Whoop whoop peeps! The 2021 Formula 2 season is finally upon us, with Bahrain hosting the first official pre-season test yeah. The first race is just around the corner now as well, since it coincides with Formula 1’s own planet-saving action, or should we say the first set of races for F2 in this case. There’s a new weekend format, right. Make sure to watch it on TV to find out what it is or whether it’s any good.
We just wanna get cracking really after a long and lonesome winter of lockdowns and general discontent. Make it five races per weekend, we don’t mind at all.
If you’re anxious to find out the identity of the 2021 champ, it’s gonna be none other than Oscar Piastri, a top bloke with a top team. Remember what the wise Conor Daly once told us when racing in GP3, he said: “Top teams are very smart and they know how to do it, they’re fine tuning it for us (drivers).”
Add that’s your lot when it comes to driver line-up.
If you’re in it to win it, you gotta go the whole hog and sign for the top team as Alesi-san, Giuliano that is, will attest. Alesi’s son is off to the land of the rising sun after a p*ss-poor 2020 F2 campaign with multiple outfits, you know. We enjoyed seeing that classic helmet design back though – and also having Alesi father present at the races, he signed tons of vintage stuff for us. Now Jean’s Japanese fans get to reap all the benefits of Giuliano’s racing career. Not fair. No likey, no bueno.
By the way, the last 2020 race at Sakhir was epic, it’s still fresh in the mind. Have you read our exclusive with Mick Schumacher yet? Ah, lazybones, you haven’t! FIA F2, Thoughts Of A Champion – Mick Schumacher | iberianmph.com
When I say Piastri will be crowned champ in Abu Dhabi I’m being slightly outlandish, no doubt. Would you expect anything less than left-field, the habitual inside the box thinking from me? The answer is no! Hey OCD guys, I wrote ‘inside the box’, not ‘outside the box’. #justsaying
In reality we won’t know absolutely 100% who’s who on the 2021 F2 grid until we step foot into that quali session in dusty Sakhir – you don’t know what you don’t know. But rest assured drivers and teams up and down the paddock are going to be pushing hard to be up front. It’s good, that (for the show).
Right now we’re getting a lot of PR hoo-ha about jumping back in the seat, getting back in the racing car, standing hard on the gas with gusto. The loud pedal, the thingy.
For drivers going into the second campaign everything will come a bit more naturally and they’ll have tons of room for improvement, sort of nailing everything together over the weekend. Slowly but surely. For my money, Piastri will blow them away. He’ll absolutely do a Leclerc or Russell with Prema’s help and Alpine’s support. One must deliver the goods, like DHL or CAINIAO, you can’t sit around and wait for things to start happening and pieces of the puzzle un-puzzling themselves. First-year F2 champ is no chump. Second-year, oh dear!
So for the teams Bahrain will provide a good chance to clear away the cobwebs from their Dallara machinery, do some instrumentation, test the reliability of bits and bobs, technical gubbins.
I’m old in the sport, like an old man roo down in Woolgoolga or Arrawarra, one of those more muscular/angry ones, and what we do know is that there are more variables with F2, more variety. The new format is bound to spice F2 latte up even further – Bruno Michel and Co are without question not afraid to turn the tables on racing establishment and try out new ideas on track to great (sound) effect.
And strangely enough, we leave you with more Conor Daly GP3 wisdom from the good ole GP3 days which is perfectly applicable to Formula 2. We say au revoir for now, we’ll be buck.
“Testing a lot of times doesn’t matter: as soon as you get into a race weekend, it’s usually a different story. For sure, drivers want to go quick in testing, but as long as you get the car balanced and get a lot of data for the season – that’s what matters most.
“It’s a combination: a good driver has got to be with a good team. I think the best teams really know what the driver is saying. It’s a level of undestanding: driver complaining of understeer is kinda generic, however you have to be detailed about what you need with the car and also have an engineer and a team that understands the situation, then it all gels together quite well.”
There’s a lot to be excited for and things are about to get really good. And there’s no place for gardyloo and silly tomfoolery at Iberianmph HQ.
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