As one chapter in Formula 2’s history closes, with the retirement of its 2018 car, another begins in 2024 with the introduction of its new model. The new Dallara-built F2 2024, which will be raced for at least the next three seasons, features the latest FIA safety innovations, and aspires to be as close as possible to the latest Formula 1 machinery to help prepare young drivers for the final step on the single-seater ladder.
The radically redesigned car, unveiled over the Italian Grand Prix weekend at Monza in September, has several features that move it more towards F1’s current generation. It features ground effects and similar wing concepts, with a rear wing not dissimilar from that used in Japan’s Super Formula championship, for which Dallara is also the constructor. Powered by a 3.4-litre turbocharged Mecachrome engine, it will continue to run on Aramco 55% bio-sourced sustainable fuel for 2024 before moving to synthetic sustainable fuel in 2025.
The main phase of testing was completed at the end of October, with 5000 kilometres achieved across several days of running at Magny-Cours, Jerez and the Bahrain International Circuit in the hands of 2022 F2 champion Felipe Drugovich and former series driver Tatiana Calderon.
The 11 teams have now received one car each, which was delivered before Christmas, with the second due to arrive in mid-January. There will be a shakedown, with the teams running one car each, before the first official pre-season test in Bahrain next month. Although there have been some “little adjustments here and there”, newly appointed series technical director Pierre-Alain Michot is “quite happy with what we have achieved”.
“It’s really nice what we’ve done,” affirms Michot. “The process to design the car has been quite long and intense over the past winter because we had to design a new car completely… not from scratch, because the philosophy is the same, but we had to accommodate a lot of new features and make sure that we are getting closer to the F1 family look that we wanted to achieve.
“We have taken into consideration the look, but also the performance, and all the new technical requirements from the FIA in terms of safety. All the guidelines that they wanted to achieve with F1 with the latest regulations, we had to follow these as well, just to make sure we increase a bit more the following-car performance that we already had in our DNA. It’s something that we always wanted to have and we have made a little step more for this car.”
Williams driver Logan Sargeant has labelled the gap between current F1 and the outgoing F2 car as “probably a bit too big for what it should be”, and addressing this was an important concern for Michot.
Source: Autosport