2023 Formula 2 Championship


The 2023 FIA Formula 2 Championship was a motor racing championship for Formula 2 cars sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile. The championship was the fifty-seventh season of Formula 2 racing and the seventh season run under the FIA Formula 2 Championship moniker. It was an open-wheel racing category serving as the second tier of formula racing in the FIA Global Pathway. The category was run in support of selected rounds of the 2023 Formula One World Championship. As the championship was a spec series, all teams and drivers competing in the championship ran the same car, the Dallara F2 2018.
Despite winning one race all season, Théo Pourchaire clinched the drivers' championship on the final round in Abu Dhabi for ART Grand Prix, who took its first teams' title in F2 history. Prema Racing's Frederik Vesti was runner-up, followed by Invicta Virtuosi Racing's Jack Doohan.
After all 26 races were completed in this season, 13 different drivers won races: Vesti took six victories, while his teammate Oliver Bearman took four. Ayumu Iwasa and Doohan each won three races, while Dennis Hauger won twice. Aside from Pourchaire, Ralph Boschung took his sole victory on his 96th race start in the sprint race in Bahrain. Other drivers having one victory to their name this season are Jak Crawford and Richard Verschoor who took their and their teams' maiden wins respectively in Austria, and Victor Martins in Silverstone despite receiving a five-second time penalty. Enzo Fittipaldi became a Formula 2 race winner for the first time when he won the sprint race in Belgium, while Isack Hadjar also took his first ever race win in the championship, winning the Zandvoort sprint race, where no points were awarded due to less than two racing laps being completed. Clément Novalak also took his first ever victory in Formula 2 at Zandvoort.
2023 was the final season using the Dallara F2 2018 chassis which debuted in the 2018 season. Starting in 2024, a new chassis will be introduced.

Entries

The following teams and drivers were under contract to compete in the 2023 Formula 2 Championship. As the championship was a spec series, all teams competed with an identical Dallara F2 2018 chassis with a V6 turbo engine developed by Mecachrome. All teams competed with tyres supplied by Pirelli.

Team changes

German Formula 4 team PHM Racing took over the entry and assets of Charouz Racing System at the end of the 2022 season, and ran in cooperation with the Czech squad under the PHM Racing by Charouz moniker.
Carlin competed under new ownership in 2023. The New Zealand-based car manufacturer Rodin Cars became majority shareholder of the team. With that, the team's name changed to Rodin Carlin.
Hitech partnered with hardware company Pulse-Eight during the off-season, changing the official name of the team to Hitech Pulse-Eight.
Virtuosi Racing and the Invicta Watch Group announced a multi-year strategic partnership which saw the name of the team change to Invicta Virtuosi Racing.

Mid-season changes

parted ways with Charouz Racing System starting from round 13, losing its support from the Czech team. From then on, the team operated independently of them.

Driver changes

Reigning Teams' Champions MP Motorsport started the season with a completely new driver lineup: Reigning Formula 2 Champion Felipe Drugovich left the series, whilst Clément Novalak left the team, finishing fourteenth with them in last year's Drivers' Championship. The team opted for the two drivers who competed for Prema Racing last season: 2021 FIA Formula 3 Champion Dennis Hauger, who came tenth with Prema in his rookie season, and Jehan Daruvala, who came seventh and embarked on his fourth season in the championship.
Rodin Carlin saw both their drivers departing the championship, with Logan Sargeant graduating to Formula One with Williams Racing and Liam Lawson moving to the Super Formula Championship to compete with Red Bull-affiliated Team Mugen. The driver line-up consisted of two Red Bull Junior Team drivers in 2023: Enzo Fittipaldi moved over from Charouz Racing System and Zane Maloney embarked on his first full Formula 2 season after debuting in the 2022 finale with Trident.
ART Grand Prix driver Frederik Vesti left the team and joined Prema Racing. Victor Martins replaced him, stepping up to ART's Formula 2 squad after winning the 2022 FIA Formula 3 Championship with the same team.
Prema Racing replaced their MP-bound driver pairing of Dennis Hauger and Jehan Daruvala with Ferrari Driver Academy member Oliver Bearman, who finished third in the 2022 FIA Formula 3 Championship standings, and Frederik Vesti, who returned to Prema Racing after finishing ninth in the standings as a rookie in Formula 2 with ART Grand Prix.
Hitech Pulse-Eight was another team having a Red Bull junior driver lineup in 2023. The team signed Isack Hadjar, who came fourth in FIA Formula 3 in 2022 with the same outfit, and Jak Crawford, who returned to Hitech after last competing for them in the 2021 FIA Formula 3 Championship and coming seventh with Prema Racing in FIA Formula 3 in 2022. Marcus Armstrong left the series after three seasons and moved to Chip Ganassi Racing in IndyCar.
DAMS signed Ferrari Driver Academy member Arthur Leclerc, who stepped up to Formula 2 after two seasons in FIA Formula 3 with Prema Racing, with a best result of sixth in the Driver's Standings. He replaced Roy Nissany.
Invicta Virtuosi Racing did not rehire Marino Sato and instead signed Amaury Cordeel, who came 17th in his debut Formula 2 season with Van Amersfoort Racing in 2022. Sato left the championship to join United Autosports in the European Le Mans Series.
Newly formed team PHM Racing by Charouz retained none of Charouz's drivers from 2022; Carlin-bound Enzo Fittipaldi was replaced by Roy Nissany who started his fifth Formula 2 season after finishing 19th with DAMS last season. The second seat was filled by Brad Benavides, who graduated from FIA Formula 3 after finishing the 2022 season in 23rd, driving for Carlin.
Trident also replaced both of their drivers: Clément Novalak returned to the team after last competing for the Italian squad in the 2021 FIA Formula 3 Championship. He partners Roman Staněk, who graduated from FIA Formula 3, finishing fifth in last year's standings, also driving for Trident. Calan Williams left the series and joined WRT in the GT World Challenge Europe, while Richard Verschoor joined Van Amersfoort Racing for his third season.
Partnering Verschoor at Van Amersfoort Racing was Juan Manuel Correa, who made his full-time return to the championship after his injury in the crash which took Anthoine Hubert's life in 2019. The pair replaced Jake Hughes, who left the series to join McLaren for the 2022–23 Formula E World Championship after already ending his 2022 campaign early to focus on securing a seat in Formula E, and Virtuosi-bound Cordeel.
Campos Racing's Olli Caldwell moved to endurance racing to compete with the Alpine Elf Matmut team in the LMP2 class of the FIA World Endurance Championship. His seat was filled by Kush Maini who moved up to Formula 2 after a single year of FIA Formula 3, in which he came 14th.

Mid-season changes

driver Josh Mason replaced Brad Benavides at PHM Racing by Charouz from the round at Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps onwards.
Two drivers made their debut in the final round at Yas Marina Circuit. Franco Colapinto replaced Jehan Daruvala at MP Motorsport ahead of a full-time graduation in 2024, while Paul Aron joined Trident, replacing Clément Novalak.

Race calendar

Calendar changes

Technical regulations

  • Formula 2 would run with 55% sustainable fuel in 2023, supplied by Aramco, who replaced Elf Aquitaine as an official fuel partner and supplier after eighteen seasons from GP2 Series era. In a bid to decrease the championships' carbon footprint, an incremental gain in usage is planned until the 2027 season, where usage of 100% sustainable fuel is planned.

    Season report

Round 1: Bahrain

The first feature race pole position of the season was claimed by ART Grand Prix driver Théo Pourchaire in qualifying at the Bahrain International Circuit. Campos Racing's Ralph Boschung started first in the reverse-grid sprint race, having qualified tenth. Boschung held the lead for the entire race, finishing ahead of second-placed Dennis Hauger, who had started sixth. This marked Boschung's first race win since entering the category in.
Collisions on the opening lap of the feature race necessitated the deployment of the safety car and eliminated Frederik Vesti, Victor Martins and Roman Staněk from the race, whilst Boschung took advantage of the retirements to improve from tenth at the start to second place by lap four, a position he kept for the remainder of the race. Zane Maloney, who had started eighteenth, made numerous overtakes in the closing laps to complete the podium in third place. Pole-sitter Pourchaire won the race to claim his sixth victory in Formula 2 and the lead of the Drivers' Championship, four points ahead of Boschung.

Round 2: Saudi Arabia

ART Grand Prix's Victor Martins qualified fastest at the Jeddah Corniche Circuit with Hitech Pulse-Eight driver Jak Crawford starting first in the sprint race. Crawford lost the lead to DAMS driver Ayumu Iwasa on the second lap and would ultimately drop outside of the points positions by the end of the race. The safety car was deployed twice, firstly when Zane Maloney spun and stalled on track and secondly when championship leader Pourchaire collided with Oliver Bearman during a botched overtake attempt. Iwasa took the victory, his third in Formula 2, having fought off challenges for the lead from Martins, who started tenth, and Jehan Daruvala.
Pole-sitter Martins lost the lead of the feature race to Bearman immediately at the start. Sixth-place Frederik Vesti gained two places at the start and gained third place from Jack Doohan during the pit stops. Bearman and Martins continued to fight for the lead and Martins reclaimed the position on lap eleven; the battle soon allowed Vesti to gain second place from Bearman, who spun a few laps later and would ultimately finish tenth. Martins then spun and was unable to restart his car, allowing Vesti to claim his second Formula 2 race win. Round 2 ended with Ralph Boschung leading the Drivers' Championship by one point over Pourchaire.