New FIA Formula 2 Chris McCarthy has shared his thoughts on the opening round of the 2025 season in InsideF2, saying a surprise driver has laid down an early marker for championship glory.
Round 1 of the season saw just one race completed in Australia, with the Feature Race on Sunday cancelled due to heavy rain.
It was an eventful weekend up until that point, with drama on and off the track.
On Thursday, three teams, Rodin, DAMS and Trident were penalised for rules breaches in testing, while drivers battled electrical issues with their machines across the weekend.
On track, PREMA’s Gabrielle Mini set the fastest time in Qualifying, before he was handed a three-place grid drop for impeding American Jak Crawford, promoting ART’s Victor Martins to Feature Race pole position.
‘Overlooked’ team and driver throw their names into title contention
The reverse-grid Sprint Race on Saturday saw reigning Formula 3 champion Leonardo Fornaroli start on pole, but he was beaten off the line and to the win by AIX driver Joshua Dürksen.
Here's how Duerksen got the better of Fornaroli at the start of the Sprint ??#F2 #AusGP pic.twitter.com/y4z7dtSy13
— Formula 2 (@Formula2) March 15, 2025
And it’s the Paraguayan and his team who Chris feels has outlined his credentials for a title challenge, calling them the ‘stars of the show’.
The F2 commentator said: “Some people would not have put them into that conversation and maybe overlooked their wins from last season.
“But they showed straight away that they should be taken seriously.”
The 21-year-old form Asunción in Paraguay was even congratulated on his win by seven-times F1 World Champion, Lewis Hamilton.
P1 ???? pic.twitter.com/gDdK4ykSIh
— Joshua Duerksen ?? (@JoshuaDuerksen1) March 15, 2025
Newcomers impress as Campos seek improvement
Chris also highlighted that Fornaroli’s performance indicated that the 20-year-old was continuing with his F3 championship winning form in Formula 2.
He also mentioned that Martins and Mini will be pleased with their pace shown in Qualifying, despite not getting the chance to convert that into big points in the Feature Race.
Frenchman Martins does receive the two points awarded for Feature Race pole position.
Pole position for the first race of the season for @VictorMartinsFR !
After P1 in practice and securing P2 in qualifying, he moves up to pole following a penalty for his rival.
A strong start to the weekend—let’s go for the races ? pic.twitter.com/vVkq1SBVeX
— ART Grand Prix (@ARTGP) March 14, 2025
However, Chris told InsideF2.com that Campos Racing, who had been tipped by many to be fighting at the sharp end of the grid this season, will be disappointed with their opening round.
He said: “Their pace was really missing this weekend and I they’ll look to address that in the test before we return for Bahrain (Round 2) and Jeddah (Round 3).
The Spanish team were runners-up in 2024 and missed out on the Drivers’ Championship with Isack Hadjar.
The team is again fielding two drivers supported by Red Bull in the returning Pepe Martí and Arvid Lindblad.
Round 2 in Bahrain takes place from 11th – 13th April.
Imag: FML
