F2 2024 (AKA: Antonelli Watch)

[mvfad]

Bortoleto gave an interview to a Brazilian podcast and was asked if, in his opinion, the hype surrounding Antonelli is justified.

Bortoleto's answer: "I have to be honest, the hype is not justified. He is very talented, I do not doubt that. What he did this season must not be easy, jumping from FRECA to F2. But sorry, he drove more with [a similar car to] F2 than I did, he did about 30 days of testing with GP2 and I did zero days of private testing [with GP2]. I'm not justifying anything, on the contrary, I'm just trying to say that it's not that he didn't practice or anything, he had his practicing opportunities. I think he is very talented and above average, but for me to say that he is 'alien', he would have to have done more.

Bortoleto concludes by saying that he thinks what Piastri did in the feeder series impresses him the most, and that the Australian can indeed be considered an 'alien'.

[AR3-GP]

A driver should never answer this kind of question.

[JordanMugen]

A driver should never answer this kind of question.

Why not? It brings to light (if true) the 30 days of Antonelli testing in an old-generation GP2 car which was not previously known.

Such testing would undermine the intent of having restrictions on official testing of current generation F2 cars.

[Sevach]

Bortoleto last to first in the feature race.

[GrizzleBoy]

He's just telling the truth to be honest.

Kimi's record isn't even more impressive than some drivers who are on the F1 grid at this very moment, and even with 7x WDC across multiple teams including being 1 point away from a WDC in their rookie year, there are still people who won't consider them one of the greats.

That doesn't mean that Kimi doesn't have the talent, it just means he has not done as much as some on the F1 grid right now to be considered to be such a beast of a driver and till has a whole lot to prove. And there's nothing wrong with that.

Merc believe the hype, and they've decided to let him try to prove it to everyone.

But I think for Kimi's own sake we all should let him perform first and then judge him by his performances, otherwise if he doesn't do the imaginary things every individual person believes he should be able to do, he'll be judged by a phantom version of himself that never existed and that can only ever be a bad thing.

[mvfad]

Antonelli can do very well in F1 and become the best driver of all time, but in F2 he has shown absolutely nothing special (paraphrasing James Vowles). Even Durksen, who also skipped F3, has no support from any F1 team supporting and developing him and has had a more interesting season.

People say that Durksen's team won the engine lottery, okay, it's possible. But I didn't see anyone talking about engines when Prema won 10 races last year.

[ali623]

Antonelli has double the points of his teammate Bearman. The fact that Bearman is also in F1 next year, and had a signifigantly more impressive rookie F2 season than his current second season in the series (as well as a very good record up until now), pretty clearly shows Prema have dropped the ball big time with the new F2 cars.

[PlatinumZealot]

They will both be another Nyck DeVries. Flashes in the pan. The next wunderkind is still out there.

[Sevach]

Antonelli did well today, 2nd only .017 from pole(F2 pro, Verschoor).
Mini subbing for Bearman managed an 8th place, good job.

Bortoleto managed 6th and championship leader Hadjar put his car in the wall and 15th as a result.