2️⃣ F2'24: Graduation Day

The new Formula 2 car was introduced this year, with 2024’s model attempting to get closer to the elite series in aesthetics and also an attempt to generate closer wheel-to-wheel racing.

But it seems like several drivers who would not be expected to struggle with it are finding it difficult to get to grips with the machinery, creating a very different order at the top of the junior championship in what is a crucial year for the finishing school to prep its stars for a career in Formula 1.

For the first time in the series’ history, Formula 1 returned all 20 drivers, with everyone staying the same from the end of 2023 to 2024. Teams valued the continuity and did not rock the boat, deferring a silly season by a year which truly kicked off with the unexpected move of Lewis Hamilton to Ferrari from 2025.

Mercedes are not the only team with a choice to make, but theirs is the most intense. Red Bull, McLaren, Ferrari and Aston Martin are all settled for 2025, but Mercedes need to decide who they’re putting in alongside George Russell.

With one eye on the future, Mercedes took two decisions aimed at focusing on who their future is. The first one sees Andrea Kimi Antonelli propelled into Formula 2 after a 2023 which saw the teenager collect Formula Regional titles in both the Middle East and Europe. 

Antonelli won’t turn 18 until August, on the same day as the Zandvoort race, with plenty of speculation that Williams might drop Logan Sargeant in favour of Antonelli to prepare him for life in Formula 1 before taking the path George Russell took and moving to Mercedes from Williams.

There’s nothing wrong with skipping a year if your team thinks it’s the right move, but in Antonelli’s case, he has not adjusted particularly well to the F2 car, which is designed to be closer in design and mechanics to an F1 car. Mercedes have been happy with the 17-year-old’s work in an older F1 car, but it’s a big difference between that and replacing the greatest driver of the most recent era. 

And with Formula 2 being the sport’s finishing school of choice, you’d perhaps expect Antonelli to have a short period of adjustment before going on to light up the series. That hasn’t really happened. Antonelli, representing serial winners Prema, has 48 points at the end of the weekend, and is yet to have a podium at this level.

12 of the 22 drivers have won an F2 race this season. 16 of the 22 have had at least one podium. Some of these wins have come from skilled performances, others from luck or strategy, but in a series where the car is the same, you need all of that to get noticed at the top.

Antonelli has done neither, and his last four races have seen him finish 15th, 12th, 15th, 14th - the last one cruelly being denied after a pitstop error that was not his fault. 

Prema, Antonelli’s team, is the lineup you’d choose on paper. Alongside him as a teammate is Oliver Bearman, who already has some F1 race experience, deputising for Carlos Sainz when the Ferrari driver was sidelined with appendicitis. Bearman scored points in the 2024 F1 season before the 2022 F2 season and has also, like Antonelli, not exactly set the series alight this year.

With Bearman all but set to move to Haas (alongside Esteban Ocon, allegedly), there’s not a huge amount of risk attached. Scoring points will be a positive result for the team, and it has been the established pathway through the years, of using a smaller team for your driver to gain experience, testing whether they’re ready for the bigger teams and a championship challenge, potentially with Ferrari.

Antonelli being touted for Mercedes is very different. Drivers simply don’t get parachuted into the top teams straight away anymore. The last example I can think of would be Lewis Hamilton at McLaren, almost winning the F1 title at the first time of asking in 2007, but since then, most drivers go to teams not expected to compete for podiums from day one, so it’s even more important for Prema to prepare Antonelli, if there isn’t a late-season swap at Williams for Logan Sargeant.

Normally the team to beat in the junior series, the list of Prema alumni is strong with Charles Leclerc, Mick Schumacher and Oscar Piastri all wearing the red and white on their way to F1. 

Prema were the last team to win an F2 race this season, something not lost on Bearman, who spoke to Formula Scout after winning the sprint race:

However, the new car has not been without its criticism, with the Austrian feature race seeing three cars stall their cars on the starting grid, including Dennis Hauger, who had secured pole position. 

I mentioned that Mercedes made two decisions at the end of 2023 about their future. The other decision was to drop Paul Aron from the driver academy programme. The Estonian driver turned 20 before the start of the season and going into the sprint race in Austria, leads the Formula 2 championship with 117 points.

He no longer has the backing of a driver academy while leading the championship, and interestingly, has not yet won a race this season. Instead, he has been consistently good, with seven podium finishes - no one else has more than four. Aron had a cameo at the Berlin E-Prix too, finishing 13th. And despite the consistency, no one is talking about him as an option in F1. He secured another podium in the Austrian sprint, behind (Red Bull junior) Pepe Marti and Ferrari’s Oliver Bearman, both of whom said that Aron deserves more attention.

Each of the 22 drivers in F2 is driving for the right to never race in the series again. There will never be a multi-time F2 champion because if you win, you’re not allowed to defend your title. The idea is you’re meant to be locked out, and sent into the higher level. As Aron is showing, you don’t necessarily need to win races to be in title contention. Theo Pourchaire won the championship in 2023, but only took one early season race victory along the way.

And as Antonelli and Bearman are showing, you don’t have to win the championship to advance. A dozen drivers have graduated to F1 from F2 and raced for at least one full season, but there are several also-rans in that list too, showing that for some teams, their ability in the junior series was not the biggest concern to them when faced with the prospect of money.

But for all the criticisms of the new Formula 2 car, there are several drivers worth your time and attention. The South American pair of (Williams) Franco Colapinto and (McLaren’s former F3 champion) Gabriel Bortoleto are both exciting to watch and know how to use their tyres well. 

Below them in F3, the likes of (Red Bull junior) Arvid Lindblad and his Prema teammates (Ferrari academy) Dino Beganovic and (Alpine junior) Gabriele Mini are fun to watch while Williams Academy driver Luke Browning might be the one with the most potential.

We are halfway through the Formula 2 season, and it’s well worth watching. They’ll go again next at Silverstone and will also show up at the other two races before the summer break. There are storylines up and down the Formula 1 grid, and with F2 and F3 helping to establish the origin stories for these potential stars, now’s the time to pick a driver or two and follow their careers on the ground floor.