The FIA Formula 2 Championship has three F3 graduates stepping up to the second tier for the 2024 season’s 12th round at Baku, and all three debutants placed in the upper half of the grid in Qualifying on Friday, impressing their more experienced teammates.

Gabriele Minì, Luke Browning and Christian Mansell have stepped up to F2 a fortnight after participating in F3 title decider at Monza, where all three were in contention for the championship.

Prema driver Minì, 19, finished the F3 season second in the points, the closest rival to eventual champion and 2025 Invicta F2 driver Leonardo Fornaroli. The Alpine junior starred in a nail-biting final race that saw the title decided on track at the final corner, though he was eventually disqualified for having tyre pressures below F3’s specified minima.

Minì’s F2 call-up with Prema, announced Monday morning, came because regular driver Ollie Bearman was summoned to deputise for Kevin Magnussen at the Haas F1 team, his 2025 destination, after the Dane was suspended from the Azerbaijan Grand Prix for accruing 12 penalty points during the 2024 F1 season.

One place and two points behind Minì in the F3 standings was Hitech GP driver Browning, who makes his F2 bow with ART Grand Prix this weekend.

As was announced by ART Tuesday evening, the British driver replaces fellow Briton and Williams junior Zak O’Sullivan, his 2020 British F4 title rival, for the final three F2 rounds. In social media posts made Monday evening, O’Sullivan announced that he had called time on his season, citing funding issues.

Mansell was the driver Fornaroli passed at the final corner to secure the F3 title and deny Minì his chance at glory. Having finished fifth with ART in F3, the 19-year-old Australian now steps up to F2 with Trident for the rest of the season in place of Roman Stanek, whose departure from the team was announced Monday alongside Mansell’s ascension following months of doubt over the Czech driver’s future beyond the Monza F2 round.

On Friday at the Baku City Circuit in Azerbaijan, the best of the three newcomers in Qualifying was Minì in eighth, 0.585 seconds off pole and two places ahead of Mansell in 10th, 0.788s off pole. One place and 79 thousandths behind the Australian was Browning, who will start 11th for both races.

While the debutants completed their first day of on-track running during an F2 weekend, their teammates locked out the top three positions in Qualifying around the 6.003-kilometre, 20-turn street circuit.

Trident’s Richard Verschoor took pole position with a 1:54.857, shading Prema rookie Andrea Kimi Antonelli on a 1:54.874, as ART Grand Prix driver Victor Martins took third with a 1:55.102.

Speaking to InsideF2 in the post-session press conference, the Qualifying top three praised their new teammates for their quick adaptation but said their personal preparations for the round hadn’t changed.

“The preparation has been the same,” said Martins, who is competing against Browning for the first time in his career. “We have done simulator prep the same on Thursday, and everything has been included to this preparation since the beginning, as soon as he knew he was coming obviously.

“On my side, I’m just trying to stay the same, try to pick up things from him if he can, if it’s good for my F2 season and career,” Martins continued.

“I have always had a really good relationship with everyone in my career, so I was quite happy. In the end, it’s not changing my life. It’s just trying to [see] if he can bring me some speed and I can go quicker on the track because I see one thing better than me, I take it.”

Despite having turned 18 only three weeks ago, Antonelli has assumed the role of the more experienced driver at Prema for the weekend alongside fellow Italian Minì. It is an unusual position for the Mercedes junior, who has been fast-tracked through junior single-seater series in advance of his 2025 F1 debut with Mercedes.

Antonelli has only been the most experienced driver in his team once before in his single-seater career: at the 2022 ADAC F4 finale at the Nürburgring, where he was partnered with F4 rookies Rafael Câmara, James Wharton and Ugo Ugochukwu at Prema.

“I went from being let’s call it ‘the underdog’ in the team because I was the rookie to being actually the leading guy,” Antonelli said about being without Bearman. “It doesn’t really change your preparation. You always try to focus on your job.”

Antonelli and Minì were karting rivals in the 60 Mini and OK Junior classes many years ago, but in cars, they have only faced each other in the opening two rounds of the 2023 FRegional Middle East Championship. What does Antonelli make of his fellow Italian’s progress?

“Gabri is already a fast driver. I think he’s showed it in F3. Obviously, he’s also showed today that he has the speed. Of course, if you can learn a few bits from him, it can be really helpful, not only to get faster but also to develop yourself.

“I think even though I went from being the underdog, it was still really stimulating to have a new teammate and just try to do the best job as possible.”

Now in his fourth year in F2, Verschoor is the category’s most experienced active driver, with 96 race starts under his belt. While he and Mansell have never raced as teammates, they both competed in the 2023 Macau Grand Prix, which Browning won, and both tested with Trident on the final day of the 2023 F2 post-season test in Abu Dhabi two weeks later.

“Actually, I left him alone for all the preparations and simulator sessions, so I’m not really being a good teammate!” pole sitter Verschoor joked. “Then here, when he arrived, I tried to help him a little bit with the start.

“He’s a very nice guy. He’s very open-minded as well, and as Victor said, you try to learn something from each other. And all the rookies, I think today they did a very good job.”

In a separate twist after Qualifying, championship leader Isack Hadjar lost his best lap from the session for causing a red flag with 4:14 to go after going into the barriers at Turn 1.

The French driver, who reported that his rear brakes had overheated, was initially classified 15th but is now 20th in the order. Title rivals Gabriel Bortoleto, 10.5 points behind, and Zane Maloney, 30 points behind, qualified sixth and fourth respectively.

The Sprint Race begins tomorrow afternoon at 14:15 local time, with Mansell set to start from reverse-grid pole ahead of DAMS’ Jak Crawford and fellow newcomer Minì.

Credit: Formula Motorsport Ltd