Photos: Red Bull Content Pool

Every year, some of junior single-seaters’ top drivers are handed professional opportunities. Some lead to long-term careers in sportscars, while others try out the more cut-throat world of F1 and IndyCar

In addition to annually ranking the top 50 drivers in junior single-seater racing since 2011, Formula Scout also recognises the achievements of the very best of those who ‘graduate’ into the world of professional racing each year.

Logan Sargeant was the only driver to make it to Formula 1 at the start of 2023, joining Williams for a season in which he scored a single point but did enough to retain his seat for a second year, and during summer AlphaTauri called up Sargeant’s former Formula 2 and Formula 3 rival Liam Lawson to substitute for the injured Daniel Ricciardo.

IndyCar had five rookies who contested more than just the Indianapolis 500. Last year’s Indy Nxt runner-up Sting Ray Robb joined Dale Coyne Racing, and in a car co-run by Rick Ware Racing he took a best finish of 12th and came 23rd in the points. Benjamin Pedersen only came fifth in the 2022 Indy Nxt season but also earned an IndyCar graduation with AJ Foyt Racing. He finished no higher than 15th, leaving him 27th in the standings.

Joining the grid for the final two races of the season with Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing was F2 graduate Juri Vips, who had been out of racing for several months after his F1 dreams ended in summer 2022 with the use of racial slur on a livestream. It was difficult to judge how well Vips did with his last-minute call-up, but RLLR has “a long-term plan” for him.

Esports star Cem Bolukbasi had a brief junior single-seater career, coming ninth in the Formula Regional Asian Championship and fifth in a part-time Euroformula campaign in which he claimed two wins in 2021, then racing part-time in F2 last year, but that was enough to get him a seat on the Super Formula grid with TGM Grand Prix for 2023.

Qualifying 20th for his debut at Fuji Speedway suggested he might be out of his depth, but it only took 10 laps for him to get into the top 10 and he eventually finished eighth. His qualifying form didn’t improve, with 14th being his best starting position, but he did score points with a ninth place at Suzuka and he came 18th in the standings.

Photo: B-MAX Racing

FRegional Japanese Championship race-winner Riki Okusa was his team-mate for the last two rounds, while FRAC and FRegional Americas champion Raoul Hyman stepped up with B-MAX Racing but could do no better than 18th in qualifying and 15th in races over the season.

Andretti Global had to call upon their reserve driver David Beckmann for the Jakarta E-Prix, and the F2 graduate finished 16th on his Formula E debut.

There were plenty of ex-junior single-seater racers who found success in LMP2 prototypes. Jota Sports’s Oliver Rasmussen did two FIA F3 Championship rounds alongside his World Endurance Championship programme last year, but for 2023 was able to focus solely on sportscars and he came sixth in the standings. He won his class in the Monza Six Hours.

Euroformula graduate Filip Ugran was 10th in the standings with Prema, and Alpine driver Olli Caldwell came 18th.

Marino Sato bounced back from four underwhelming years in F2 by joining United Autosports in the European Le Mans Series. He won three of the six races and was championship runner-up. Two places behind was Duqueine Team’s Nico Pino, who won the season opener, finished second in the next race but then didn’t visit the podium again.

David Schumacher drove in the DTM and FIA F3 in 2022, and swapped the latter for the GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup this year. He drove a Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo to 17th in the standings there, topping the Gold Cup classification at the Nurburgring, and to 25th in the DTM.

Nicola Marinangeli came sixth in International GT Open in a AF Corse-run Ferrari, and team-mate Conrad Laursen was seventh in ELMS’ GTE class.

As none of these names could make the cut, here is Formula Scout’s Class of 2022… Key Wins (W), poles (P), fastest laps (FL)

10. Calan Williams AUSTRALIA 23y/o
9th in GTWC Europe Sprint Cup (29th in GTWCE [Gold Cup champion])   2022: 23rd in F2   2021: 19th in FIA F3 Championship

Photo: SRO/ Patrick Hecq Photography

Williams made the podium more times this year than he did in his last five years in single-seater racing.

A fourth place was his best finish from two seasons in Euroformula, and a sprint race podium at Paul Ricard was one of only three times in which he scored points in two FIA F3 Championship campaigns. It took just three races to earn a top-four finish when he stepped up to F2 last year, but did not score again after that and came 23rd in the standings.

Despite that lack of success, he was picked up crack GT racing team WRT for 2023 to drive one of their BMW M4 GT3s in GTWCE. He shared his car with Niklas Krutten, and the pair were entered into the Gold Cup classification.

They came ninth overall in GTWCE’s Sprint Cup, making the podium in the season finale at Zandvoort, and claimed the Gold Cup crown with four wins from the 10 races.

Jean-Baptiste Simmenauer joined them in the car for the Endurance Cup, and their best result was 12th overall in the Monza Three Hours. That equated to being the third best Gold Cup entry, and despite finishing in a lower position they were Gold Cup runners-up in the Spa 24 Hours and third in the Nurburgring Three Hours. That led to them being fifth in the Gold Cup’s Endurance standings, and combined with the Sprint results meant Krutten and Williams were 29th overall in GTWCE and the Gold Cup champions.

9. Alex Quinn BRITAIN 23/o
10th in IMSA LMP2 (2 FL)   2022: 17th in USF2000 (3 W, 2 FL)   2021: 9th in FRegional European Championship

Photo: PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports

Quinn actually graduated from British F4 to sportscars back in 2018, competing in British GT’s GT4 class and failing to score in his six races.

He then returned to single-seaters, coming fourth in the 2020 Formula Renault Eurocup with a win an a pole then moving across to the FRegional European Championship the year after and starting the season with two podiums in the first four races but later going on a long points-free run and ending up ninth the standings.

Last year he only made one race outing, but did an impressive job in his USF2000 cameo on Indianapolis Motor Speedway’s road course as he won all three races and set the fastest lap in two of them. It was enough to come 17th in the points table.

This year he stayed in America to join PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports in IMSA’s LMP2 class. It proved to be an inspired move from the off, with Quinn being in the class’s pole-winning car for the Daytona 24 Hours and Sebring 12 Hours. He was seventh and fourth in class respectively at the end of those two races, and less than seven seconds off victory at Sebring.

He finished third in his next two outings in the Six Hours of the Glen and Petit Le Mans, although the latter event didn’t quite go to plan. Although his car started on overall pole, both Quinn and his team-mate spun while at the wheel. Quinn’s mistake cost them the LMP2 lead.

8. Logan Sargeant UNITED STATES 22y/o
21st in F1   2022: 4th in F2 (2 W, 2 P)   2021: 7th in FIA Formula 3 (1 W), 19th in ELMS (1 P), 6th in Le Mans Cup – GT3 (2 W, 2 P, 3 FL)

Photo: Williams Racing

Sargeant’s two wins and two poles in his sole F2 season helped him come fourth in the standings, and earn a Williams F1 seat for 2023. Was it too soon?

He became the first American to race in F1 for over seven years, just as the world championship added a third race in the USA to its schedule, ticking a box several other teams in the paddock had tried but failed to.

Sargeant was thoroughly bettered by his team-mate Alex Albon, being outqualified by him at every single event and scoring one point to Albon’s 27. Fittingly Sargeant’s best results came on home soil, as he took his sole point in the United States Grand Prix and his best starting position was sixth in the Las Vegas Grand Prix. The only other time he reached Q3 was at the Dutch Grand Prix, where he qualified 10th.

Sargeant’s worse form tended to be on sprint weekends, with less practice time before qualifying, and he finished no higher than 16th in a sprint race.

In Japan he suffered a qualifying crash that required Williams to rebuild his car to enable him to race, and he only lasted a few laps before a lock-up and another crash. This time he kept going before the damage eventually led him to retire. The next event was the Qatar Grand Prix, where he failed to set a flying lap in sprint qualifying, spun out after two laps of the sprint race then retired from the grand prix itself due to heatstroke. It wasn’t a great end to the year, but ultimately he did enough to earn a second season with Williams.

7. Kakunoshin Ohta JAPAN 24y/o
7th in SF (1 W), 14th in Super GT   2022: 2nd in SF Lights (4 W, 6 P, 7 FL), 8th in Super GT300, Super Taikyu – ST-Z champion (2 W, 3 P, 3 FL)   2021: 14th in FRJC, 5th in Japanese Formula 4 (1 FL), 3rd in Super Taikyu – ST-Z

Photo: Super Formula

Ohta took two wins from three Japanese Formula 4 seasons, which didn’t suggest his single-seater career would amount to much, but he did make the podium in French F4 and FRJC cameos.

Then last year he stepped up to Super Formula Lights with Toda Racing and everything changed. The one-car entry was the winner of four races and six pole positions, with other impressive stats including seven fastest laps and 12 podiums. Ohta ended up being championship runner-up, and was only a few points short of becoming champion.

He stepped up to SF for 2023 with Dandelion Racing, and initially found the step up difficult. In the first four races, Ohta qualified no higher than 17th and finished no higher than 15th. But then his form started to improve, rapidly.

At Sportsland SUGO he qualified ninth, but finished 15th again, then at Fuji Speedway (the first track on the schedule he was visiting for a second time in his rookie season) he qualified third – just 0.268 seconds off pole – and finished sixth. He was 1.5s off fourth place at the chequered flag.

Ohta was even closer to the pace at Twin Ring Motegi, qualifying on the front row, then in the double-header Suzuka finale he was fourth in qualifying for race one and made the front row again for race two.

In race one he rose to second on the opening lap, then lost a spot on lap two and was still in third when the race was red flagged due to a huge crash. Half points were awarded, but Ohta earned a ‘proper’ podium in race two by snatching the lead on lap one then holding off Lawson throughout to win. The result put him seventh in the standings, a position nobody would have expected pre-season.

Having raced in Super GT300 last year and won the title in Super Taikyu’s GT4 class, Ohta was also promoted to Super GT’s top GT500 class for 2023 and he took one podium en route to 14th in the points.

=5. Linus Lundqvist SWEDEN 24y/o
31st in IndyCar (2 FL), 13th in Porsche Carrera Cup Scandinavia   2022: Indy Nxt champion (5 W, 7 P, 3 FL)   2021: 3rd in Indy Nxt (3 W, 3 P, 2 FL)

Photo: Joe Skibinski

Photo: Travis Hinkle

Sometimes waiting a little longer for your debut at single-seaters’ top level can prove more effective than stepping up straight after winning a second-tier title. F2 champion Oscar Piastri had to remain patient for a whole year, while 2022 Indy Nxt champion Lundqvist got to make his IndyCar debut this August rather than need to wait until 2024.

For a long time Indy Nxt had a prize money system that guaranteed the champion at least three IndyCar starts, including the Indy 500, the next year. But when IndyCar’s owner Penske Entertainment took over Indy Nxt in 2022, it reduced the size of the champion’s prize pot. Lundqvist couldn’t make the step up with the money he had.

He won three races as an Indy Nxt rookie in 2021, then romped to the 2022 title with five wins and six poles. Andretti Autosport gave him an IndyCar test at the end of his first season, then he had to wait until April of this year for another as Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing ran him on the Texas oval. Ed Carpenter Racing provided further seat time at Sebring in June, then at the end of July he got called up to race as Meyer Shank Racing needed a substitute for the injured Simon Pagenaud.

Just like Piastri, Lundqvist stunned a paddock with his adaptation and his reward is spending next year in a team he could win races with.

Lundqvist qualified 11th for his debut in Nashville, then ran as high as third and set the fastest lap in the race before crashing out. Negotiations with multiple teams about a 2024 seat began shortly after.

MSR called up Lundqvist two more times. He started and finished 12th on the IMS road course, then on the Gateway oval took another fastest lap. Only two other drivers got multiple fastest laps this year. Four days after that performance, Chip Ganassi Racing announced it had signed Lundqvist to race full-time next season.

=5. Robert Shwartzman RUSSIA/ISRAEL 24y/o
8th in GTWCE Endurance Cup (1 W, 1 P) (19th in GTWCE)   2022: no racing   2021: 2nd in F2 (2 W, 3 FL)

Photo: SRO

Photo: Ferrari

Shwartzman came fourth and second in his two F2 seasons, earning him sixth place in Formula Scout’s Top 50 in both years.

After that Ferrari promoted its junior to an F1 test role for 2022, then to being their reserve driver for 2023. He was also given a race programme for this year, joining AF Corse’s line-up in the GTWCE Endurance Cup.

The sportscar newcomer quickly got up to pace in his Ferrari 296 GT3 and contributed to the success of the car he co-drove with the far more experienced Nicklas Nielsen and Alessio Rovera. They finished eighth in the Monza 3H, seventh in the Paul Ricard 1000 Kilometres and then won the season-ending Barcelona Three Hours to come eighth in the standings. Despite missing all of the sprint rounds, they still came 19th overall in GTWCE.

Shwartzman was a valued member of Ferrari’s F1 squad too, and he drove in free practice at two grands prix. He then contested the WEC’s rookie test in Ferrari’s hypercar and topped the times, and is expected to race an additional third entry next season.

Away from his Ferrari work, Shwartzman took up two opportunities this year that may suggest he still has an eye on racing single-seaters even if he can’t find a way into F1. He did an IndyCar test with Ganassi and set a strong impression on the team, and drove for DS Penske in FE’s rookie test and also its more recent pre-season test.

4. Jake Hughes BRITAIN 29y/o
12th in FE (2 P)   2022: 16th in F2   2021: 18th in F2

Photo: Formula E

Photo: McLaren

After several seasons acting as reference driver first in FIA F3 then in F2, Jake Hughes finally earned a well-deserved drive in a professional series like FE.

McLaren took over Mercedes’ works team in the championship and promoted Hughes from development and reserve driver to a race seat.

The Briton was a rookie in terms of competing, but knew the team and the car well thanks to his involvement in previous years, and took advantage of it. He caused a sensation in the early rounds, where he impressed with his pace. He was third, second and first in the first three qualifying sessions, with his pole position coming in Riyadh, but dropped to fifth, eighth and fifth in the races as his McLaren powertrain was less competitive in the longer distance.

Hughes struggled to replicate his blistering pace of the opening rounds as the season progressed, but still scored points at several events. He was back on pole on the most famous street circuit of them all, Monaco, but the podium escaped him once again as he finished in fifth.

As a rookie, he edged his more experienced team-mate Rene Rast, and definitely proved he belongs in the world championship. Given teams know his skills for technical development as well as results on track, he could well become one of FE’s main contenders in the years to come.

3. Marcus Armstrong NEW ZEALAND 23y/o
20th in IndyCar, 18th in Macau GP   2022: 13th in F2 (3 W)   2021: 13th in F2 (1 W)

Photo: Chris Owens

Photo: James Black

On reflection it’s puzzling that Armstrong was 13th in all three of his F2 seasons, despite winning four races and driving for three top teams. He made the podium in two of his first four races, but that strong form then deserted him in his rookie year.

When title-winning IndyCar team Ganassi signed Armstrong for 2023 to drive on a part-time deal, with his schedule omitting all of IndyCar’s oval races, nobody thought that the Kiwi didn’t deserve it but the question was raised on how difficult would it be to measure his progress as a driver by starting his career at single-seater’s top level in one of the very top teams rather than proving himself at a smaller squad.

Armstrong qualified 13th and finished 11th on his debut, then in his next appearance came eighth in the Long Beach Grand Prix. There were four more top-10 finishes and no DNFs from his 12 starts, enough to beat three full-timers to IndyCar’s ‘Rookie of the Year’ honours. His scoring rate was strong enough to put him 13th in the standings had he done the whole campaign, ahead of several big-name drivers.

A trend that continued from his junior single-seater career was underperforming in qualifying, although this year his average finishing position was only very slightly higher than his starting average. He’ll need to improve in 2024, since Ganassi has given him a full-time ride and he’ll have two less experienced drivers as team-mates.

2. Liam Lawson NEW ZEALAND 21y/o
2nd in SF (3 W, 1 P, 2 FL), 20th in F1   2022: 3rd in F2 (4 W, 3 FL)   2021: 2nd in DTM (3 W, 4 P, 1 FL), 9th in F2 (1 W, 1 P, 2 FL)

Lawson impressed in his maiden season racing GT cars in DTM back in 2021, becoming vice-champion in a campaign he juggled with what was also his first F2 season.

In 2022, the Red Bull junior focused on F2 and finished third ahead of Carlin team-mate Sargent. However, those achievements and proving himself as a quick adapter were not enough to earn a F1 seat, and he had to content himself with a spot on the SF grid with Team Mugen alongside F1 reserve driver duties.

Like he had done several times in the past, the New Zealander won on his debut in the series from third on the grid, then was demoted from third to fifth because of a penalty in the second race of the season-opening double-header at Fuji.

Lawson took his inevitable first win in round three at Autopolis and then another in round five at Fuji, which left him one point off championship leader Ritomo Miyata with three races to go.

An unfortunate race at Motegi, where he finished 13th after an incident at the start, put him on the back foot heading into Suzuka’s double-header finale. The title decider marked the first time he started on pole, but finishing second in the race also meant he finished second in the championship, eight points behind Miyata.

Between the last two rounds, he made his F1 debut with Red Bull’s second F1 team AlphaTauri. Daniel Riccardo injured himself in the second practice session at the Dutch GP, and Lawson was in the car for FP3 and excelled straightaway. He finished 13th in the latest of late call-ups, and stayed for four more grands prix, always matching the pace of his team-mate Yuki Tsunoda both in qualifying and races. If there was a standout event, then it has to be the Singapore Grand Prix as Lawson got through to Q3 – beating Tsunoda and Red Bull’s two drivers – and scored his first F1 points by finishing ninth in the race.

Unless something changes massively, Lawson will spend 2024 back on the sidelines as reserve driver to Red Bull’s two teams and hoping he can finally have a very much deserved spot on the grid in 2025.

1. Oscar Piastri AUSTRALIA 22y/o
9th in F1 (1 P, 1 W, 2 FL)   2022: no racing   2021: F2 champion (6 W, 5 P, 6 FL)

Photo: McLaren

Photo: McLaren

Although he graduated from F2 in 2021 as a dominant champion, it was not until 2023 that Piastri landed a professional race seat, which makes him eligible for this list.

It is true that Piastri arrived in F1 having completed an extensive testing programme as an Alpine junior. However, the challenges posed by the pinnacle of motorsport should not be underestimated and especially in Piastri’s case, as he came in amid a team change and a legal battle for his services.

His season was in crescendo. The Australian did not have the dream start other McLaren F1 rookies enjoyed in the past, partly due to the struggles of a car that was not born well. But as it ramped up, Piastri also raised his level to become a regular in the fight for top positions.

In the second half of the year, he matched his rapid team-mate Lando Norris over one lap, outqualifying him on several occasions. Norris still had the upper hand in races though, where Piastri usually fell a bit behind. If he closes that gap in 2024, the battle within the Woking stable will be extremely tight.

In the flyaway leg of the season, Piastri reached the podium in Japan and Qatar, the highlights of a formidable rookie F1 campaign. If his drive at Suzuka had been excellent, then his performance at Losail was on another level. He made the most of his testing experience at the Qatari circuit as well as a strong car to claim pole in the sprint shootout and win the sprint race on Saturday. Then on Sunday he rose from sixth on the grid to second place for what is his best career result to date.

Written by Alejandro Alonso Lopez and Ida Wood

The post Formula Scout’s Class of 2022 appeared first on Formula Scout.

Photo: Nissan

Formula E has mandated that all teams run a ‘rookie’ in pre-season testing this month, and has revealed which young drivers have got the call-up to take part.

The eligibility criteria was not actually based around being a newcomer to FE, only ruling out drivers who raced in it last season but counting former FE drivers as ‘rookies’. That is because the third-generation car the series currently uses was only introduced this year.

“We are excited to give the very best emerging racing talent the chance to show why they deserve a seat in the championship in the future – by going up against the elite drivers and world champions in FE today,” said FE’s chief championship officer Alberto Longo.

Pre-season testing takes place at Valencia’s Ricardo Tormo circuit on Monday to Friday next week, with a rest day splitting the test.

Already announced as taking part were Red Bull junior and Formula 2 racer Zane Maloney, who will drive for Andretti Global after previously testing for them, and FIA Formula 3 race-winner Taylor Barnard who has been chosen by McLaren.

Both will participate in the test’s Tuesday morning session, then Barnard will also drive in the afternoon while Maloney returns to Andretti’s car for the Wednesday afternoon session.

Ferrari’s Formula 1 reserve driver Robert Shwartzman, who was 2021 F2 runner-up and came eighth in this year’s GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup, will drive for DS Penske on Tuesday morning and Wednesday afternoon. He also drove for the team in FE’s official rookie test in Berlin this April.

Alpine junior Victor Martins, who is in contention to be championship runner-up in F2 this year, will join Nissan for the Tuesday morning session and Red Bull’s recently signed junior Tim Tramnitz – a winner in Formula Regional Europe – will drive for Abt Cupra on Wednesday afternoon.

The post F1 juniors get called up to drive in Formula E pre-season testing appeared first on Formula Scout.

Photo: Formula Motorsport Ltd

Ferrari will run its reserve driver Robert Shwartzman in the opening practice session at this weekend’s Dutch Grand Prix.

Each Formula 1 team is obliged to run ‘young drivers’ in two practice sessions during the season, and Shwartzman is assuming that position for Ferrari for a third time after contesting FP1 at last year’s United States and Abu Dhabi grands prix.

Shwartzman joined the Ferrari Driver Academy in late 2017, days before the final round of the Formula Renault Eurocup which he would end up finishing third in.

He won the Toyota Racing Series and came third in FIA European Formula 3 in 2018, won the FIA F3 Championship in 2019, took four race wins as a Formula 2 rookie in 2020 and was runner-up in the series two years ago with another two wins.

There was no F1 seat awaiting him after that, and Ferrari made him its test driver for last season while retaining him in its driver development programme. Shwartzman again missed out on an F1 seat for 2023, and a place in Ferrari’s hypercar line-up, but did start the year by conducting an IndyCar test with Chip Ganassi Racing.

He also drove in Formula E’s rookie test for DS Penske, straight after starting his racing programme for this year which is co-piloting a factory-blessed AF Corse-run Ferrari 296 GTE in GT World Challenge Europe’s Endurance Cup.

In his latest F1 outing at Zandvoort, Shwartzman will be taking over the car of Carlos Sainz Jr. Ferrari also has to run a ‘young driver’ in Charles Leclerc’s car later in the season, and Shwartzman is expected to be called up again for that.

The post Ferrari to use reserve driver Robert Shwartzman in FP1 at Dutch GP appeared first on Formula Scout.

Photo: Maserati MSG Racing

Formula 1 reserve drivers Felipe Drugovich and Robert Shwartzman are among the latest crop of drivers that have been announced as driving in Formula E’s rookie test in Berlin next week.

Reigning Formula 2 champion Drugovich and FIA Formula 3 racer Hugh Barter have been called up by the Monaco-based Maserati (the team which previously competed as Venturi).

Drugovich is currently a junior driver of the Aston Martin F1 team, and is employed as reserve driver for the team as well as fellow Mercedes engine customer McLaren.

“I can’t wait to get my first taste of the Maserati Tipo Folgore and Gen3 FE [car] in Berlin,” said Drugovich. “FE is a category that has always fascinated me, and it will be intriguing to experience the differences of a fully electric car in comparison to the single-seaters I’ve raced in recent seasons. Knowing that I will be playing an active role in the development of such an iconic brand, in its first season back in world championship motorsport, is a huge honour. I’m very excited.”

Barter meanwhile is currently embarking on his rookie F3 season and is 18th in the standings after two rounds. Last year he was runner-up in the French and Spanish Formula 4 championships.

“I would like to thank Maserati MSG Racing for giving me the opportunity to experience FE for the very first time,” said Barter.

“I’ve really enjoyed my experience in the simulator so far and I can’t wait to get out on the track in Berlin. Working closely with James, Edo and Max will be an invaluable learning experience for me, especially at this stage of my career.”

Shwartzman was FIA F3 champion in 2019, F2 runner-up in 2021 and is now Ferrari’s reserve driver. He is expected to drive for DS Penske (a merger of the Dragon Racing team with powertrain provider DS), although is yet to be announced.

Abt Cupra have called up local driver and Formula Regional racer Tim Tramnitz for the test. The 18-year-old was 15th in the European championship last year, and started 2023 by coming 20th in the Middle East championship.

“I am really looking forward to the rookie test in Berlin,” said Tramnitz. “The test came about at short notice through the mediation of the ADAC Sports Foundation with Motorsport Team Germany.

“Together with the Abt team, the foundation is helping me to get to Berlin on Sunday evening after my race in the FRegional European Championship in Imola, so that I am ready for action on Monday morning [April 24].”

Mahindra will utilise its reserve driver Jehan Daruvala, who is currently in his fourth F2 season and sits sixth in the standings after three rounds.

Other junior single-seater racers already confirmed for the test include Indy Nxt champion Linus Lundqvist and F2’s Zane Maloney at Andretti Autosport, Alpine junior Victor Martins (Nissan) and F3 racers Luke Browning (McLaren) and Jonny Edgar (Envision Racing).

The post F1 reserve drivers Drugovich and Shwartzman set for FE rookie test appeared first on Formula Scout.

Photo: Formula Motorsport Limited

Ferrari has promoted its former junior Robert Shwartzman to a Formula 1 reserve driver role for 2023, in addition to giving the Russian a seat in sportscar racing.

Shwartzman joined the Ferrari Driver Academy in late 2017, days before the final round of the Formula Renault Eurocup which he would end up finishing third in.

Under Ferrari’s watch he went on to win the Toyota Racing Series and finish third in FIA European Formula 3 in 2018, win the FIA F3 Championship in 2019, take four race wins as a Formula 2 rookie in 2020 and then be runner-up in the series in 2021.

There was no F1 seat awaiting him after that, and Ferrari made him its test driver for last season while retaining him in its driver development programme. Due to a new rule mandating teams run inexperienced drivers in at least two free practice sessions, Shwartzman got to drive for Ferrari on the Friday of the United States and Abu Dhabi Grand Prix weekends.

Shwartzman again missed out on an F1 seat for 2023, and a place in Ferrari’s hypercar line-up, but did start the year by conducting an IndyCar test with Chip Ganassi Racing.

However his racing future now lies in GT3 sportscars, as Shwartzman will drive one of the factory-blessed AF Corse-run cars in GT World Challenge Europe’s Endurance Cup.

The five-race schedule includes the Spa 24 Hours, and date clashes mean Shwartzman will not be available as Ferrari’s reserve for the Spanish, Austrian and Belgian Grand Prix.

He will be sharing reserve duties with former F1 driver Antonio Giovinazzi, whose own Ferrari sportscar committments in the hypercar class of the World Endurance Championship clash with F1 and means Shwartzman will likely be the on-site reserve driver for the Saudi Arabian, Azerbaijan, British and Brazilian grands prix.

Ferrari also announced that Formula 4 graduate Conrad Laursen will drive for AF Corse in the Asian and European Le Mans Series in a car shared with his father Johnny and Ferrari factory driver Nicklas Nielsen.

The older Laursen is already an ELMS champion, while the younger of the two has a single weekend of GT racing experience having done a round of Ferrari Challenge Europe last year.

Laursen Jr has raced in F4 since 2020, winning the Danish title as a rookie and then driving for Prema in the ADAC, Italian and United Arab Emirates series. In Italy he claimed two podiums in two seasons, won a race from his six rounds in the German series and took three podiums from his part-time UAE venture.

The post Shwartzman promoted to Ferrari reserve role and given GT seat appeared first on Formula Scout.

Photo: Red Bull Content Pool

AlphaTauri plans to run Liam Lawson in free practice one at the Belgian Grand Prix, which would mark the New Zealander’s first Formula 1 free practice appearance.

Franz Tost, AlphaTauri’s team principal, said “currently, we plan to run Liam Lawson in FP1 in Spa” in the FIA press conference at the most recent F1 race. However he did not mention which driver Lawson will replace for the session.

It was already determined that Lawson would appearing in the AlphtaTauri AT03 at one point this year as teams are mandated as of 2022 to give over two practice sessions to drivers with less than three F1 starts during the season.

The Red Bull junior made his F1 test debut with AlphaTauri at Yas Marina Circuit in last December’s official post-season test, and following the dismissal of fellow Formula 2 racer Juri Vips – who did FP1 at the Spanish Grand Prix – from Red Bull’s ranks he has now become the reserve driver for Red Bull Racing and AlphaTauri.

Ferrari has decided to utilise 2021 F2 runner-up Robert Shwartzman for both of the mandated practice sessions, with the Russian acting as the team’s test driver through this year. He will make his FP1 appearances under an Israeli license. Which events he will do have not yet been decided, but Ferrari’s race director Laurent Mekies ruled out it being the Singapore Grand Prix during the same press conference that Tost spoke in.

Alpine had planned to give reigning F2 champion Oscar Piastri his F1 free practice debut at either Spa-Francorchamps for the Belgian GP, or two weeks later during the Italian GP at Monza. It is not clear how his contractual dispute with the team will now impact those plans, as Piastri has turned down a 2023 Alpine race seat and is intending to move to a rival outfit.

Theo Pourchaire, a protege of the Sauber group that runs Alfa Romeo Racing, will contest at least one grand prix practice session but most likely not until after the European leg of the F2 season is complete. He had initially been set to drive for Alfa Romeo at last month’s French GP, but then F2 joined its support bill and he prioritised that instead.

That is the approach that is set to be carried into the next three grands prix where the two series are racing together, and Pourchaire – currently second in the F2 points – said he anticipates his FP1 debut will not come at Asia’s returning Singapore or Japanese GPs either.

With that in consideration, three is a three-race window where Alfa Romeo might run Pourchaire: the United States, Mexico City and Sao Paulo grands prix. Both F1 and F2’s seasons conclude on the same weekend in Abu Dhabi.

“If I’m champion two races before the end, which I think will be almost impossible, [then] yeah why not drive on the same weekend,” Pourchaire said. “But I would prefer to concentrate on F2 and to only do F2 or F1 in the weekend.”

The post Lawson due to make F1 FP1 debut at Spa, Ferrari confirms Shwartzman appeared first on Formula Scout.

Photo: Formula Motorsport Limited

The short-lived three-race format put more emphasis on scoring points in sprint races, but then improved qualifying form from the champion meant feature race form won him the title

With an unprecedented five poles in a row and four feature race wins, Oscar Piastri’s scale of improvement from his 2020 FIA Formula 3 title to take the F2 crown as a rookie in 2021 was simply monumental.

His upturn in qualifying form, after not making the front row once in F3, made him the driver to beat on one-lap pace in F2 this year and that’s no easy feat given how difficult the Friday sessions are.

The single free practice session takes place in wildly different track conditions to qualifying, provides only one or two laps of truly representative running if the softest tyre compound is used (which is not usually the case), and both sessions are often interrupted by yellow and red flags.

The poles themselves are impressive, and Piastri began his season with a seventh place in Bahrain qualifying. That made him the second highest placed rookie behind MP Motorsport’s Richard Verschoor in fifth, while in Monaco it was another rookie in Theo Pourchaire (who did contest the final two rounds of 2020 in Bahrain) who outpaced Piastri by 0.458 seconds to take pole. Baku also went a rookie’s way, in this case Liam Lawson who led a Hitech GP one-two while Piastri was in third.

That meant his average grid position over the season was 2.3, significantly higher than next-best Guanyu Zhou who averaged 4.6. Compared to 2020 it’s a big leap too, as last year’s champion Mick Schumacher had an average starting spot of 7.9 and his closest rival Callum Ilott topped the table with 3.4. Christian Lundgaard was the top rookie with 6.8.

Grid positions don’t factor in dominant performances like Pourchaire’s in Monaco, nor the split group qualifying format used there, so using absolute pace is a better way of seeing who was fastest on average over the 2021 season. And this only makes Piastri’s performances look all the more impressive.

Qualifying ‘supertimes’

The post Who was really the fastest driver in Formula 2? appeared first on Formula Scout.

10. Victor Martins

No change • F3’s top rookie and most spectacular racer

Photo: Formula Motorsport Limited

Photo: Formula Motorsport Limited

FIA Formula 3’s rookie of the year was a driver who gained a lot of popularity in 2021 with his racecraft, and as an Alpine junior showcased why he deserved to be back on that programme. It’s been a very decent year for Victor Martins.

How he and team-mate (and former title rival) Caio Collet would work as a team at MP Motorsport was a curious subplot to this season, but they proved to be a fine pairing. They helped bring the team forward, particularly after a mid-season slump, into regular podium contention and even to a race win in Martins’ hands.

• Feature: Why Alpine’s new academy is more ‘restructure’ than ‘rebrand’

It was the Frenchman who spearheaded that charge, and he certainly was the most complete of all the rookies this year. That was somewhat expected given his experience coming in, but was no guarantee given MP’s middling performances in the past. Without poor rounds at the Red Bull Ring and Hungaroring, he probably would have finished third in the points, ahead of rookies with better equipment and experienced drivers (some of whom also had better equipment).

He was the most exciting driver to watch in the reversed-grid races in particular, and his charge from fifth on the grid to finally win one at Zandvoort was spectacular, methodical and very well-managed. A very strong year once again.

9. Liam Lawson

Up 4 • Couldn’t replicate DTM title bid in F2 but was outstanding on his day

Photo: Red Bull Content Pool

Photo: Red Bull Content Pool

Despite dovetailing Formula 2 with DTM (the latter of which is not recognised in this ranking, but he was mega there either way and his title loss was a massive injustice), Lawson was absolutely one of the stars of the year and one of the most exciting drivers in the junior ranks.

He produced one of the overtakes on the year with an utterly outrageous lunge on eventual champion Oscar Piastri at Monaco’s Rascasse corner of all places in the wet, only to lose the win due to a technical infringement. That was a fine way to sum up the Red Bull junior’s F2 season, really. Audacious, rapid, not fully polished but also luckless all at the same time.

Winning on debut in fine fashion was his sole triumph of the year, and that he notched up just two further podiums doesn’t do justice to the speed that Lawson showcased this year. Hitech GP’s form ebbed and flowed quite wildly, and that could be seen in Lawson’s results. The one event the team was at its strongest – Baku – was a proper weekend-long scrap between he and team-mate Juri Vips. But his fellow Red Bull junior took the spoils in a rare weekend where he had luck for a change.

While his elbows out approach comes with its benefits and drawbacks, there is absolutely no denying that is is exhilarating to watch and once Lawson polishes off some of those rough edges further, he is going to be simply awesome wherever he ends up racing long-term and a serious 2022 F2 title threat should he return and have a bit more luck going his way. He was one of 2021’s stars whose results did not reflect his speed and talent.

8. Ollie Bearman

New entry • First driver to do the F4 double in Italy and Germany

Photo: ADAC

Photo: ADAC

In the space of under eight months, Bearman has taken 18 wins, become the first driver to win both the ADAC and Italian F4 titles in the same season, been selected to join the Ferrari Driver Academy and signed for Prema for his graduation to F3. And he may yet add the coveted Aston Martin Autosport BRDC Award to his packed trophy cabinet for the year.

Four wins in the opening two ADAC F4 rounds convinced him and his team, Van Amersfoort Racing, to contest the full season there in addition to the intended main campaign in Italy. From June to mid-September, he was virtually unstoppable, winning 14 times on track, although he lost one of his Imola triumphs after post-race scrutineering claimed to have found an engine irregularity.

• Feature: How Bearman rose “to find a new limit” in F4

He came under more pressure after the summer break, particularly in Germany where the pendulum swung back in Tim Tramnitz’s direction. Bearman held his nerve, closing out the title at the final round at the Nurburgring despite a scare in race one.

His huge points lead in Italy proved unassailable, not least as the remaining wins were shared between six drivers. With the title already in the bag, his performance at the season finale at Monza was sublime. That weekend highlighted his ability to deliver storming opening laps, to pull off aggressive but controlled passes and to deliver come rain or shine.

• Podcast: The route Bearman took to his momentous F4 title double

Somehow, he also found time in his crowded schedule to take in three rounds of the GB3 series in Britain, scoring one race win and outqualifying champion-to-be Zak O’Sullivan each time. The step from F4 direct to FIA F3 has proved a big hurdle for many top names (Theo Pourchaire being a notable exception) but Bearman graduates with historically the series’ leading team and could be a title contender in his rookie season.

7. Guanyu Zhou

Up 19 • Fought for F2 title and secured dream F1 drive

Photo: Formula Motorsport Limited

Photo: Formula Motorsport Limited

Most drivers on this list dream of Formula 1. Zhou has the unique distinction as the one to have achieved it. Others might have deserved it more, but Zhou’s performances during 2021 were absolutely crucial – alongside his commercial attractiveness – in convincing Frederic Vasseur and Alfa Romeo Racing that he was worthy of a seat. Rightly or wrongly, winning the Asian F3 title at the start of the year all-but secured his FIA superlicence, but he still had to ensure a forward trajectory in F2, which he did.

One can say Zhou was only doing what he should have been doing in his third season in F2. Actually, it’s arguably what he should have done in 2020 off the back of his fine rookie campaign the year before. But the nature of modern F2 makes that easier said than done – just look at Zhou’s Alpine Academy stablemate Christian Lundgaard, who was more fancied coming into the year – and especially so with the added curveball of the quirky 2021 format.

• Feature: Has Zhou shown the qualities to be a success in F1?

The pressure was on Zhou and he generally rose to it well, starting with victory in the Bahrain feature race from pole, while his triumph over Piastri at Silverstone was excellent. But sprint races made up two thirds of the season and Zhou was less impressive in these than his rivals, his progress out of the mid-pack less efficient and making costly errors like spinning on the first lap at Silverstone or even on his way to the grid in Sochi.

Even if a driver as near-perfect as Piastri didn’t exist and Zhou finished up closer to the championship, there would still be a few lingering doubts. But it was a decent step forward and enough for him to achieve his goal.

In many ways his three-year F2 stint replicated his three years in F3, with impressive speed out of the box as a rookie but a lack of convincing progress in results thereafter when the expectations increased, and perhaps this offers the biggest clue as to how he’ll get on in F1.

6. Robert Shwartzman

No change • Became F2 runner-up in his team-mate’s shadow

Photo: Formula Motorsport Limited

Photo: Formula Motorsport Limited

There were aspects of Shwartzman’s impressive rookie F2 campaign in 2020 that could have done with a bit of work for 2021. Qualifying in particular was the huge elephant in the room. He got there eventually, but it all came way too late to stop his Prema team-mate Piastri, who just kept improving.

It looked like he may have had it all figured out early on after in-season testing, topping his qualifying group in Monaco, but then it slipped away from him again until the final two rounds where he finally cracked it (while still missing that extra little bit to Piastri).

Those qualifying struggles did allow him to capitalise on the many sprint races, where he won twice and often looked most at home. But just two podiums (including the brief half-points race in Saudi Arabia) in feature races meant a serious title challenge was never on even if he finished in the top seven in each of them. That was simply never going to be enough in a season where one driver was smashing in podiums or wins in all bar one of the rounds.

Where Shwartzman was so strong, however, was in race pace. But his lowly qualifying positions left the Ferrari junior simply too much work to do. It was a disappointing return for the pre-season title favourite for many. He didn’t look entirely settled early on, but looked much more relaxed later in the year – which is when his performances became generally stronger and more complete. A very strong season in general, with his metronomic consistency serving him very well, but ultimately lacking that something special that he used to brilliant effect in FIA F3 to take the title there.

5. Jack Doohan

New entry • Battled for F3 title in breakthrough year

Photo: Red Bull Content Pool

Photo: Red Bull Content Pool

It’s fair to say that in another year, Doohan may well have been F3 champion rather than runner-up. He came into 2021 arguably as an outsider, joining Trident. A step up from his low-key maiden season was expected, but challenging Prema seemed like a dream.

But Doohan made that dream a reality. He was consistently quick, with the best qualifying average in the field, and was more than capable of turning those strong qualifying performances into results come race three when the biggest points were handed out.

However, the season was 20 races long, not seven. Doohan may well have been the best driver when taking into account the ‘traditional’ races, but he struggled to do battle in the reversed-grid races. This was where his championship challenge slipped away from him, as he frequently finished outside the points in the opening race of the the weekend. This was a season that rewarded not just being quick, but also racecraft, and that was where Doohan fell behind Dennis Hauger in the championship.

There should also be something said about Doohan’s F2 outings in the final races of the year. He was very quick straight out of the box and not afraid to get into the fight. He took two points finishes from six races, and joined Piastri on the front row in Abu Dhabi, giving us a taste of what could be to come next year when he links up with Virtuosi Racing.

4. Kyle Kirkwood

Re-entry (27th in ’19) • Completed perfect Road to Indy rise with Lights crown

Photo: Formula Motorsport Limited

Photo: Formula Motorsport Limited

Indy Lights had its strongest field in many years with two batches of Indy Pro 2000 graduates and Kirkwood was by far the standout of the lot. Andretti Autosport may not have had the strongest overall package this year, and yet Kirkwood still delivered the title that was expected before the aborted 2020 season.

These are just some of the reasons behind Kirkwood featuring considerably higher on this list than any Lights driver before him. It’s entirely justified as well. He was mighty consistent, won races he had no right in winning and produced one of the best passes of the year (a double outside sweep on David Malukas and Linus Lundqvist – the two next-best in the series this year) at Portland in one of the best drives of the year.

• Feature: The strengths that can make the Road to Indy’s GOAT an IndyCar force

The latter point showcases why Kirkwood is so special, why he is a massive coup for the legendary A.J. Foyt and his eponymous IndyCar team and why every single team out there should be trying to get his signature for 2023.

Kirkwood won at Laguna Seca, in the dry, by a scarcely-believable 26 seconds. In a one-make series as strong as Lights was this year, he made the difference. There was no Andretti secret or anything like that, it was all him, and it left his rivals flabbergasted and the IndyCar world with an eyebrow well and truly raised.

He’s obliterated records, destroyed all in his path and concluded a remarkable junior career with a fantastic title despite seriously strong competition.

3. Dennis Hauger

Re-entry (21st in ’19) • F3 champion was a complete performer

Photo: Red Bull Content Pool

Photo: Red Bull Content Pool

Hauger produced one of the most emphatic returns to form across the junior ranks in 2021, bouncing back from a fairly miserable year to crush his rivals and continue Prema’s streak of FIA F3 drivers’ titles.

Even now, several months after the season, it’s a little unclear as to whether Prema was still dominant as in the past, or whether Trident closed right up or even overtook it in terms of performance. The likely scenario is that the form was circuit and condition-dependant but, irrespective of it, Hauger clearly was the driver of the year in F3.

• Podcast: Hauger on how he bounced back to win FIA F3

The funky one-off format made it trickier in F3 than in F2 for a driver to dominate, with 12 drivers being flipped for the reversed-grid races, and Hauger made use of those races so much better than his opposition. He regularly made progress in those, often picking up useful and solid points, before repeating the process in the next race.

It was in one of those races, Austria race one, where he produced one of his best wins of the year. Starting 12th after claiming pole in qualifying, Hauger carved his way through the pack, waited for a collision between the leaders (as often seems the case at the Red Bull Ring), and stormed to victory in one of the best charges of the year.

His emphatic destruction of the opposition at Zandvoort in qualifying and the Sunday race, where he looked his most animated all year, was also superb to watch. His Red Bull Ring race three loss goes against him somewhat, but he picked up the points when it mattered. Despite the late charge by Trident, Hauger sealed the title with one race to spare. It was beautifully managed.

2. Theo Pourchaire

Up 2 • Proved potential in F2 beyond Monaco magnificence

Photo: Formula Motorsport Limited

Photo: Formula Motorsport Limited

Pourchaire’s pole and feature race win in Monaco wasn’t only one of the junior single-seater performances of the year but also in recent memory: on his debut at a track where skill and bravery always plays such a role when past experience is absent, in the second weekend of his first full F2 campaign, and aged just 17 years and 275 days – making him the youngest ever winner at that level.

It couldn’t possibly be dismissed as a fluke, but neither does one weekend make a year. But Pourchaire showed his precocious ability at plenty of other times, even though the calendar provided a limited number of different opportunities to show off.

• Feature: The youngest ever winners in F1’s primary feeder series

He was the third-best qualifier on average, very close behind Zhou, and second only to Piastri on actual one-lap pace. After his pole in Monaco, he qualified fourth in Baku and third in Sochi, where he chased Piastri home in the feature race – finishing within two seconds of the eventual champion.

At that point he looked like the only guy in Piastri’s league, and was perhaps still a title contender if he could keep up such form. He would qualify third again in Jeddah, only to stall at the start (he’s far from the first to stall an F2 car, and was unlucky to be hit so hard). He could be forgiven for ‘only’ qualifying sixth when he got back in the car just five days later, and he still raced decently to fourth.

His feature race points haul was fourth-best (or third-best discounting the Jeddah race that lasted just five laps). A low sprint race tally cost him in the overall standings, but he rarely benefitted from the reversed grid because he usually qualified high up and finished relatively far forward in race one. Only Shwartzman and Piastri made up more points from their starting positions in these races, and he won from fourth at Monza.

Overall, Pourchaire was undoubtedly eclipsed in his achievements as a rookie by Piastri, but was very inexperienced to be performing at this level, in only his fourth year of car racing and second out of F4. There’s also over two years in age between the pair, and it does show.

For that reason, Vasseur is correct to say his protege is not ready for F1. He needs to show more maturity inside and outside of the car, and manage a title bid at this level with all the pressure and expectation that comes with it. And that is certainly not a given in the complex world of F2. But he’ll start as the favourite in 2022 given how good he already looked this year.

1. Oscar Piastri

Up 4 • Became peerless to win the F2 crown at the first attempt 

Photo: Formula Motorsport Limited

Photo: Formula Motorsport Limited

Piastri came into F2 having won back-to-back titles in Formula Regional and F3, but there was little evidence from the way he won the latter in particular to make him a title favourite in the way previous F2 rookies like Charles Leclerc or George Russell had been. In the end, his 2021 triumph became easily the most impressive of the lot such was the way he improved over the campaign to stand head-and-shoulders above his competition.

It was the racecraft that served Piastri so well in F3 that had him right in contention from the opening round, making the most of the sprint race-heavy format to take away as many points as possible from each weekend. He knew where to prioritise that point-scoring where necessary, but that didn’t mean that he was tame in wheel-to-wheel battle. Tangle with Dan Ticktum in the Bahrain feature race aside, he knew when to pick his battles. That he got taken out when he increased the risk factor in his first race after winning the title simply proved how expertly he had been managing that when it mattered before.

• Feature: How Piastri ascended to another level in 2021

Qualifying had been the big concern at the start of the year given his lack of front-row starts in F3 and Prema’s own one-lap struggles in F2 in 2020. But this became the focus of the in-season test at Barcelona and the results were immediately evident for Piastri while Shwartzman continued to struggle on conventional tracks in the middle of the year.

Piastri couldn’t convert his first pole at Silverstone, but he was never beaten again in qualifying over the rest of the year and never to the chequered flag in feature races either. By the end of the year, Prema looked unbeatable in qualifying and race trim with both cars once more, and it was Piastri that made full use of this rather than his undoubtedly talented team-mate.

The ill-thought-out F2 calendar meant Piastri’s full potential was only realised once every seat on the F1 grid had already been filled. It’s not simply the back-to-back-to-back titles that should entitle him to a drive: his full package of outright speed, sublime racecraft and calm maturity should have him near the top of any team’s shopping list regardless of experience. It’s not easy to see where the chance might come in 2023, but something is badly wrong if it doesn’t.

The Formula Scout Top 50 Drivers of 2021 has been compiled by Alejandro Alonso Lopez, Bethonie Waring, Cian Brittle, Craig Woollard, Ida Wood, Peter Allen and Roger Gascoigne. Click here to view the rest of the list.

You can listen to our podcast debating how we came to determine the top 50 order, as well as our big review of the year, below. The podcast can also be found on Breaker, Google Podcasts, Overcast, Pocket Casts, RadioPublic, Castbox, Apple Podcasts and Spotify.

The post Formula Scout Top 50 Drivers of 2021: 10-1 appeared first on Formula Scout.

Photos: Formula Motorsport Limited

What was expected to be the most open year of F2’s modern era was shaken up mid-season as Prema’s Oscar Piastri dominated, and 2021’s event format and stretched calendar made top 10 picks as tricky as ever

Ultimately, Formula Scout has come up with its list, with a unanimous pick for the top spot after analysing all of the various data and taking into consideration the respective performances of the teams as well as the drivers’ individual highs and lows. Each writer gave their top 10 and the average of those forms the basis of this list.

After the Abu Dhabi season finale we discussed season on our podcast, which you can listen to below or find on Breaker, Google Podcasts, Overcast, Pocket Casts, RadioPublic, Castbox, Apple Podcasts and Spotify.

Virtuosi Racing’s Felipe Drugovich never really seemed to gel with the team’s on-track package after his highly-anticipated move there off the back of a brilliant 2020 with MP Motorsport (where he returns in 2022), but there were flashes that put him perilously close to making this list. Bent Viscaal single-handedly putting Trident on the podium twice and into ninth in the teams’ championship gained plaudits from one of our writers too.

However, there was a lack of love for race winner Marcus Armstrong (DAMS), and podium finishers Christian Lundgaard (ART Grand Prix), David Beckmann (Charouz Racing System and Campos Racing) and Roy Nissany (DAMS) to name but a few drivers with silverware from 2021 but no spot on our top 10.

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

10. Jehan Daruvala INDIA Carlin
7th in standings, 113pts (2 wins, 1 fastest lap, 5 podiums) – TP 41.5%, QA 7.9 (8th), FR 42 (8th), SR 71 (5th), LL 63 (3rd)

Photo: Red Bull Content Pool

Cian Brittle (8th): After being so soundly beaten by Yuki Tsunoda last season, an improvement this year was expected for Daruvala, especially after he finished 2020 so strongly with a new engine. Yet this season seemed to be the opposite for the Red Bull junior, as he started well and faded away in the final rounds. He only managed three points finishes across the final three rounds, being outscored by team-mate Dan Ticktum by 24 points across those races when it had only been a 22.5-point deficit across the first five rounds. While this wasn’t a dismantling to the same extent as last year, he struggled to match Ticktum, specifically on race pace. He was also largely outperformed by Red Bull stablemates Liam Lawson and Juri Vips, so further improvement is needed going into his third season if, as testing has suggested, Dennis Hauger and Ayumu Iwasa expand the pool of Red Bull juniors in F2.

Peter Allen (9th): Daruvala made a step forward in his second F2 season, but not of the scale required to be the proper title threat he needed to be if he’s to be considered a serious F1 prospect on merit. Again he was second-best in Carlin’s line-up, unable to match Ticktum’s podium habit. Qualifying consistency was an obvious downfall: he was second to Piastri at both Monza and Sochi but was outside the top eight at five of the other six rounds. The redeeming feature of his season were his attacking drives in the sprint races where he made up more points from his starting spots than anyone aside from the potent Prema pair, although his two race wins came from the front row. More of that could be possible with his anticipated move to Prema next year, even if his Red Bull junior status is looking hard to justify at this point.

9. Ralph Boschung SWITZERLAND Campos Racing
10th in standings, 59.5pts (1 fastest lap, 2 podiums) – TP 66.5%, QA 7.9 (9th), FR 27.5 (11th), SR 32 (12th), LL 2 (13th)

Bethonie Waring (6th): Anyone who listens to the podcast knows Boschung has been one of the stars of the season to me. When making this list, one of the important factors to me wasn’t just how well they did, but how well they did compared to what I was expecting, and Boschung more than exceeded expectations. For sure, there is plenty of room for improvements and consistency was not his strong point, but when he was scoring they were decent points finishes. He didn’t appear out of his comfort zone when fighting with title contenders and more than deserved his two end-of-year podiums.

Alejandro Alonso Lopez (8th): The 2021 season was Boschung’s best to date in F2. The Swiss driver extracted the most out of his Campos-run car to qualify in the top seven in six out of eight rounds. His race results also improved considerably compared to previous years. Even though he got two podiums in the last two rounds, the highlight of his season has to be Monaco. Keeping the car away from the barriers in a very slippery track was key to scoring points in all three races. The negatives came at Monza and Sochi where two self-inflicted mistakes while running comfortably inside the top 10 prevented him from scoring more points. It will be interesting to see what he and Campos can achieve togerher in 2022, as both team and driver seem really comfortable with each other.

8. Richard Verschoor NETHERLANDS MP Motorsport/Charouz Racing System
11th in standings, 56pts (1 win, 1 podium) – TP 73.3% & 3.6%, QA 12.9 (15th), FR 30 (10th), SR 26 (15th), LL 32 (10th)

AA (5th): Verschoor has been without any doubts one of the sensations of this year’s midfield. He shined in the season opener, qualifying fifth and finishing fifth and fourth in races two and three, and his talent would be noticeable across the rest of the year. Silverstone was a strong weekend too, controlling race two from reversed-grid pole and coming very close to finishing third in the feature race. Not having his seat secured never seemed to be a problem for the Dutch, who was always fully focused when he was on track. It is also worth mentioning how quick he adapted to Charouz’s car in Abu Dhabi, after spending most of his single-seater career with MP Motorsport before the budget dried out with two F2 rounds to go.

PA (8th): Verschoor was unofficial champion of what I’m calling ‘Rookie Class B’, an underdog quartet of Dutch and German drivers who made deserved steps up from Formula 3 despite their lack of certain funding. Verschoor’s MP seat was the least certain of all, officially confirmed only on a round-by-round basis. But already on debut in Bahrain he qualified fifth – the top rookie – and finished the feature race fourth having led with five laps to go. At Silverstone, without the benefit of testing, he was similarly strong. Consistency was missing but the Macau Grand Prix winner showed his class and didn’t deserve to be bought out of his seat while he was still inside the championship top 10. Even when he returned with Charouz at the final round he came from 16th to score the team’s only feature race point of the season.

7. Juri Vips ESTONIA Hitech GP
6th in standings, 120pts (2 wins, 1 fastest lap, 6 podiums) – TP 53.8%, QA 9.9 (12th), FR 43 (7th), SR 77 (4th), LL 49 (6th)

Photo: Red Bull Content Pool

Craig Woollard (5th): The sheer volume of bad luck that Vips had in 2021 means his championship position is not reflective of his performances. This bracket outside of the top one or two down to the end of the top eight is wildly close and arguments can be made to place any one of these drivers anywhere. While Baku was extraordinary in how he traded blows (and won) with team-mate Liam Lawson, the rest of the time just something seemed to be going wrong. Therefore, it’s a bit tricky to judge how good Vips was this year. But the feeling was that he lacked a little bit in outright one-lap pace and in the same flair as some of the rookies (Vips arguably kind of came in as a half-rookie), even if the consistent speed and number of solid results he produced was pretty impressive.

BW (7th): Big things were expected from Vips for 2021 and, though they materialised, it wasn’t quite as much as anyone was expecting. He was a lot like Pourchaire in that when the weekend came together it really came together. But he wasn’t as good at making the most out of the more difficult rounds than he needed to be if he wanted to challenge for the title. Baku was definitely his weekend of the year and where he really seemed to be on top of the format, getting the most out of every race. Unfortunately that wasn’t something that continued, and there doesn’t seem to be another weekend where everything slotted together. That said, next year he should definitely be one to watch for the title, especially as we return to the old format.

AA (10th): As Bethonie said, more was expected from Vips as he was the next in the queue for a AlphaTauri Formula 1 seat coming into 2021. Hitech GP’s car didn’t have the raw speed it had in 2020, and that held the Estonian back in some races. However, when the car proved to be a rocket ship on the streets of Baku he didn’t miss the chance to claim two convincing wins. That, together with a strong central part of the season, pushed him to sixth in the standings. Perhaps Vips won’t go down in history as one of those who put the biggest show on track, but he has been definitely a solid performer this year.

6. Liam Lawson NEW ZEALAND Hitech GP
9th in standings, 103pts (1 win, 1 pole, 2 fastest laps, 3 podiums) – TP 46.2%, QA 7.6 (7th), FR 38 (9th), SR 61 (7th), LL 56 (5th)

Roger Gascoigne (5th): Though he rather lost his way thereafter, Lawson was arguably the standout driver in the first three rounds. He could have had two podiums to go with his winning debut in Bahrain, and a minor technical infringement cost him a hard-fought victory at Monaco after he had pulled off a sublime pass on Piastri. In Baku he was stunningly quick, gaining 14 places in 10 laps in race two, having been pitched out of race one. Starting from feature race pole, an overzealous defensive block of Pourchaire cost him a harsh 10-second penalty and with it a potential victory. He often found himself dicing with Piastri, passing the champion-to-be twice in Baku. Bad luck played a part: an errant fire extinguisher at Monza and an engine failure in Abu Dhabi both caused retirements. His qualifying was poor outside of Baku, and to what extent did his parallel (and successful) DTM campaign distract him?

AA (6th): Expectations were high for the rookie after kicking off the season with a sprint race win and a feature race podium, and he wouldn’t disappoint. When the championship resumed in Monaco, Lawson proved his talent again with a fabulous manoeuvre on Oscar Piastri at the inside of Rascasse, en route to another win that would be eventually taken away due to a technical infringement. If there is a weekend where Lawson could have achieved more, that is Baku. Despite claiming pole, a race one collision and a penalty due to another incident in race three prevented him from reaching the podium on Hitech’s strongest weekend. Thereon, his season was affected by several mechanical failures, but he was still one of the main characters of on-track battles.

PA (6th): Lawson’s sheer talent really shone through at points – especially early on – even if his final championship position didn’t reflect it as well as his remarkable DTM exploits did. A winning start in Bahrain was followed by his stunning wet-weather Monaco win that should never be forgotten – his throttle-mapping mistake that caused his disqualification gave him a bad getaway anyway. He also claimed pole in Baku. But he then faded, not helped by Hitech losing ground in qualifying, but Lawson was usually quicker than team-mate Vips. Like Vips he suffered misfortune too, such as his fire extinguisher snuffing out a strong race at Monza. He was F2’s most spectacular racer and it got him into trouble sometimes. That he and Piastri raced each other so hard so frequently without issue suggests there wasn’t too much wrong with his own car placement, but a wiser approach could pay off in 2022.

5. Dan Ticktum BRITAIN Carlin
4th in standings, 159.5pts (2 wins, 1 fastest lap, 7 podiums) – TP 58.5%, QA 7.0 (5th), FR 75.5 (5th), R2P 84 (3rd), LL 44 (7th)

PA (5th): At the point when Ticktum’s F1 dreams came crashing down (for probably the final time), he was right among F2’s top performers – as evidenced by his second place behind Guanyu Zhou and ahead of Piastri in the Silverstone feature race – so he arguably had some right to feel aggrieved that there wasn’t more trust in his abilities. He made the podium in each of the first six rounds, and three times in feature races – a tally nobody else except Piastri and Zhou matched. But too many points were lost in a surprising number of on-track scrapes for a driver whose wheel-to-wheel judgement has usually been far better than his critics suggest. And his form nosedived at the end of the season, wasting a final chance to show F1 what it was missing.

CB (5th): I’m not quite sure how to define Ticktum’s season, but it was incredibly solid (if not spectacular). He failed to score only four times, and three of those were retirements, meaning that just the Prema drivers had higher average finishing positions. Only Zhou and Piastri recorded more wins, too. But his qualifying dropping away in the season’s second half ruined any chances of a title charge (his average qualifying position fell from 4th across the first four races to 10th in the final four). This performance drop coincided with his departure from Williams’s driver academy, but this sums up the conundrum that is Dan Ticktum, as his behaviour out of the car continues to cause problems for someone so mercurially quick. Two moments that occurred away from racing aside, it was definitely a more mature approach this season and I look forward to seeing him adjust as he moves over to Formula E.

CW (6th): This year probably didn’t give us the best of Ticktum. There were consistent podiums, sure, but there were also big errors, a lack of huge point-paying weekends and a very substandard final two rounds. Off-track comments (and subsequent press conference outbursts) aside, Ticktum liked to complain about boredom and was just regularly in his own mindset through the year. There was the feeling that he could have featured a bit more regularly with the package that served Tsunoda so well last year, but things just rarely quite came together for him, aside from an inherited Monaco win, a fine Sochi success and a smattering of podiums elsewhere. There’s the feeling this year was a missed opportunity, and he leaves F2 without having quite mustered the results his talent was capable of. At least the radio chatter seemed to have reduced this year.

• Feature: How a team switch tilted Ticktum towards the front of F2

4. Robert Shwartzman RUSSIA (RAF) Prema
2nd in standings, 192pts (2 wins, 3 fastest laps, 8 podiums) – TP 43.2%, QA 6.9 (4th), FR 84 (3rd), SR 108 (1st), LL 42 (8th)

CB (2th): Second in the standings, yet this has to be seen as a disappointing season for Shwartzman. While he improved his qualifying performance from last year, it remained inconsistent and this proved decisive with this season’s much-maligned format adding greater emphasis to qualifying. The Russian couldn’t get near his rookie team-mate Piastri in qualifying, citing him as the “strongest team-mate I’ve had in my career”, and it translated into a chasm of points between the two. Piastri may have ended up a comfortable 60.5 points ahead, but Shwartzman found himself outscored by 20 points in qualifying and by 73.5 points in the feature races – a total that could have been higher if not for the shortened Jeddah race. Whatever his plans for 2022, he leaves F2 having only been beaten by four drivers (Mick Schumacher, Callum Ilott, Tsunoda and Piastri) across two seasons – not a bad list of drivers there.

RG (4th): Despite being title runner-up, it was a disappointing year for the pre-season title favourite as his rookie team-mate comprehensively outdrove him. Qualifying let him down too often, and though his racecraft was often superb, he left himself with too much to do. Both of his wins came in the opening sprint race where a front row start was the reward for a poor qualifying. Indeed, while he scored more points (108) than anyone else in the sprint races, taking only two podiums in feature races was not good enough. Once out front he could be uncatchable – in Baku he simply disappeared to win. But luck didn’t do him any favours. In Monaco, where he did top a qualifying session it was in the slower group. And on race day a fluffed pitstop cost him even a podium.

CW (4th): Shwartzman, as stealthy as he has ever been, snuck his way into second in the standings, and his season wasn’t bad by any stretch, but there was very little that was an outstanding highlight. That’s an approach that looked to perhaps even be the one to follow coming into this season, but the strength of the opposition changed the narrative on its head. Shwartzman’s brace of sprint race wins was great, but it also showcased qualifying as his big weakness. He got it nailed in the end (and in Monaco, straight after Prema focused on it during in-season testing), but the damage was done. To be so metronomically consistent in a series in which it is near-impossible to do sp was impressive, the lack of big results in qualifying and feature races less-so. Therefore, fourth on this list feels justified.

• Feature: The F2 juggernauts adopting each other’s strengths in 2021

3. Guanyu Zhou CHINA Virtuosi Racing
3rd in standings, 183pts (4 wins, 1 pole, 1 fastest lap, 9 podiums) – TP 63.5%, QA 4.6 (2nd), FR 112 (2nd), SR 67 (6th), LL 87 (1st)

CW (3rd): It wasn’t quite the title for Alfa Romeo Racing’s 2022 F1 driver, but very much a job done for Zhou in 2021. Yeah, his title challenge ultimately fell flat, but he was probably the driver in the season’s first half. The problem is that it was so long ago, it’s easy to forget his Bahrain weekend, where he persistently made weird strategies emphatically work, and Silverstone where he triumphed over Piastri. Those were both really, really strong performances. However, and this is a very big however, he was far too inconsistent, and some really silly errors cropped up (spinning out before things really got going at Silverstone and Sochi the two prime examples). Irrespective of past experience, this was by no means a dreadful season, but the flatness of the title challenge, errors and lack of ultimate performance makes it impossible to justify a higher position.

RG (2nd): Zhou’s third F2 season was comfortably his most impressive. Pole and the feature race win in Bahrain gave him a flying start, and after winning the first sprint race next time out in Monaco he began to look like title favourite. With two wins and two second places from feature races, he at times looked a class apart. But his racecraft could let him down when he needed to fight through the field and there were too many errors for a driver of his calibre and experience. Spins at Silverstone and on the formation lap in Sochi were costly. But as the only driver to land an F1 seat, he can look at the year as “job done”. 

AA (7th): His season raised more questions than provided answers. With a F1 future on the horizon, he was tipped to at least fight for the title until the very end, but it wasn’t meant to be. Zhou kicked off the season in style with pole, a sprint race podium and feature race victory, but such strong form wouldn’t last long. A lack of pace in Baku and Jeddah, several unforced errors, and not being able to gain places when he was in the middle of the pack are some of the reasons why he was third in the standings and almost 70 points off the champion. It’s true that he was very good when he was at the front, but having the chance to always drive at the front isn’t common in motorsport.

• Feature: How the F2 grid fizzled out of the F1 silly season [September ’21]

2. Theo Pourchaire FRANCE ART Grand Prix
5th in standings, 140pts (2 wins, 1 pole, 4 fastest laps, 3 podiums) – TP 73.7%, QA 4.9 (3rd), FR 77 (4th), SR 59 (8th), LL 61 (4th)

CW (2nd): What young Pourchaire achieved in Monaco was perhaps the single strongest performance across the junior categories in 2021, absolutely decimating the rest of the opposition during his first appearance on the famed street track. But that alone does not elevate him so highly on this list. Dragging what felt like a subpar ART GP package consistently towards the front was a huge achievement in itself and keeping in title contention towards the end despite a mid-season injury meaning he wasn’t quite at peak form on that basis was brilliant. Just the way he hustles a car around is a joy to watch as well, and of all the rookies on this list he was able to produce the most ‘wow’ moments. The sole downside was a few unnecessary mistakes creeping in. It’s like watching early Fernando Alonso in F1, Pourchaire’s going to be that outstanding.

CB (3rd): A lowest finish of 10th all season – discounting the races where he didn’t make the chequered flag – shows just how solid a year this was for Pourchaire. However, I think his consistency worked against him as too often he found himself in the middle of the points, with only three podiums all season. His rookie campaign would probably get more credit if not for Piastri, and it had spectacular moments – namely that pole lap in Monaco. Beating his nearest challenger by almost half a second was astounding and it highlights just how exciting a talent he really is. It’s also important to factor in his accident in Baku and ensuing injury that affected him across the Silverstone weekend, which led to him scoring just 10 points in four races. Another step-up next season and he has to be one of the clear title favourites.

BW (4th): Pourchaire came into the season as one of the rookies to watch, and he definitely lived up to that. It wasn’t a perfect season by any means, with a few too many retirements not necessarily his fault. But overall it was better than could be expected from a building year in F2. Seeing him bounce back from injury was brilliant, and to be able to keep that steady improvement is a good sign of things to come. But there are still improvements to be made. Along with typical rookie mistakes, Pourchaire can make leaps in qualifying and race pace. When the weekend came together, it really came together, but he didn’t seem to be able to bounce back from poor qualifying results as well as others.

• Feature: What Pourchaire’s future could be, and remembering the man who founded it

1. Oscar Piastri AUSTRALIA Prema
1st in standings, 252.5pts (6 wins, 5 poles, 6 fastest laps, 11 podiums) – TP 56.8%, QA 2.3 (1st), FR 139.5 (1st), SR 93 (2nd), LL 68 (2nd)

BW (1st): It’s hard to see anyone but Piastri in the top spot. Coming into the year, even as a FIA F3 champion, its fair to say most people saw this as a learning year for him. Apparently he didn’t get the memo. There’s a lot of talk about the format changes but, in my opinion, being able to adapt to a different format and manage a title challenge over the course of a season is much more important than bring able to qualify well and dominate races. In series like FE, we’ve seen that’s what separates the great from the champion and bodes well for whatever Piastri does in the future. Obviously his qualifying and race pace were also phenomenal, showing a clear step up from F3 last season.

PA (1st): Piastri began the season showing the same calm but effective racecraft that worked so well for him in F3 (he quickly learnt from fighting Ticktum too hard in Bahrain) and it looked like that alone would make him a very strong title contender given how well-suited it was to 2021’s format. Then he started to nail qualifying – his weakness from F3 – and he became utterly unstoppable. His growth and self-improvement to this point has been somewhat reminiscent of George Russell’s, and with that he made the most of a Prema package that is once more consistently strong across the board for the first time since Charles Leclerc’s domination of 2017. As a rookie champion he’s rightly talked about in the same terms, and F1 teams should be fighting over his services – even if only on loan.

RG (1st): What new can be said about Piastri’s incredible season? Yes, he was in the strongest team, but he clearly had the measure of his more experienced team-mate. His F3 title had been won through consistency rather than outright speed but five consecutive poles this year comprehensively erased any remaining doubts there. In the second half of this year, he was simply untouchable. To win four feature races on the bounce is a very tough ask in such a competitive series. Inevitably, where reversed grids force even the fastest driver into the midfield skirmishes there were some isolated incidents but by-and-large he managed to keep out of trouble. Only Shwartzman took more points in the sprint races. Undoubtedly a worthy champion. Had his winning streak come earlier in the year, his claim for an F1 race seat for 2022 would surely have been irresistible.

CW (1st): There were no persistent flaws to Piastri’s outstanding campaign, and he is the easy choice for top spot on that basis. He just kept getting better and better as the year went on and was the strongest driver for much of the year above experienced opposition. Was he the most ruthless overtaker? No, but that’s not what wins you an F2 title. Piastri was measured, methodical and mighty in his approach, often being passive in the first race of a weekend to capitalise later on, particularly once he had qualifying nailed. The way he simply tore up the script and dominated what should have been an open season was a real shock. I would certainly argue that this has been the strongest season for a F2 driver since Leclerc. Piastri was that good this year.

• Feature: How Piastri ascended to another level with his crushing F2 title run

More F2 features
Opinion: Why F2’s stewards were right to let Deledda race in Monaco
The youngest ever winners in F1’s primary feeder series

The post The Top 10 Formula 2 drivers of 2021 appeared first on Formula Scout.

Photo: Formula Motorsport Limited

Alpine junior Oscar Piastri is on the verge of securing a historic third consecutive junior single-seater championship in Abu Dhabi. As Craig Woollard explains, his rivals’ narrow title hopes are all but non-existent

51.5 points sounds like a lot when only 65 points are on the table and, in reality, it really is. While Robert Shwartzman is in contention to overhaul Prema team-mate Piastri to snatch the Formula 2 crown, his task is unbelievably challenging to achieve. For complete outsider Guanyu Zhou, being 64.5 points means anything other than a perfect weekend for the future Formula 1 driver will not be enough.

Mathematically, sure, Shwartzman can sure do it. But what he will need to do to overhaul his team-mate is not an easy task. Zhou’s objective is straightforward to the point where anybody can make sense of it, but Shwartzman’s is problematic with how complex the format and season is this year.

For a start, the title is very much out of Shwartzman’s hands. He requires Piastri to score fewer than 13 points throughout the weekend to even stand a chance of taking the title. That’s less than one fourth place in the feature race or one second place in either of the two sprint races with no scores anywhere else across the weekend, or a smattering of minor points places in the three races.

That is simply a level of performance that Piastri has not dipped to at any point this season. Only in the weekends with his two non-finishes (Bahrain and Baku) has he scored as low as 21 across the weekend. Even in Sochi (with race two cancelled) and Jeddah (half points in the feature race), Piastri scored more through the weekend.

He is on an exceptional run of form with four poles and four wins (three of them feature races) from the last four events. The wildly long gaps between previous rounds seemed to do nothing to stunt his momentum and, barring a weekend littered with unreliability and issues beyond his control, it would be unlikely that Piastri has a massively challenging weekend.

Photo: Prema

In the very unlikely event that condition is fulfilled, Shwartzman would need to achieve something no driver has achieved in F2 this season with the new format, or in FIA Formula 3 with a very similar format – scoring over 51 points in a weekend.

No driver in F2 this season has scored more than 41 points in a weekend. Piastri (Monza), Zhou (Bahrain) and Juri Vips (Baku) have all scored that much, but nobody has come close to the tally Shwartzman requires to come out on top. In FIA F3, champion Dennis Hauger scored 49 points at the Red Bull Ring with a trio of podiums (a win with fastest lap and a third place in the reverse grid races from 12th on the grid, and second in race three from pole).

So, the odds are very firmly stacked against Shwartzman on that basis alone. The way to accumulate 51 points is very tricky. And Shwartzman in almost two seasons has qualified no higher than second. Should he claim pole, and convert it into victory with fastest lap, then he will take 31 points. That pole, however, puts Shwartzman in 10th for the first sprint race.

He’ll still need to accumulate at least 22 more points at the very least (working on the unlikely assumption that Piastri fails to score) across the two sprint races. That’s two third places and a fastest lap, or a second place and a third place. That won’t be easy from 10th and eighth or ninth on a reversed grid. Alternatively, going from 10th to sixth and then from fifth to first with both fastest laps will suffice for a Saturday before a perfect Sunday.

Another alternative would be to take second place in all three races with all 10 available bonus points, from ninth, ninth and pole. Again, it’s a difficult hypothetical to envisage given nobody has scored more than 41 points in a weekend, and Shwartzman hasn’t taken more than 36 across a weekend this season to date.

Can Shwartzman be a threat for pole at Yas Marina and finally put those Friday woes behind him? It is entirely plausible. He was close to doing it in Jeddah last weekend, if not for a final corner error, and feels like he’s finally cracked it.

“Unfortunately, I struggled quite a bit in qualifying [in 2021], but it seems that only now I sort of found the idea of what the issue [was],” he said after sprint race two. “It’s a bit late maybe, but still it’s good to know what actually happened.”

Photo: Prema

He expanded on the issue as being “something personal driving-wise”, which indicated his own driving wasn’t a perfect implementation of the rigorously practiced approaches done in Prema’s simulator. But Shwartzman says he has to wait until Abu Dhabi to see if he has made a breakthrough, or if his most recent change in pursuit of speed just suited Jeddah’s unique layout.

F1’s Abu Dhabi finale is set up to be the most intense in many, many years. F2’s ultimately has likely fallen a little short of it, largely due to Piastri’s remarkable consistency. It will be a mammoth challenge for Shwartzman to triumph, but any chance is still a chance. He’ll need some outrageous scenarios to occur, but F2 can be wildly unpredictable. This, though, may be a stretch even by F2’s standards.

For the championship leader, however, he’s not celebrating yet. “It’s not done until it’s mathematically impossible,” Piastri said in the post-feature race press conference. “Obviously, the points gap is big now and that was exactly the plan going into this weekend. But I still need to make sure it’s done first and then I’ll hopefully celebrate it.”

The drivers looking to 2022

The current top four in the standings will be moving on from F2 next year, with Theo Pourchaire in fifth set for a second season with ART Grand Prix and Juri Vips in sixth also likely to remain at Hitech GP.

The only deals already confirmed for 2022 are far further back, as Ralph Boschung goes for a third F2 campaign with Campos Racing after taking his first podium in the Jeddah feature race and Clement Novalak goes full-time with MP Motorsport having signed to contest the last two rounds of 2021 to prepare.

“The feature race was bizarre, but I’m nevertheless delighted to finally stand on the F2 podium,” Boschung said.

“It’s been a long time coming and we’ve had the potential to achieve it all season, so it’s an amazing feeling for both me and the team to get our hands on a trophy.”

That’s not hyperbole, as Boschung’s street circuit abilities has put him in contention for strong results in Monaco, Baku, Sochi and then Jeddah. But to end a five-year streak without a win in Abu Dhabi will be unlikely.

“We immediately had good pace [in Jeddah] and I knew we would be in the fight for pole,” he added. “I got a great launch off the line in the feature race and managed to avoid Pourchaire, who stalled just ahead of me.

“At the restart I was feeling quick and pressured Shwartzman for second place. At the same time, Zhou attacked me from behind, but I defended well to hold position. We still have some improvements to make, especially with race pace, but we are feeling good right now and I’m excited for the finale in Abu Dhabi this weekend.”

The post Why it will be near-impossible to stop Piastri being F2’s number one appeared first on Formula Scout.