F2’s ‘angels’ try their new halo on for size
THE FORMULA 2 FIELD SAMPLED THE series’ new-for-2018 Dallara-built car at a snowy Magny-cours circuit last week.
The teams took delivery of the behaloed, V6 turbocharged machines at the end of last month and ran them for the first time at the French circuit, despite wet and icy conditions in the morning. Luca Ghiotto topped the times for Campos Racing with a 1m24.404s, just ahead of Carlin’s Sergio Sette Camara and Nicholas Latifi, who drove for the DAMS squad.
Trident racked up 58 laps, the most of any team, ahead of Arden International and Carlin, which both completed 50 tours. Prema Racing – which has taken Pierre Gasly and Charles Leclerc to the most recent GP2/F2 titles – completed the fewest laps, 21, after encountering a technical issue in the morning.
As is normal with a new car, the teams travelled to the former French Grand Prix venue to iron out kinks and pick up on any issues ahead of pre-season testing, which gets under way at
Paul Ricard on March 6-8. The positives and negatives were spread out across the field.
“The reliability side went better than expected – we had no issues at all from that point of view,” reported ART Grand Prix’s George Russell, who helped complete 43 laps – the same number as Campos – with his team-mate Jack Aitken. “Our run plan changed because it went very smoothly – we could then actually get in a run of performance just to see how the car felt.”
Although the wet weather meant Aitken, who drove in the morning, could not push closer to the limit as Russell did when the track dried out in the afternoon, he reported that the F2 2018’s chassis “feels pretty good, pretty similar [to the old car], which is nice because it’s a bit heavier with the added safety features. But I didn’t really feel that so much in the corners.”
Another team to report strong reliability was DAMS, with Latifi completing 40 laps. “We have to bear in mind that it was more of a rollout and a shakedown than a proper test,” said team boss Francois Sicard. “But we are pretty happy because we had no reliability issues, which is very good, and it’s a turbo engine so it’s quite complex. We were happy not to face any trouble.”
Prema’s technical issue occurred after Mclaren Formula 1 junior Nyck de Vries had completed an installation lap in the morning session. The problem, which team principal Rene Rosin said is “now under investigation by the Formula 2 organisation” restricted the team to a single lap before the lunch break. The Italian team was able to get out again during the afternoon, with Sean Gelael completing 20 laps and “everything ran OK – nothing strange,” according to Rosin.
“The main goal was to make sure that everything was in place, and then we will start working in Paul Ricard, like everybody,” he added. “I’m not really bothered about performance
[for now], but the importance is to be ready for Bahrain [scene of the opening round].”
Russell and Aitken highlighted the new car’s turbo engine as an area where the drivers will need to spend time learning to adapt their style ahead of the new season. Russell, the reigning GP3 champion, also explained that the car, which takes design cues from the aggressive style of the current generation of F1 machinery, has “gained a good amount of grip in the low-speed corners” thanks to wider track and lower centre of gravity.
As Aitken correctly points out, times and performance levels are “all peanuts at this stage”, but Sicard noted that the F2 2018 is “for the time being at the level of the previous one. Maybe it’s going to be a little bit quicker because I think we are going to compensate the fact that it’s heavier by the fact that it’s getting more downforce.”