2019 Preview Round 3

Data (GMT+2)

Friday Free Practice: 13.00 – 13.45 Qualifying session: 16.55 – 17.25 Press conference: 19.00

Saturday Feature race: 16.40 (37 laps) Press conference: 18.00

Sunday Sprint race: 11.30 (22 laps) Press conference: 12.35

Note: The FIA F2 press conference takes place in the F1 press conference room.

The Stakes

The Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya will host Round 3 of the 2019 FIA Formula 2 Championship this weekend, two weeks after the second round at Baku, Azerbaijan.

Jack Aitken made the podium twice in Round 2 to kick-start his 2019 campaign. Luca Ghiotto had led the Drivers’ Championship going into the weekend and continued to look strong, setting the fastest time during Free Practice before Nobuharu Matsushita grabbed 4 points for qualifying in pole position. Aitken qualified P8 but battled to P1 in the Feature Race, taking victory over Nyck de Vries and Jordan King, before DAMS’ Nicholas Latifi earned his second win of the young season in the Sprint Race ahead of rookie Juan Manuel Correa and Aitken third.

The result saw Latifi leapfrog Ghiotto to lead the Drivers’ Championship at the end of Round 2, the Canadian sitting top of the pile with 62 points ahead of Aitken on 43. The UNI-Virtuosi Racing driver slipped to third with 39 points just a point in front of de Vries; DAMS remain the team to catch with 95 points, Campos Racing behind on 55, UNI-Virtuosi Racing on 50 and ART Grand Prix further behind on 42.

Barcelona hosts F2 for Round 3 of the championship, a circuit that the drivers should know well having played host to winter testing. Pirelli is providing Hard and Soft compounds to the teams, and the challenging track has been resurfaced making tyre degradation a possible factor under the Spanish sun in what should be another exciting F2 event.

Warm Up // Jack Aitken – Campos Racing

“Everybody knows Barcelona very well because we do a lot of our testing there. Everyone’s done a lot of laps and is very well practiced, so finding an edge is very difficult. It comes down to who can adapt best to the conditions on the weekend really.

“You have to be quite smooth and quite clean with your driving in qualifying. Everybody knows the track really well so you're not going to suddenly find half a second by pushing a bit harder. It’s about being disciplined and keeping your tyres at the right temperature for the whole lap and staying calm.

“The track has been resurfaced and is a lot smoother and darker. That means that under the sun it should get a lot hotter, which would usually make tyre management harder, but actually it doesn’t look like it’s that different but it’s still a challenge for sure!

“If you’re really quicker than the guy in front of you, you can find some good places to overtake in Sector 2. Turns 4 and 5 are always interesting places to try and attack because they’re quite long corners so you can take different lines. In the final Sector, if you're really sneaky you can try the last chicane to nip up the inside, but it's quite difficult to not crash if you do that so you have to be a bit careful!

“I won the Sprint Race there last year, and hopefully this time it will be the Feature Race and we can get the full set. As a team we're going to hopefully be getting into our stride. The season is going to be getting into the busy part of the year so it will be really nice to get a win there and carry that momentum into the rest of the European events.”

Mario Isola, Pirelli head of F1 and car racing

“We’re looking forward to the return of the Formula 2 championship to Europe after four exciting races in Bahrain and Azerbaijan. We’ve seen the skill and talent of the drivers, with tyre strategy playing an integral part. Barcelona is a track that everybody knows well from testing, and traditionally it’s been quite demanding on tyres, so tyre management and strategy can make a difference. Since being resurfaced last year however, we’ve seen the track begin to evolve and mature again, so it will be interesting to see what type of a difference that makes this weekend.”

Season Stats

49 The number of points scored by Campos Racing at Baku. 32 Championship leader Nicholas Latifi has led a total of 32 laps so far this season. 19 The gap between Nicholas Latifi and Jack Aitken at the top of the Driver’s Championship after the opening two rounds. 7 The number of different podium finishers after the Championship’s opening four races.

Noteworthy

Juan Manuel Correa became the first rookie to stand on the podium this season after finishing second in the Sprint Race at Baku.

Four rookie drivers scored points at the Azerbaijan event; Nikita Mazepin, Mick Schumacher, Anthoine Hubert and Correa.

Only three rookies are yet to score a point so far this season; Calderon, Mahaveer Raghunathan and Giuliano Alesi.

Tatiana Calderon was handed a three-place grid penalty for this week’s Feature Race at Barcelona after causing a collision during the Sprint Race at Baku.

The Colombian BWT Arden driver became the first ever woman to lead a race at this level in Round 2.

Dutch driver Nyck de Vries finished second in Barcelona’s Feature Race in 2018, between Lando Norris and race winner George Russell who have both since graduated to Formula 1.

Jack Aitken won the Sprint Race at Barcelona in 2018.

The Campos Racing driver fought from 8th on the grid to win his first ever Feature Race at Baku.

Nicholas Latifi has won two of the four races so far this season (Feature Race at Sakhir and Sprint Race at Baku).

Six drivers scored in both races in Round 2: DAMS’ Latifi, Sauber Junior Team by Charouz’s Correa, teammates Aitken and Dorian Boccolacci from Campos Racing, ART Grand Prix’s De Vries and PREMA Racing’s Sean Gelael.