What are the class of 2019 (supposed to be) doing in 2020?
While half of the original 2019 line up (Ghiotto, Aitken, Matsushita, Zhou, Delétraz, Ilott, Schumacher, Alesi, Gelael and Mazepin) are back to fight once more for the F2 crown, what are the rest of the class of 2019 up to in 2020? Well, let’s face it, they’re in quarantine, but let’s just pretend some racing is actually going to happen…
Obviously hanging out in F2 after you’ve already won the championship is not the done thing, so despite the lack of an F1 seat, Nyck de Vries had to head off to more grown-up racing in the form of Formula E. He’s partnering Stoffel Vandoorne at Mercedes and is currently 13th in the championship standings after five races. He also competes in WEC with Racing Team Nederland in LMP2 and has been testing the Toyota Hybrid LMP1 car. Exciting stuff (mostly for me because I’m a WEC nerd).
Nicholas Latifi, as we all know, will be partnering George Russell at Williams F1 team, although can more commonly be seen playing F1 2019 at the moment.
Sérgio Sette Câmara and his shiny new Super Licence have left McLaren and he is now the Red Bull and Alpha Tauri reserve and development driver. Seemingly all part of Helmut Marko’s new strategy, which involves bringing back drivers they’ve previously dumped, as Sette Câmara was part of the Red Bull driver programme back in 2016.
Jordan King is doing some driver development coaching and racing in WEC with Team LNT Ginetta in LMP1.
Dorian Boccolacci will be racing in Lamborghini Super Trofeo Europe, which might not be super high profile but it feels like there could be worse things than travelling the world and driving a Lamborghini.
Judging from Ralph Boschung’s Twitter it seems as though he’s got plans in the pipeline, but his blog offers no glimpse into what those might be…
Mahaveer Raghunathan has become the stuff of legend following his interesting first season in F2. Seems he won’t be making a return just yet, but at least he’s got GOAT status on social media.
Tatiana Calderón is off to be the first female Super Formula driver in the Japanese series. She’s been doing some endurance racing as well and continues to be Alfa Romeo’s F1 test driver.
Special note on Hubert and Correa
Following his devastating accident, Juan Manuel Correa seems to have been making an astounding recovery. He has even been sim racing during quarantine, along with the rest of the world’s drivers.
After his tragic death, Anthoine Hubert’s number 19 was retired from use in F2 and the FIA introduced the Anthoine Hubert award to be given to the highest-placed rookie driver in F2 each year. Fellow Renault junior Zhou was the first recipient of the award.