The 2009 FIA Formula Two Championship season was the first year of the relaunched FIA Formula Two Championship. The championship began on 30 May at the Circuit de Valencia and finished on 1 November at the Circuit de Catalunya, after eight double-header rounds. Andy Soucek was a dominant champion, finishing over 50 points clear of runner-up Robert Wickens.

The season was overshadowed by the death of Henry Surtees during the second race at Brands Hatch.

Background & championship format The series saw the drivers using a chassis that was built at the WilliamsF1 team's headquarters at Grove in Oxfordshire. It was named as the JPH1, incorporating the initials of series boss Jonathan Palmer and Patrick Head, engineering director for Williams. The car was given two shakedown tests at Palmer's Bedford Autodrome by Steven Kane, before the car was officially launched on 2 March at Brands Hatch – the headquarters of MotorSport Vision, who run all the cars in the series.

At each event there were two 30-minute practice sessions, two 30-minute qualifying sessions and two races of varying length; the distances for each announced prior to each race weekend. Points were awarded to the top eight drivers in the race, and were awarded in the same system as Formula One: 10-8-6-5-4-3-2-1, and only a driver's best fourteen scores counted towards the championship. That said, no driver had to drop scores in the championship due to all of them having two or more non-points-scoring races.

The winner of the FIA Formula Two Championship received a full test with the AT&T Williams F1 team, which was run in such a way as to seriously evaluate the driver with regard to their potential as a Formula One driver. Drivers finishing in the first three places in the final classification of the Formula Two Championship qualified for an FIA Super Licence.

Drivers

During a question & answer session at the 2009 Autosport International show in Birmingham, series boss Jonathan Palmer announced that the Formula Two field will expand from 20 to 24 cars. This then became 25 as Edoardo Piscopo joined the line-up and Jens Höing returned after contractual issues. After Henry Surtees' death, there were only 24 cars at Donington Park, before returning to 25 for Oschersleben, with Ollie Hancock making his debut.

Driver Rounds 2 Sebastian Hohenthal All 3 Jolyon Palmer All 4 Julien Jousse All 5 Alex Brundle All 6 Armaan Ebrahim All 7 Henry Surtees † 1–4 8 Tobias Hegewald All 9 Pietro Gandolfi All 10 Nicola de Marco All 11 Jack Clarke All 12 Robert Wickens All 14 Mirko Bortolotti All 15 Mikhail Aleshin All 16 Edoardo Piscopo 1–7 17 Carlos Iaconelli 1–7 18 Natacha Gachnang All 20 Jens Höing All 21 Kazim Vasiliauskas All 22 Andy Soucek All 23 Henri Karjalainen All 24 Tom Gladdis All 25 Miloš Pavlović All 27 Germán Sánchez All 31 Jason Moore All 33 Philipp Eng All 38 Tristan Vautier 8 44 Ollie Hancock 5–8

Driver changes Entering FIA Formula Two Championship Red Bull Junior drivers Mikhail Aleshin and Robert Wickens moved to the series after competing in the Formula Renault 3.5 Series for Carlin Motorsport. They were joined by Julien Jousse, who also competed with Tech 1 Racing. Italian Formula Three champion Mirko Bortolotti and Italian Formula Three runner-up Edoardo Piscopo graduated into the championship. Formula Palmer Audi front-runners Alex Brundle, Jack Clarke, Jason Moore and Jolyon Palmer continued their collaboration with MotorSport Vision into the series. Armaan Ebrahim switched from Formula V6 Asia to the revived series. Philipp Eng, who competed in Formula BMW Europe and the German Formula Three Championship joined the series' grid. Another German Formula Three driver, Jens Höing, also moved into the series. Spanish Formula Three front-runners Germán Sánchez, Natacha Gachnang and Nicola de Marco all moved into the championship. Pietro Gandolfi graduated from LO Formula Renault 2.0 Suisse into the series. Tom Gladdis and Henri Karjalainen returned to Europe after participating in the Star Mazda Championship and the Atlantic Championship respectively. Tobias Hegewald, who had a dual programme in the Formula Renault 2.0 Northern European Cup and the Formula Renault Eurocup moved in the series. British Formula Renault drivers Sebastian Hohenthal and Henry Surtees debuted in the series. GP2 Series drivers Carlos Iaconelli, Miloš Pavlović and Andy Soucek debuted in the newly created category. Kazim Vasiliauskas, who participated in both the Italian Formula Renault Championship and the Formula Renault Eurocup, also joined the series.

Midseason changes † – Surtees was fatally injured after an accident, during the second race at the fourth round at Brands Hatch. Surtees' slot was filled by Ollie Hancock after round five. Edoardo Piscopo missed the final round to participate in the first round of 2009–10 GP2 Asia Series season. His slot was filled by Tristan Vautier.

Testing Results The first group test was held on 6 May, at Snetterton in Norfolk. In the morning, 21 of the series' 24 drivers were within a second of each other. Two sessions were held, one in the morning and one in the afternoon. There was another group test at Silverstone on 18 May, with two dry sessions and one wet session. Two other test days were held during the session, one at Donington Park, and one at Circuit de Catalunya.

Calendar The Formula Two calendar consists of eight rounds with two races at each event.

Round Circuit/Location Country Date Supporting 1 R1 Circuit Ricardo Tormo, Valencia 30 May WTCC Race of Spain R2 31 May 2 R1 Masaryk Circuit, Brno 20 June WTCC Race of the Czech Republic R2 21 June 3 R1 Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps 27 June International GT Open R2 28 June 4 R1 Brands Hatch, Kent 18 July WTCC Race of UK R2 19 July 5 R1 Donington Park 16 August Stand-alone event R2 6 R1 Motorsport Arena Oschersleben 5 September WTCC Race of Germany R2 6 September 7 R1 Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari, Imola 19 September WTCC Race of Italy R2 20 September 8 R1 Circuit de Catalunya, Barcelona 31 October International GT Open R2 1 NovemberSources:

Results Round Circuit Pole position Fastest lap Winning driver Report 1 R1 Valencia Robert Wickens Robert Wickens Robert Wickens Report R2 Robert Wickens Kazim Vasiliauskas Robert Wickens 2 R1 Brno Nicola de Marco Robert Wickens Mirko Bortolotti Report R2 Henry Surtees Nicola de Marco Andy Soucek 3 R1 Spa-Francorchamps Tobias Hegewald Tobias Hegewald Tobias Hegewald Report R2 Tobias Hegewald Tobias Hegewald Tobias Hegewald 4 R1 Brands Hatch Philipp Eng Mirko Bortolotti Philipp Eng Report R2 Andy Soucek Andy Soucek Andy Soucek 5 R1 Donington Park Tobias Hegewald Julien Jousse Andy Soucek Report R2 Julien Jousse Julien Jousse Julien Jousse 6 R1 Oschersleben Andy Soucek Andy Soucek Andy Soucek Report R2 Mikhail Aleshin Miloš Pavlović Mikhail Aleshin 7 R1 Imola Kazim Vasiliauskas Kazim Vasiliauskas Kazim Vasiliauskas Report R2 Robert Wickens Robert Wickens Andy Soucek 8 R1 Catalunya Robert Wickens Jason Moore Andy Soucek Report R2 Robert Wickens Andy Soucek Andy SoucekSource:

Championship Standings Pos Driver VAL BRN SPA BRH DON OSC IMO CAT Points 1 Andy Soucek Ret 4 17 1 4 2 2 1 1 4 1 2 3 1 1 1 115 2 Robert Wickens 1 1 9 Ret Ret 3 4 2 Ret Ret 8 4 4 2 Ret 3 64 3 Mikhail Aleshin 4 6 2 Ret 18 8 10 3 2 7 5 1 7 Ret 2 7 59 4 Mirko Bortolotti 6 2 1 Ret 9 9 Ret 5 10 3 2 Ret 2 Ret 6 Ret 50 5 Julien Jousse 5 10 5 2 3 6 19 9 7 1 Ret 3 10 Ret 4 8 49 6 Tobias Hegewald Ret 9 15 7 1 1 15 6 3 6 Ret 6 Ret 4 9 5 46 7 Kazim Vasiliauskas 3 20 Ret 8 10 7 5 12 Ret 2 3 7 1 Ret 8 4 45 8 Philipp Eng 12 3 3 9 Ret Ret 1 4 5 10 Ret Ret 5 10 5 9 39 9 Miloš Pavlović Ret 17 Ret 5 2 4 7 Ret Ret 8 Ret 21 6 3 10 19 29 10 Nicola de Marco 9 5 12 3 13 11 9 Ret Ret Ret 6 5 Ret 9 11 2 25 11 Carlos Iaconelli 2 8 Ret Ret Ret 10 6 17 Ret 9 4 10 Ret 5 21 12 Edoardo Piscopo Ret 7 7 4 8 14 8 7 4 Ret 12 8 13 Ret 19 13 Tristan Vautier 3 6 9 14 Henry Surtees† 7 12 Ret Ret 15 Ret 3 Ret 8 15 Henri Karjalainen 17 15 4 16 7 15 11 18 15 13 Ret 15 11 15 16 17 7 16 Sebastian Hohenthal 10 13 Ret 12 17 12 Ret 14 6 5 17 9 9 12 Ret Ret 7 17 Armaan Ebrahim 15 16 6 6 DNS Ret Ret 10 8 Ret 9 13 Ret Ret 12 10 7 18 Jack Clarke 13 19 Ret 15 5 Ret Ret Ret 9 14 7 Ret 14 14 17 14 6 19 Alex Brundle 8 23 11 Ret Ret 5 Ret 11 14 Ret Ret 11 17 Ret 15 12 5 20 Tom Gladdis 19 18 8 10 6 Ret 13 13 17 Ret 16 17 16 13 14 15 4 21 Jolyon Palmer 21 Ret 10 14 16 Ret 12 16 16 12 15 19 12 6 13 11 3 22 Jason Moore 16 14 13 11 Ret DNS 16 8 11 Ret 14 20 18 7 19 16 3 23 Natacha Gachnang 11 Ret 14 Ret 11 13 14 15 13 Ret 11 12 15 Ret 7 13 2 24 Germán Sánchez 14 11 16 Ret 12 Ret 17 Ret 12 11 Ret 16 8 8 DNS DNS 2 25 Ollie Hancock 10 18 Ret 11 Ret 11 18 18 0 26 Jens Höing 18 21 Ret 13 Ret 16 Ret Ret Ret Ret Ret 14 Ret Ret Ret 21 0 27 Pietro Gandolfi 20 22 Ret Ret 14 17 18 Ret Ret 15 NC 22 Ret Ret Ret 20 0 Pos Driver VAL BRN SPA BRH DON OSC IMO CAT PointsSources:

References

External links The official website of the FIA Formula Two Championship 2009 Formula Two Technical Regulations As archived at www.webcitation.org on 23 December 2009 2009 Formula Two Sporting Regulations As archived at www.webcitation.org on 23 December 2009 2009 FIA Formula Two Championship Standings As archived at www.webcitation.org on 23 December 2009