The F1 hopefuls who need big results in F2 this year · RaceFans

The 2023 Formula 2 field contains a wide array of experience. At one of the spectrum is Roy Nissany, who is entering his ninth year at this level, while nine others are new to the series.

There’s one sixth-year driver who has actually only completed one full season, and even the third-year drivers are trying to prove they haven’t missed the F1 boat and can emulate last year’s champion Felipe Drugovich by using their experience to take the title.

There’s a lot resting on the shoulders of several of this year’s competitors, but it’s an especially critical season for a handful of those seeking promotion to Formula 1 in 2024.

Theo Pourchaire

The driver who needs a big season more than anyone else is actually the one who has already achieved the most in F2 from this year’s entry list.

Theo Pourchaire went without a pole in 2022, but with three feature race wins he still did enough to be championship runner-up. However the target set by Sauber for him to earn a promotion to Alfa Romeo in F1 for 2023 was to win the title, so he has to not only do that this season but do it in an extremely assertive fashion as he remains with ART Grand Prix, one of F2’s top teams. The pressure is also raised because Sauber is believed to be now funding the 19-year-old’s racing.

In his rookie F2 campaign in 2021, Pourchaire threw himself into the F1 spotlight with a stunning pole and feature win in Monaco and then a sprint race victory at Monza later in the year. He scored 140 points that season but over the longer 2022 campaign he scored fewer points per race on average despite climbing up the points table.

Pourchaire needs to show he learned from a year that did not meet his or Sauber’s expectations. Having a bubble of self-assuredness and confidence burst as it did for him can never happen at a good time, and it did have an impact on his performances, but it is better for such a moment in an athlete’s career to occur in F2 than in the even higher pressure world of F1. Even highly established drivers like Daniel Ricciardo have had their full-time racing careers ended by such wobbles.

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Jehan Daruvala

With a Formula E reverse driver gig at Mahindra in the bag for 2023, Daruvala did not need to return to F2 for a fourth year. He is no longer part of the Red Bull Junior Team and there has been no…