FIA Formula 2 Championship 2019 – Round 1 – Sakhir – Schumacher in the points on debut Bahrain
Posted: 31.03.2019
Source: Ferrari
Sakhir, 31 March 2019 – The Bahrain Grand Prix weekend has also seen the start of the FIA Formula 2 championship. Three Ferrari Driver Academy drivers, Mick Schumacher, Callum Ilott and Giuliano Alesi, are competing in this feeder series for Formula 1 for the very first time. Drivers and cars were subjected to hot conditions every time they took to the track as, unlike the F1 cars, the Formula 2 sessions and race all took place at the hottest part of the day.
Good start. Schumacher leaves the Sakhir circuit with a good points haul, having finished both races in the points. The 20 year old German started Race 1 from the fifth row of the grid, coming home eighth at the end of the 32 laps. That was a key result as a reversed top eight grid meant that Mick started the Sprint Race from pole position. He kept the lead at the start, but dropped a few places, in difficulty with tyre management, but nevertheless sixth place was a positive end to the weekend.
Uphill all the way. Ilot and Alesi had a bit more of a struggle on their hands. The 20 year old Englishman paid the price of a mistake in qualifying, which meant he started the Feature Race from 18th on the grid. Callum came away from the weekend with a 14th and a 16th place. Alesi started 15th in Race 1, finishing 12th and then in Race 2 he closed on the top ten, but an unplanned pit stop with excessive tyre wear dropped him to 18th at the flag.
FIA Formula 2 Championship 2019 – Round 1 – Sakhir – Three-pronged attack for FDA in Bahrain
Posted: 27.03.2019
Source: Ferrari
Sakhir, 27 March 2019 – This weekend the Formula 1 Championship will be back on track in Bahrain for the second race of the season. The Sakhir weekend will also host the first round of the FIA Formula 2 series, which opens its 2019 in the Middle East. Ten teams and 20 drivers are all set to do battle after a 2018 championship that confirmed the value of the series, with the promotion to Formula 1 of the top three, George Russell, Lando Norris and Alexander Albon.
New cycle. Formula 2 started a new cycle in 2017, taking over from the GP2 Series and becoming a championship run under by the International Federation. Last year the class saw a significant technical change, with the debut of a new single-seater (updated with the new FIA specifications that included the use of the HALO system) and a V6 turbo engine in place of the previous aspirated 4-litre V8. The other features stay the same: a 12-round calendar, each of which is held on Formula 1 weekends, with two races per weekend. This year’s innovation in Formula 1, the point for the fastest lap, has long been in Formula 2 sporting regulations, which also assigns four points to the poleman.
Giuliano. The Ferrari Driver Academy (FDA) will see three of its drivers on track in the 2019 championship, all in their first full season in the class. After completing his two-year stint in the GP3 Series (with the 19-year-old Frenchman notching up four wins in 2017 and 2018), Giuliano Alesi will start his third season with the Trident team. His teammate will be the Swiss Ralph Boschung, in his third season in the series.
Callum. Callum Ilott cannot officially be considered a rookie, given that the 20-year-old Briton raced in one round of the 2017 Championship, but statistics aside, this will be his proper debut season. After finishing third in the last GP3 Series championship, Ilott will start with the Sauber Junior Team by Charouz, with the US driver Juan Manuel Correa as his teammate.
Mick. Mick Schumacher’s debut is also highly anticipated. After winning the European Formula 3 Championship, the 19-year-old German is ready to move up a class, as confirmed by the positive results of the pre-championship tests. Like Alesi, Schumacher has also stayed with the team with which he competed in the previous series, so will race for Prema, flanked by the Indonesian Sean Gelael.
Generational change. This year sees a substantial generational change, with 10 of the 20 drivers about to take part in their first full season in the series. The two test sessions of recent weeks on the Jerez de la Frontera and Barcelona tracks saw Nick De Vries (ART Grand Prix) and Luca Ghiotto (Uni Virtuosi Racing) in the top positions. Both drivers are in their third season in the class. The pair, together with the Brazilian Sergio Sette Camara (DAMS), will be the benchmark for all their opponents as the season gets underway.
Programme. The Bahraini weekend will start on Friday with the free practice session, followed by qualifying for Race-1, which starts on Saturday at 1.10 pm. The starting grid for Race-2, scheduled for Sunday at 2.15 pm, will be an inversion of the top eight positions of Race-1.