F2 2024 (AKA: Antonelli Watch)

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Maybe someone can help me understand what's up with Prema, but even if the team is having issues, Bearman seems to have the measure of Antonelli. I really don't get the hype on the kid and can't help but notice Merc have gotten a lot quieter about him of late too.

What gives? What am I missing here?

Antonelli went from FRECA to F2 and is a rookie. Bearman did the usual F4, F3, F2 and is in his 2nd year and is himself no slouch. Most drivers in F2 don't get compared to teammates who have multi-year F1 drives.

Merc/Toto are trying to reduce the pressure on him. Raising his profile eg in the media will do nothing to help, only hinder

Majority of the decision of Merc will come down to private testing with older F1 cars

[Sevach]

That's not very good!

If the Dallara-Mecachrome combination is problematic with respect to inconsistent chassis quality (or the car is too difficult to setup) and inconsistent engine quality, why isn't the F2 tender awarded to another constructor, e.g., Williams-Cosworth or Oreca-Gibson? Is F2 organiser Bruno Michel unreasonably associated with Mecachrome?

Is this fair? Plenty of teams and drivers are doing the job, a number of guys who are being consistent performers, but because it hasn't been the hyped Prema boys people are looking elsewhere for explanations.
Bearman has less points due to losing one weekend(where he would've been on pole for the big race) and some operational(he lost one feature race win at the pit stop) and last week reliability problems, but at times he's been near the sharp end(i think he's 5th on the grid for this race), in the mix for the win(and won the sprint at the RedBullRing), Antonelli however has been underwhelming, consistently so.
Is it the car delivered by Dallara? His team(until recently considered the team to be) that lost it's touch? Or he simply hasn't lived up to the hype?

The cars upfront are the ones of the traditional good teams and the drivers who had a good F2 last year or showed promise in F3(Bortoleto, Aron, Colapinto and Marti), then you have Bearman's Prema who's been up and down and Antonelli who has been middling.

[JordanMugen]

Is this fair?

Dallara I don't know, but the Mecachrome V6 turbo has been notoriously unreliable -- it seems odd it keeps winning the F2 tender!

[AR3-GP]

A clinic

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A win, but only the sprint. Very dominant performance though. If it's wet tomorrow and he can do the same.. it would be a good chance for him even from a bad position

[Sevach]

Antonelli was hella fast in the wet, even with the bad engine Mechachrome gives him

[Tommy.G]

Wow what a win by Antonelli! In the wet, on a race track he has never driven before(?)! I have been waiting for this breakthrough performance from him since the start of the season!! Let’s see if he can keep this pace up come Sunday…

[mvfad]

Wow what a win by Antonelli! In the wet, on a race track he has never driven before(?)! I have been waiting for this breakthrough performance from him since the start of the season!! Let’s see if he can keep this pace up come Sunday…

He did some (perhaps several) private tests with Mercedes at Silverstone, most likely in the rain.

[mvfad]

Of the current grid, Antonelli is probably the one who has done the most private tests with GP2/GP3 cars and the like (which is justifiable considering that he is coming from FRECA). Sure enough, Silverstone was on the testing list.

Recently, driver Felipe Nasr said in a podcast that in 2017/18, he did 1 month of private and secret testing with Lando Norris on almost every circuit on the 2018 F2 calendar. It was just the two of them on the track doing race and qualifying simulations. Nasr said it was so secret that he had to wear an unmarked helmet.

Many things happen off the track that most fans have no idea about and that's one of the reasons why some drivers do so well in their rookie seasons. (since not all drivers have the money to pay that amount of testing before the season begins).

Another driver who was also known for doing a large amount of private testing before/during the seasons was Theo Pourchaire (It's no surprise that of all the 3 seasons he did in F2, the debut season was the one that shined the most).

[chrisc90]

Looked like Hadjar got forced off there at Stowe.

[TeamKoolGreen]

Antonelli has arrived. What a week for the Mercedes drivers.

[Sieper]

Wow what a win by Antonelli! In the wet, on a race track he has never driven before(?)! I have been waiting for this breakthrough performance from him since the start of the season!! Let’s see if he can keep this pace up come Sunday…

You could already see some very good racing much earlier on. And some greyish performance but OK. This is a guy with very real skills. Very unlucky to get taken out in the main race.