What Went Wrong with Formula Two?

The idea seemed sound. In fact, to me it seemed brilliant. I've not been around the Motorsport world very long, but I'd say the biggest issue facing us is that of young drivers being able to afford to show their potential. In F1, it's a well known adage that you can only really judge your ability in relation to your teammate, as they are the only other driver in the same car. Whilst less applicable to lower formulas due to the nature of spec series, the saying still holds true. For example, if you don't have the budget to go with DAMS in GP2, and end up with Ocean Racing, you won't be judged too harshly for not being a front runner. Potential in GP2, F3 and the like is limited by budget. Talent is still required, of course, but how brightly your star can shine depends on how much cash you can get your hands on.

So imagine a series where there are effectively 24 teammates, in identical cars and all with access to data from the fastest driver, competing on F1 circuits around Europe over 16 races. Throw in a fixed budget, which is less than half of a top F3 budget in faster cars, and you have FIA Formula Two; the fairest single seater formula in history. So why did this seemingly genius category not take off?

F2's debut 2009 season

I've heard that operationally, 2009 was not a good debut year. I don't know whether that's true or not, all I can say is that when I joined in 2011, the system totally worked. The cars were equal, the engineering system was fair and reliability was very good. Accusations that the car was not as good as an F3 car as a learning tool were quashed by Jolyon Palmer, who developed his driving in F2 to then become a race winner in GP2. Similarly, Robert Wickens went from F2 front runner to Formula Renault 3.5 champion. In fact, had reigning F2 champion Dean Stoneman not been sadly diagnosed with cancer, FR3.5 would've seen he and Wickens battling it out with Jean-Eric Vergne and Daniel Ricciardo from British F3 for the championship, proving F2's legitimacy as a rung on the ladder. 

Jolyon Palmer, winning in GP2 at Monaco

But the exact rung it was trying to be was unclear. F2 was not F2. It was not one step below F1, so despite its merits, claiming to be something your not never ends well. Combined with the emergence of GP3 the following year, it perhaps seemed that the writing was on the wall from an early stage

In my opinion, though, the biggest problem was that there was nothing in it for anyone financially. Perhaps that is why I'm one of the few supporters of F2, because it started my career and earned me some money, but I think it's deeper than that. Because there was something in it for me, I attended the events and saw what was happening. But because of the centrally run nature of the championship, not many other people did. At a race weekend there would be around 50 freelance mechanics and engineers, a handful of F2 employees, and the drivers. Without teams, the championship was idyllically fair, but without teams there was no one in the paddock. It became a very insular world with no cross pollination with other series. A driver who is with the Fortec team in a lower series is most likely going to stick with Fortec as they climb the ladder, as the team look around to see what is the best championship to enter. F2 is not an option for that driver. It was left to one man to gather the entire F2 grid. 

Entry numbers fell in 2012

MSV, the organisers of F2, ran the series at such a cheap price that they weren't even making much money from it. Which not only potentially shifted their focus away from F2 as a company, but also meant any kind of promotional budget was non-existent. If there's no financial gain, no one wants to be there, and no one cares, and I fear that's the fundamental reason behind the demise of F2. Teams want drivers to enter a series they can make some money from, creating an affluent and appealing championship that drivers want to race in. Formula Two was left stranded, alone in an ever complicating feeder series scene, with an excellent but tiny team tasked with challenging the might of Renault and FOM, offering nothing but the fairest racing around. Money talks. F2 died.