Bruno Michel’s Debrief: Experienced heads and enthusiastic rookies

With three rounds in the books and a return to European shores coming soon, Formula 2 CEO Bruno Michel reflects on the start to 2025 that we’ve had.

From rookies impressing early on and returning drivers proving a point, there’s been a lot of action, drama and intrigue already.

Here is what Michel has seen so far…

NEW GENERATION

The F3 graduates have starred at the front in the first three rounds of the 2025, with six of them featured in the current Top 10 and F3 reigning Champion Leonardo Fornaroli is the highest ranked rookie. The young Italian lies third in the Standings, having scored in every single race – something that only he, Richard Verschoor, Josep María Martí and Gabriele Minì have managed to do this season so far. Fornaroli’s consistency is what took him to the F3 crown last year, and he has already pocketed two podium finishes so far in 2025. I know he is doing everything he can to clinch a win that’s eluded him for the past two years.

Meanwhile, Alexander Dunne has triumphed in Bahrain and showed great pace. At first, he was a bit too eager maybe, but he seems to have used a different approach that’s been rewarding, and it will be very interesting to see what the European season will look like for him.

READ MORE: Back in familiar form - Alexander Dunne double-header debrief

Luke Browning is also one of the F3 graduates who has kicked off 2025 in a strong way, with P3 in Melbourne Sprint. Then, in Bahrain, he claimed second place in the Feature Race to cap off an emotional weekend in which he enjoyed his first FP1 outing with Williams.

Obviously, I also need to mention Arvid Lindblad, who became the youngest F2 race winner in Jeddah on Saturday. He is still the youngest race winner in F3 and now holds the same record in F2. He is highly regarded as one to watch on the road to F1. I’m sure there is more in store for him this season.

VALUABLE BENCHMARKS

I see people highlighting the fact that the F2 championship leader is 4 months older than F1’s current leader, Oscar Piastri, but I don’t see it as a bad thing, necessarily. First of all, like Richard Verschoor said, everyone’s path is different, and he has worked very hard to put everything together to be where he’s at. He is the most experienced driver on the grid, that’s true, but it means that he is also a formidable benchmark for the less experienced drivers, and so are drivers like Victor Martins and Jak Crawford. The American will turn just 20 years old this month. These very talented drivers are absolutely key to the Championship.

THE NEXT THREE

We’ve completed three rounds, but with a missing piece as we had to cancel Melbourne Feature Race, unfortunately. It was very frustrating to do so, but it was really impossible to let the drivers race. They were saying on the radio that the conditions were too dangerous, and although it is frustrating to go all the way to Australia only to race on Saturday, safety must come first.

Round 2 in Bahrain brought some thrilling racing and a double podium finish for Pepe Martí, while Jeddah had two new race winners, making it five different winners in a matter of five races. Only 30 points cover the Top 5 in the Teams’ Standings, proving how competitive the start of the season has been.

The action returns to Europe now and a triple header awaits. We know how challenging these three weeks of non-stop racing will be. It will be interesting to see who manages the pressure better. The specificities of the next three circuits are quite different, so adaptation and concentration will be very important.