Formula 2 in 2017: Charles Leclerc’s masterclass season

FIA Formula 2’s inaugural season was the year in which Charles Leclerc announced his arrival on the scene and knocked down the door to Formula 1.

The Monégasque’s impressive campaign resulted in him becoming the first F2 Champion in style, and several of his performances remain some of the most memorable in Championship history.

In the first part of our look back on the F2 journey from 2017 through to 2026, we re-examine the first season of racing, the top moments and stand-out drives.

Leclerc’s supreme Sakhir Sprint

As has been proven multiple times over in the intervening years, the Championship is a long one, and it’s never just a single performance that automatically makes someone a Champion.

However, when it came to Round 1 in 2017, Leclerc delivered one of the historic drives on his road to the title, catching the eye of everyone, including those in the F1 paddock.

He claimed pole position for PREMA Racing but ultimately slipped to third place in the Feature Race in Sakhir, however his finest moment was yet to come.

In the Sprint Race, he and PREMA elected to utilise an unorthodox one-stop strategy in the shorter event despite the non-requirement to make a mandatory pitstop.

Starting in P6 on the grid, he was up to third place by the end of the first lap and soon took the lead after passing Alexander Albon and Lucca Ghiotto in the opening eight laps.

Lap 15 and Leclerc was in for a switch to fresh tyres, filtering back out in P14 with just nine laps to go.

Two laps later and he was into the top 10 and flying compared to his rivals and with four to go, he was up to sixth.

Into the final three laps and his electric pace continued and he moved up to third, and with Ghiotto and Oliver Rowland battling for the lead ahead, he set about chasing the pair down.

Onto the final lap and Leclerc cleared Rowland into Turn 1 and a lock-up into Turn 4 by Ghiotto opened the door for the Monégasque to complete his surge through the pack to a memorable victory that lives on as one of F2’s finest.

Emotion in Azerbaijan

After his victory in Sakhir, Leclerc added another in Barcelona, but his triumph in Azerbaijan meant a lot to the PREMA-turned-Ferrari driver.

He earned pole position for the fourth time in 2017 out of a possible four, underlining his supreme pace over a flying lap, but his race performance was incredible once again.

Leclerc managed things from the front, handling multiple Safety Car restarts to retain his advantage while rivals elsewhere hit trouble.

A crash between Ghiotto and Robert Vișoiu brought out a Red Flag on Lap 26 of 29, and the race was not restarted.

It gave Leclerc Feature win number three of the year, and a special one too, after losing his father in the days prior to the Baku event.

Leclerc dedicated the win to his late father and underlined his credentials as the driver to beat in 2017 with a measured performance in difficult circumstances.

DAMS double up

With Leclerc losing pole position, Rowland of DAMS inherited top spot on the grid, while teammate Nicolas Latifi went from P6 for the Budapest Feature Race.

The French squad were in store for a day of days, but Rowland was made to work for the win as he lost out at the start to Artem Markelov. He remained ahead until DAMS brought the British driver in for his stop on Lap 11, and the undercut handed track position back to Rowland.

His progress through the pack continued at the expense of those on the alternative strategy and yet to pit, eventually moving back to P1 following Leclerc’s stop on Lap 23.

A subsequent Safety Car bunched the field up and allowed Markelov another chance at Rowland, but an error at Turn 1 ended his hopes of victory, while DAMS profited further with Latifi moving up to P2 as a result.

With the incident bringing out a late-race Safety Car, it neutralisedthe race to the end, giving DAMS a 1-2 finish after an action-filled race in Hungary.

Leclerc vs Albon in Abu Dhabi

While the Monégasque driver had the Drivers’ title wrapped up in plenty of time and three races to go, he and Alex Albon put on a showcase in the final lap of the Yas Marina Sprint Race to cap off the 2017 campaign.

Having started P7 on the grid, Leclerc scythed through the pack and after taking P2 with a handful of laps remaining, began to carve into Albon’s lead. He eventually got to within striking distance with just one lap of the season to go.

A yellow flag in sector three meant there was urgency across the line as overtaking opportunities began to run out, Leclerc now glued to the rear wing of the ART Grand Prix car ahead, Albon defending hard.

A slight look up the inside of the Turn 6 hairpin resulted in slight contact and damage to Leclerc’s front wing, but it put the pair side-by-side along the back straight.

On the long run to Turn 8, they could hardly be separated as the Thai driver squeezed his rival as much as he could without forcing him off the circuit in an effort to keep hold of P1.

Leclerc somehow found enough room to squeeze his PREMA ahead at the left-hander, giving him the lead, crucially in time before reaching the yellow flags.

It was an emphatic move and perfectly captured the exciting talent that was F1-bound, and brought down the curtain on F2’s maiden season.

Plenty would follow in those footsteps in the subsequent years...