What’s new in 2020?
What’s new in 2020, aside from the fact that there might not actually be any races? Let’s just brush that under the carpet for now…
This year will likely be less Schumacher focused than last year, which is ironic because he’s actually much more likely to be winning stuff and challenging for the championship than he was in 2019.
Another change for 2020 is the cars. This year we will be moving to the new 18-inch tyres, which might help level the playing field a bit as no one has driven these exact cars before (apart from all that pre-season testing, obvs).
Anyway, there’s sooooooooo much talent this season it’s too hard to call who will win the championship, or even who will fight for it. Here’s my vague stab in the dark…
The title contenders?
Guanyu Zhou, the trainer obsessed Renault junior with the best haircut in F2 was very impressive in his rookie season last year. He’s taking over from Jack Aitken as Renault F1 test driver (after Aitken left for Williams) and the whole motorsport world is talking about him, so he’ll be keen to keep up the momentum. If I had money, I would put it on him.
Jack Aitken has left the Renault Driver Academy and switched to Williams as their reserve driver. He’s driving for Campos again in F2 in 2020, having had some success with them in 2019. He needs to be a serious title contender this year to keep his career on track, and with two seasons of F2 under his belt and a few wins, he should have the experience to make that happen. Otherwise his back-up career must surely be in television presenting.
Mick Schumacher must be feeling the pressure this year as the whole world seems to want to see him blaze his way to the title. I mean, they wanted that last year, but when they realised it was unrealistic, they let him off, saying that he needed a year to learn the tyres. Now he has no excuse and needs to beat everyone, all the time.
Robert Shwartzman is included in this list because he’s really good, but mostly because I, like everyone else, love a good tale of an F3 champion storming through to take the F2 title in their rookie year. Ferrari Driver Academy duo and Prema team mates, Shwartzman versus Schumacher, battling it out to be the next Ferrari F1 driver is possibly going to be just as exciting as the F2 championship itself.
Luca Ghiotto was supposed to be off to sportscars, in the GT World Challenge Europe, and has apparently signed a contract to do the season, but then all of a sudden he’s signed with Hitech to return to F2 for the 2020 season. Surprise! He was the best of the rest last year and has a million years of F2 experience, so he should win. However, his team this year is new to F2, and he looks like he can go into a bit of a dark place when things go wrong (as I can clearly tell from my qualified position watching on the TV), so for those reasons I think Zhou could beat him. Edit: he will also apparently need to miss some rounds due to his other racing commitments. Edit 2: this didn’t happen.
I also don’t want to write off Ferrari Driver Academy affiliated Callum Ilott. If he can up his tyre management game and be consistently brilliant, rather than just the flashes we saw last year, then he has a chance.
2017 F2 runner-up Artem Markelov (returning for a full season after doing a few rounds last year) is also very good and exciting to watch, as is Haas reserve driver Louis Delétraz, who had a really unlucky season last year, but has proven to be quick, so definitely has the potential for big improvements. They might not be title contenders, but they will be up front for sure.
As you can see, I really have no clue.
Not title contenders? The veterans
Sean Gelael has signed up for another year of F2, this time with top team DAMS, and the biggest question (for me) is what his helmet design will look like this year?
Nobuharu Matsushita is aiming for a top-four finish in the championship so he can get his Super Licence and a seat in a Honda-powered F1 car. Seems straight forward enough.
Ferrari Driver Academy member and son of Jean, Giuliano Alesi is back for a second year. 2019 was a learning year for him, so this year he’ll be hoping to up his game and fight for some wins.
Roy Nissany is returning to F2 after having contended the 2018 championship. He spent 2019 recovering from a training injury, but is making a full comeback in 2020 having signed up to be Williams’s F1 test driver.
Mazepin is back with new team Hitech. Who knows what will happen in a new team? Certainly not me.
Not title contenders? The not-quite rookies
Dan Ticktum is a development driver for Williams F1 team and will be driving for reigning team champion DAMS. He should have a chance for some good results, and will be desperately hoping that’s the case as he had a bit of a bad year in 2019, getting dropped by Red Bull. But then who hasn’t been dropped by Red Bull? He has previously driven in F2 for the final round of 2018.
Renault junior Christian Lundgaard did one F2 round at the end of last year, but was unable to take part in pre-season testing because while he was doing winter training in Tenerife he got quarantined after coronavirus broke out where he was staying.
Marino Sato took part in three rounds of F2 in 2019. That’s all I have.
Not title contenders? The actual rookies
Marcus Armstrong is also part of the Ferrari Driver Academy and came second in F3 last year. His history is pretty impressive and he’s sure to be fast, but I literally can’t fit any more people in my “title contenders” list, so he has to stay here.
Yuki Tsunoda is a Red Bull and Honda driver who also competed in F3 last year. He had a slow start, but made progress in the second half of the season, so I will give him the benefit of the doubt if he doesn’t start the season as strongly as some of the others.
Jehan Daruvala was third in F3 last year, just one point behind Marcus Armstrong. He looks set to be fast again in F2 having already topped the time sheets on one of the days of pre-season testing, which is lucky because he’s also a Red Bull junior, so the pressure is on.
Even the F2 website describes Guilherme Samaia as “an unknown quantity” so I’m not about to try to quantify him.
Pedro Piquet is obviously the son of three-time F1 World Champion Nelson and was also fastest on one of the pre-season test days, so enough said really, except that he came fifth in F3 last year.
Felipe Drugovich finished 16th in F3 last year, but that didn’t stop him from carrying on up the ladder to F2. Good for him. I also like his lofty goal to “achieve the most important categories of motorsports in the world”, after all, why limit yourself to just F1 when the whole world of motorsport needs to be conquered?