FIA F2: Preview – Theatre of Tarmac Welcomes Teams to France

After eight races from four rounds, we’ve reached the one third mark of the FIA Formula 2 Championship. Just one point seperate Nicholas Latifi and Nyck de Vries, as the latter was the only one of the top four to finish in the points last time out.

Touching down in France, the F2 grid are welcomed back to Paul Ricard, where the series made its debut last season. The Feature race last season was won by Williams driver George Russell, but we do have one returning winner in the form of De Vries. An overdue first win of 2019 came at Catalunya for the Dutch driver, a result he backed up with a feature win at Monaco just two weeks later. As a result, all eyes will be on the ART GP star, looking to lead the points for the first time this season.

The season so far has been characterised by the breakaway of four drivers, but a shocking Monaco for both Luca Ghiotto and Jack Aitken has put them on the backfoot for the start of the European campaign. These next 3 months will be vital for the front-runners, with six of the twelve rounds between now and the last week of September, including the first back-to-back weekend between here and the Red Bull Ring.

Experience has been the name of the game this season, with the championships most weathered compeititor; Latifi, currently leading the standings. At 23, the Canadian is a late bloomer, but as the current Williams reserve driver and neither Russell or Robert Kubica’s place secure for next season, an F2 title could secure him a seat in F1. This compares with De Vries, who after being dropped from the McLaren programme earlier this year, could simply walk away from single seaters at the end of the year should no other F1 team head hunt him before the seasons end.

Latifi’s career has been an interesting progression for many following. For years, listed as a a pay driver. Most notably in 2014 when he raced for Prema Powerteam in European F3, scoring just a single podium, during a second season with the series top team. His teammate Esteban Ocon would go on to win the title. F2 though has finally ignited him. Since entering single-seaters Latifi has won just six races, races. Half of those have come this year, with only one not being in F2. While many may have written him off before, could this sudden blooming be F1’s chance to call him up, or just an experienced driver who conquered the Dallara F2/18. Either way, he’ll have to improve on his seventh and eighth from last year.

Speaking of the 2018 campaign, two drivers hoping to continue their success at the circuit will be Ghiotto and Sergio Sette Camara. Camara would come home second in the feature race. Ghiotto was the only driver to pick up a double podium last year, with two third places. In fact, as two of only four podiums he achieved in 2018, Paul Ricard was by far his most promosing circuit and thus could be a perfect spot to reignite his championship charge, as he comes into the round 28 points behind championship leader Latifi.

For Camara, his second place came after misfortune for two of the drivers in front of him; Alexander Albon and Lando Norris. With Russell on pole, qualifying proved eerily similar to the points order at the end of the season. Not only were the top three in the eventual championship order, but nine of the top ten in qualifying were in the top ten come Abu Dhabi.

The one exception; Jack Aitken. The Brit has started 2019 strong, rather like he did last season and after a sixth place qualifying last year will be expected to once again mix it at the front. His Spanish Campos squad have struggled since their return to second tier racing, his win at Baku being their first in the F2 era. However, Ghiotto’s double podium proved to be a standout for them last year and like his Italian counterpart will need a strong comeback after a dismal Monaco where contact was common.

Ghiotto has been unlucky in recent events and should be closer to the points leader, if it was not for his disqualification from the Feature Race in Monaco which put him out of contention for points in the Sprint Race. Aitken suffered a similar fate as traffic in qualifying put him on the penultimate row of the grid and out of contention for the weekend.

Guanyu Zhou and Anthoine Hubert have impressed a lot so far this year. Despite being rookies, both have been consistent and shown great speed, getting better as the season progresses. They seem to have got on top of adjusting their driving style to the Pirelli tyres, which is critical for performance and compared to the other rookies, such as Nikita Mazepin and Mick Schumacher who’ve been making their mark in the F1 paddock.

Schumacher especially has been the disappointment of this season. Coming into 2019, there was a lot of talk about this being an intermediary year, with no big young talents and a bunch of older more experienced campaigners expected to lead the way. To some extent, this has come true, with Latifi, De Vries and Ghiotto leading the way, though the exception for many was predicted to be the German. Winning European F3 and being consistently one of the fastest in pre-season testing, Schumacher looked like a shining light for the series. Yet, after four rounds, he’s picked up just 14 points and hasn’t scored in the last two weekends, not helped by a red flag causing crash at Monaco.

Instead, it’s been F3’s rival championship whose champion has been making a name for himself. Hubert proved his defensive skills last time out, holding off the much quicker Louis Deletraz in a sprint to the line to win his first race F2 race. The Frenchman comes into this round with the momentum and home support. While he’ll be familiar with the paddock and circuit from GP3 last year, he’ll have his work to cut out to repeat a Feature Race win.

The French drivers themselves will come into this race in high spirits with both Hubert and Dorian Boccalacci sitting seventh and ninth respectively, the only nation with two drivers inside the top ten. Boccalacci himself qualified on pole in GP3 last year, but was DSQ from the results. Monaco yielded him two top five finishes and took the mantle that Campos teammate Aitken had held earlier in the year. His points have all come from Street circuits this year and a solid result on a traditional race track will be vital for the 20-year-old this weekend.

The third French driver; Giuliano Alesi is another that needs to prove himself. The Ferrari Academy driver spent the last three seasons in GP3, making two unsuccessful title runs for Trident. Now racing for their F2 outfit, Alesi’s loyalty to the squad may well be holding him back. He’s one of only three drivers yet to score points and with teammate Ralph Boschung barely off the mark, Trident will need some success should they wish to keep the support of not only Alesi, but potentially future Ferrari prodigies thanks to the success of fellow Italian team Prema.

Elsewhere, Jordan King returns to the MP Motorsports team after a round out to complete the Indianapolis 500. The Brit’s single podium and regular points finishes have been backed up by last round by Artem Markelov’s aggressive attack of Camara at Monaco, which earned him a fourth place.

Meanwhile Callum Ilott continues to underperform in a year Ferrari need at least one prominent driver. Antonio Giovinazzi’s poor season for Alfa Romeo should be opening up a spot at the team for either him or Schumacher, though a single podium at Catalunya has put the Sauber Junior Team driver behind teammate Juan Manuel Correa, who like Boccalacci, has proven himself at street circuits this season.

Practice and qualifying rev into action this Friday, with the first race 16:45 local time on Saturday. Whether Latifi will extend his lead, or his rivals can glow, is yet to be seen.