2019 FIA Formula 2 Championship entry list and preview

The 2019 FIA Formula 2 Championship season will kick-off this weekend at Bahrain International Circuit as a part of the support programme for the Formula 1 Bahrain Grand Prix.

Twenty young drivers, aged from 19 to 26, will start a new racing campaign with only one goal – to give the best of their skills and speed on a way towards the Formula 1, the world’s premier open-wheel competition. The best motivation for all of them is a fact that top 3 drivers from 2018 F2 season (George Russell, Lando Norris and Alex Albon) are Formula 1 drivers now.

Carlin will try to defend Teams’ championship title with number 1 on their car

Ten teams will be in the championship again, with two changes among them. The British team Virtuosi Racing was running cars under the banner of Russian Time from 2015 to 2018. That cooperation ended and now the team will compete under the name UNI-Virtuosi Racing.

Sauber disappeared from F1 grid, changing its name to Alfa Romeo Racing, but it will be present in Formula 2 in a collaboration with the Czech team Charouz Racing System. The other entries are Carlin, ART Grand Prix, DAMS, Prema Racing, Campos Racing, MP Motorsport, BWT Arden and Trident.

The trophies are waiting for new owners

The list of drivers offers a combination of experienced runners in Formula 2 and nine rookies.

Nyck de Vries, who was the best behind the top trio in 2018, is returning to the F2 grid for the third consecutive season. He moved from Prema Racing to ART Grand Prix, the team that finished second in last year’s Teams’ standings. Carlin will defend Teams’ title by running cars with numbers #1 and #2 for Louis Deletraz and Nobuharu Matsushita.

The most experienced drivers in this category are Sean Gelael and Nicholas Latifi, who already spent four seasons in GP2 Series or Formula 2. Luca Ghiotto, Nobuharu Matsushita and Jordan King have three GP2/F2 seasons in their CVs. Matsushita is returning to F2 after one year in the Japanese Super Formula. Jordan King is also a returnee. He rejoined his old team MP Motorsport after spending one year in the IndyCar Series.

Mick Schumacher will drive the #9 car for Prema Racing

Rookies are Mick Schumacher (last year’s European F3 champion), Anthoine Hubert (last year’s GP3 Series champion), Nikita Mazepin (2nd in the 2018 GP3 Series), Callum Ilott (3rd in the 2018 GP3 Series), Giuliano Alesi, Tatiana Calderon, Juan Manuel Correa, Guanyu Zhou and Mahaveer Raghunathan.

The 2019 F2 calendar remains the same as in 2018, with twelve rounds featuring two races. The season starts in Bahrain and then ten European races follow – Baku, Barcelona, Monte Carlo, Paul Ricard, Spielberg, Silverstone, Hungaroring, Spa, Monza and Sochi. The season’s finale is scheduled for December 1 at Abu Dhabi’s Yas Marina Circuit.

2019 FIA Formula 2 Championship entry list

Team	Car number	Driver (nationality/age)
Carlin	1	Louis Deletraz (Switzerland/21)
	2	Nobuharu Matsushita (Japan/25)
ART Grand Prix	3	Nikita Mazepin (Russia/20)
	4	Nyck de Vries (Netherlands/24)
DAMS	5	Sergio Sette Camara (Brazil/20)
	6	Nicholas Latifi /Canada/23)
UNI-Virtuosi Racing	7	Guanyu Zhou (China/19)
	8	Luca Ghiotto (Italy/24)
Prema Racing	9	Mick Schumacher (Germany/20)
	10	Sean Gelael (Indonesia/22)
Sauber Junior Team by Charouz	11	Callum Ilott (GB/20)
	12	Juan Manuel Correa (Ecuador-USA/19)
Campos Racing	14	Dorian Boccolacci (France/20)
	15	Jack Aitken (GB/23)
MP Motorsport	16	Jordan King (GB/25)
	17	Mahaveer Raghunathan (India/20)
BWT Arden	18	Tatiana Calderon (Colombia/26)
	19	Anthoine Hubert (France/22)
Trident	20	Giuliano Alesi (France/19)
	21	Ralph Boschung (Switzerland/21)