Change, new challengers and must-see racing: Bruno Michel’s 2024 preview

26 February 2024

2024 brings with it the introduction of a new Formula 2 car for the upcoming campaign designed to facilitate even closer racing. Along with that exciting prospect, the field looks to be incredibly strong, with returning names and rookie arrivals making for a tantalising season in the offing.

F2 CEO Bruno Michel talks about his excitement for the season that is quickly approaching, what he is most looking forward to and why you never know what’s going to happen in the Championship.

NEW CAR EXCITEMENT

“It's always quite exciting to have a new car and we haven't had one for quite a long time. There's been a lot of work done with the FIA concerning safety and our partners on the parts of the car and we're very happy to continue working with them all. Dallara for the chassis, Mecachrome for the engine, Pirelli with the tyres and Aramco working on the fuel.

“The new car for the moment is well born, and the feedback we had from both development drivers in Felipe Drugovich and Tatiana Calderon and then from the drivers following the shakedown and the pre-season tests are very positive.

“The interesting thing with this car is that it's a little bit lighter than the one we had before, even though there's a lot of safety devices that have been added to the car, which is quite good.

The new 2024 car has caught the eye and drivers are excited to see how it races

“From the feedback we have from the drivers, some of them are saying that it's quite close to the old one and some others are saying that it's different.

“It's good for the new drivers because they think that the experience drivers won't have a big advantage over them. It's good for the experienced drivers because they are sure that they will have an advantage over the rookies as well, and it's good for the teams and for the engineers because they're going to have to work on something different.”

DEVELOPMENT OF THE 2024 CAR

“Felipe and Tatiana have been key in the fact that we wanted to make sure that this car is drivable by any type of driver. Let's hope that we continue having exciting races with this car as we had in the past, because that should be the case.

“Dallara has been doing the job quite carefully with the FIA to make sure we’ve not lost too much downforce when you're following another car, and that we should have great racing, but then that also depends on the drivers.”

INCREDIBLE DRIVER LINE-UPS

“I think it’s a really great line-up and it will be a very intense Championship this year. There will be some very strong rookies, and there will be some very strong second and third-year drivers. Almost half of the grid are tied to Formula 1 driver academies as well, which is good and it’s going to be exciting to see how they all get on.

“It's going to be really, really interesting in terms of the teams’ fight. Last year, we had a very nice fight between ART and PREMA. Again, both have one rookie driver this season and one experienced one. And then you have many other teams that are going to be interesting because of the level of the drivers they have.

“If you look at the situation and the second-year drivers, of course you have Victor Martins, Oliver Bearman, Zane Maloney, these kinds of drivers will probably do very well.

Formula 2's 2024 grid has plenty of people excited for what the new season might bring

“Then you have the young guns coming into F2 like Andrea Kimi Antonelli or Zak O’Sullivan, Gabriel Bortoleto and Franco Colapinto. A lot of the rookie drivers are coming from Formula 3 and that's good because it shows that the pyramid is working.

“We have drivers coming from other Championships as well, which is quite interesting. It’s unusual to have drivers coming directly from FRECA, so we will see how they get on. We also have one coming from Super Formula after winning it last year, so it’s going to be interesting to see who’s doing what this season.

“But I think that this year’s Championship is going to be very exciting and hopefully go down to the final race, which is what we’re always after especially following what happened last season.”

NEW VENUE AND RETURNING FAVOURITES

“Melbourne is fantastic and we're really happy to go back. It was a great experience last year, it's going to be an even better experience this year. The fans in Melbourne are absolutely fantastic, it’s very well organised and we're happy to be there.

“Qatar is a very important venue on the calendar, and it was quite logical that we go there. We've been there with GP2 Asia quite a long time ago and it was a great event and we're happy to go again.

“This season has a little bit more balance because of Baku being quite late in the year and then going to Qatar. We're not going to have a three-month gap between Monza and Abu Dhabi like we had last year, so this is going to help the balance of the calendar.

“The Championship is going to be very, very hard-fought and might go to the wire, which is always what we're expecting.”