’s A521 car on a third of the circuits that make up the current F1 calendar.

Furthermore, he also has experience driving the current generation of ground effect F1 cars as he has participated in four free practice sessions and two rookie tests in the past two seasons.

Alpine’s F1 drivers at its 2024 car launch

His on-track performances in recent years, work ethic and preparation undoubtedly make Doohan a driver deserving of a chance in F1. However, F1 is first a business, then a motor racing competition, and being talented is often not enough to become part of the grid. In fact, history is full of deserving drivers who never started an F1 grand prix.

In order not to follow that same destiny, Doohan decided not to race in 2024 and fully immerse himself in the F1 world, benefiting from his role at Alpine. He will serve as reserve driver, help with car development and gain further F1 mileage. The A522 he will be testing is of the current generation of F1 cars, unlike the A521 he has been driving in until now.

The Australian felt this plan boosts his chances of being on the F1 grid in 2025, but it is undeniably a risky bet. Although one year off is unlikely to kill the career of a race-winning driver, it could have detrimental effects. For example, fellow Alpine junior Martins is embarking on his second F2 season with ART GP this year, and is clear that he is aiming for the title.

Should he become champion, he could well overtake Doohan in the queue to land an F1 seat with Alpine when a vacancy emerges, especially considering how much the French manufacturer has invested in his career. Race drivers belong on racetracks and it is there where they can impress best. Not competing and, therefore, not being able to counterbalance Martins with his own results could eventually harm him, but his on-track record from 2023 is already a clear statement of performance.

Time will tell whether Doohan succeeds in his pursuit of a F1 career. Notwithstanding, it is worrying that drivers that have already proven themselves worth of a F1 race seat on-track have to spend time off-track after that doing so as well. There have been a few of those recently, and unfortunately not all have raced at the top echelon of motorsport.

The post Is Jack Doohan deserving of the 2025 F1 seat he aims for? appeared first on Formula Scout.

10. Pepe Marti

New entry • Made big step forward to be F3 challenger

Photo: Formula Motorsport Ltd

Photo: Formula Motorsport Ltd

Following a difficult rookie FIA Formula 3 season in 2022, Marti was hesitant about whether he should change teams to continue improving as a driver. In the end, he and his management – which now includes Fernando Alonso – opted to remain with Campos Racing, and it turned out to the right choice.

The Spaniard kicked off the season with a sprint race win in the Bahrain season opener, then mastered the streets of Monte Carlo to win the sprint race there by over eight seconds. The stellar moment of his season came after that. On home soil at Barcelona and with Campos celebrating its 25th anniversary, he claimed pole position and comfortably won the feature race on Sunday with full grandstands cheering him on.

Also making the feature race podium at Silverstone, Marti was for some time the closest challenger to eventual champion Gabriel Bortoleto. At Spa-Francorchamps, he looked set for another strong weekend after he took his second pole of the year, but that would turn out to be a missed opportunity.

His performances earlier in the year had caught the attention of Helmut Marko and, freshly announced as a Red Bull junior, he took to the Monza track for the season finale determined to end the year as championship runner-up. It all went wrong and he ended up in fifth in the final standings, but that didn’t take the shine off his season. In 2024, he teams up again with Campos for his Formula 2 debut.

9. Martinius Stenshorne

New entry • Unexpected rookie star in Formula Regional Europe 

Photo: Dutch Photo Agency

Photo: Dutch Photo Agency

Stenshorne was the surprise sensation of the season. Remarkably, his victory in the Formula Regional Europe opener at Imola was his maiden win in car racing. Yet he would make Andrea Kimi Antonelli work hard for the championship, maintaining his consistency and speed throughout the year. He was untouchable at the Hungaroring, topping his group in both qualifying sessions before taking maximum points in the races. Coming into the season, he had failed to win in almost 50 Formula 4 outings and his part campaign in FRegional Middle East gave no indication of what was to come.

With no seats free at Van Amersfoort Racing he found a berth at R-ace GP, an inspired move as the team continued its strong form from the second half of 2022. The quiet Norwegian immediately gelled with the team. Stenshorne’s qualifying lacked team-mate Tim Tramnitz’s consistency, in fact he was on average only the fifth-fastest qualifier, but his racecraft was impeccable.

His only significant on-track error came at the Red Bull Ring when he was penalised for attempting to regain places on the formation lap. Further wins at Mugello and the season finale at Hockenheim ensured second in the final standings.

For 2024 Nicolas Todt’s protege will step up to FIA F3 with Hitech, having impressed in the post-season tests, and could once again be a dark horse for championship honours.

8. Victor Martins

Down 6 • Was F2’s fastest driver after F3 graduation

Photo: Formula Motorsport Ltd

Martins’ start to his first season in F2 wasn’t ideal. He was fast but most of the time failed to turn his speed into results. However, showing great maturity and capacity for analysis, he turned the tables.

Monaco started a streak of 12 consecutive races finishing in points scoring positions that is extended to 15 races if the abandoned no-points sprint race at Zandvoort – which he finished second – is considered.

Over the course of the year, he claimed three pole positions, a feature race victory and eight further podiums, and was fastest on average over one lap. Said win from pole at Silverstone was definitely the highlight of his year. Not even a time penalty could stop the Alpine junior that day.

In the end he was fifth in the standings, just 18 points behind third-placed Jack Doohan and the best rookie, as he cleared his fellow F3 graduate Ollie Bearman by 20 points.

Although it has not been announced yet, he is expected to return for a second season in F2 with ART Grand Prix in 2024 when he will hope to merge speed with consistency for a title challenge.

7. Jack Doohan

No change • Ended the year as F2’s form man after early troubles

Photos: Formula Motorsport Ltd

Photo: Formula Motorsport Ltd

Doohan spent the early rounds of a season that could have made his career fighting a car with “fundamental issues”. Nevertheless, he kept his head down getting ready for when it turned to be right.

Meanwhile, he made the most out of red flags in qualifying at Jeddah and finished second in the feature race from third on the grid, capitalising also on others’ mistakes.

By Monaco, the issues were sorted and he was regularly back in the big points. He claimed pole position and feature race victory at the Hungaroring and won again at Spa on Sunday. He was only 11th on the grid but brilliant driving and a perfect strategy lifted him to the top step of the podium. At that point, it even seemed like he could join the title fight having cut the distance to 38 points.

Such a feat did not materialise, but he repeated a pole and feature race victory at Yas Marina to snatch third place in the standings away from Ayumu Iwasa. With 96 points, he was the highest scorer in the last five rounds, having marked 22 points more than champion Theo Pourchaire, who was second best.

With no racing plans announced, being Alpine’s F1 reserve driver could be his only task in 2024.

6. Ollie Bearman

Down 3 • Teenaged F2 newcomer was brilliant at his best

Photo: Prema

Photo: Prema

In many ways Bearman and fellow Formula 2 rookie Martins shone more brightly than their more experienced team-mates, but it was Frederik Vesti and Theo Pourchaire who steadily accumulated the points to fight for the title. There were weekends when Bearman looked to be on a higher plane, notably his double win at Baku but also his unflustered control of the Barcelona and Monza feature races from the front.

On the downside, there were too many weekends when he wasn’t quite able to challenge, leaving him down in sixth in the final standings. On average, he was the sixth-fastest qualifier but what really hurt was being outside the all-important top 10 on three occasions. Unsurprisingly, there were occasional rookie driver errors but overall the 18-year-old adapted very strongly in just his fourth season in cars.

Talent spotters will often comment that it is not the average performance levels but the height of the peaks which mark out the very best. On this score, Bearman delivered. And when Haas called him up for free practice runs in the top tier he impressed the team and observers with his speed and professionalism.

He is now the undoubted pinnacle in the Ferrari Driver Academy’s roster of drivers and the comparison with Mercedes’ Antonelli in the same car in 2024 is mouth-watering. For Bearman the comparison across the garage will inevitably add pressure to the expectations for his sophomore year.

5. Christian Rasmussen

Up 42 • Completed set of IndyCar ladder titles to earn top-tier seat

Photo: Travis Hinkle

Photo: Travis Hinkle

Rasmussen has now won all three of IndyCar’s long-running support series, and earned himself an IndyCar seat with Ed Carpenter Racing for 2024.

He made a big improvement on the inconsistency of his rookie Indy Nxt season, taking five wins and three other podiums, as well as three poles. Due to the cancellation of qualifying he started two other races from the front, and in both instances won. That contributed to him leading more than three times as many laps as anyone else over the year.

His two most impressive wins were at Barber Motorsports Park, a lights-to-flag success from a pole earned in qualifying, and the Laguna Seca finale, where he was victorious by 17 seconds (in part due to his chasing title rival having a delaminating tyre) to secure the championship crown – that while driving “at 89%”.

After a rather different route to the top, the Dane joins friend and compatriot Christian Lundgaard in IndyCar next year and few would bet against him making a similar impact.

4. Theo Pourchaire

Up 6 • Honed maturity and consistency to lift F2 crown

Photo: Formula Motorsport Ltd

Photo: Formula Motorsport Ltd

Pourchaire was returning for a third F2 season with ART GP in 2023 having finished fifth and second in previous years. This time he had to win, and so he did.

The Sauber junior conquered the first feature race of the year at Bahrain, and then he never won again. Notwithstanding, he was consistent enough to be crowned champion at the end of the year.

He amassed a total of 10 podiums, seven of them in feature races. He became stronger as the season progressed, with double podiums at Silverstone and Spa. He had bad moments as well, especially at Jeddah and Zandvoort, where he did not score a single point.

Nevertheless, an evidently more mature Pourchaire reacted well to the setbacks and to the pressure. He took pole and another podium at Monza to enter the final round with a 25-point advantage that enabled him to take it almost easy.

He did not do enough to earn a F1 seat though and, still only 20, will now head to Super Formula with the Toyota-powered Team Impul in 2024.

3. Frederik Vesti

Up 22 • Stepped up and won six times to challenge for F2 title

Photo: Prema

Photo: Formula Motorsport Ltd

Switching from ART GP to Prema for his sophomore F2 season did Vesti well. The Mercedes-AMG junior felt at home with the Italian team and working with engineer Pedro Matos once again got the best out of himself.

He won six times, yet it was not enough to beat Pourchaire to the title.

In the first half of the year Vesti was consistent, gaining from others’ mistakes. He was often the pacesetter as well, and starred on all types of circuits and in both dry and wet conditions. It is difficult to pick a highlight as all of his four race victories up to Silverstone had something special – though his Monaco feature race triumph over Pourchaire naturally stands out.

Up to that point, the title seemed to be his. However, points free feature races at Spa, Zandvoort and Monza put him on the back foot going into the last round. He was brilliant in Abu Dhabi winning the sprint race and finishing third in the feature race, but the gap was too big and he ended the year as runner-up, 11 points off first place.

It remains to be seen where Vesti will race next, but he’s proven that he’s a winner.

2. Gabriel Bortoleto

New entry • Unheralded rookie ran away with F3 title 

Photo: Formula Motorsport Ltd

Photo: Formula Motorsport Ltd

It was veni vidi vici for Bortoleto in the 2023 FIA F3 championship. The protege of Fernando Alonso’s A14 Management firm didn’t put a foot wrong the whole year and that earned him the title – as well as the joint highest ever new entry with Max Verstappen in Formula Scout’s annual end-of-year ranking.

Making the most of the rapid Trident F3 package from the very start, the Formula Regional graduate inherited the win in the first feature race of the season after Gabriele Mini was penalised, then conquered the unfamiliar challenge of Melbourne’s Albert Park, winning on Sunday from pole to strengthen his championship lead.

After that, he knew it was all about scoring good points in every race until the end, and he accomplished that. In fact, he only failed to score points in the very first race of the year and at Spa, which means he finished 15 out of 18 races in the top 10. As a result, no one ever came close to challenge him for first place in the standings.

He made it to the podium four more times in second place, and was already champion after qualifying at Monza. Now signed by Emanuele Pirro as a McLaren F1 junior, he will contest the 2024 F2 campaign with Invicta Racing – previously known as Virtuosi.

1. Andrea Kimi Antonelli

Up 3 • Swept two FRegional championships ahead of F2 leap

Photo: Dutch Photo Agency

Photo: Dutch Photo Agency

The buzz around Andrea Kimi Antonelli reached a peak after rumours began to circulate of an almost unprecedented jump from FRegional directly to F2, by-passing FIA F3 completely, even provoking media interest from the F1 press. For those who have followed his path, as he tore through karting and the lower ranks of junior single-seaters, his performances have been no surprise.

Following on from his double title triumph in F4 in 2022, Antonelli again scooped two championship trophies, in both the Middle Eastern and European FRegional championships. After electronics issues struck at Imola, he finished in the points in all the remaining FREC races, although was subsequently penalised at Monza having won on the road.

His tally of five wins – with no doubles – was not necessarily remarkable, and was eventually matched by fellow rookie Stenshorne. But Antonelli avoided the pitfalls that have made FREC a challenge for newcomers previously, and like in F4 was completely dominant when he had the opportunity.

His victory in the rain and wind at Zandvoort was sublime, carving through from the fourth row to take the lead on the third lap, earning him the title with a round to spare. With that won, he had the presence of mind to snatch the teams’ title for Prema on the final tour at Hockenheim.

Antonelli’s backers at Mercedes have worked wonders to keep the spotlight off him so far, allowing him to develop at his own pace, nurturing the prodigious talent on their books. In F2, however, there will be no hiding place. With Prema and his father Marco adding to the support, he can deal with the pressure.

In a year when drivers in more senior categories showed their faults as often as their skills, Antonelli was consistently outstanding.

The Formula Scout Top 50 Drivers of 2023 has included contributions from Alejandro Alonso Lopez, Ida Wood, Peter Allen and Roger Gascoigne. Click here to view the rest of the list.

The post Formula Scout Top 50 Drivers of 2023: 10-1 appeared first on Formula Scout.

Photo: Formula Motorsport Limited

The last season with the Dallara F2 2018 was also the first since its introduction not to have an F1 graduate

The growth of Formula 1’s digital footprint continued in 2023, and Formula 2 benefited with more eyeballs on it worldwide and a lot of anticipation on which of its stars would be heading up to the top level in the future. At present three of them will be, but two are headed to Super Formula and one to Formula E.

F1 fans who followed F2 avidly this year won’t be rewarded with seeing their favourite names on the F1 grid in 2024, which is a bad look for Formula One Management even though it’s the teams who make these decisions.

How many of this year’s F2 racers did Formula Scout think deserved to make the step up, and who else impressed with their performances over a lengthy 26-race campaign? We decided to rank the 2023 grid, and here’s our top 10:

The composition of this year’s top 10 was unusually consistent among Formula Scout’s correspondents. Only one other driver came close to inclusion, Dennis Hauger. Having joined the champion team from 2022, Hauger was expected to challenge for the title and, despite some strong race performance, including two sprint race wins, his lack of qualifying pace put paid to his chances. He did score almost twice the points of team-mate Jehan Daruvala whose season fell apart after Jeddah.

After three races, Ralph Boschung looked like a title contender, but his season then disintegrated, taking just four more points and generally being outshone by Kush Maini at Campos. The only other feature race winner was Clement Novalak, who emerged triumphant from a chaotic race at Zandvoort as the top runners were eliminated by a variety of problems. Alas for Novalak and Trident team-mate, Roman Stanek, the rest of the season was something of a struggle, with Novalak being replaced by Paul Aron before the end of the season.

Jak Crawford fittingly took his maiden F2 win in the sprint race at the Red Bull Ring. Aside from a pole at Zandvoort, he struggled in qualifying, but was often able to convert that weakness into Saturday points. Though he edged team-mate Isack Hadjar by two points in the championship, it is the French driver who retains the support of Dr Marko for 2024, switching to Campos while Crawford moves to DAMS for his sophomore season. With two rookies, Hitech was unable to match its 2022 showing, although had Hadjar’s engine not given up while leading at Monaco, maybe his season would have developed differently.

Another F3 graduate, Arthur Leclerc was not far off team-mate Ayumu Iwasa on race pace, but rarely put it together in qualifying. A strong weekend in Melbourne proved a false dawn as he scored only eight points for the rest of the year.

Key Percentage of team’s points scored (TP), Average qualifying position (QA), Feature race points (FR), Sprint race points (SR), Laps led (LL)

10. Enzo Fittipaldi BRAZIL Rodin Carlin
7th in standings, 124 points (1 win, 1 fastest lap, 5 podiums) – TP 56.4%, QA 10.5 (9th), FR 95 (6th), SR 29 (7th), LL 23 (12th)

Photo: Red Bull Content Pool

Ida Wood (9th): Enzo Fittipaldi improves year on year, but only rising one spot in the championship standings from his 2022 position can more easily be seen as disappointing rather than something to celebrate. Was it a reflection of Rodin Carlin’s form? He took the team’s only win, but that helped it come third in the standings. Regardless, Fittipaldi consistently performed in qualifying – his pace being the sixth best on average – he was outscored in feature races by only five drivers and he was one of seven drivers to get two podiums in a weekend. He wasn’t one of the stars of the season, so seventh in the points can be considered ‘best of the rest’.

Roger Gascoigne (10th): With Red Bull backing and having switched from Charouz to 2022 teams’ runner-up Rodin Carlin, this was Fittipaldi’s chance to show his true potential. He continued his development from the year before, with regular top 10 finishes which he topped off with his maiden race win in the series at Spa, without ever looking like a title contender. He qualified and finished second in both Baku and Barcelona, headed only by Bearman on each occasion. That he finished the season in seventh, just six points short of Bearman, is testament to his impressive consistency and racecraft. On occasions his progress was unobtrusive as he managed his stints and his tyres, while avoiding the penalties incurred by others. As he moves to Van Amersfoort Racing for a third full season in F2, his ability to gather strong points finishes routinely continues to make him a valuable asset.

9. Zane Maloney BARBADOS Rodin Carlin
10th in standings, 96pts (1 fastest lap, 4 podiums) – TP 43.6%, QA 10.9 (11th), FR 88 (9th), SR 8 (17th)

Photo: Red Bull Content Pool

Peter Allen (7th): Maloney’s four feature race podiums represented a strong haul for a rookie: it was the same as Victor Martins managed and one more than Ollie Bearman (whose were all wins). These results seemed to be made possible by particularly strong pace in certain races, especially in Bahrain when he went from 18th to third. Lacklustre qualifying results made things too difficult at other times, and would have contributed to his lowly sprint race tally, although he rarely benefitted from the reversed grid either. He did qualify fourth three times in the last four rounds, and remaining with Carlin for a second season in 2024 should help him iron out the inconsistencies.

IW (n/r): There may have been three teams whose drivers ended the season closer together on points, but given they were further down the order and fighting for fewer points then that makes sense. The Carlin drivers meanwhile both took home big points hauls, enough to put the team third in the standings, and for rookie Maloney to trail Fittipaldi by only 28 points was a strong showing. The gap wasn’t created at the start of the year when Maloney was learning F2 though, as he made the podium in remarkable fashion in his first feature race, but instead in the middle of the campaign when finishing runner-up in the Silverstone feature race was Maloney’s only points score in nine races. The general trend was he scored strongly in feature races, or not at all.

8. Richard Verschoor NETHERLANDS Van Amersfoort Racing
9th in standings, 108pts (1 win, 1 fastest lap, 3 podiums) – TP 89.3%, QA 11.3 (13th), FR 88 (8th), SR 20 (12th), LL 16 (14th)

Photo: Formula Motorsport Ltd

RG (7th): Verschoor was a model of consistency in 2023, taking points home from all but one round, a feat only matched by Hauger. Indeed, he scored in eight of the first nine feature races including a win in Austria, a year after a few litres of fuel cost him victory at the same track. Admittedly this result owed much to a fortuitous safety car period allowing him a late run on soft tyres to snatch the win, but he still had to pass Martins, Pourchaire, Doohan and Vesti to do it. His win was VAR’s first in the category, as he almost single-handedly dragged it to seventh in the teams’ standings.

PA (10th): This was another good underdog campaign from Verschoor, this time helping his compatriots at VAR to become more established in F2 after a slightly turbulent 2022. He was a consistent scorer in feature races for most of the year and won again at the Red Bull Ring – this time holding onto the victory after his disqualification in 2022. Unfortunately, team and driver didn’t really kick on from that in the second half of the season, which might go some way to explain why Verschoor now seems set to return to Trident.

7. Kush Maini INDIA Campos Racing
11th in standings, 62pts (1 podium) – TP 62.6%, QA 8.8 (6th), FR 38 (13th), SR 24 (10th)

PA (8th): Maini was the surprise package of this year’s F2 grid. Sure, he had shown some promising moments previously in a career that had not always offered him the greatest opportunities, but few would have bet that – joining Campos after a single year in FIA F3 – he could end his rookie season as the sixth-best qualifier. He was immediately consistently strong out of the blocks, and perhaps his extra maturity compared to some of the rookie crop helped him quickly adapt to F2’s demands and capitalise on the step forward that Campos seemed to have made at the beginning of the year. That performance seemed to drift as the year went on, especially on race days, but he still qualified third in Abu Dhabi to prove that the recent spike in interest around him – from Alpine, Mahindra and even Mika Hakkinen – was somewhat justified.

IW (10th): Campos Racing knew how to make their car quick in qualifying, and Maini made the most of it to be one of the best in the field in those Friday afternoon sessions, even though his best qualifying result – a third place – did not occur until the last round. And this contrasted strongly with what he and the team were capable of in races, with just four points finishes in the last 16 races of the campaign.
His best race result was third in the Melbourne sprint race, during a spell where he got five top-five finishes in the first eight races. To earn his podium he had to hold off a lot of drivers, and when doing the same from eighth on the grid in the feature race he could only finish ninth. So lower grid positions almost automatically meant less points in the races for Maini, and therefore it was no surprise that his best feature race result was a fifth.

6. Ayumu Iwasa JAPAN DAMS
4th in standings, 165pts (3 wins, 1 pole, 3 fastest laps, 6 podiums) – TP 77.1%, QA 8.9 (7th), FR 125 (4th), SR 38 (5th), LL 62 (4th)

Photo: Red Bull

Alejandro Alonso (1st): The season started strong for Ayumu Iwasa. He even led the drivers’ standings after an excellent round at Melbourne, where he claimed the pole position and won the feature race. At that point, it looked like it could be a three-way battle for the title, with DAMS back among the every round front-runners. Building on what was already created in 2022 was Iwasa’s plan heading into the season, but it did not work out as expected as the season progressed. Qualifying was again DAMS’ achilles heel, and the Red Bull junior — who was only classified four times in the top five — was often forced to come back on Sunday from outside the top 10. In spite of that, he came into Abu Dhabi’s season finale with a slim shot at the title. However, third place would slip away from him by three points.

IW (7th): Iwasa managed to remain in title contention until the final round, but that job became harder as the season went on as DAMS became less competitive. He was still a go-to name for top-five finishes in feature races during the season’s second half, finishing second in two of them, but his wins came early on in Jeddah, Melbourne and Monaco.
The strong start to the season, and he was points leader nine races in, should have put him on Red Bull’s radar for F1 opportunities but instead he was overlooked for other juniors. However the lack of an F1 distraction on F2 race weekends should have played into his hands while title rivals had to juggle the two, but he didn’t maximise that.

5. Victor Martins FRANCE ART Grand Prix
5th in standings, 150pts (3 wins, 3 poles, 6 fastest laps, 8 podiums) – TP 42.5%, QA 3.5 (1st), FR 94 (7th), SR 50 (2nd), LL 31 (8th)

Photo: Formula Motorsport Ltd

IW (4th) It felt like Martins spent his rookie season setting up a title challenge for 2024. He had rookie errors, sure, but ticked all the key boxes that a would-be champion needs to. First off is consistency, and Martins smashed that out of the park with a 12-race scoring run. When it came to nailing qualifying he quickly managed that, taking three poles (the joint most of anyone this season) and he was the fastest driver on average when it came to single-lap pace. Heading into the final round he was in contention to finish second in the standings, and his race pace and sprint race points haul were the second best in the field. That contrasts however with feature race struggles that lasted way into the season and cost him a higher placing in this list.

RG (5th): Victor Martins was arguably the quickest driver in F2 in 2023, with three poles and the fastest average qualifying pace. On speed alone he had the edge on team-mate and champion Pourchaire. But in the feature races, it all seemed to fall apart with a combination of over-aggression and mistakes. His spin in Jeddah, having fought it out with Bearman and his collision with Hauger in Melbourne before the restart cost him dearly, while he was fortunate to escape with just a time penalty for ignoring yellow flags at Monaco. “Incident involving car number 6 under investigation” seemed a common note on our screens. Even his one feature race win at Silverstone came after incurring an admittedly harsh five-second penalty. If he can convert his qualifying speed, he should start 2024 as one of the title favourites as he jostles for position among the Alpine juniors.

4. Ollie Bearman BRITAIN Prema
6th in standings, 130pts (4 wins, 3 poles, 2 fastest laps, 5 podiums) – TP 40.4%, QA 7.3 (4th), FR 96 (5th), SR 28 (8th), LL 84 (2nd)

Photo: Formula Motorsport Ltd

IW (2nd): F2 often has drivers who make a super strong impression in their rookie season but aren’t title contenders, then second-year expectations make them out as title contenders and instead they show little sign of improvement on what made them stand out first time around.
Bearman looks more like the kind of driver who will be able to raise his game when it comes to his second stab at F2, having already won four races and done the double in Baku. There was some typical first-year errors which limited him to sixth in the standings, but generally a new car, new tracks and new rivals were all challenges that Bearman took on with success. A season so impressive that Haas came calling with F1 practice runs.

RG (4th): On his day, and there were plenty this year, Ollie Bearman was the class of the field. His peaks seemed so high as to be completely beyond the rest. His double win in Baku was certainly the highest, taking pole with an awry steering wheel and chasing down victory twice. Monza was a master class in leading from the front at a circuit favouring the tow. Adding Barcelona, his tally of three feature wins was matched only by Doohan. But there were weekends when he was close to anonymous – Monaco and Abu Dhabi spring to mind. When he was off form he was too low even to benefit from the reversed grid, and only scored half his team-mate’s points on Saturdays. Winning in F2 requires consistency, but impressing the F1 bosses demands moments of brilliance. On that score, Bearman’s year was hard to match.

3. Jack Doohan AUSTRALIA Virtuosi Racing
3rd in standings, 168pts (3 wins, 2 poles, 3 fastest laps, 5 podiums) – TP 95.5%, QA 7.6 (5th), FR 139 (2nd), SR 25 (9th), LL 41 (5th)

IW (1st): The numbers tell a down-then-up story for Doohan, who was 70 points off the top after six rounds. In the next seven rounds he scored 128 points, 23 more than anyone else could manage. He won features races and took poles at the Hungaroring, Spa-Francorchamps and Yas Marina, demonstrating he had pace everywhere, and he scored more than 95% of his team’s points.

AA (2nd): In one word, resilient. Jack Doohan spent a big part of the 2023 season battling mechanical gremlins. Nevertheless, he stayed calm and collected, worked tirelessly and eventually had his reward in the form of three feature race victories. However, third in the standings is not what the Alpine junior was aiming for when he decided to continue with Virtuosi Racing for his sophomore Formula 2 season. After all, he might even have had a shot at the title without the driving mistakes he made at Monaco and Zandvoort feature races. Those were costly for his aspirations, but that is part of racing in the end. His fighting spirit stands out.

PA (5th): Doohan was a late charger after losing so much ground in the early stages while trying to resolve what were evidently some fairly fundamental issues. His late-season form better showed his true performance level: he scored more feature race points over the year than Vesti and wasn’t even far behind Pourchaire on that metric – though it’s important to note that he didn’t have the championship pressure they had to manage at the end of the season. There were still some costly mistakes on his part, as there were for all the drivers, and arguably a bit too much frustration heard over the radio waves even once his year was on the up.

2. Theo Pourchaire FRANCE ART Grand Prix
1st in standings, 203pts (1 win, 2 poles, 2 fastest laps, 10 podiums) – TP 57.5%, QA 5.2 (2nd), FR 155 (1st), SR 44 (4th), LL 36 (6th)

Photos: Formula Motorsport Ltd

PA (1st): More than any other driver, Pourchaire achieved what he set out to at the beginning of the season. So it’s hard to rank anybody else ahead of him, even if others might have been more spectacular. Modern F2 is full of pitfalls and Pourchaire navigated these pretty expertly, and was clearly a more mature character than in past years. One can’t help but feel there’s more speed in him, but that those last tenths have been held back in order to achieve the consistent point-scoring that won him the title. But while Abu Dhabi was an underwhelming conclusion, his performance at Monza almost three months earlier was a demonstration in how to win a championship.

RG (2nd): Undoubtedly a worthy champion yet there is something unsatisfying about Pourchaire’s season. But was anything less than swashbuckling, Drugovich-style dominance always likely to be insufficient to quell the critics? Is it enough to win the F2 title or do you have to crush the opposition with multiple poles and wins to deserve an F1 opportunity? In truth, he executed the perfect approach to winning the championship – consistent points-scoring. He scored comfortably more points in feature races than anybody else, despite only winning once. He stood on the podium 10 times, seven of which were in Sunday’s main event. His team-mate, Martins, may have had the edge on outright pace but failed to turn speed into points. In fairness, Pourchaire simply had to make sure of the title, almost certainly sacrificing some aggression to achieve the objective. But was it one year too late to impress F1’s team bosses?

AA (6th): Third time lucky! After two strong years in the series, Theo Pourchaire became Formula 2 champion, but like his predecessors Oscar Piastri and Felipe Drugovich he won’t be stepping up to Formula 1 right away. He shone in qualifying, where he finished within the top five positions in 10 out of 13 sessions in 2023. In the races, despite winning only once, he was consistent enough to outscore his rivals in the standings. Improvements were definitely made from previous seasons, especially mindset-wise. However, one would expect a more dominant season from a driver aiming for F1 who has loads of experience and hasn’t had to adapt to a new team.

1. Frederik Vesti DENMARK Prema
2nd in standings, 192pts (6 wins, 1 pole, 1 fastest lap, 10 podiums) – TP 59.6%, QA 5.7 (3rd), FR 134 (3rd), SR 56 (1st), LL 146 (1st)

Photo: Formula Motorsport Ltd

RG (1st): To be frank, it is hard to find any F2 driver who unequivocally deserves to top this year’s ranking yet with a little more fortune Vesti would have been a clear choice. He won six times, more than anybody else, but only twice in feature races. Having said that, he was imperious in claiming pole at Monaco and keeping calm to take victory after a lengthy red flag. Losing both rear wheels at Zandvoort and being punted off at Monza cost strong points finishes while in Austria an ill-timed safety car ruined his strategy when cruising to victory. He can be marked down for his spins at Spa (on the way to the grid) and Zandvoort but none of his rivals were faultless. And, even allowing for recency bias, his gutsy performance at Yas Marina will long stay in the memory. It’s just a shame that there appears very little chance of an F1 opening, Mercedes backing or not.

PA (2nd): Vesti took the biggest step forward of any returning driver. Reuniting with Prema finally brought out the sort of form seen in his previous years with the team – and the sort of form you would expect from a Mercedes junior with this much experience. He was particularly effective in sprint races, though his three wins in those in the second half of the year all came from the top three on the reversed grid. There were some missed opportunities in feature races, and although he suffered bad luck at times, it also doesn’t feel like an injustice that the title eluded him. Vesti showed this year that he will make an excellent professional in racing for years to come, but probably not enough sparkle to force his way into F1.

AA (5th): Vesti’s sophomore F2 season consisted of an expected step forward in performance and consistency. At Prema, he feels at home, and his achievements with the Italian team over the years prove so. He was undoubtedly the best driver during the first half of the year. He maximised his package and scored points while others failed to do so. Although he was not at fault, Silverstone’s feature race retirement marked a change in trend. Mistakes at Spa-Francorchamps and Zandvoort followed, but it was the overtake attempt on Roman Stanek at Monza that really punished his title charge. He rushed the most when he had to be the calmest. Also the need to emphasise how crucial his race engineer Pedro Matos has been over the course of the season leaves one wondering what would have been without him.

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Photo: Formula Motorsport Ltd

Jack Doohan rounded off a “roller-coaster” Formula 2 career with his third feature race victory of 2023 in the season finale at Yas Marina Circuit.

The Virtuosi Racing driver dominated Friday’s qualifying session, claiming pole with a 0.224-second margin over fellow Alpine junior Victor Martins. He was sixth in Saturday’s sprint race, before controlling the final race of the year on Sunday to beat DAMS’ Ayumu Iwasa to third in the standings by three points.

“For the most part, it was under control,” he said. “Looking back now, the strategy was the safest one, of option-prime. But typically it seems that the prime-option, the medium tyre to soft tyre, seemed quite a bit stronger.

“So it was crucial that we managed the tyre at the right point of the race to still have enough tyre at the end there to hold off the fast-charging Victor who was quite quick on the soft tyre. So once the gap wasn’t coming down so drastically, I knew I could keep that pace and hold on for the win.”

The Australian enjoyed a rocket start and by lap two already led by more than a second over Campos Racing’s Kush Maini — who had passed ART Grand Prix’s Martins for second place off the line.

“I think my reaction time was probably the best I’ve done in my career, and I was just hoping that it wasn’t less than 0.12 or whatever the limit is when they clarify it as a jumped start, because it was honestly really, really fine margins,” said Doohan.

“It was a great getaway, nice to have a clean run into turn one that I could do my own thing. I think Kush seemed to try to push for the first three or four laps, but I knew that didn’t seem sustainable at that point for me, so I was happy to be able to extend that [stint] for three or four more laps longer than the others.”

What he described over the course of the season as “fundamental issues” with his car did not allow Doohan to achieve his goal of becoming champion. However, he is pleased with the overall job done.

“It’s been a bit of a roller-coaster for sure,” he said. “This year coming in wanted to make it my title fight year, but just the first five rounds not really scoring any points made it a little bit difficult. I think round five after Monaco I was a good 79 points away from Theo [Pourchaire] and Fred [Vesti]. So to come back now, less than 40-point deficit, we’ve been the highest scorer by over 30 points [in the last five rounds]”

Doohan scored 96 points and won three feature wins in the last five rounds, with Pourchaire scoring 74 and Martins scoring 62 points in that time.

“When it’s been in our control we’ve done the most we could, but unfortunately we just lost too much. You’ve got to be happy with what you can do, and I’m just stoked to go out like this.”

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Photo: Formula Motorsport Ltd

ART Grand Prix’s Theo Pourchaire clinched the Formula 2 title in the season-closing feature race at Yas Marina, as Jack Doohan took a dominant victory.

Fifth was enough for Pourchaire to become champion after losing out in a late battle with title rival Frederik Vesti, who finished third despite a final-lap clash with Rodin Carlin’s Zane Maloney.

Doohan led away from pole at the start as fellow Alpine junior Victor Martins was slow away from second on medium compound tyres and lost out to the soft-shod Kush Maini.

Ayumu Iwasa also tried to challenge Martins into turn one but then ended up side-by-side with Dennis Hauger on the exit. Maloney recovered from a slow start to try to reclaim fourth from his two fellow Red Bull juniors, with Iwasa holding on to the position later in the lap despite running off track.

Vesti prevailed in a lap one squabble with Richard Verschoor to move up one spot to eighth, while Pourchaire climbed from 14th to 11th behind Vesti’s team-mate Ollie Bearman, who had made a great start from 17th.

Doohan used his soft tyres to pull out an early 2.5-second lead over Maini, with Iwasa and Pourchaire the first drivers to head for the pitlane at the end of lap six to change from soft to medium tyres.

Maini and Bearman came in next, with Pourchaire quickly moving past Bearman, who would eventually retire with suspected engine issues.

Maloney, Hadjar and Hauger made their mandatory stops at the end of lap eight, with Doohan then coming in from the lead. That left the still-to-stop Martins with a six-second lead over Vesti, who closed the gap by two seconds over the next eight laps.

Vesti ran his medium tyres until the end of lap 22 before switching to softs, emerging behind Pourchaire in ninth. Martins pitted two laps later and rejoined six seconds behind leader Doohan.

The title rivals were soon involved in a feisty scrap. Vesti got a great run on the approach to turn six and attempted a wild double overtake on Pourchaire and Maini, the latter running off the road and remaining ahead.

Having lost out to Vesti, Pourchaire swiftly fought his way back past, the pair just inches apart. Pourchaire then squeezed by Maini at turn 13 despite being run out of road, with Vesti dispatching of Maini a couple of corners later.

Vesti and Pourchaire continued their battle over the next two laps, with Vesti eventually sweeping by on the run to turn nine to climb to fifth. The Mercedes-AMG Formula 1 junior passed Iwasa with four laps to go before chasing Maloney for third. On the final lap, Vesti tried a move around the outside turn nine, with contact causing Maloney to spin down the order.

Doohan finished 3.9s clear of Martins for his third win of 2023, while Vesti completed the podium a further 15s behind. Iwasa was fourth ahead of an emotional Pourchaire.

Iwasa’s DAMS team-mate Arthur Leclerc came home sixth, with Hauger and Hadjar close behind. Maini finished ninth, with Hitech GP’s Jack Crawford the final points scorer in 10th.

Josh Mason, Verschoor and F2 debutant Franco Colapinto joined Bearman in retirement.

Race result (33 laps)

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Photo: Alpine

Five drivers in Formula 2 qualifying went into the session having been driving Formula 1 cars half an hour earlier, and only one of them handled the switch with success.

Virtuosi Racing’s Jack Doohan took F2 pole at Yas Marina Circuit, after driving for Alpine in F1 practice, with the next best of the drivers who had to run from the F1 pitlane to the support paddock being Hitech GP’s Isack Hadjar in eighth place.

Notably F2’s title contenders Frederik Vesti (Prema) and Theo Pourchaire (ART Grand Prix) were down in ninth and 14th, after driving for Mercedes-AMG and Alfa Romeo Racing respectively earlier in the day.

“The potential was probably top three, had I maximised the session, but I finished in P9 as I had a big lock-up in my fastest lap,” said Vesti. “Overall, I’m not very happy with that. However, we still start P2 tomorrow, and we can fight for great points on Sunday. I’m very very motivated and I will give my absolute everything for the championship.”

Alpine junior Doohan is fighting to be championship runner-up, and is 26 points behind Vesti with two races to go.

“A great send off for my last qualifying with this championship,” said Doohan. “Run one was quite strong, very short turnover time from FP1 in F1. The team made it so comfortable and seamless, that transition. So straight away I felt very comfortable with the car, and run one felt good.

“I didn’t feel at the limit, which was quite nice because last year I was way too quickly at the limit and I didn’t transition in run two. So it was good to be able to go into run two and take a good step forward and end off on a high like we did.”

Doohan qualified fifth at Yas Marina in 2022 after also doing F1 practice for Alpine, so knew what to expect with the switch today unlike his F2 rivals.

“Fortunately I had it last year, so I was able to be a bit more prepared and make sure I made it as easy as possible. But nevertheless, it’s still a difficult task. You’re going from a laptime of a 1m26s to a 1m36s in a matter of 20 minutes or even less. It’s no easy task,” he stated.

“I feel great coming back from the F1 to the F2 actually, where I think others might struggle more. So for me, it all worked out well, luckily, and happy to be here.”

He added that “it was really trying to reset and just forget what I’d done in F1 and completely go back into F2 mode” that was key.

Prema’s Ollie Bearman did F1 practice for Haas and called F2 qualifying “a bit of a tough session, struggling to find the rhythm” after he could only go 17th fastest.

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