The 2019 FIA Formula 2 Championship was the fifty-third season of the second-tier of Formula One feeder championship and also third season under the moniker of FIA Formula 2 Championship, a motor racing championship for Formula 2 cars that is sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA). It is an open-wheel racing category that serves as the second tier of formula racing in the FIA Global Pathway. The category was run in support of the 2019 FIA Formula 1 World Championship.
George Russell was the reigning drivers' champion, having won the title at the final round of the 2018 championship in Abu Dhabi. Russell would drive in Formula One for Williams in 2019. Carlin were the reigning teams' champions, having secured their first Formula 2 title in Abu Dhabi. ART Grand Prix driver Nyck de Vries won the drivers' championship after the win in the Feature race at Sochi. In the teams' championship DAMS secured their first team title over UNI-Virtuosi Racing after the win in the Feature race at Abu Dhabi.
The season was marred by the death of French driver Anthoine Hubert during the feature race of the Spa-Francorchamps round on 31 August 2019. Hubert's death was the first fatality for a driver competing in FIA-sanctioned feeder series racing since Henry Surtees's fatal crash at Brands Hatch in 2009 in the FIA Formula Two Championship.
The Formula One theme song composed by Brian Tyler, which debuted in the 2018 F1 season, would now be used in Formula 2 broadcasts.
The season would see 8 different winners, with the top three in the championship, De Vries, Nicholas Latifi, and Luca Ghiotto, each winning 4 races. 3 races were won by Jack Aitken, and 2 races were won by Hubert, Sérgio Sette Câmara, and Nobuharu Matsushita. The only other race winner was rookie Mick Schumacher.
Entries The following teams and drivers competed in the 2019 championship. As the championship is a spec series, all competitors raced with an identical Dallara F2 2018 chassis with a V6 turbo engine developed by Mecachrome. Teams competed with tyres supplied by Pirelli.
Entrant Driver name Rounds Carlin1 Louis DelétrazAll2 All ART Grand Prix3 Nikita MazepinAll4 Nyck de VriesAll DAMS5 Sérgio Sette CâmaraAll6 Nicholas LatifiAll UNI-Virtuosi Racing7 Guanyu ZhouAll8 Luca GhiottoAll9 Mick SchumacherAll10 Sean GelaelAll Sauber Junior Team by Charouz11 Callum IlottAll12 Juan Manuel Correa1–9 Matevos Isaakyan11–12 Campos Racing14 Dorian Boccolacci1–5 Arjun Maini6–8 Marino Sato9–1215 Jack AitkenAll MP Motorsport 16 Jordan King1–3, 5–12 Artem Markelov417 Mahaveer Raghunathan1–5, 7–12 Pato O'Ward6 BWT Arden18 Tatiana CalderónAll19 Anthoine Hubert1–922 Artem Markelov11–1220 Giuliano AlesiAll 21 Ralph Boschung1–5, 8–9, 11 Ryan Tveter6 Dorian Boccolacci7 Christian Lundgaard12 Source:
Team changes
Russian Time left the championship after six years competing in Formula 2 and its predecessor, the GP2 Series. Their entry and assets were sold to Virtuosi Racing, who had operated the team. The new entry competes under the name "UNI-Virtuosi Racing". Fortec Motorsports had been granted an entry to the Formula 2 grid in 2018, but were later given permission to defer their entry until 2019. However, they were subsequently omitted from the draft entry list for the 2019 championship.
Arden International entered into a partnership with Mercedes-affiliated team HWA Racelab. Charouz Racing System formed a partnership with Sauber Motorsport, which ran Alfa Romeo's team in Formula 1. The Sauber-Charouz partnership is not affiliated with Alfa Romeo's Formula 1 entry.
Driver changes Lando Norris left Carlin and the series as he was promoted to Formula 1 with McLaren. His seat was taken by Louis Delétraz, who left Charouz Racing System to join the team. He was joined by Nobuharu Matsushita, who returned to Formula 2 after a year spent racing in the Super Formula Championship, to replace Sérgio Sette Câmara.
Sette Câmara left Carlin to replace Alexander Albon at DAMS. Albon left the championship to join Formula 1 team Toro Rosso.
Arden drivers Nirei Fukuzumi and Maximilian Günther left the series. Fukuzumi moved to the Super Formula Championship with Dandelion Racing, while Günther joined the Formula E championship with Dragon Racing. Reigning GP3 Series champion Anthoine Hubert and GP3 Series regular Tatiana Calderón joined Arden in their place.
Artem Markelov and Tadasuke Makino left Russian Time and the championship. Both drivers moved to Japan to compete in the Super Formula Championship; Markelov joined Team LeMans while Makino joined Nakajima Racing. Guanyu Zhou graduated from the 2018 FIA Formula 3 European Championship, joining Russian Time's successors UNI-Virtuosi. Zhou was partnered by Luca Ghiotto, who raced with Russian Time in 2017 and Campos Racing in 2018.
Nikita Mazepin joined the championship with ART Grand Prix, the team he drove for when he finished runner-up in the 2018 GP3 Series. Mazepin was partnered with Nyck de Vries, who left Prema Racing to join the team. Mazepin and de Vries replaced 2018 series champion George Russell—who left the team and the championship to join Formula 1 team Williams—and Jack Aitken, who switched to Campos Racing. Prema Theodore Racing named Mick Schumacher as de Vries' replacement. Schumacher continued his association with the team after he won the 2018 FIA Formula 3 European Championship with them.
Arjun Maini left Trident and the series to join RLR MSport in the European Le Mans Series. Giuliano Alesi joined the championship with Trident, the team he raced for in the GP3 Series. He was joined by Ralph Boschung, who left MP Motorsport before the Sochi round in . Dorian Boccolacci also left MP Motorsport, joining Jack Aitken at Campos Racing. Jordan King returned to the series with MP Motorsport, contesting the championship alongside his part-time NTT IndyCar Series campaign. Mahaveer Raghunathan returned to full-time competition for the first time since 2016, partnering King at MP Motorsport. Callum Ilott and Juan Manuel Correa joined the series, both signing with Sauber Junior Team by Charouz. Antonio Fuoco left Charouz and the series to join Formula One team Ferrari as a test driver.
Mid-season changes
Artem Markelov made a one-off return in Monaco as a replacement for Jordan King at MP Motorsport, who was competing in the 2019 Indianapolis 500 with Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing. After collecting twelve penalty points on his racing license for incurring three Virtual Safety Car infringements during the Paul Ricard feature race, Mahaveer Raghunathan was banned from the series for the Red Bull Ring round. Raghunathan's MP seat was filled in Austria by 2018 Indy Lights champion and 2019 IndyCar Series driver Patricio O'Ward.
Shortly after the Paul Ricard round, Arjun Maini was announced to be replacing Dorian Boccolacci at Campos Racing for the Red Bull Ring and Silverstone rounds. Marino Sato replaced Maini prior to the Spa round.
After encountering funding problems, Ralph Boschung left Trident prior to the Red Bull Ring round. Former GP3 driver Ryan Tveter joined the team in Boschung's place. Tveter was later replaced by Boccolacci. Boschung returned to the team ahead of the Hungarian round.
BWT Arden was represented only by Tatiana Calderón at Monza after Anthoine Hubert's fatal accident. Juan Manuel Correa, who was also involved in the incident, was forced to miss the rest of the season due to injuries. Sauber Junior Team by Charouz did not replace him at Monza, running only Callum Ilott. Giuliano Alesi's car was impounded by Belgian authorities as part of their investigation into the accident at Spa, limiting Trident to a single entry for the next round. Ralph Boschung was stood down to allow Alesi to compete.
For the Sochi and Yas Marina rounds, Matevos Isaakyan, who raced in the 2018 European Le Mans Series, took Juan Manuel Correa's seat at Sauber Junior Team by Charouz. Artem Markelov replaced Anthoine Hubert at BWT Arden for the same rounds, although the Russian raced with #22 as the #19 had been retired for the remainder of the season in honour of the late French driver.
Calendar The following twelve rounds were scheduled to take place as part of the 2019 championship. Round 9 was abandoned. Each round consisted of two races: a Feature race, which was run over and included a mandatory pit stop; and a Sprint race, which was run over and did not require drivers to make a pit stop. The 2019 calendar retained the same twelve rounds from the 2018 season. Round Circuit Feature race Sprint race1 Bahrain International Circuit, Sakhir 30 March 31 March2 Baku City Circuit, Baku 27 April 28 April3 11 May 12 May4 Circuit de Monaco, Monte Carlo 25 May 26 May5 Circuit Paul Ricard, Le Castellet 22 June 23 June6 Red Bull Ring, Spielberg 29 June 30 June7 Silverstone Circuit, Silverstone 13 July 14 July8 Hungaroring, Mogyoród 3 August 4 August9 31 August 1 September10 Autodromo Nazionale di Monza, Monza 7 September 8 September11 Sochi Autodrom, Sochi 12 Yas Marina Circuit, Abu Dhabi 30 November 1 December Source:
Results Season summary Round Circuit Pole position Fastest lap Winning driver Winning team 1 Bahrain International Circuit Luca Ghiotto Guanyu Zhou Nicholas Latifi DAMS Report Nyck de Vries Luca Ghiotto UNI-Virtuosi Racing 2 F Baku City Circuit Nobuharu Matsushita Jack Aitken Campos Racing Report S Nicholas Latifi DAMS 3 F Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya Luca Ghiotto Jordan King Nicholas Latifi DAMS Report S Nicholas Latifi Nyck de Vries ART Grand Prix 4 F Circuit de Monaco Nyck de Vries Nobuharu Matsushita Nyck de Vries ART Grand Prix Report S Anthoine Hubert BWT Arden 5 F Circuit Paul Ricard Sérgio Sette Câmara Nyck de Vries Nyck de Vries ART Grand Prix Report S Nobuharu Matsushita Anthoine Hubert BWT Arden 6 F Red Bull Ring Nyck de Vries Sérgio Sette Câmara Nobuharu Matsushita Carlin Report S Nyck de Vries Sérgio Sette Câmara DAMS 7 F Silverstone Circuit Guanyu Zhou Sérgio Sette Câmara Luca Ghiotto UNI-Virtuosi Racing Report S Jack Aitken Jack Aitken Campos Racing 8 F Hungaroring Nyck de Vries Jordan King Nicholas Latifi DAMS Report S Nobuharu Matsushita Mick Schumacher Prema Racing 9 F Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps Nyck de Vries Race abandoned Report S Race cancelled 10 F Autodromo Nazionale di Monza Callum Ilott Nobuharu Matsushita Carlin Report S Mick Schumacher Jack Aitken Campos Racing 11 F Sochi Autodrom Nyck de Vries Luca Ghiotto Nyck de Vries ART Grand Prix Report S Nicholas Latifi Luca Ghiotto UNI-Virtuosi Racing 12 F Yas Marina Circuit Sérgio Sette Câmara Guanyu Zhou Sérgio Sette Câmara DAMS Report S Nicholas Latifi Luca Ghiotto UNI-Virtuosi RacingSource:
Championship standings Scoring system Points were awarded to the top 10 classified finishers in the Feature race, and to the top 8 classified finishers in the Sprint race. The pole-sitter in the feature race also received four points, and two points were given to the driver who set the fastest lap inside the top ten in both the feature and sprint races. No extra points were awarded to the pole-sitter in the sprint race as the grid for the sprint race were based on the results of the feature race with the top eight drivers having their positions reversed.
Feature race points Position 1st 2nd 3rd 4th 5th 6th 7th 8th 9th 10th Pole FL Points 25 18 15 12 10 8 6 4 2 1 4 2
Sprint race points Points were awarded to the top eight classified finishers, excluding the fastest lap points which are given to the top ten classified finishers.
Position 1st 2nd 3rd 4th 5th 6th 7th 8th FL Points 15 12 10 8 6 4 2 1 2
Drivers' championship