Formula 1’s leading feeder series delivered on-track excitement and championship intrigue last weekend.
The Formula 3 title was decided in style by a final-corner pass (or so it seemed at the time), while the Formula 2 points battle unexpectedly closed up.
But the same weekend prompted more questions over the value of the two titles being chased by the 52 drivers racing in F2 and F3.
Though the circumstances of Gabriel Bortoleto’s last-to-first F2 win owed much to luck, the title-deciding F3 race which preceded it was a proper barnstormer. Gabriele Mini and Leonardo Fornaroli scrapped until the final corner of the race, where the latter thrust past Christian Mansell to deny his rival the crown.
Mini’s post-race disqualification for a technical infringement may have rendered that moot, but it took nothing away from the drivers’ efforts. However any of the F3 contenders would be forgiven for feeling deflated at the progress made by a driver who bypassed the series entirely.
The day before the F3 title was decided, Mercedes announced its junior driver Andrea Kimi Antonelli would be promoted to its F1 team next year. Antonelli has had little time to distinguish himself in F1’s preferred championships, having skipped the FIA F3 series entirely and being two-thirds of the way through his first season in F2.
Those who look upon the two series billed as the natural routes into F1 would be forgiven for wondering how a driver can win promotion after spending so little time in them. Antonelli’s experience contrasts sharply with his predecessor on Mercedes’ junior programme, George Russell, who won both titles in consecutive seasons before getting his F1 chance. Charles Leclerc did the same – as too did Oscar Piastri.
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Antonelli isn’t the only driver with little to show from his 2024 F2 campaign who will nonetheless be on the F1 grid next year. Like him, Prema team mate Oliver Bearman announced his coming graduation to F1 at his home round of the championship, two months ago. Bearman lies just 14th in the F2 standings, though without his enforced absence from the Jeddah round, where he substituted for Carlos Sainz Jnr at Ferrari, he would likely be comfortably within the top 10.
While it’s clear that a lack of success at this level does not prevent drivers moving up to F1, nor do F2 titles…
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