Who is everybody and why are they ducks?

Australia means it’s the start of a new F2 season and it really does feel new, with many of last year’s faces moving onto bigger and better F1 things. If you’re feeling unsure about who everyone is and who to support, just refer to this handy chart.

Now you know who your new favourite F2 driver is, it’s time to check whether they already have a penalty. Yes, you heard me, penalties have already been handed out without any racing having even happened. Ah chaotic F2, how we’ve missed you. Penalties were awarded courtesy of three teams (DAMS, Rodin and Trident) getting creative during pre-season testing, with each of them drilling holes in one of their cars so they could fit an air pressure sensor. Modifying standard parts of the cars, however, is a big NO and penalties were handed out not only to the drivers whose cars were modified, but also their teammates who the stewards deemed would also have benefitted from the data collected. The result was that they would all (Jak Crawford, Kush Maini, Amaury Cordeel, Alex Dunne, Sami Meguetounif and Max Esterson) get a ten-place grid penalty for both races in Australia. What a start to the season for them.

Practice: Red flags!

If Dunne thought the start of his season couldn’t get any worse, he was wrong. What’s worse than grid penalties for both races? Grid penalties for both races and crashing your car at the start of the practice session. Red flags waved and all that was left for Dunne was for him to walk back to the pits looking sad.

Quite a bit later, the session was back underway, for a whole five minutes, before Oliver Goethe spun and bounced his way through the gravel until he lost the engine. After attempting to roll a bit, he soon slowed to a halt and it was time for another red flag.

The session resumed once more with only five minutes remaining, but they only got three minutes before Arvid Lindblad chucked it in the gravel, but he can’t take all the blame because Cordeel did the same. With the pick-up truck getting more action than the F2 cars, Race Control decided to give up. For what it’s worth, Victor Martins was fastest, Maini second and Joshua Dürksen third.

Qualifying: Yellow flags!

After barely any practice, they all literally raced out of the pits, Sebastián Montoya confirming, “yeah mate, it’s a race out here”. Just like any good F2 race, there was soon a yellow flag as Esterson and Goethe crashed into each other. “He just turned into me!” cried Esterson. “Esterson just crashed into me!” claimed Goethe. Goethe managed to recover from his spin, but Esterson was less lucky, limping away in his broken car.

Halfway through the session, F3 champ Leornado Fornaroli was fastest, there was a random bit of car in the middle of the track, and everyone was heading out to have their last goes at taking pole. Trying to hamper their efforts was Maini, who spun, bringing out a yellow flag. He wasn’t alone in taking a gravel-based racing line, but for some reason that wasn’t the fastest approach. Once Maini was out of the way, and with only two minutes left to go, Gabriele Minì went fastest. The others hadn’t given up yet, but with Dürksen going through the grass and Fornaroli having a spin, it was all over. Pole belonged to Minì, with Martins second and Crawford third.

As the drivers headed to the press conference it was only mildly uncomfortable that Minì was under investigation for impeding Crawford. There was a lot of shrugging shoulders, with Crawford attempting to explain the situation before trailing off and looking about awkwardly. “I don’t know, we’ll see,” said Minì shortly before being slapped with a three-place grid penalty for both races. Martins kept well out of it, his only complaint being that his press conference intro made him sound old. I mean his is ANCIENT at 23 years old.

Sprint Race: Safety Cars!

After all the penalties were applied and the grid reversed, Fornaroli was on pole, Dürksen second and Luke Browning third. Browning’s plan was to stay out of trouble, Dürksen wanted, “for sure, to win”, while Fornaroli just looked really excited.

Hopefully Fornaroli’s excitement was enough to keep him happy as Dürksen flew by at the start to take the lead. Behind them, Browning kept his position in third while the usual F2 chaos with people off in various directions ensued. We got a couple of laps before more F2 chaos occurred in the form of Martins losing it and hitting a wall. The Virtual Safety Car was deployed while they sorted things out.

Once racing was back underway, Browning got underway trying to pressure Fornaroli for second place, while Crawford was off to the pits ro retire. It was little battles all round for a few laps until Esterson spun into the barriers, leading to a Safety Car which took so long that Dunne complained, “my leg is getting cramp”.

Dürksen managed the restart well, keeping his lead ahead of Fornaroli and Browning, while Dino Beganovic was doing less well as he just spun all on his own. Somehow everyone managed to avoid him and he got going again, albeit quite close to the back. Apparently Beganovic’s spin was so inspirational that Meguetounif decided to do exactly the same thing, but he instead tried to blame Rafael Villagómez, although it could just as likely have been Marcus Ericsson. “Mate, he squeezed me into the wall”, complained Meguetounif. Sure mate.

Another Safety Car, another successful restart for Dürksen. The top three once more held position, which they also did for the rest of the race. Dürksen crossed the line a very happy race winner and confirmed this at the press conference, where he described everything as “perfect” and “really great”. Fornaroli was also very happy with his second place, having apparently been plagued with doubts such as, “Will I be at the front? Will I be competitive? Will I make any F2 friends?” (Not really that last one, I don’t think, or maybe?). Browning was only reasonably happy, but that was mostly because he thought his car and the track were cool. The vibe was very much that 100% happiness won’t be achieved until he wins the F2 championship. Just a small goal.

Feature Race: Ducks!

Once more, following penalties, the random order for the grid was Martins on pole, Richard Verschoor second and Roman Staněk in third. The first start was aborted because Verschoor’s car wasn’t ready and heaven forbid they should start without him. The second start was just everyone driving around behind the Safety Car in the rain while Lindblad talked about all the ducks that had taken up home splashing about around the circuit. Then came the red flag and everyone could go home.

Championship standings: Points!

After a shorter-than-expected weekend in Australia, resulting in limited points being handed out, Dürksen leads the F2 championship (10 points), while Fornaroli is second (8 points) and Browning is third (6 points). He will presumably only be reasonably happy for the next few weeks, before his next chance to take the F2 lead in Bahrain.