2021 Formula 2 Championship

The 2021 FIA Formula 2 Championship, alternately known as the 2021 Formula Two Season, is set to be the fifth season of the FIA Formula 2 Championship, as well as the seventeenth season of the second tier of FIA sanctioned single-seater racing under the Formula One World Championship. The season would see a new race weekend format trialled by the series, with a move to three races across a race meeting, while reduction in the calendar to eight race meetings.

Background
For 2021 the FIA Formula 2 Championship and its sister series the FIA Formula 3 Championship would actively avoid each other after a reduction to the number of rounds for each series. This was done to avoid costs, with the majority of teams in F2 also racing in F3, as well as reduce logistical costs for each series by reducing the amount of shipping required. However, both series would continue to support the FIA Formula One World Championship exclusively throughout the season.

To make up for the reduced number of race weekends, the Series opted to add an additional race to each race meeting, meaning there would be three F2 races at a Grand Prix weekend. The exact format was not officially announced when the plan was unveiled on 6 November 2020, although it was widely reported that the series would stage two Feature Races (170 km) and a single Sprint Race (120 km) at each race weekend. On 1 December 2020 it was revealed that for 2021 F2 would run a heavily revised weekend format, with a single practice session, a lone qualifying session (both on Friday), two Sprint Races (both on Saturday), and a lone Feature Race on Sunday.

Campos Sympathies
On 28 January 2021 it was announced that Campos Racing founder and owner Adrián Campos had died at the age of 60 from coronary disease, although the short-to-medium term future of Campos in F2 was not expected to be affected.

An Alpine Adventure
Elsewhere, Renault announced that their Renault Sport Academy would be rebranded ahead of the 2021 season, after a board decision to use the sister Alpine brand for all of their motorsport programmes, including their Formula One team. From 2021, the French marque's development programme would be re-labelled as the Alpine Academy, with the unveiling of the academy change coming with a list of entries for F2 in 2021. Three AA members would enter F2 in 2021, with rookie Oscar Piastri joining Prema Racing, the returning Guanyu Zhou remaining at UNI-Virtuosi, while Christian Lundgaard would remain at ART Grand Prix for a second campaign.

Calendar
There would be a major revision to the Championship calendar for the 2021, with a reduction in the number of rounds to eight, although the Series would still stage 24 races across the campaign. The season would open at the Bahrain International Circuit in Bahrain on 26 - 28 March 2021, before returning to the F1 undercard on 20 - 22 May 2021 at the Circuit de Monaco. The Series would then follow F1 to the Baku City Circuit on 4 - 6 June, before ending the first half of the season at Silverstone on 16 - 18 July.

The second part of the season saw the Series head to the Autodromo Nazionale Monza on 10 - 12 September, with a trip to the Sochi Autodrom following two weeks later. A two month gap would then follow before the Series made its debut in Saudi Arabia, supporting the inaugural Saudi Arabian Grand Prix on 26 - 28 November at the newly formed Jeddah Street Circuit. The Championship would then conclude on 3 - 5 December at the familiar Yas Marina Circuit in Abu Dhabi, with the post-season test expected to be staged at the Emirati circuit.

Enforced Updates
On 12 January two revisions were made to the F2 calendar for 2021, both the result of cancellations and modifications to the early rounds of the Formula One schedule. Indeed, the postponements of the Australian and Chinese Grand Prix had seen F1 push back several dates, including the Saudi Arabian and Abu Dhabi Grand Prix at the end of the season. Both were pushed back by a week, meaning F2's trip to Jeddah would take place on 3-5 December, while the Series' trip to Yas Marina would take place on 10-12 December.

Schedule
The full calendar for the 2021 FIA Formula 2 Championship is shown below:

Entrants
Oscar Piastri was the first driver to be unveiled for the 2021 F2 Championship, replacing soon-to-be crowned 2020 Champion Mick Schumacher at Prema Racing, with Robert Shwartzman later announced as his teammate. Ralph Boschung was the second driver to be announced, joining Campos Racing, while Felipe Drugovich moved to UNI-Virtuosi from MP Motorsport. The Brazilian's seat at MP Motorsport was taken by Lirim Zendeli, who was the second driver after Piastri to graduate from the FIA Formula 3 Championship.

Entry List
The full 2021 FIA Formula 2 entry list is outlined below:

Round I: 2021 Bahrain Formula 2 Round
The opening round of the 2021 campaign would be staged at the Bahrain International Circuit on 26 - 28 March 2021, with the F2 field using the full circuit.

Race One: 2021 Bahrain Sprint Race 1
The new F2 format would see the 2021 season start with a Sprint Race around the Bahraini circuit, with Théo Pourchaire starting from pole position after claiming tenth place in qualifying, before the top ten were reversed to set the grid for the first Sprint. The start, however, would not go in Pourchaire's favour, with the Frenchman as well as fellow front row started David Beckmann both getting instantly passed by Liam Lawson. Beckmann would briefly get ahead of Pourchaire too before the Frenchman responded, with the lead duo soon establishing a small margin over the German youth.

Elsewhere, Dan Ticktum picked up a penalty by spinning Richard Verschoor out of the race, with Felipe Drugovich also getting tangled up in their incident. Marcus Armstrong would then trigger a Virtual Safety Car when he suffered a mechanical issue, which caught Ralph Boschung out, with the restart seeing Pourchaire go on the offensive. That, however, was not to last as he would also disappear from the fray due to an engine issue in the desert heat, elevating Jehan Daruvala into second after the Indian racer passed Beckmann.

A second VSC was required to remove Pourchaire's car from the circuit, with the race resuming with a handful of laps to go. The closing laps would hence see a duel between Lawson and Daruvala for victory, although it would be the rookie Red Bull Junior who ultimately won the race on his debut, fending off the sophomore Red Bull backed racer by just under a second. Beckmann, meanwhile, would secure third on his debut, with Robert Shwartzman managing to keep his new teammate Oscar Piastri at bay to claim fourth.

Race Two: 2021 Bahrain Sprint Race 2
The top ten finishers of the first Sprint Race in Bahrain would be reversed to set the grid for the second Sprint, resulting in Jüri Vips starting from pole position alongside Lirim Zendeli. The start duly saw the Estonian youth fend off the German rookie to secure the lead into the first corner, while behind Shwartzman and Ticktum tangled as they tried to move up the order. That tangle triggered an early Safety Car as both were left with terminal damage, with Vips able to control the restart beautifully to establish a lead.

It was not to last however, as the more experienced Guanyu Zhou would catch and pass the #8 Hitech, having initially passed Zendeli at the restart. Once ahead of Vips there would be no stopping Zhou, as behind Vips came under attack from teammate Lawson, who was under attack himself from Christian Lundgaard and Drugovich. That fight would end with Lawson getting spun around, a time penalty for Lundgaard, and the SC returning to the circuit, with an en-masse dive into the pits by the majority of the field, leaving Zhou, Drugovich, Armstrong and Bent Viscaal as the only non-stoppers.

Their decision was instantly shown to be the wrong one when the race resumed, with those on fresher tyres quickly storming up the field, Vips and Piastri almost instantly getting onto Zhou's tail. However, before they could attack the Chinese racer there would be another pause, with Alessio Deledda stopping on track to trigger a VSC. When the race resumed Piastri attacked Vips for second, before inheriting the position on the penultimate tour when Vips suffered a gearbox issue.

That setup a last lap fight for victory, with Piastri dragging Lundgaard with him onto Zhou's tail as they hurtled towards the first corner for the final time. Piastri duly lunged into the lead into the corner, before Lundgaard, who had also fired past Zhou, tried to elbow his way past the rookie to claim the lead himself. Piastri resisted and duly claimed his maiden victory, while Lundgaard survived a post-race investigation into whether he had served his time penalty to secure second ahead of Zhou.

Race Three: 2021 Bahrain Feature Race
Qualifying was used to set the grid for the Feature Race on Friday evening, which had seen Zhou secure pole position and four Championship points. At the start, however, the Chinese racer would be usurped for the lead by Lundgaard, with UNI-Virtuosi teammate Drugovich also sweeping past, while Shwartzman managed to remove Roy Nissany from the race in the midfield. Yet another early Safety Car would result, with the restart seeing Lundgaard break clear, while Piastri made quick work of passing both Virtuosi's to claim second.

With that the Australian youth was off to hunt Lundgaard for the lead, and duly moved into striking position, with Drugovich on his tail, as the pit stops loomed. When Piastri did fire past the #9 ART to claim the lead Lundgaard opted to abandon his worn soft tyres for fresh hards, with Drugovich and Piastri stopping on successive laps afterwards. Piastri's stop was well timed as it was partially covered by a VSC, thrown to remove Gianluca Petecof from the track, with Piastri hence rejoining in fourth before a full SC was thrown due to issues removing Petecof's car.

As a result Armstrong was left at the head of the field on worn tyres, and was hence left vulnerable to those behind when the race resumed. Verschoor duly demonstrated his superior grip by dancing past both Piastri and Armstrong to secure the lead, with Zhou also firing past the Antipodeans to claim second behind the Dutch rookie. Zhou would go on to rob Verschoor of the lead as the Dutchman's tyres faded, while Piastri spun himself out of the race with a clumsy move on Ticktum while trying to hold onto third.

After a late VSC due to the Ticktum/Piastri incident the race would enter its final throes, with Ticktum darting past Verschoor, taking Lawson with him, before both closed up on Zhou. However, time would run out for them to catch Zhou out front, with the Chinese racer duly sweeping across the line to claim victory and an eleven point lead in the early Championship standings.

Regulations
The F2 rulebook remained fairly stable heading into the 2021 season, with the Dallara-Mecachrome F2 2018 remaining as the Championship's base car for a fourth successive season. This was done as part of various cost conserving measures implemented during the 2020 season, with the Dallara F2 2018 officially getting another three season run as the series' base car, meaning it would remain in service until the end of the 2023 season.

Technical
The F2 Championship of 2021 would see all twenty-two drivers use identical Dallara F2 2018 chassis, all powered by identical Mecachrome V634 3.4l V6t engines.

Wheels and Tyres
Outlined below is the full range of compounds used by Pirelli, as they were marked for the 2021 FIA Formula 2 Championship: The wet tyre compound and tread pattern was identical to those used in 2019.

Pirelli would supply each driver with six sets of dry tyres and three sets of wets for each race meeting. Of the dry tyres, each driver would be issued with four sets of the "prime" (harder) compound and two sets of a softer compound, predetermined ahead of the race meeting by Pirelli and F2 itself. Both compounds of tyres would then have to be used during the Feature Race, unless the race was declared wet by the race director.

Sporting
There would be one change to the sporting rulebook for the 2021 FIA Formula 2 Championship, with the race weekend format receiving a major overhaul in a bid to reduce the total number of rounds, while maintaining the same number of actual races. However, that was the only change to the sporting rulebook, with championship point scoring and FIA Super Licence point scoring both remaining unchanged.

Race Weekend Format
The new race weekend format would alter the two racedays, with Friday's established schedule of one 45 minute Free Practice session, as well as a 30 minute qualifying session unchanged. The main change came on Saturdays, which would see two Sprint Races staged, one in the morning and one in the afternoon, both of which would run for 120 km/45 minutes. The Feature Race was hence moved to Sunday, with the race distance unchanged from the familiar 170 km/60 minute format.

With the rejigging of the weekend, there would also be changes to how the grids were set for each race, although qualifying would still set the grid for the Feature Race, despite the fact that there would be two Sprint races between them. Instead, the grid for the first Sprint Race would be set by reversing the top ten drivers in qualifying, while the second Sprint Race starting order would be created by reversing the top ten in the first Sprint Race.

Championship Points
Outlined below is a full breakdown of the point scoring system for the 2021 FIA Formula 2 Championship:
 * * The fastest lap points were only awarded to the driver who set the fastest lap in the top ten of each race.

Anthoine Hubert Award
The Anthoine Hubert Award would also be available during the 2021 Formula 2 Championship, with those drivers completing their first full F2 campaign eligible for the title. Otherwise, there were no special rules for the AH Award, with the highest placed rookie in the final Championship standings set to receive the Award at the end of the season.

FIA Super Licence Points
Outlined below is a full breakdown of the how FIA Super Licence points were distributed for the 2021 FIA Formula 2 Championship, based on final Championship position: A minimum of 40 Super Licence points, scored in the previous three seasons, are required for a driver to apply for an FIA Super Licence in order to compete in Formula One. A driver must also be over the age of 18, hold an International Grade A competition licence (required to compete in F2) and valid road car licence, complete an FIA theory test on F1 sporting regulations, and have completed two full (80% or more) seasons of an FIA accredited Championship.

There would be amendments made to the Super Licence rules in the wake of the condensed 2020 season, with the required total to gain a Super Licence reduced to 30 for the 2020 season and into 2021.

2021 FIA Formula 2 Championship for Drivers
The full Championship standings from the 2021 FIA Formula 2 Championship for Drivers is outlined below:

2021 FIA Formula 2 Championship for Teams
The full Championship standings from the 2021 FIA Formula 2 Championship for Teams is outlined below: