Anything but a one-horse race

If you believed everything you read in the news section of the F2 website, you’d think the F2 championship was a one-horse race for Nyck de Vries or Mick Schumacher, depending on whether you believe in experience or legend. While De Vries certainly did dominate the pre-season testing in both Jerez and Barcelona, with Schumacher throwing in a couple of session-topping fastest laps just to keep the journalists happy, the 2019 F2 season is far from decided. But who is the future champion?

The likely title contenders: 

F2 veteran and the one who needs to prove himself most, Nyck de Vries came fourth in F2 last year, finishing behind George Russell, Lando Norris and Alex Albon. These names of course ring bells as they all three graduated to F1. With them all out the way, De Vries in theory should be able to handle the rookies and people he already beat once last year. He has the most wins of anyone in the field and is fast and consistent. Having said that it’s not a one horse race, my money is still on him, but I think he’ll have to work for it. 

The rookie everyone is expecting/secretly hoping to win it all, Mick Schumacher, of course has Schumacher magic coursing through his veins, which gives him a good one second a lap advantage over his peers. Even people that hated watching Michael Schumacher’s dominance want to see his son win. 

Luca Ghiotto has been doing this forever (in F2 terms) and while he hasn’t really been winning, he’s always been hovering around the podium. I actually don’t think he’s going to win the championship, but he is so consistent in his points scoring he’ll be up there and talked about, and my list would look silly without him. 

Nicholas Latifi is the Lance Stroll of F2, in that he’s Canadian and has a rich father who has invested millions into F1. Latifi has been hovering around the F2 paddock for several years and is an eternal test/development/reserve F1 driver (he’s currently reserve driver for Williams). In this age of drivers bouncing from one tier to the next and winning championships along the way, it seems as though Latifi has lost momentum. However, he is good enough and experienced enough to have a run at the title, although, like Ghiotto, I don’t think he’ll actually win. 

Renault F1 reserve driver Jack Aitken has won some races but needs to fight for the championship this year to prove he’s got what it takes to get into F1 full time.

Given the history of F3 (or rather GP3 and whatever else) champions storming through to F2 (GP2) championship glory in their first year, it would be an oversight not to mention the 2018 GP3 champion Anthoine Hubert.

I’m going to give a special shout out here to Giuliano Alesi, son of Jean Alesi, who would be getting loads of media attention if it weren’t for Mick Schumacher. I don’t actually thing he’s a title contender but I feel a bit sorry for him and he races in his dad’s helmet design, which is a touch of lovely old school nostalgia. He is also one of the million members of the Ferrari Driver Academy. 

The rest: veterans

Louis Delétraz is son of famous Swiss racing driver Jean-Denis Delétraz (you remember, he did those three grand prix back in the mid-90s). He’s got a few F2 seasons under his belt now and the people who write his press releases are running out of ways to spin his consistent quite-good-but-not-quite-winning results. 

Nobuharu Matsushita is back from racing in Super Formula in Japan. He’s a Honda-backed dude who is fast, but so far lacking consistency.

Red Bull junior team outcast and current McLaren test and development driver Sérgio Sette Câmara hasn’t won a race since 2017, and must be feeling the pressure to prove himself this season.

Toro Rosso test and development driver Sean Gelael has competed in GP2/F2 since 2015 making him a true veteran, which is insane because he’s only 22 years old. Gelael’s dad runs the Kentucky Fried Chicken franchise for Indonesia and he has the sponsorship to match.

Dorian Boccolacci heads up the profile section of his website up with THE THIRST TO WIN and then goes on to describe himself as “combative, motivated and determined,” so I am therefore going to avoid saying anything that may cause offence.

Jordan King is back after a year away. He used be the Manor Marussia F1 development driver but now he just goes about doing all the racing series.

Ralph Boschung so far has not been super impressive in F2 but he does a blog of all his races (in two languages!) which I quite enjoy.

The rest: rookies

Renault development driver Guanyu Zhou has proven himself as a GP3 race winner. He was previously a member of the Ferrari Driver Academy for several years and so has clearly been catching the attention of many a high-profile name. 

Ferrari Driver Academy member Callum Ilott is a veteran of a whole two races in 2017, so I’m classifying him as rookie. He came third in last year’s GP3 series, which was generally seen as a disappointing result, such is his apparent potential.

Juan Manuel “JM” Correa was previously part of Louts’s junior team before they were taken over by Renault and he is now Alfa Romeo’s development driver. His philosophy is to “be humble, surround myself by positive people and work harder than my competitors”. Solid life advice. 

Nikita Mazepin is the son of a billionaire with an interest in buying an F1 team, but after losing out to Lance Stroll’s dad on buying Force India, Mazepin has to rely on his racing skills to get into F1 instead. He came second in last year’s GP3 series so it seems he has the ability to go with the money.

Funding struggles have pushed Mahaveer Raghunathan down a less conventional path than some other drivers, but he has had some success in junior formulae. He wasn’t racing in any championships last year, so it will probably take him some time to get up to speed. 

Tatiana Calderón has been the Sauber/Alfa Romeo F1 test driver since 2017 and is the first woman in the second tier of motorsport in a million years. I hope she proves to be really good and not just a token.