Antonelli and Bearman’s F1 graduations show the limitations of its feeder series · RaceFans
Formula 1’s leading feeder series delivered on-track excitement and championship intrigue last weekend.
The Formula 3 title was decided in style by a final-corner pass (or so it seemed at the time), while the Formula 2 points battle unexpectedly closed up.
But the same weekend prompted more questions over the value of the two titles being chased by the 52 drivers racing in F2 and F3.
Though the circumstances of Gabriel Bortoleto’s last-to-first F2 win owed much to luck, the title-deciding F3 race which preceded it was a proper barnstormer. Gabriele Mini and Leonardo Fornaroli scrapped until the final corner of the race, where the latter thrust past Christian Mansell to deny his rival the crown.
Mini’s post-race disqualification for a technical infringement may have rendered that moot, but it took nothing away from the drivers’ efforts. However any of the F3 contenders would be forgiven for feeling deflated at the progress made by a driver who bypassed the series entirely.
The day before the F3 title was decided, Mercedes announced its junior driver Andrea Kimi Antonelli would be promoted to its F1 team next year. Antonelli has had little time to distinguish himself in F1’s preferred championships, having skipped the FIA F3 series entirely and being two-thirds of the way through his first season in F2.
Those who look upon the two series billed as the natural routes into F1 would be forgiven for wondering how a driver can win promotion after spending so little time in them. Antonelli’s experience contrasts sharply with his predecessor on Mercedes’ junior programme, George Russell, who won both titles in consecutive seasons before getting his F1 chance. Charles Leclerc did the same – as too did Oscar Piastri.
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Antonelli isn’t the only driver with little to show from his 2024 F2 campaign who will nonetheless be on the F1 grid next year. Like him, Prema team mate Oliver Bearman announced his coming graduation to F1 at his home round of the championship, two months ago. Bearman lies just 14th in the F2 standings, though without his enforced absence from the Jeddah round, where he substituted for Carlos Sainz Jnr at Ferrari, he would likely be comfortably within the top 10.
While it’s clear that a lack of success at this level does not prevent drivers moving up to F1, nor do F2 titles ensure a place on the grand prix grid. Just ask last year’s F2 champion Theo Pourchaire, who has raced in IndyCar and Super Formula this year, or his predecessor Felipe Drugovich, now a member of Aston Martin’s junior driver programme, a team whose F1 seats are filled until 2027.
To an extent, this has always been the case. Under its former guise, GP2, several champions never got the chance to race in F1: Fabio Leimer, Davide Valsecchi and Giorgio Pantano (whose F1 debut preceded his 2008 GP2 title win).
Mercedes clearly believe Antonelli is a special case. He has impressed them more through his performances in a Formula 1 car, almost all of which has taken place out of the public eye, with the exception of his six laps at Monza which ended in a crash. His rivals do not doubt he has the ability to race in F1.
“I think Kimi deserves to be in Formula 1, to be honest,” said Bortoleto in response to a question from RaceFans. “He’s a very young guy, just turned 18, with so much pressure on his shoulders. So many people making hype around him and everything, it’s not easy to perform in the circumstances.
“But F1 teams have so much more ability to analyse data and analyse performances from their drivers than fans, because obviously fans don’t have our data.”
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Those who succeeded in F2 but failed to find a place in F1 were largely victims of unfortunate timing, Bortoleto believes. “They were champions, they deserve a Formula 1 seat but the opportunity never came to them,” he said.
“Obviously Drugovich is in Aston Martin and a seat has never been open since he entered the academy. I’m quite sure that if there was a seat available, he would have been the one to get the seat.”
This points to the problem with viewing F1’s two junior series as steps on a ladder which inevitably lead to the championship. Teams are looking for the drivers who can drive an F1 car quickest, and these series don’t necessarily reveal that.
Bearman’s performances for Haas in practice last year strengthened his cause in the eyes of that team and Ferrari. Mercedes saw Antonelli’s potential in his karting days. F2 and F3 are necessary more because they give drivers the best opportunity to tally up superlicence points in order to ensure they can graduate to F1. But their championship points tally matters less in a series where the cars handle differently to F1 machines, where the set-up options are more limited, where reliability continues to make too much of a difference and where reverse grids races mean single-lap pace isn’t rewarded as highly as it is in F1. Change those things, and the correlation between the top F2 drivers and those who reach F1 may improve.
However it will likely always be the case that F2 produces more F1-capable drivers than there are places to fill on the grand prix grid – especially as long as Formula One Management continues to bar new entrants like Andretti.
“There are so many good drivers at the moment in F2 and there’s only 20 F1 seats, so it’s not possible for those teams to put everyone in that’s good,” said Richard Verschoor, now in his fourth season of F2. “So sometimes people have to wait, like Oscar [Piastri], like Jack [Doohan], who now gets a chance.
“So I do think it’s a good that promoting more young drivers into F1 and I hope they make the best of it.”
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