Five points separating the top five ahead of round three! Official F1 Journal Formula 2 preview

Credit: James Sutton

FIA Formula 2 returns once again this coming weekend for the second round of the championship's first double header of the 2025 season, coming at Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.

Formula 2 is known for it's cultivating and sheer brilliant drama that it produces every race weekend and once again in 2025 it looks set to be a brilliant championship battle, with following two rounds there are just five points separating the top five in the Drivers' Standings.

This will be the third round of the 2025 season following last weekend's round in Bahrain and March's season opener at Albert Park in Melbourne, Australia. They visit the Jeddah Corniche Circuit which has been a staple to the Formula 2 calendar since its entrance to the championship in 2021.

Drivers such as Liam Lawson and most famously Oscar Piastri have won here in Formula 2 and now both have seats on the current Formula One grid, with 2021 Formula 2 Champion Piastri three points off the championship lead.

Leonardo Fornaroli of Invicta Racing, the reigning Formula 3 champion, leads the championship by a point coming into round three. Luke Browning of Hitech TGR and Alex Dunne of Rodin Motorsport are second and third in the standings respectively and are both just one point off the championship lead.

Pepe Marti in fourth and Richard Verschoor in fifth are both within five points and find themselves in a potential fight for the Formula 2 Championship. 

A look at the track: Jeddah Corniche Circuit - Saudi Arabia

Following the brilliant Bahrain International Circuit, which has one of the oldest surfaces out of all tracks in the 2025 calendar, jumping into Jeddah we find one of the newest circuits across the season.

The circuit has uniqueness for its many corners, tight twisting and flowing nature making it one of the highest average speeds circuit in the entire calendar. Add in the features of the narrowing street circuit walls and it also becomes one of the most challenging across the campaign.

Formula 2 goes racing round the Jeddah Corniche Circuit and for the first time in the history of the championship, it will play host to round three. It has held round two of the championship for the last three seasons consecutively.

With the circuit itself having more corners than any other on the calendar (27), the Jeddah Corniche Circuit has a lap distance of 6.174km. 20 laps to come in the Saturday Sprint Race and 28 laps to come in the Sunday Feature Race

As has been the same since 2021, this tight circuit has three DRS zones which in theory gives a great prospect for overtaking on this circuit and as we have seen in previous seasons cars can make passes if the drivers are precise enough and close enough to pass.

With the street circuit, there is always a threat of a Safety Car or a Red Flag which could be a headache for the strategy teams to keep a lid on due to the unexpected nature of incidents occurring in Jeddah. 

The lap record around the Jeddah Corniche Circuit, in FIA Formula 2, was set in 2022 by that year's champion Felipe Drugovich for MP Motorsport. His time was a 1:40.422.

2025 FIA Formula 2 Championship: Round 3 - Jeddah Session Times

Track Times

• Free Practice 18/04: 12:55-13:40
• Qualifying 18/04: 18:00-18:30
• Sprint Race 19/04: 18:15-19:05
• Feature Race 20/04: 16:25-17:30

UK Times

• Free Practice 18/04: 10:55-11:40
• Qualifying 18/04: 16:00-16:30
• Sprint Race 19/04: 16:15-17:05
• Feature Race 20/04: 14:25-15:30

Brandon Whiteside
Writer - F1 Journal