A new Formula 1 season will start in less than 2 weeks at the Sakhir International Circuit in Bahrain, and will bring the “future of tomorrow” in the shape of Formula 2 and Formula 3 championships.
Between the latter categories, Formula 2 represents a complete shakeup with its traditional refreshing grid full of drivers coming in and out. Moreover, this season marks the end of Dallara’s F2018 chassis which is being replaced by their F2 2024 itineration.
Technical and sporting regulation
Dallara’s F2018 chassis had its last dance at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix weekend in 2023.
The purpose of the new F2 car set for the 2024 season is to close the gap to the F1 car and ease up young drivers’ transition from one series to another.
Albeit the new machinery will still consist of a French Mecachrome 3.4-litre V6 engine, the latter one will present a slighter evolution in terms of engine quality in hopes of reducing anti-stalling issues that its predecessor had in the past 6 seasons.
This will be the last season of engines running bio-sourced fuel before moving onto synthetic sustainable fuel.
The F2 2024 car, presented at the Italian Grand Prix, was visually attractive due to the radical change in the design of the rear wing.
The bow-shaped top construction of the rear wing is slightly pointed towards the back of itself rather than towards the upper body work, and reassembles the Japanese SuperFormula’s rear wing. On the other hand, its downside construction of endplates complies with the F1 regulations.
The front wing endplates similarity with the F1 car deepens the notion of improving aerodynamics for close racing purposes.
A new Formula 2 chassis had developed in the cockpit area of the survival cell to prevent fatal outcomes such as Anthoine Hubert tragically losing his life at the 2019 Belgian Grand Prix Sprint Race.
The new survival cells should soften the impacts according to calculations.
Frontal impacts should absorb 50% more energy, while cockpit side pods are made to prevent 380 kN of force. This would make T-Bone crashes or side-by-side barrier contacts less impactful than with the previous generation.
Sporting Regulations
The racing weekend format stood intact with 1 practice session and qualifying set on Friday, which establishes the grid for Sunday’s Feature race.
Saturday is reserved for the Sprint race, which is classically formatted in a way that the top 10 drivers from qualifying are reverted on the starting grid, while the Feature race serves as the competition’s main event on the morning of the Formula 1’s Grand Prix.
Nothing changed regarding the points system distribution as the sprint race continues to carry the old F1 system until 2009 (10-8-6-5-4-3-2-1) while the Feature race allocates points in the modern F1 system with both races giving an extra point to a driver with the fastest lap.
However, FIA has decided to implement stricter measures regarding red flags ending sessions prematurely, deciding to delete the fastest lap time of a driver who causes the red flag to prevent any possible benefits.
The calendar for this season has seen a slight change with Qatar’s Lusail International Circuit replacing Netherland”s Zandvoort.
Even though 2024 now has two events to support F1 at the end of the season, the traditional and widely criticized gap between September’s and November’s races remained.
Driver and Team Changes
The season will consist of 11 teams, each with two drivers on the grid. Three of those teams have changed their name.
The most notable change had seen legendary junior single-seater team Carlin selling its rights to Rodin Motorsports after 25 years of existence.
Virtuosi became the Invicta Racing Team, while the German team PHM acquired full stakes by buying the rest of Czech’s Charouz’s shares.
The drivers market most significantly whispers about the arrival of Andrea Kimi Antonelli as a part of Prema Racing. The Bologna-based superstar in the making has won every single title on the junior ladder from 2022 onwards.
After winning Formula Regional by Alpine in 2023, it was expected that the Italian youngster would steer into the FIA F3 campaign but has taken rather an unconventional role by jumping straight into Formula 2 for his next campaign.
Concerns over his dramatic move have been extinguished with comments about how the new Dallara F2 2024 will be a mystery and that every driver would need to start from the beginning. Antonelli’s team partner will be Britain’s Oliver Bearman for a second season with Prema.
Reigning team champions ART Grand Prix have retained 2022 F3 Champion Victor Martins, who is also dubbed as the biggest candidate to win the title. He will be joined by Williams’s academy driver Zak O’Sullivan.
Another shocking transfer is the arrival of reigning Japanese SuperFormula Champion Ritomo Miyata, who switched to Europe to prepare for a future endurance program with Toyota. His team colleague will be the newest Sauber Academy acquisition, Zane Maloney.
2022 Team Champions, MP Motorsport, have extended the contract with Norwegian Dennis Hauger, who will be joined by another Williams Academy Driver, Argentinian Franco Colapinto.
DAMS has acquired a full American line-up with Aston Martin’s Academy driver Jak Crawford and Juan Manuel Correa.
Invicta Racing has brought in 2023 F3 Champion Gabriel Bortoleto and Kush Maini who came from Campos Racing.
As mentioned, Campos have signed a full Red Bull Racing Academy line-up with French Isack Hadjar and Spaniard Pepe Marti waving Red Bull flags in Formula 2.
Enzo Fittipaldi has left Rodin Carlin Motorsport and has joined the Van Amersfoort Team alongside Mexican Rafael Villagomez.
Hitech has changed its line-up fully as well by bringing in Amaury Cordeel from Invicta Racing and Estonian Paul Aron from F3.
Trident will be represented by Richard Verschoor who returns to the Italian team after a one-year stint with Van Amersfoort alongside Czech Republic’s Roman Staněk.
Finally, the PHM Racing team has signed Joshua Dürksen, the first-ever Paraguayan in a Formula 2 racing weekend. His teammate will be the young British driver Taylor Barnard.
The new generation of FIA Formula 2 will officially start on 29th February with the practice session at the Sakhir International Circuit, just a few kilometers shy of Bahrain’s capital of Manama.
What a great article! Congratz Mr. Slipac .