FIA Formula 2 CEO, Bruno Michel announced today that the race format for Formula 2 will once again alter for the 2022 season.
Concluding the 2021 format hasn’t worked as well as expected, Michel said:
“I think we need to look at what we achieved this year. We put up this new format because we wanted to simplify the cost issues. We knew 2021 was going to be a difficult season.”
With long breaks between Formula 2 sessions, the excitement of what is arguably the best wheel-to-wheel Single-Seater racing in the world has been dimmed.
“We noticed there was too much time between the races and that we were losing a little bit of the excitement. If you look at the fans it was an issue.
“There was too much time lapsed for the drivers and teams as well.”
Discussing Formula 2 and Formula 3 coming together again to form a pyramid with Formula 1, Michel said:
“There’s a very strong will from everybody to have all the pyramid present as much as possible on the same weekend, F1, F2 and F3.
“It gives a very strong push for the two categories that are becoming really strategic to the system now. There will be a lot of benefits for everybody to do that.”
This season’s format has raised questions on if driver graduations into Formula 1 have been affected.
“We can see at this time of the season what the driver market is going to look like next season, and I must say for the moment it looks reasonably better than it looked last year.”
When making the decision to change the format just one year after new changes were brought into 2021, Michel explained:
“We took our main stakeholders, the FIA and Formula 1, into consideration. They had a strong will to have both F2 and F3 together. We had feedback from teams, and we heard the drivers, and took into consideration all of this information.”
Will this be the solution Bruno Michel, FIA Single-Seater Sporting Director, Michael Masi, and Formula 1 President and CEO, Stefano Domenicali have been seeking, to maximise the excitement in Formula 2?
Image Credit: Formula Motorsport Limited
