FIA Formula Two Season 2024

[chunterer]

Well....

Come on then, how many were surprised by Zane Maloney's relatively dominant weekend with him winning both races...

And by the same token how many were equally as surprised by Prema and ART's very ordinary performances considering 3 of the title favourites feature in those teams' 4 cars??!

Clearly both teams had set up and relibility issues with the championship already looking like it's turned on its head!

Could be a very topsy turvy year and difficult to accurately assess form and true ability levels. We've seen this before though..

That new Red Bull lad,the Spaniard Josep Marti looks like a very useful little pedaller?

[peebee2]

Originally Posted by chunterer

Well....

Come on then, how many were surprised by Zane Maloney's relatively dominant weekend with him winning both races...

And by the same token how many were equally as surprised by Prema and ART's very ordinary performances considering 3 of the title favourites feature in those teams' 4 cars??!

Clearly both teams had set up and relibility issues with the championship already looking like it's turned on its head!

Could be a very topsy turvy year and difficult to accurately assess form and true ability levels. We've seen this before though..

That new Red Bull lad,the Spaniard Josep Marti looks like a very useful little pedaller?

Certainly surprised by Prema and ART as the "new car" really isn't that much new. I think Virtuosi probably had the fastest car.

[justracing]

Originally Posted by chunterer

Well....
how many were equally as surprised by Prema and ART's very ordinary performances considering 3 of the title favourites feature in those teams' 4 cars??!
That new Red Bull lad,the Spaniard Josep Marti looks like a very useful little pedaller?

Yes, I really expected Prema to turn things around at least for the main race for Bearman and the new hot shoe team mate.

[justracing]

Of one thing I am certain, that being that F2 is once again far more exciting than F1, we have real racing as opposed to moneterised drama.

[v8supes]

The new F2 car has a very annoying whistling noise in the braking zones, its really painful when listening with headphones. Sounds like a Catherine wheel

[chunterer]

Originally Posted by v8supes

The new F2 car has a very annoying whistling noise in the braking zones, its really painful when listening with headphones. Sounds like a Catherine wheel

Well said, I meant to explore this in my opening post.

Is it brakes or the rear wimg causing this deeply distracting sound?

[Alfaholic]

This was mentioned in the coverage of last weeks' races, but I wasn't paying much attention. I think it was something to do with the underfloor aerodynamics.

[chunterer]

So Prema back to 'usual' form in Saudi quali, at least.

Great job by Bearman and Antonelli also considering his inexperience.

Maimi the surprise, once agaim showimg strong pace. But can he convert this into race long pace?

[ChrisA]

Originally Posted by chunterer

So Prema back to 'usual' form in Saudi quali, at least.

Great job by Bearman and Antonelli also considering his inexperience.

Maimi the surprise, once agaim showimg strong pace. But can he convert this into race long pace?

Unfortunately Bearman not racing in F2 this weekend. He is taking Sainz's place for Ferrari, he is an academy team member, as Sainz having an operation so not able to drive. Feel sorry for Prema but cest la vie.

[Vassago]

Verschoor won the Jeddah sprint but both Trident cars were DQ for illegal throttle map. Same thing happened in Spa last season where Verschoor was DQ from 2nd place in the sprint.

[Rusty Nail]

So is this deliberate blatant cheating or, merely a minor technical infringement where the map for some reason has strayed just outside the parameters? On both cars? I bet Verschoor and Stanek are not happy campers

[peebee2]

It’s certainly either blatant or incompetence.

[chunterer]

Martins season has got off to.a shocking start! Still can't work out how he hit the wall. Did he just rum out of road or did Hauger escort him over?
He really needs some solid points in todays race.
Early days though.

Aron looks pretty handy doesn't he?

Maloney did a storming drive into the poimts too.

[v8supes]

Sad isnt it? Im not sure how it happens. Surely the process is controlled by 1s and 0s so you can clearly define the parameters of the map. Not like ride height where you might measure incorrectly or something. God Knows.

Maloney looks good though, the Rodins look to be much better in race pace than anyone else at the moment.

[Vassago]

Fittipaldi won the Jeddah feature. Hauger in 3rd so it will be curious to see if he mounts a title challenge this season. Hadjar with another engine failure and Martins with no pace again. Started third and finished 10th.

[justracing]

Yep, strong win for Fittipaldi in a topsy turvy feature race. I had honestly thought that Antonelli would finish higher, I know it's only his 2nd round in F2 but then the cars are new to everyone.

[chunterer]

Originally Posted by Vassago

Fittipaldi won the Jeddah feature. Hauger in 3rd so it will be curious to see if he mounts a title challenge this season. Hadjar with another engine failure and Martins with no pace again. Started third and finished 10th.

Something not right with ART at the moment.

[v8supes]

At some point we might get a result that stays the same once the race has finished?

Watched the race this morning, wake up at lunchtime to find out that Hadjar was penalised for the contact at the start. Honestly, why couldnt this have been dealt with during the race?

[Vassago]

They made a quick decision to wait with the penalty only after the race which seems fair given how Hadjar and Marti basically made their moves almost at the same time but I'm not surprised Hadjar was penalised. Bortoleto has completely fluffed the start not for the first time this season tbh.


Meanwhile Hauger is clearly mounting a strong title challenge racking up points. Martins had some speed but he's still prone to mistakes, Hadjar is well... Hadjar and Bearman is still at 0 points but I consider him an overrated title challenger. Last season he was scoring big or scoring nothing and that's not how you win these championships. The F1 debut hype could be history very soon now that he's back to Earth.


And of course another poor race from Antonelli with a silly spin off into the gravel. Something tells me we won't see him in F1 anytime soon since this shapes up to be quite a tough learning experience in F2 already.

[Vassago]

Maybe I jinxed Hauger as he crashed out of the Melbourne feature race. Hadjar takes the win on the road again but this time he gets to keep it. Aron and Maloney on the podium. Antonelli in 4th but he was passed by the other two on track (Hadjar gained track position by pitting under VSC after Hauger's crash which only turned to full SC one lap later). Miyata with a second Top 5 finish of the weekend.


Maini, Crawford and some others started on harder tires and got caught out by two SC periods. On a track that tends to have multiple SC every year I have no idea why people keep choosing this strategy since getting pitstop early is always the better option here. So Maini led 22 laps only to finish 13th.

[chunterer]

My take is that Hadjar fully deserved the race one penalty but it should have been issued in the race.

Alex Brundle was talking nonsense that it wasn't worthy of it!

Hadjar turned sharply across 2 other cars (with or without looking in his right mirror!) and caused a massive shunt and costly repairs for 2 other cars including his teammate and lengthy delays to the running of the race.

Of the actual racing there was some fantastic action plus sole pretty silly mistakes to boot.

Whilst many drivers are going to be taking wins, Maloney piles on the points...

Still think ART and Prena will get in the groove properly before long. Martins and Bearman are too good not too feature more regularly at the front.

[chunterer]

A few drivers are looking like they are on the verge of wins and even a good tilt at challenging Maloney

Hadjar will do if he can be consistent. Pace is there but he is a bit hit headed.
Hauger clearly has pace but is erratic.
Maini seemingly excels at qualifying but can't manage it over a race distance even though he looked like he might have been a contender on Sunday.
As I mentiomed before it won't be long before Martins and Bearman hit their strides.
O'Sullivan has been there or thereabouts, ditto Crawford.
I know Fittipaldi looked good in Saudi but he was nowhere really in Australia.

Of the newbies Aron has perhaps been the most impressive so far. Consistently in the top 6 speed wise.

Antonelli was much closer in Melbourne but is obviously trying to get a handle of the tyres.

Miyata looked very solid on Sunday. Could be a dark horse?

Marti could be another to figure based on pace even though he has been off the road a lot.