FORMULA 2 IN 2019: Familiar names, new champions and battling through adversity

We continue our journey through 10 years of FIA Formula 2 history as we look back on the 2019 campaign.

Nyck de Vries was crowned Drivers’ Champion whilst DAMS claimed their first and so far only Teams’ title, and the paddock stood together in solidarity in the face of the most difficult of circumstances.

GHIOTTO’S SUPERB STRATEGY

We were treated to a strategic showing that Sakhir has tended to produce over the years in Formula 2, as Luca Ghiotto made an unorthodox pitstop in the Sprint Race to claim victory.

Having finished P2 in the Feature Race the day prior, the Italian went one better by opting to make a swap to the Soft compound Pirelli tyres.

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In a move that echoed the strategy gamble of Charles Leclerc in 2017, Ghiotto pitted from the lead having fought his way to the front.

He emerged in P13, but he didn’t waste time, passing cars with ease to get back into the points, and into the final stages was closing in on those who hadn’t pitted at the front.

He surged back through the podium places to claim the victory with passes on the DAMS duo of Nicholas Latifi and Sérgio Sette Câmara.

LATIFI’S LIGHTNING START

Latifi had taken the opening win of the year in 2019, and his streak of impressive performances was far from over.

Having finished third in the Sakhir Sprint to make it two podiums from two, he added a P4 result to his record when F2 moved on to Baku for Round 2 of the season.

The Canadian driver wasn’t done there either, as he came back the following day to come through the chaos and secure Sprint victory around the Azerbaijan streets.

One round later and Latifi was back on the top step in the Feature event, this time around Barcelona.

Sixth position on Sunday along with a fastest lap established him as one of the contenders for the crown, but he wasn’t to have it all his own way, as Nyck de Vries was about to show.

DE VRIES FIGHTS HIS WAY TO THE TITLE

It had not been an auspicious start to 2019 for the Dutchman, with just one podium finish in the first two rounds coming in the Baku Feature Race.

However, he’d consistently been in the points, in and around the top five but that was about to change in Barcelona.

The ART Grand Prix driver secured his first win of the season and then went back-to-back by winning the Monte Carlo Feature Race in Round 4.

De Vries arrived in Paul Ricard having cut the gap down to Championship leader Latifi to just a single point and then took over at the top with another victory, winning the Feature Race in impressive fashion, leading home Sette Câmara by over eight seconds.

From there, six more podiums followed across the following five rounds, and he capped off his charge to the title with one final win, coming in Sochi’s Feature Race as he claimed victory from pole position.

REMEMBERING ANTHOINE

Of course, the 2019 season cannot be recalled without the memory of the tragic events at Spa-Francorchamps.

Anthoine Hubert had marked himself out as one of the shining lights in FIA Formula 2 that season, and he’d impressed as a rookie with several stand-out moments.

He earned a brilliant Monte Carlo victory by the slenderest of margins and then followed that up with another top step performance on home soil around Paul Ricard.

The Frenchman was a talent rated so highly by his peers for his impressive skill at the wheel, unrelenting work ethic and his charm and genuine personality out of the car too.

F2 continues to pay respect to him all these years later, both in memory and with the awarding of the Anthoine Hubert Award to a rookie driver at the end of each season from 2019 onwards.

Hubert remains a part of the fabric of F2, and we are always Racing for Anthoine.