The Formula 2 campaign for the 2024 season has closed its curtain with the initial Middle Eastern rounds after two sensational races in the Red Sea coastal city of Jeddah.
The main story of the 2nd round of the F2 season was not even oriented towards either Sprint or Feature race but the ‘sudden promotion’ of Prema’s Oliver Bearman who served as a ‘super-substitution’ for Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz.
The British driver from the Ferrari Driver’s Academy stunned the world by bringing home the SF24 in 7th place in Saturday’s race.
Interestingly enough, Oliver Bearman had to relinquish his Feature Race Pole Position for the Jeddah Round, which was gifted to Invicta’s Kush Maini who lost the Pole Position in the previous F2 round.
Bearman’s mature-driven race at the F1 race put the focus away from the two breathtaking races of the Saudi Arabian F2 weekend.
F2 Sprint Race recap
Bearman’s super-sub status meant that Hitech’s Estonian youngster Paul Aron inherited the reverse position for Friday’s F2 Sprint Race.
The First night race of the season saw two deployed safety cars to add to the chaos already visible through the nature of the Jeddah Corniche Circuit.
A first safety car was deployed after the contact between ART’s Victor Martins and MP Motorsport’s Dennis Hauger at the exit of turn 2. French and Alpine hopeful continued up until turn 3 with a broken rear suspension.
The second safety car entered the circuit in the 9th lap of the F2 sprint, following Amaury Cordeel’s spin in turn 1 which contributed to a sudden engine cut.
Estonian rookie Aron fairly well controlled the first half of the race until lap 8, when he was passed by the Trident’s Richard Verschoor coming into the hard braking zone of turn 1. The pair was joined by the surging Isack Hadjar who reduced the gap.
Following the Safety Car’s entry to the pit lane, Richard Verschoor managed to pull away a sizeable lead which left Paul Aron in the hands of Dennis Hauger.
Soon afterward, the young Norwegian driver overtook Aron on the second to last lap for the ‘post-race’ 1st place.
Last minute moments of the lap were notorious for Hadjar’s Campos car which broke down heading to turn 24, promptly promoting Enzo Fittipaldi to 4th and eventually 3rd place after the dust had settled down.
The championship leader Zane Maloney showed great strength by going through the field as a young Barbadian gained 11 places to end up in 4th.
The provisional winner of the Saudi’s F2 sprint, Richard Verschoor, and his teammate Roman Stanek, were disqualified following inaccurate throttle pedal mapping, which did not comply with FIA rules.
F2 Feature Race Recap
The main race of the junior single-seaters weekend in Jeddah closed down with an ‘over the edge’ F2 Feature Race.
Identically to the previous race, the safety car was invoked in the wake of a crash at the exit of turn 2.
Campos’ Pepe Marti was collected by Trident’s Roman Stanek at the exit curb of the turn 2.
In the process, Marti clipped Aron’s rear right tire and Franco Colapinto’s front left wing end plate, causing a drilled upper part of Marti’s front wing nose cone.
Invicta’s Gabriel Bortoleto’s horrendous weekend continued as the Brazilian ended up with collateral damage due to a lap 1 incident.
McLaren Drivers Academy members had to retire due to a driveshaft issue just 100 meters from the epicenter of the incident.
The early phase of the race saw Jak Crawford and Hauger attempt to undercut cars in front. The duo’s attempt was unsuccessful as the race leader, Kush Maini smoothly cleared the undercut attempt.
Nevertheless, even though he opted for a decent strategy, the young Alpine’s Indian driver could not run away and was passed by Enzo Fittipaldi for the race lead.
The second Safety Car of the session was deployed after Franco Colapinto spun in turn 1 following contact with a barrier in the previous lap.
The Argentinian had to retire due to a rear right suspension damage just a couple of hundred meters before the spin.
Extended stint strategy proved successful for Amaury Cordeel (started 20th) and Taylor Barnard. The two drivers used the opportunity to pit under the emerging safety car and hold onto their positions, albeit with a used set of purple soft tires.
Star of the restart was Van Amersfort’s Enzo Fittipaldi who quickly dispatched Taylor Barnard for 3rd before proceeding to its next challengers.
In the 21st lap of the race, Fittipaldi made a race-winning overtake by stunningly passing race ‘leaders Amaury Cordeel and Juan Manuel Correa around the outside of turn 1.
The Brazilian led its VAR outfit to a comfortable 8-second gap victory to pole sitter Maini and Sprint Race winner Hauger. This was Fittipaldi’s 2nd win in the class following a Belgian Sprint Race victory last year.
The race for 2nd and 3rd was led till the last meters between Maini, Hauger, Crawford, and Cordeel. The former two managed to blitz pass through the drivers on the opposite race strategy in a literal photo finish.
On the other hand, Isack Hadjar had a carbon-copy retirement in the Feature Race as well.
Conclusions after Jeddah’s F2 round
A new generation of Formula 2 cars for the 4th consecutive race have proved that they are easier to follow and to overtake. Both Sprint and Feature rounds have seen a train of cars half a second within each other, trading positions back and forth throughout the race.
Significant examples are shown in the battle between PHM outfit and Bortoleto alongside Hauger’s, Hadjar’s, and Fittipaldi’s ‘Triple Threat battle’ for victory in the Sprint Race. There is no need to describe once again the hectic ending of a Feature Race as the photo speaks ‘more than 1000 words’.
Even though the weekend saw four Safety Cars, the field would not spread wide a couple of laps after the race restarted. Even though the season just started a week ago, and it may be early to conclude the positive aspects of the new cars, it is still fair to say that the first two rounds of the new F2 season have successfully proved the improved aero-dynamical aspect of Dallara F2 2024.
However, one of its disappointing and widely criticized characteristics stayed the same. Anti-stalling issues have been a serious problem with the F2 class for a couple of years now.
Gabriel Bortoleto, Taylor Barnard, and both Williams’ young drivers, Zak O’Sullivan and Colapinto stalled before their races could even begin.
Moreover, Andrea Kimi Antonelli had a horrible race start due to an almost stall on the grid.
Anti-stalling would also cause immediate engine cuts and would end up a race in a spin for Colapinto and Cordeel, respectively.
The saga of the ‘Mecachrome Moment’ continued to make races slightly more exciting but at the same time infuriating because drivers were not able to show their true potential.
Another feature that found its conclusion once the 2nd round ended is referred to a driver’s performance.
The F2 2024 chassis seems to be kinder to more experienced drivers who are in their 2nd or 3rd season rather than those in their rookie season. Widely regarded understanding that a new generation of an F2 outfit may shape up the field is not particularly correct.
Therefore, it should not surprise that the drivers who impressed the most in the first two rounds are the drivers who have more experience in general.
On the contrary, ART GP and Prema Racing, as title favorites seem to have an early struggle in heating up the tires, which leaves them vulnerable to rivals. This case is immensely visible in Andrea Kimi Antonelli’s and Victor Martins’ performances, which slowly put their cars under the pressure of opponents just after a few laps of running them in the ‘push mode’.
Another positive impact of new cars is that there are no traditional backmarker teams. Even PHM Racing, which was expected to be the least strong outfit in the entry list, had performed very well in the first two rounds.
The teams will now have a one-week break before heading to the ‘Down Under’ for a third round of the season in Melbourne.
F2 Standings after Jeddah’s Feature Race (4/28)
| 1. Zane Maloney | Rodin Motorsport | 47 |
| 2. Enzo Fittipaldi | Van Amersfoort Racing | 32 |
| 3. Dennis Hauger | MP Motorsport | 31 |
| 4. Paul Aron | Hitech Pulse-Eight | 28 |
| 5. Kush Maini | Invicta Racing | 27 |
| 6. Pepe Marti | Campos Racing | 26 |
| 7. Jak Crawford | DAMS Lucas Oil | 24 |
| 8. Gabriel Bortoleto | Invicta Racing | 15 |
| 9. Zak O’ Sullivan | ART Grand Prix | 14 |
| 10. Andrea Kimi Antonelli | Prema Racing | 12 |