Photo: W Series

W Series raced the Toyota Racing Series’ fleet of Tatuus FT-60 cars at Barcelona back in May, and will be utilising them once more in Singapore this weekend.

To ease logistical pressures following the Miami season opener and ahead of October’s round at Circuit of the Americas, W Series have borrowed the cars of another Formula Regional series, with TRS not racing until next January, so as not to fly the Tatuus T-318 chassis it normally uses across the world several times.

TRS’s cars have an identical monocoque and also use the lighter steering rack W Series opted for, but have a different chassis and engine combination as they contain a turbocharged 2.0-litre Toyota engine producing 285bhp rather than W Series’ usual 1.75L Alfa Romeo-badged units that push out 270bhp.

Speaking to Formula Scout in the Barcelona post-race press conference, the podium finishers explained how they found the TRS cars.

Race winner Jamie Chadwick, who struggled with the T-318’s standard steering rack when racing in FRegional European Championship, felt it was “same but different”.

“I don’t think that made [a larger engine] much of a difference. It was mainly the dampers, and the cylinders were slightly different, but you just adjust to what you have.”

“The start was a bit different, a lot of us bogged down but it’s the same for everyone. But from my side it was getting in and adapting to what I had.

“No two race cars are the same even though I raced in 2020 and used W Series cars but it was just trying to adapt as quickly as possible.”

Abbi Pulling finished second at Barcelona and got experience of the ‘standard’ T-318 with Renault power in a 2020 Formula Renault Eurocup cameo.

“It’s a very interesting car,” she said. “The starting procedure is a little bit different and because they are 15 kilograms heavier, and that’s all in the Toyota engine.

“It’s all to the rear and it’s made the balance of the car a bit more of a handful compared to the Alfa Romeo-engined cars that we more frequently use. I think it made it really interesting.

“It’s almost given the engineers a bit more of a challenge as well, so it’s definitely been fun in that aspect having more thought behind our set-ups than we normally kind of veer towards.

“We all go quite similarly so this weekend everyone was in lots of different places with their set-ups, so it was quite fun in that aspect. The turbo lag is a bit less as well. So, the turbo lag makes it quite enjoyable coming out of the corners. But I like either car, they both have their pros and cons.”

Third-placed Alice Powell added: “They’ve been a bit more of a handful for us, plus the higher temperatures as well and it’s a high deg track and we didn’t test these cars here when we had our test, so it’s been fairly difficult for all of us to adapt”.

The post How W Series drivers found the TRS car they will race in Singapore appeared first on Formula Scout.

Photo: Joe Portlock / Formula Motorsport Limited

No wins and no poles from the first seven races for the team associated heavily with its dominant form in FIA F3 is a poor return. But as Prema led the points before its first 2022 win, was there actually a dip in form?

This is the team that obliterates the opposition in F3. It last went title-free in the category in 2010 (while competing in the Italian and Euro Series), but in 2022 it took a long time to get off the mark.

It came come close a couple of times prior to Arthur Leclerc’s feature race win at Silverstone last weekend. Ollie Bearman nearly won the season opener at Bahrain but was penalised, and Leclerc and Jak Crawford came second in the first two feature races of the year. Prema had a 22-point margin at the top of the teams’ standings with its three drivers in the top seven in the championship. Fast forward seven days and now Leclerc is six points off the top and Prema is now 62 points clear.

It would, therefore, be a bit daft to call it a crisis as such, but the results had not been quite there before last weekend.

It was something that MP Motorsport’s third-year driver Alexander Smolyar picked up on in the preceding round at Barcelona.

“F3 is a very, very competitive series. For sure when they changed the car [from GP3], it was like maybe three or two teams which were able to fight for pole.

“Now, I think this year we can agree that we moved much more closer to Prema, at least in terms of qualifying pace. So now, it’s really if you ask before the qualifying who is going to take pole it’s really hard to answer.”

Qualifying has proven to be very important in FIA F3 since it and the introduction of the Dallara F3 2019 car with its up-and-down raceability. Prema’s Robert Shwartzman and Dennis Hauger made a habit of being great in qualifying (although Oscar Piastri never could quite get the one-lap pace nailed) and it proved pivotal to their title campaigns.

Hauger and Leclerc in 2021

Roman Stanek, who claimed the Trident team’s second pole in a row at Barcelona, agreed F3 is highly competitive in 2022.

“You can really see how the championship is competitive. All of the teams basically are very competitive, and everything can happen in quali or in the race. So that’s why you can see different teams win every race, and that’s what is the most exciting about the FIA F3 championship.”

ART Grand Prix’s points leader Victor Martins had more to add last month, saying: “I think since a lot of years now F3 has been really competitive. For sure in some seasons one team can take the most out of all of the situations, but I think this year it’s really consistent, and you can see when drivers switch to another team they can really still manage to get points and some wins and podiums.

“Let’s see what’s going to happen in the middle and the end of the season, since the beginning we have had three polesitters I think, three different ones. You never know who is going to be on pole before the session.”

It’s now been four different drivers on pole in four weekends, with just one front row appearance for Prema and an average qualifying position of ninth, but as the points table shows it is still the Italian outfit that is outscoring everyone else.

“For sure they are there on the race pace, we could see that with Leclerc in the races in Bahrain, in Imola with Crawford also. But I think with the one-lap push we got everyone just a lot closer to them, or maybe in front,” Martins said.

“Trident has been good since the beginning of the season, I don’t know if they are the best package but they make the most out of qualifying better than the others. I am happy with my car, and what we have done since the beginning of this year with ART.”

Smolyar, who later had to miss Silverstone due to the restrictions on Russian athletes, reflected on Prema’s qualifying form: “I was surprised in Bahrain that they were quite far [back] in qualifying. I thought they did some kind of mistake, but I think now we can see we are finally probably on the same level with them.

“As Victor said, still in the races they are very quick. We can see it with Leclerc doing mega comebacks and seeing a Prema car in your mirror during the race is not a good thing for sure. So still have a lot to catch, a lot to learn for the races, and hopefully we will do it quite soon.”

So what do Prema’s own drivers make of the season start, and the results breakthrough last weekend as Leclerc qualified second and finished first, Crawford nabbed fastest lap and Bearman claimed his first feature race podium on Sunday?

“None of us have had any poles yet. I think we’ve been quick in the qualifying. Bahrain we struggled a bit, and then Imola there was a chance to be on pole there and then I think [at Barcelona] there was a chance as well,” said Crawford.

“It all comes down to circumstances and getting the lap in at the right time. I think we’re still there on the qualifying pace.”

After his Silverstone win, Leclerc spoke to Formula Scout about the achievement.

“We did a really strong job all the weekend, in qualifying and in race the pace was great in the sprint.

“In the feature race it was completely different, and it wasn’t easy to keep it in front with the DRS really powerful in this track, so it was really hard to create a gap.

“Of course, I think we have the pace to win the championship, but I think three other teams have the pace to win as well. We are all really close this year as you can see in the classification, and every single details count. So nothing is won for anyone, we still have a long way to go.”

His team-mate Bearman added to that after finishing third:

Photo: Prema

“In terms of race pace, I think we’ve always had pretty strong race pace this year. I don’t think we’ve made a step so to speak.

“But this track is slightly better for overtaking than Barcelona because the tyres don’t overheat as easily and also the fact that I can – I mean yesterday you would say that my race pace was not great, but actually I would say that we were strong again, just that when you’re stuck in the DRS train you can’t really show the pace very well. I would say that we’re still pretty strong and looking forward to Red Bull Ring.”

All three are probably right. Prema is still ‘there’, or thereabouts at least, but the advantage has certainly disappeared.

It’s certainly no crisis, but Prema has its work cut out this year to secure either title, let alone the crushing levels of performances we’ve become accustomed to seeing in the past.

For a full analysis of the competitive order in FIA F3, check out Formulascout.com following the Austrian Grand Prix this weekend for a mid-season data review

The post Has juggernaut Prema seen off an unlikely F3 crisis? appeared first on Formula Scout.

Photo: Formula Motorsport Limited

There’s a lot of racing to go, but Craig Woollard argues that both F2 and F3 can go one of many ways in 2022

If there is one thing that a pure, diehard motorsport fan enjoys seeing, it’s close competition. That’s what us fans thrive off of. It’s what keeps us hooked and it’s why we keep coming back for more.

Both Formula 2 and FIA Formula 3 feel closer than ever this year, and that is a testament to the jobs that the teams have done and the quality of the drivers (for the most part) taking part. Many are aligned to Formula 1 teams already, and plenty others are doing a good job of putting themselves in the shop window to them on a grand prix weekend.

This writer fondly remember raising an eyebrow last year when Zhou Guanyu said 10 drivers could be in the mix for the 2021 F2 title, but it does feel that we’re heading in that direction in F3. In F2 less so, but that is still wildly open this year.

Perhaps the most telling stat with F2 is that Virtuosi Racing has had two of the five poles this year yet sat absolutely last in the teams’ standings before the Barcelona feature race, the eighth race of the season. Jack Doohan – who claimed those two poles – has scored all but two of its 47 points, and both he and team-mate Marino Sato have had scruffy seasons, showcasing the fine margins between the front and the back this year.

That’s one of the quickest teams in F2. Two years ago, when the 18-inch rim Pirelli tyres were introduced, it was undoubtably the quickest. Prema, in particular in Oscar Piastri’s highly capable hands and feet, looked to have the edge over Virtuosi last year but this year it’s hard to tell who’s on top.

The little mistakes that have been creeping in from teams and drivers, and the little reliability troubles that still plague the Dallara F2 2018 car in its fifth season, are making all the extra bit of difference this season. Fewer points on offer in the sprint races has emphasised the importance of qualifying, but that is really close.

Barcelona is a really good benchmark to go off as teams test there and all of the drivers know it, so it’s a circuit where each combination is closer to its ultimate pace than say Monaco where everyone finishes the weekend knowing there was another one or two seconds of laptime to be found with more time on track.

At Barcelona there were 10 different teams occupying the first 11 places in qualifying. Only ART Grand Prix (third and seventh) got both of its cars in the grid’s top half, while Campos Racing was the only team not to be there. However its usual frontrunner Ralph Boschung was absent from qualifying due to neck pain but his average qualifying position has been sixth.

Those 10 teams were all within 0.669% of Doohan’s pole time. That’s remarkable competitiveness, not least with one new team this year. And what we have seen so far is that there is no one outstanding team in executing races, and it’s ebbing and flowing from weekend to weekend. It will take another Piastri to come along and completely reshape the narrative, and the combination will need to be pretty much perfect to do so. Otherwise, it will be a crazy scrap for the 2022 title.

Formula Scout put the question of whether F2 is really competitive to a couple of drivers over the Barcelona weekend.

“Yeah, I think so,” said Felipe Drugovich, winner of both races at Barcelona and the F2 leader by 32 points; a handy but not insurmountable margin. “If you look back in the past years, maybe before 2020 or even in GP2, there were just certain teams that were winning, and it was quite a big difference from the top teams to the back teams.

“And nowadays it’s quite different, we are just quite similar every time and the positions are changing throughout each track. So every team is very well prepared and I think maybe it’s going to be like this until the end of the year, we need to wait and see.”

For DAMS’ Ayumu Iwasa, he identified qualifying on tracks he has never been on as a key point of focus to keep it close with his experienced rivals. “I think actually that taking points in the feature races is really important because they’re big points.

Photo: Red Bull Content Pool

“Also I have some tracks which I’ve never driven before, so I need to work on those circuits but I have good confidence in the car so I think I will be able to push from the beginning of the weekend and I need to get a good result in qualifying which would be really important because otherwise I cannot get a good grid [spot] on the feature race, so it will be really important.”

And while he’s right, it will be important to make the most out of a high grid spot. While Drugovich was clinical in Jeddah and then at Barcelona, both Juri Vips and Doohan have squandered pole positions this year and sit fifth and sixth in the standings. They’re 64 and 68 points beind Drugovich, having scored less than half of what he has so far, but with an incredible nine rounds still to go in this record-length season it means there’s still 351 points available to score.

In total 14 drivers made the podium in the first eight races, which is more than the whole of the 2019 season. That year, 12 of those drivers got a top-three finish in the first 10 races, with the next year’s champion Mick Schumacher being the only exception. Last year there were only 11 drivers on the podium in the first 10 races, although that was over four rounds and six more drivers reached the podium across the rest of the season, as with 2020. In the first year of the current car’s use in 2018, there was the expected variability as 13 different faces made the podium in the first eight races.

Because of the calendar length, scoring big (but not necessarily massive) will make the difference this year. Just ask Prema’s Jehan Daruvala, who has been doing exactly that and is third in the standings despite no wins and an electrical issue that put him out of the Barcelona feature race. That “demoralising” retirement could potentially be very costly in the title fight.

And what of FIA F3? With 30 cars on the grid, the gap between pole and 11th in Barcelona qualifying was just 0.382% – even closer than in F2. Six of the 10 teams made that top 11, with the top five covered by 0.230%. The title picture is very tight, with 19 points separating the lead five and with several more drivers capable of podiums and wins.

“Especially qualifying, it’s really, really tight,” outlined MP Motorsport’s Caio Collet. “I felt I did a good lap [at Barcelona], I had a few mistakes during the lap and I was quite surprised I was P7 – that close – so obviously you need to maximise everything you can, and do the fewest mistakes as possible in every session you go out because it’s very, very close.”

Campos Racing’s David Vidales, currently one point and one position ahead of Collet in the standings in 10th place, also pointed out the important word beginning with ‘c’: “Everything is really close. The good thing is that no one has really been able to create a gap to the other drivers and from our side, we have been in the points for four out of five races so consistency is one of the keys in this championship. In quali everything is very close, so one tenth can make a big difference and put you from top five to not even getting in the top 12. Everything makes the difference, and you have to focus on all the small things to get a good position in qualifying.”

Prema’s Jak Crawford added: “It’s really competitive. There are a lot of good drivers, good teams, and everything makes the difference. Yesterday, for instance, I had a bit of traffic, lost two tenths on my lap and that’s the difference between P9 and the top three [in qualifying].”

The level of F2 and FIA F3 is outrageously high, which makes it all the more difficult to watch when it is something beyond a driver’s control that affects their race. These little things will change so much in championships so tight, and how the picture shapes out will be very fun to watch from afar.

Hopefully there is a proper title narrative to follow until the end, and things don’t pan out as Formula E did last season when 18 drivers went into the final weekend still capable of winning the title. If so, some very good drivers will be overlooked for really good drives next year, and plenty more will miss out on crucial FIA superlicence points that can end dreams of F1 even if they’ve excelled in their series.

At the start of the year, I thought Liam Lawson and Crawford would be the F2 and F3 champions. Now, who knows? It’s anyone’s guess.

The post Opinion: Just how competitive are Formula 2 and FIA Formula 3 in 2022? appeared first on Formula Scout.

Photo: Alpine F1 Team

Alpine junior Jack Doohan had his first taste of Formula 1 machinery last month at Qatar’s Losail circuit, and gave his impressions on his return to Formula 2.

The Virtuosi Racing driver spoke to select media, including Formula Scout, about his run in last year’s Alpine A521 car.

“I’ve been to a few of the tests before, obviously not in the driver’s seat,” he said.

“So to be able to fully work with all of the engineers instead of just, not small talk, but to be in the driver’s seat and to be going through the motions with them and learning more about how they operate and how a test day’s executed was unbelievable.”

On the extent of his test run, he added: “I think we completed something between 80 and 90 laps, I think it was 86 laps. Unfortunately for some reason there was this weird cutting of the tyres. So, Oscar [Piastri, Alpine’s reserve driver] was running the two days before me and obviously he’s prioritised, as it’s his testing plan.

“The double kerbs are aggressive in Qatar and he cut through a few sets of tyres, so he took a couple of sets from my allocation so in the end I didn’t do any quali sims but definitely still got a good amount of running.

“The car’s a completely different beast [to F2], so much downforce and the braking force is unbelievable. And it’s something that in the end it’s adaptation, and to learn about how to use that to your advantage and where the car can give you more because there’s so much for it to give.

“That now I’m just trying to – the day I did the test was Sunday, and then I was in the F2 simulator on Monday, and it was a big reality check to come back. But it is what I am doing, so I need to not get caught up with any of that in F1 because I’m in F2 and I still have a very big and steep job to go.”

Doohan utilised Piastri’s F1 experience during the test.

“Conversations [with Oscar] were basically going from how quick the track is, just general chat trying to pick his brain a little bit about the car and about the feeling about how things were. It was super-hot, it was close to 40 degrees, and on his days it was up to like 40-50kph wind so the conditions were not ideal, a bit difficult, which in the end isn’t bad because it shapes you as a better driver.

“For the test, from transferring F1 to F2, there’s just a lot more things going on at a lot quicker speed. You have the possibility to change the car while driving, there’s differential setting, torque settings and different mappings, so when you can apply – especially when things need to be dialled in more – then there’s a lot more things going on across a lap.”

The post How Doohan’s first Formula 1 test with Alpine went appeared first on Formula Scout.

Photo: W Series

Abbi Pulling and Alice Powell believe that W Series should adopt a push-to-pass system as an overtaking aid after struggling to pass Jamie Chadwick in the recent race at Barcelona.

Chadwick led from start to finish at Barcelona, a circuit that has traditionally been light on overtaking for most categories, but was never able to shake off Pulling and Powell and the trio ran in formation through the 18-lap race.

Both Powell (on Pulling) and Pulling (on Chadwick) had set themselves up for overtakes, but neither was able to pull off a move in the Formula Regional-spec Tatuus FT-60 chassis being used in place of the series’ similar Tatuus T-318.

P2P has been added to the T-318 in FRegional European Championship this year after that series suffered from a lack of on-track action through 2021, and Pulling has tested in FREC’s 2022-spec car but never used the system.

“I’ve never actually tested the push-to-pass” Pulling said in the Barcelona post-race press conference earlier this month. “I’ve driven cars with it on, but I’ve never actually used it myself. It was a bit of a frustrating race this weekend, with the fact that the aero wash made it really hard to get close. I got pretty close to Jamie, but not quite close enough to make the move.

“I think if I was a metre or two closer I would have definitely thrown it up the inside. Implementing the push-to-pass, I’m definitely not against it because you can use it not only to overtake but to defend. So it would be interesting to see if that was implemented, the kind of strategies behind how the drivers use it.

“I don’t mind how the championship is now, I think it would just add some extra overtakes throughout the weekend potentially. But I’ve never used it, so I don’t know fully.”

Powell was asked if P2P would be a sensible addition to W Series now it has successfully been implemented in FREC, and she said: “Yeah, I think it would. Formula 2 and Formula 3, they have DRS, Formula 1 does as well, and FREC, which use pretty much the same car, same chassis, they have a P2P system in the cars so I couldn’t see why we couldn’t have it.

“Obviously I wanted it because we were quick enough to have won the race. I kept dropping back throughout the race to try to save my tyres, and then close the gap again, but as soon as I got close it was physically impossible to overtake. So, I think with push-to-pass I would have definitely given it a go, I would have chucked it down the inside for sure.”

IndyCar and FREC have P2P systems which can be used in attack and defence, while Indy Lights regulates P2P so it can only be used for attempted overtakes.

The post Why Chadwick’s Barcelona chasers believe W Series should adopt P2P appeared first on Formula Scout.

Photo: Formula Motorsport Limited

FIA Formula 3’s Barcelona feature race winner Victor Martins has revealed he had doubts building prior to the race after an issue had curtailed him the day before.

The championship leader qualified second, but passed Roman Stanek around the outside of the opening corner of the feature race to take the lead. That move, along with two well-timed safety car restarts, proved decisive for his second win of 2022.

Martins said afterwards he was “a bit more relaxed now than I was before the race”, adding “after the issue yesterday, I was in a position where I needed to score points” in reference to his mechanically-induced retirement from the sprint race.

“There was a bit of doubt in my mind – you tell yourself you have to score points, but also you need to stay on the track,” he said.

“I knew the win was possible, but at the same time, I needed to manage the race and stay on the track because we’ve had too many incidents, too many races that we didn’t finish.”

Martins looked back at his races at Barcelona in 2021, with a focus on his battles with Dennis Hauger, for analysis to ensure he nailed this year’s contest.

“After yesterday, I looked at a lot of races to see how it was at the start – what kind of opportunities I would have into turn one and what was the best to do. I got the opportunity, and I went for it.

“I had the experience from last year fighting with Hauger, so I knew where the braking point was and when I saw him braking early, I was confident doing that and it was successful. Because I didn’t do the full race yesterday, I was feeling confident, but it wasn’t clear.

“I had to manage my tyres; I wasn’t going to push like crazy. I wanted to keep a consistent laptime and feeling in the car’s balance. I think I could’ve pushed more, but I wasn’t sure what I was going to get at the end of the race.

“I tried to surprise [Stanek at the safety car restarts]. The first one was quite good, I was clear from behind into turn one and the second one – I thought do I change, or do I stick with the same because maybe he won’t think I will do it again at the same place – so I did.

“I knew I was good in the last section to I could pull a little gap. If I were to do it again, maybe I would change the place because I was so low in the rpm with the second restart that I was like ‘oh my god, I have no power to pull a gap’. In the end, I managed it well and all that counts is that I kept P1 at turn one.”

The post F3 Barcelona feature winner Martins “had doubts” before taking victory appeared first on Formula Scout.

Photo: Formula Motorsport Limited

Formula 2 driver Clement Novalak has explained his strategic decision to not pursue a place in a Formula 1 young driver development programme for 2022.

Novalak was third in the FIA Formula 3 Championship in 2021 after being the most consistent driver throughout the season, but not picking up a win, and then stepped up to F2 with MP Motorsport after being linked with Virtuosi Racing for a long time.

From the seven rounds he has contested he has a best finish of fourth, and is currently 15th in the 2022 championship. Ahead of the season he signed to Fernando Alonso’s new A14 Management company, but is not linked to Alonso’s F1 team Alpine.

“To be honest, it was a bit of a choice because F1 is ever-evolving, and drivers in F1 can change teams, and that can sometimes put you in a bit of a risk if you sign too early and set yourself on a path,” Novalak said to select media including Formula Scout earlier this month when asked if it was his choice to not be affiliated to an F1 team this year.

“I don’t want to say anything bad about Oscar [Piastri, F2’s 2021 champion who is now Alpine’s reserve driver], but in that position where you essentially have done the job and have the ability to, and the results, to be able to join a F1 team. And to have to sit on the sidelines because unfortunately the two drivers that are there are already signed for quite a few years.

“So, it was a bit more of a calculated thing in terms of the strategy of when I would want to sign for a team, when I have a clear picture of where the opportunities are.”

The Alpine Academy has four members and five affiliate drivers (after enacting a policy of not giving full membership to any driver below FIA F3), and that includes Spanish Formula 4 racer Nikola Tsolov who is A14’s only other driver besides Novalak.

“Obviously A14 does help massively because Fernando actually has the most experience on the F1 grid so he’s probably talked to the most people, and the most times too, so that will definitely come in handy,” Novalak added. “We’ll see.”

During F2’s in-season Barcelona test, Novalak spoke to Formula Scout about his struggles in adaptating to F2. He continued the conversation on the return to the circuit for racing earlier this month, saying the switch between tyre compounds from free practice to qualifying and the limited running available to then get the most from the softer compound being qualified on was “probably the thing that’s cost me the most considering that I think in the races we’ve always had very good pace” and that improvements will come by “being a bit sharper when it comes to that one-lap pace”.

The post Novalak explains ‘choice’ not to seek F1 junior status for 2022 appeared first on Formula Scout.

Photo: Formula Motorsport Limited

Formula 2 rookie Jack Doohan is pleased the series has brought its calendar back up to 14 rounds with the addition of Paul Ricard in July.

The record-length season initially included a round in Sochi, but the cancellation of the Russian Grand Prix following the country’s invasion of Ukraine left the series at 13 rounds left F2 in search of a replacement event.

A new 13-round calendar was issued with no room for a replacement, but it was then announced two weeks ago that F2 would support the French GP at Paul Ricard on July 22-24.

“I’m looking forward to it. Definitely I need all the rounds I can get at the moment,” said Alpine junior Doohan, who has two poles, three fastest laps but only podium so far in F2 with Virtuosi Racing.

“So an extra one is quite good to secure the 14-round championship. I took my first win in Formula 3 there [in 2021], so it’s quite a special place for me.

“I think it’s a cool circuit so I’m looking forward to going there, and also now having four weekends [pretty much] back-to-back will also be interesting too. For me, all positives.”

Back-to-back rounds at Silverstone and the Red Bull Ring at the start of July is followed by a weekend off before F2 visits Paul Ricard and the Hungaroring in back-to-back weekends.

In the pandemic-condensed 2020 season, F2 ran its first six rounds in seven weeks, and 10 of the 12 rounds in a 13-week period.

For Doohan’s 2021 F3 team-mate Clement Novalak, who now races for MP Motorsport in F2, Paul Ricard will be a home event and will hold a sentimental feeling for him.

“Of course, it’s always nice to be able to go back to Le Castellet,” he said. “Especially because I was born probably about half an hour from that track and it’s the first memories I have from racing is from there with my dad watching cars go round.

“So, yeah it’s definitely a big pleasure. Last year the race was wet, it was a tricky race, and I didn’t get to enjoy such an amazing weekend because it was particularly tough being Father’s Day as well, so a lot of emotions.

“I’m extremely looking forward to it, looking forward to seeing all of the French flags in the stands as well, and it’s definitely going to be a cool event and I’ll have a special helmet prepped for it.”

The post Doohan pleased F2 adding Paul Ricard: “I need all the rounds I can get” appeared first on Formula Scout.

Photo: Formula Motorsport Limited

Felipe Drugovich achieved a very rare F2 feat at Barcelona: winning both races. In one of his final Formula Scout columns, Craig Woollard argues it’s overdue that the Brazilian gets the attention of F1 teams

After his Formula 2 heroics back in 2020 – where he won thrice as a rookie with a team that was basically a joke in 2019 due to one of the drivers racing with it – it’s amazing that Felipe Drugovich has yet to become affiliated with a Formula 1 team.

Yeah, sure, he endured a difficult 2021 with Virtuosi Racing that was a bit of a crash to Earth, but right now Drugovich – who is back with the MP Motorsport team he ran so well with in 2020 – is coming out on top of a F2 field absolutely rammed with F1 juniors – and some of whom are incredibly highly-rated and deservedly so.

Barcelona showcased the Drugovich of old. Not just the one we saw on occasion in 2020 but also the one we saw very regularly in his crushing Euroformula campaign. There, where things were in the zone oh so regularly, he was utterly devastating. And that is exactly what Drugovich is when everything is perfect – effectively unstoppable from the front.

• Drugovich’s guide on how to win a F3 title

Not since 2016, when Antonio Giovinazzi did the double in GP2’s first visit to Baku, has a driver won every race of a weekend in F1’s primary feeder series, and Drugovich’s Barcelona double means he joins the likes of Nelon Piquet Jr, Lewis Hamilton and Nico Hulkenberg to have achieved this feat. That’s not a bad club to be in. Of course, Oscar Piastri and Juri Vips both won two races in a weekend last year, but they did have three races to do it in.

Curiously, Drugovich has now won the last three F2 races at Barcelona, and MP the last four after Nobuharu Matsushita’s crazy feature race win in 2020, and half of his six series wins have been at the circuit.

It is his third season, yes, and those who have been tracking my social media will have noted that I have been somewhat critical of 2019 champion Nyck de Vries when he made his grand prix weekend debut. He comfortably took the title that year, but it didn’t feel like an entirely vintage season, and some drivers who were about to come good in 2020 (or ’21) took a bit of time to get up to speed.

Unbeaten drivers in F1’s primary feeder series at rounds with multiple races

The post How Barcelona scorcher showcased Drugovich at his best appeared first on Formula Scout.

Photo: Formula Motorsport Limited

ART Grand Prix’s Frederik Vesti has outlined to Formula Scout the reasoning behind his recent turnaround in form in Formula 2.

The Mercedes-AMG Formula 1 junior came into 2022 off the back of a FIA Formula 3 Championship title challenge with ART GP last year that eventually fell flat. His F2 results have mostly been poor so far, with only eight points before last weekend.

But his form seemed to change Barcelona. After three rounds of weak qualifying performance he went third fastest, beating team-mate Theo Pourchaire for the first time, and Formula Scout asked him about the processes he took to move to the front.

“If we go fully back to Bahrain testing, things actually seemed pretty strong, comparing to my team-mate who is currently leading the championship,” Vesti identified.

“I wasn’t far off, both new tyres [runs] I wasn’t far off, race pace matching him. Sometimes faster, sometimes slower.

“Came into the first weekend, I think I put a lot of pressure on myself. I really wanted to do well, and probably went one step forward and two steps backwards. I had a very tough Friday in Bahrain, bad free practice, bad qualifying [going 19th fastest] and it really just made it difficult, and I was a bit lost after that in terms of which direction to go.”

Vesti’s form didn’t pick up on a Friday afternoon much after that, qualifying 16th in Jeddah and then at Imola. But in-season testing took place at Barcelona, and he was able to put things right on his second trip of the year to the circuit.

“Another thing I’ve been battling a bit, which has taken me some time, which is still a challenge, is doing practice on the prime tyre, doing practice with very limited running, going into a qualifying of three laps today on a completely different tyre which is three seconds faster.

“So all these small things all together adds up to a lot of lap time and a lot of confidence. I’ve really had to review how I’ve been doing things, and I think we have come to many good conclusions and been able to work from there. It did mean really, really a lot today to be P3, as it’s been a bit tough; very, very tough so far. Just very happy.”

Vesti was able to climb a few places in sprint races in the first three rounds, but crashed early in his first feature race at Bahrain and spun out of a non-point-scoring position late in the Jeddah feature race. At Barcelona he finished seventh in the sprint race, then maintained his grid position to claim a maiden podium in third place in the feature race.

The post How Mercedes’ F2 rookie Vesti is starting to turn things around appeared first on Formula Scout.