The 2024 Formula 2 season welcomed a new car and nine rookies but very little has gone to the script so far - so who has really stood out after 20 races so far amid reliability issues, big performance swings and 14 different race winners?
Kimi Antonelli, his team-mate Oliver Bearman, and their team Prema have all made headlines due to their perceived struggles with the new car this season amid links to F1.
Meanwhile, Red Bull protege Isack Hadjar has impressed and put himself into outside contention for a seat at RB in the future. But another driver - rookie Gabriele Bortoleto - has arguably been the most impressive driver so far this season, and he’s part of a title fight against Hadjar and Paul Aron.
Here’s how the story has shaped up so far in 2024:
Antonelli and Bearman are far from overrated
Prema drivers Antonelli and Bearman entered the 2024 Formula 2 season as hotly-tipped contenders - but neither has managed to score big results on a consistent basis so far.
Part of Prema’s struggle is thanks to the new F2 car. While much, including the engine and tyres, has been carried over from the last generation of the F2 car, there are crucial differences: the sidepods, floor and wings.
Of those new parts, the floor has proven most difficult for teams to understand. The new floor includes venturi tunnels and generates a higher proportion of the car's downforce than before. Therefore, the floor of the new F2 car demands a different approach to the set-up.
Just as in F1, teams now need to ensure the floor stays more stable throughout braking, cornering, and accelerating so downforce remains constant throughout those phases.
They do this by tweaking ride height, suspension rebound and suspension stiffness - and it seems Prema might have found it difficult to nail this particular aspect of set-up. Of course, after making suspension changes, the car handles differently, which means other set-up parameters also need to be tweaked in accordance.
Despite Prema’s pace deficit, Antonelli has shone recently and overcome his prior hesitance in making up ground on track - as had been clear in Saudi Arabia, where he finished sixth from fifth in both races.
FAN CAM 📹
— Formula 2 (@Formula2) July 30, 2024
Another angle of that Kimi Antonelli move 👀
Filmed from the stands by @maithe_schobben 🤗#F2 #BelgianGP pic.twitter.com/vZKRO2VyZB
Most recently, Antonelli - linked to a seat at Mercedes for next year but his future is still to be decided - pulled off a stunning overtake on Franco Colapinto through Eau Rouge in the wet, truncated, sprint race at Spa. Antonelli also dominated a soaking-wet Silverstone sprint race - his most impressive display this season.
Thanks to four consecutive non-scoring races in Spain and Austria, Antonelli is currently seventh in the drivers' championship.
Bearman - who has already secured a Haas F1 seat for next year - left Belgium 15th in the standings, having scored just five times in 20 races so far. He did, however, skip both Jeddah races to make his sterling F1 debut for Ferrari, meaning he couldn't start the feature race from the pole he'd earned on Friday.
His stand-out moment was the Austrian sprint race win - where he held off Pepe Marti - but Bearman also shone at the start of the shortened Belgian sprint race, where he shot from 14th to seventh within two laps.
Despite their places in the F2 standings, Bearman and Antonelli have shown why they’re so highly regarded. And it could even be argued that both drivers have at times outperformed their machinery.
Both drivers have to contend with respective five-place grid penalties for the next race. Bearman was penalised due to a clumsy accident with Marti in Belgium and Antonelli was penalised due to dry ice being seen coming out of his car on the way to the grid in Belgium.
Given neither driver is a title contender, the objective for Bearman and Antonelli is to learn as much as they can from the rest of the season and close out the season on a high to hit the ground running for 2025.
Bortoleto flew under the radar
Antonelli and Bearman have made headlines this season mainly due to their connection to F1, but McLaren-backed Invicta driver Bortoleto - as a rookie - currently has eight more points than the pair of them combined.
The reigning F3 champion hit the ground running with fifth in the Bahrain feature race but a mechanical issue stopped him on lap one of the Saudi Arabian feature - and another two non-scoring races followed in Melbourne.
As a result, the Brazilian fell to 12th in the standings while others like Zane Maloney, Hadjar and Aron deservedly drew praise for their strong starts to the season - yet there were many in the paddock who still backed Bortoleto to bounce back.
And that he did as soon as the next round at Imola. There, he took pole for the feature race and finished second - and his maiden feature race win came at the Red Bull Ring a few weeks later.
Now Bortoleto is second to Hadjar in the standings, having batted away his difficult start to the season, and the Brazilian is gaining deserving praise.
With McLaren F1 drivers Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris performing at a high level, it’s doubtful that Bortoleto will be considered for a seat at the F1 team in the near future - but his F2 performances will surely make him a contender for free practice sessions, and a subject of curiosity for other F1 teams.
Hadjar is finally firing on all cylinders
It would have been easy to scoff at Hadjar after his debut F2 season, in which he finished 14th overall with Hitech, but the Red Bull junior has made huge strides after switching to Campos Racing for 2024.
Now the championship leader with four race wins and seven podiums so far, Hadjar has impressed - and scored - consistently.
The 19-year-old’s strongest race was at Silverstone where he lost a few places from pole, but battled back to win and clinch the championship lead.
He has repeatedly credited the change to Campos with his huge year-on-year upturn in form.
At Hitech, Hadjar was far from a championship contender, and, while he hasn’t spoken negatively about the staff or the atmosphere there, Hadjar has praised his working relationship with the team at Campos.
It shows just how important a change of scenery can be in motorsport.
Not only is Hadjar a frontrunner for the F2 season, but he’s even put himself back into the good books of the Red Bull string-pullers at a time when there's plenty of potential for fluctuations in who fills its F1 seats.
F2 still has reliability bugbears
Despite every car being the same, F2 has been criticised by drivers and teams for its unreliability in the past - and the new car seems to have carried over that trait.
The F2 car uses a 3.4-litre V6 Mecachrome engine that was updated for 2024, but numerous drivers have had problems with reliability this season.
Hadjar was one of those drivers as he retired from both Jeddah races as his car went into ‘safe mode’ - while fellow Red Bull junior Pepe Marti was severely hampered during the Jeddah feature race as his DRS failed to work.
“I don’t mean to put the blame on anyone else, but my team, we were checking statistical data: I think they had zero mechanical failures since 2019, so to have three problems engine-wise in a week and one DRS problem in a weekend is to me, exceptional,” said Marti that weekend.
In Belgium, Bortoleto conceded that reliability has been a “problem” given he also retired from the Saudi Arabian and Australian feature races. At Spa, Bortoleto’s car sprung a throttle issue on the way to the grid - but it was quickly fixed.
DAMS driver Jak Crawford managed a podium in the Belgian feature race but was left incredulous as his steering wheel disconnected early in the race - leaving him unable to shift gears.
The new car might have improved safety and accessibility features but there's still clamour for strides on the reliability side.
Aron has little to lose
Hitech’s Aron, formerly linked to Mercedes, is the highest-ranked driver not affiliated with any F1 team’s junior programme.
Aron has taken seven podiums and three pole positions so far this season to put himself third in the standings.
He was very unfortunate to lose out on points in the Spa sprint race, where he lost a likely podium when his car slowed to a stop on the final lap.
Heartbreak for Paul Aron 💔#F2 #BelgianGP pic.twitter.com/QrOBGM2pUN
— Formula 2 (@Formula2) July 28, 2024
Aron didn’t score at Silverstone either, and he was not to blame for the sprint race accident in which Marti took him out in the rain - but he picked up unnecessary damage in the next day’s feature race when he closed the door on Joshua Duerksen.
Aron’s aggression has been picked up on by numerous drivers, and it was at the Hungaroring where it cost him most dearly as, after a poor start, he collected the Rodin driver Maloney.
In his position, following his split with Mercedes, Aron has everything to prove and little to lose by being so aggressive.
Perhaps that approach is the reason he hasn’t won an F2 race so far this season - but it could be the reason he’s scored so consistently.
Entering Monza, Aron is just five points off second-placed Bortoleto - who is another 36 points off leader Hadjar.
With just eight races remaining, it’s looking like we have a three-way fight for the 2024 F2 title win, but every driver still has something to fight for and time to change the prevailing narratives.
