Another Formula 2 round has ended following a rather surprisingly uneventful two rounds of Formula 2 on the streets of Monte Carlo.
Although there were a couple of safety cars throughout Saturday and Sunday races, there was zero to no action with a new generation of Dallara chassis.
Expected Saturday’s monsoon did not arrive, which was probably the only element that could spice up the race around the streets of Monaco.
This racing weekend saw maiden victories of British rookies, AIX’s Taylor Barnard who comfortably won Saturday’s sprint race and ART’s Zak O’Sullivan on Sunday’s Feature race. The latter victory resembled Noboharu Matsushita’s 2020 Spanish Feature race victory after a late safety car and late one-stopper turned in his favor.
Absymal weekend cost a now former championship leader Zane Maloney who had to give the status of a championship leader to Hitech’s rookie Paul Aron.
Prema’s woeful performance continued with another podium-drought session. Andrea Kimi Antonelli and Oliver Bearman could only score 4th and 7th and 11th and 4th respectively, through Sprint and Feature.
The performance of ‘highly rated’ Prema drivers in this season’s F2 amid their strong connections to the 2025 F1 seat is a widely discussed topic in the junior categories circle.
Are Prema drivers ready for Formula 1?
Since the introduction of Formula 2 in 2017 this has certainly been the worst start for the legendary feeder series team in series contention.
Italian team, dubbed to win both drivers and teams championship currently sits in 6th place with no wins and no podiums.
The situation is not helped by the ‘hot’ status that Antonelli and Bearman currently have in Formula 1 paddock.
According to rumors, Antonelli is heavily linked to replace departing Lewis Hamilton in Mercedes for the upcoming season. In the past few weeks, news of Antonelli replacing Sargeant for half of a season started to circulate.
Even Antonelli’s rocketship jump from FRECA to F2 signalized that Mercedes sees ‘wunderkind’ in Italian and would willingly push him as ‘their Verstappen’.
On the other hand, Bearman’s talent was noticed in the 2021 ADAC Formula 4 and Italian F4 championship and it was only a matter of time before Briton would be poached as an academy member.
Bearman’s Saudi performance with the Ferrari opened the eyes of many more in the paddock and the young Prema driver has been promised a run of 6 free practice sessions this year to determine whether he is fit for a Haas seat next season.
However, a slightly new trend is visible when it comes to thinking about whether the driver is ready for F1 or not.
‘Long-time F2 residents’ Nyck DeVries, Felipe Drugovich and Theo Pourchaire were criticized for winning their respective titles in 3rd plus year in F2 despite providing a standardly good performance.
Nowadays the discourse about performances inside of an F1 paddock over F2 results has started to gain traction. With this said, it certainly seems that both Prema drivers are poised for F1 debut even though they do not win the title, let alone be a title contender.
Antonelli has shown another weekend that he is yet to be experienced in preserving the tire life as he would push Dennis Hauger for the first 10 laps of Sprint before ‘dropping like a stone’ and finishing well behind MP Motorsport’s hopeful.
Bearman’s sprint race was far from a sign that a new F1 star is on the horizon. Crash in Anthony Noghes’ corner surprisingly kept him running in the battle for the sole point.
Bearman had more luck in the feature race and would have almost dispatched Aron of a season’s premier podium spot. In the end, it was enough for P4.
Driver’s inconsistency is not the only issue here, Prema’s volatile strategy options this year were no different in Monaco. Antonelli lost an opportunity to fight for a maiden podium after coming into the clutches of his more experienced teammate who overtook him before Hairpin.
What about F2 cars?
A couple of months ago Williams’ F1 driver and former F2 graduate, Logan Sargeant, in one interview mentioned a sizeable gap between F1 and F2 car.
“I feel like that’s the bit you miss. In F2 you just get in and drive, whereas in F1, there’s so many things that need to come together before you’ll be quick.
“And that’s a thing F2 misses for sure. And then yeah, the cars, just in my opinion, are not quite quick enough.”
For the successful and long-lasting career of F2 graduates, it would be more preferable if F2 cars had closer abilities and fundamental settings to F1 cars.
As things stand and the newest generation of the F2 car does not show a wanted improvement compared to its predecessor F2018, it is completely valid to judge a performance based on F1.
Performances of Bearman in Haas outfit this season and Antonelli’s tests in Mercedes will be a great indication of where these two talented stars sit, no matter how their 2024 F2 season concludes.
Antonelli’s most recent test outing saw him edge out Russell’s result.
Ultimately, a good F2 result is needed to show your ability to adapt to any different situation and series, however, if F1 teams think that performances in their previous iterations are enough, then they are enough due to all the data and telemetry that teams possess.