Ralph Boschung has suggested that he could return to the FIA Formula 2 Championship for an eighth season in 2024 despite previously saying that 2023 would be his final year in the series.
Boschung, currently 14th in the standings for Campos Racing, raced for the Spanish team when he made his F2 debut in 2017. He returned to the Spanish squad at the tail end of 2020 after contesting partial seasons with MP Motorsport in 2018 and Trident in 2019.
Budget problems had limited the Swiss driver’s ability to complete a season earlier in his career, but he found a consortium of sponsors in 2021 and 2022, including Swedish cryptocurrency investor Carl Runefelt, who have supported his career since.
Boschung said he had originally planned to leave F2 at the end of 2022, but the onset of severe facet syndrome caused neck pain that forced him to withdraw midway through three rounds he had entered and skip three more entirely.
There were concerns that Boschung might never be able to race again, but upon his return he confirmed that he would be continuing in F2 for 2023.
After the opening weekend in Bahrain, where he took victory in the Sprint Race and second in the Feature Race, the 25-year-old confirmed that 2023 would be his last year. But in an exclusive interview with InsideF2 in Zandvoort, he said that “that could change”.
When asked if he could reveal any specific plans, Boschung first said “this guy, maybe”, gesturing to Van Amersfoort Racing team manager Tom Claessen in the neighbouring garage, who said “[things] can always change”.
Boschung then said, “I don’t know yet about the future. I do have a couple of options on the table, very interesting ones – racing ones, non-racing ones,” he said. “It all depends on many factors, as always, but we’ll see.”
Formula 2 is set to introduce a new car for 2024. If Boschung were to return for another season, he would become the first driver to have raced three different FIA F2 or GP2 Series chassis since Luca Filippi, who last raced in GP2 in 2012.
Boschung began 2023 with three consecutive top-five finishes, which gave him a narrow one-point lead in the championship after Round 2 in Jeddah, but he did not take another point until he finished eighth and 10th at the last round in Spa.
“I did have a couple of issues, as probably everyone saw. It was pretty hard to understand, to be honest, after such a good start and then having a big drop, but I just kept the same approach as I usually do.
“I think we just obviously had a good qualifying – that’s always very important – and from there on scored some decent points. l think it could have been quite a bit better, especially in the Feature Race, but unfortunately, I had an issue in the [safety car] restart.”
Boschung has also been overtaken in the standings by rookie teammate Kush Maini, who sits 11th on 56 points. Maini began the season with eight top-10 finishes but has also failed to score in all but two of the rounds since.
When asked about data-sharing within the team during the more challenging recent rounds, Boschung said, “I think it was bit of a give and take from both. Obviously [Maini] is a very rapid guy for being a rookie.”
“I gave him some of my data, I took some of his and we kind of mixed very well together. And I think we improved a little bit the car as well on top of it, so I think that’s good.
“Hopefully he will look more at my data than I have to look at his data. But if we can both be up there for the team, that would be great.”
If Boschung does not come back to F2 for next year, he said his goal is to score another win in the final three rounds.
“It’s been a long time I’ve been in this paddock, made some good friends. If it’s really the last three rounds in total … I want to try and get a win again for the team. That would be amazing, but if I can have some good races and enjoy it, that’s for me the most important.”
Image: Formula Motorsport Ltd
