FORMULA 2
 Credit: James Sutton For the first time in over two months, the FIA Formula 2 Championship makes a return this coming weekend for the penultimate round in Qatar. Both championships are both firmly in the balance to be decided and both are set to go the distance with the drivers' and teams' champions of 2024 are to be crowned between now and December 8, when the season concludes in Abu Dhabi. Las time out in Baku, Azerbaijan, the championship lead changed hands in the drivers side of the competition, just like it has done in many of the rounds previously, with Gabriel Bortoleto of Invicta Racing leading the way. Bortoleto has a 4.5 point lead in the championship over Red Bull Junior Isack Hadjar, who had a weekend to forget last time out at Baku. Bortoleto will have to combat the pressure of having the eyes of the world watching his every move, as he has a Formula 1 seat in the next two years with Kick Sauber which are to become Audi. Hadjar will also be keen to show his capabilities with the pressures and discussion surrounding the seats at Red Bull Racing and Visa RB. This coming weekend, there will also be four drivers on the grid that will be making their debuts in the prestigious feeder series championship this coming weekend in the form of Cian Shields, Dino Beganovic, Max Esterson and John Bennett. Departing the championship are Niels Koolen, Juan Manuel Correa, Dennis Hauger and Enzo Fittipaldi. Richard Verschoor has also been involved in the team changes and has transferred from Trident to MP Motorsport. A look at the track - Round 13: Lusail International Circuit - Qatarrmula 2 will visit a brand new venue for the championship for a decisive round and the penultimate stop on the 2024 calendar, as the season will host round 13 at the Lusail International in Qatar. A circuit that has never been raced on by FIA Formula 2 before will present its tests and challenges for the teams and drivers as they are venturing onto something new and have not had racing experience around this circuit on a Grand Prix weekend and with the championship having two competitive standings, the free practice session will be severely important for the drivers to get to grips with the circuit. Taking place in the Qatar capital, Doha, the Lusail International Circuit is one that presents overtaking opportunities as well as testing and tricky corners that time can be won and lost in qualifying in particular. The track itself is made up of 16 corners and has a lap distance of 5.419km, which is equal to 3.367 miles. Despite there being good overtaking opportunities around the circuit, there is only one DRS zone and that belongs on the start/finish straight which is down into turn 1. Most overtakes are likely to be made here. No lap record is set for Formula 2 around this circuit as there is yet to be a round of the championship hosted at this venue and therefore no laps have been set to attribute to the lap record of the championship. In the two races to come across Saturday and Sunday, there will be many racing laps which will bring additional excitement to what has already been a fantastic campaign in the Formula 2 archives. In Saturday's sprint race, there will be a total of 23 laps, which will equal to a race distance of 124.637km before on Sunday, the feature race which will include a mandatory pit stop to be served will last 32 laps and will have a race distance of 173.408km. The race director for this event was scheduled to be Janette Tan as she was the 2024 FIA Formula 2 deputy race director. This was because Rui Marques was called up to be the Formula 1 race director after Niels Wittich was relieved of his duties. However, Thursday revealed she had been sacked and relieved of her duties too along with senior race steward Tim Mayer. Rui Marques will carry on doing Formula 2 now, due to the departure of Tan. This will be in addition to his Formula 1 duties - the first race director to do both since Charlie Whiting. Four drivers to make Formula 2 debuts at Qatar following multiple changesThere are four drivers that are set to make their Formula 2 debuts this coming weekend at the Lusail International Circuit with many changes being made to team lineups for the final two rounds of the season. It has been over two months since the last round in Baku, back in September and since then many drivers who were on the grid have left the championship to go on to new adventures and in their places plenty of fresh blood has been brought in. Leaving the championship would be Dennis Hauger, Neils Koolen, Enzo Fittipaldi, and Juan Manuel Correa and all would not be racing in the final two rounds of the season at Qatar and Abu Dhabi. Set to make their debuts in the championship are Max Esterson, John Bennett, Cian Shields and Dino Beganovic. Richard Verschoor would also be involved in the driver lineup changes as he would transfer teams. Verschoor would replace Dennis Hauger at MP Motorsport, vacating his seat at Trident. Verschoor's seat would be filled by American racer Max Esterson, who would make the step up from FIA Formula 3 after one full season in the championship with Jenzer Motorsport. Esterson would be participating in the final two rounds of the season alongside Australian racer Christian Mansell, who he shared the Formula 3 grid with in 2024. Another driver who he shared the Formula 3 grid with in 2024, was British driver Cian Shields. Shields will also make the step up to Formula 3 after his first full season of the championship where he drove for Hitech Pulse-Eight and ended up with zero points and finished 30th in the overall standings. The Brit will take up the space at AIX Racing, alongside Paraguayan racer Joshua Durksen, who has impressed in his rookie year by taking podiums and more specifically his maiden victory last time out in Baku. Shields will replace Dutch driver Niels Koolen, who did not have the easiest of times after replacing Taylor Barnard. Dino Beganovic would be the third driver to progress from Formula 3 to make his debut in Formula 2, in Qatar. The Ferrari Academy driver will step up to DAMS after a successful season in Formula 3 where he won twice. Beganovic will replace Juan Manuel Correa in the number eight car and he will end up partnering Aston Martin development driver Jak Crawford. Last but not least, a chance at Van Amersfoort Racing has also occurred. Enzo Fittipaldi has departed Formula 2 for the remaining two rounds of the season to test Indycars with McLaren. In his place, to partner Rafael Villagomez, will be British racer John Bennett who will be making the jump from GB3. Bennett finished runner up in the 2024 campaign of GB3 to New Zealand driver Louis Sharp and is 21 years of age. He will be participating in the final two rounds at Qatar and Abu Dhabi. This round will be the final round though for Rodin Motorsport's Zane Maloney. Following Sunday's feature race, he will depart the championship to go and compete full time in Formula E. 2024 FIA Formula 2 Championship: Round 13 - Qatar session timesTrack Times:
UK Times:
 Brandon Whiteside
Writer - F1 Journal
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. Archives
April 2025
Categories |
RSS Feed