Preview
PREVIEW: Round 13 kicks off a season-deciding double header in Lusail
The end of the 2025 campaign is fast approaching and we head to Lusail for the first leg of a double-header that will decide the fate of the Drivers’ Championship.
Leonardo Fornaroli remains at the top of the standings, but four of his rivals will want their say in how the season pans out.
Who will secure a crucial victory on F2’s second visit to Qatar?
WHAT TO EXPECT
Friday Practice begins at 14:15 local time and will be a pivotal 45 minutes as teams prepare for Qualifying, which commences under the floodlights at 19:10 later in the evening.
Saturday’s Sprint Race is also set to be a night session, with lights out scheduled for 19:20 local time.
The penultimate Feature Race of the 2025 campaign is set to get started at 15:00 on Sunday. Drivers will have access to the white-walled Hard Pirelli tyres alongside the Soft compound tyres.
STAT PACK
- Since the Spielberg Feature Race, Leonardo Fornaroli has an average finishing position of 3.6, the best of any driver
- The Championship leader has also only missed out on a points finish twice this season (Barcelona Feature, Spielberg Sprint)
- Jak Crawford has spent 108 laps in the lead this season, the most of any driver in the field. Fornaroli is second on 96
- No driver has ever overturned a points deficit if they have trailed in the Championship heading into the final round of an F2 season
FROM THE GRID – Dino Beganovic, DAMS Lucas Oil
“It’s a very tricky track because it’s very high speed. Especially because most of the high-speed corners come at the end of the track so keeping the tyres in Qualifying shape to put the lap together is not easy, the triple right at the end of the lap in particular.
“Last year, the wind was very tough and made the car quite difficult to drive, so it’s quite technical. The best place to overtake is T1 after the DRS straight, it’s the only one around Lusail.
“For me, it’s a special place because it was my first F2 race last year, but how technical it is and how you have to balance the car and manage the wind, that’s the main challenge.”
TECHNICAL PREVIEW
Pierre-Alain Michot, FIA Formula 2 Technical Director
“The Lusail circuit provides a high-speed test for the teams and drivers, with tyre demand a big point of emphasis. Aerodynamic requirements are therefore relatively high as well, though identifying the correct compromise between outright downforce versus drag will be another key point. Teams will have data to refer to after last year’s inaugural Formula 2 race around the Lusail International Circuit, so will have made changes based on their findings from last year.”
PIRELLI PREVIEW
The compounds for the Qatar weekend are the Hard and Soft. Managing the hardest tyre, the only carry over from 2024, looks like being particularly demanding, especially during the warm-up phase. The drivers will no doubt push to the maximum to get them up to temperature, which will however speed up wear. The bigger delta between the two compounds chosen this year, the Medium having been replaced by the Soft, could lead to interesting strategy choices, although one has to bear in mind that he softer compound, while being a good option, is not capable of completing the entire Sprint race distance. This is scheduled to take place at night, whereas the Feature race is run in the daytime, with the difference in temperature at those times affecting the way the teams will tackle the track. As mentioned, the Lusail circuit is one of the most demanding in terms of stressing the tyres with high speed corners and a long straight. Last year, the most successful strategy was to run Hard-Medium, although Bearman kept the lead right up until the final two laps, having run the opposite strategy. An important factor to consider is that last year, the Safety Car made several appearances which reduced the time taken for a pit stop.