F2 2024 (AKA: Antonelli Watch)

[CHT]

Any update on the test yesterday?

https://www.planetf1.com/news/andrea-ki ... test-debut

[dren]

First lap crach out in practice Seargent style. Where do I place my bet?

[PlatinumZealot]

Williams or sit out another year. There is no need for him to be forced into F1 at 18 years old.

[DGP123]

Speaking of Antonelli…still waiting to be blown away.

Prema aren’t as good this year. It’s his first year in F2, and he’s sixth in the standings. Not too bad. Bearman is not impressing either, with too many mistakes.

Unsurprisingly, Aron (ex Mercedes) & Hadjar (RB) have the experience from last year, and are leading the way.

[214270]

Speaking of Antonelli…still waiting to be blown away.

Prema aren’t as good this year. It’s his first year in F2, and he’s sixth in the standings. Not too bad. Bearman is not impressing either, with too many mistakes.

Unsurprisingly, Aron (ex Mercedes) & Hadjar (RB) have the experience from last year, and are leading the way.

Yeah sure, but there have been little flashes with BEA. Notwithstanding ANTs tyres not being up to temp, at Monaco that pass at the hairpin shouldnt have happened - it’s Monaco lol.

Ive been patient but still yet to see what all the fuss is about. Im steadily coming to the conclusion it’s a ploy by Wolff to generate interest; the reality of which when he does make that jump, will be disappointing.

[TeamKoolGreen]

Williams or sit out another year. There is no need for him to be forced into F1 at 18 years old.

The same was said about Max. Antonelli is either going to sink or swim.

[CHT]

Rushing Antonelli to replace LH in 2025 will likely be a very expensive experimental project for Merc with nothing to gain and all to loss, unless Merc have reasons to believe that Ant will be as quick as LH and make no rookie mistakes.

[TeamKoolGreen]

Rushing Antonelli to replace LH in 2025 will likely be a very expensive experimental project for Merc with nothing to gain and all to loss, unless Merc have reasons to believe that Ant will be as quick as LH and make no rookie mistakes.

How is there nothing to gain and all to lose ? It is almost the other way around. They throw him in. He sinks or swims. If he swims, great. If not, he gets punted like Nyck Devries did and replaced by one of the many decent journeyman drivers that are floating around.

[JordanMugen]

Rushing Antonelli to replace LH in 2025 will likely be a very expensive experimental project for Merc with nothing to gain and all to loss,

If Antonelli is no good, Mercedes lose some parts and maybe a tub or two, and Antonelli goes off to drive for Alpine in WEC or McLaren in Indycar and then gets fired from McLarne in Indycar; while Mercedes GP regroup with a conservative signing like Valteri Bottas.

What's the big deal?

Whether Antonelli is F1 standard or not will be apparent after 2-3 seasons (or less). Button started to shine after 3 seasons of driving exclusively for big-name works teams (Williams-BMW, Renault and BAR-Honda).

Would Button have learnt more driving Formula 3000 for two seasons and then debuting for BAR-Honda? Unlikely.

Before Toro Rosso, Red Bull juniors like Christian Klien and Vitantonio Liuzzi also debuted directly for big name works teams like Jaguar-Cosworth or Red Bull-Cosworth.

unless Merc have reasons to believe that Ant will be as quick as LH and make no rookie mistakes.

Other options like Ocon and Sainz are unlikely to be as quick as LH or team leader GR anyway?

Veteran options like Ocon and Magnussen are relatively unlikely not to cause big crashes anyway.

[Sevach]

Antonelli did well today despite being only 5th, super tight qualifying.
The top 3 separated by .006 and another one .05 and Kimi .1 away.

[Wouter]

[mvfad]

Antonelli is doing well, but hasn't shown anything exceptional so far (nothing that justifies such an anticipated debut in F1). Mercedes could give Vesti a year in F1 and wait for Kimi to have a second year in F2.

Among the drivers who skipped F3, Dursken has caught my attention the most (given that he doesn't have the hype, he doesn't have support from Mercedes to help develop him, he doesn't have a lot of private testing, and he is in a team that is traditionally one of the worst teams in F2).

And about Bearman, If he depended on F2 results to get into HAAS, he wouldn't get in next year. However, he doesn't depend on his results in F2, so it doesn't matter to him.

[organic]

It's hard to be interested in F2 right now when it's clear the F1 teams don't value it as the key performance metric anymore

[JordanMugen]

It's hard to be interested in F2 right now when it's clear the F1 teams don't value it as the key performance metric anymore

Is Paul Aron not F1 grade despite leading the championship as a rookie?

[SoulPancake13]

Another showing of why this series is completely useless. No offense to Durksen, but he should never be getting P2 over these other drivers. The cars this year make it impossible to read into performances. F3 seems to be a better judge of pace at this point.