Team-by-team round up: Silverstone shakes up the order

12 July 2024

It was a hectic triple-header that has further shaped the 2024 FIA Formula 2 season, but who is riding highest going into Budapest and who will be wanting more from the next two rounds?

Here is how each team is fairing with the second half of the campaign coming up.

CAMPOS RACING

As Team Principal Adrian Campos Jr said after the race weekend was complete, Campos Racing could have very little to complain about as the team secured top spot in both Championships. Isack Hadjar’s third Feature Race victory was a welcome result for the Frenchman who has endured an up and down time throughout the triple header, though spent the majority of it fighting for the top prizes.

Teammate Josep María Martí wasn’t quite able to replicate the same speed as his teammate, but the Spaniard was in the points for the first time since the Feature Race in Barcelona to arrest a tough spell for himself also. After the stutters that started their 2024 season, Campos Racing are finally hitting their stride in the title fight. Their lead is now 23 points over next best, MP Motorsport.

MP MOTORSPORT

MP Motorsport have quietly been going about their business lately and moved ahead of Hitech Pulse-Eight and into second as they try to close down leaders Campos in the Teams’ Standings. A large part of that has been down to the impressive form of Franco Colapinto, who has enjoyed the best stint of his rookie F2 season so far.

Two P2 finishes in Feature Races and a P4 at Silverstone have catapulted the Argentinian into the top five of the Drivers’ Championship also, and he looks to be well placed to continue that form going forward. Teammate Dennis Hauger has had a slightly tougher time, particularly after his stall from Pole on the Formation Lap in Spielberg. Silverstone brought two points scoring results, but the Norwegian will be focused on the top prizes to get his campaign back on track.

INVICTA RACING

It’s still tight at the top in the Teams’ Standings, and Invicta Racing are running MP close in third, just two points back from the Dutch outfit, now on 156. After Paul Aron lost his scoring streak, Gabriel Bortoleto took over as the most consistent points scorer with an active streak, now up to 10 races, a spell that included a maiden F2 victory in the Barcelona Feature Race. The Brazilian was on the podium at Silverstone but lost that to teammate Kush Maini after a post-race investigation, but like Colapinto, now seems to have found his feet in F2 and is delivering constantly impressive results. He is well and truly in the title fight in fourth, two points away from breaking into triple digits.

Maini’s early season form as ebbed away from him but there were fits and bursts of that potential throughout the triple header. P3 in the Silverstone Sprint Race was a good result to take but he was adrift in the Feature Race, winding up 19th overall. It was one of two non-scores across the three consecutive race weekends, but as it did last year, he will be hoping that Budapest can spark a second half of the season revival.

HITECH PULSE-EIGHT

Their rivals left Silverstone satisfied though it was not the homecoming Hitech Pulse-Eight were aiming for. After the impressive results for Aron had him arrive as Championship leader and the team just a point behind Campos in the Teams’ stakes, things fell apart on home turf. A crash between Aron and Martí in the Sprint put the Estonian on the sidelines early, and he didn’t get much further in the Feature either, as a clash with Joshua Duerksen at Woodcote brought an end to his Sunday hopes.

Teammate Amaury Cordeel couldn’t rescue points either for the team as Silverstone marked the only weekend of the triple header the Belgian fell outside of the point-scoring positions. Still, the team is in the Teams’ Standings hunt, fourth on 142 and as we saw at Silverstone, things can quickly swing the other way in Formula 2.

WATCH: Chasing the Dream Season 6, Episode 9 – Out Today

RODIN MOTORSPORT

There were smiles on Rodin Motorsport faces after Silverstone as the team returned to competitiveness after a tough Spielberg round. Zane Maloney fought hard for a pair of P2 finishes and was very satisfied with his efforts afterwards. Andrea Kimi Antonelli was admittedly out of reach in the Sprint, and he believes had he emerged ahead of Jak Crawford after his mandatory stop in the Feature Race, would have gone on to win.

Ritomo Miyata had hopes that his experience of tracks he’d visited before would have helped his prospects but it was a tough time for the Japanese driver at Silverstone. In Barcelona, his lappery during in-season testing paid off as he secured a P6 result in Qualifying but wasn’t quite able to convert that into points on Sunday. It was a similar story at Silverstone, as he narrowly missed out on a top 10 start and reverse grid pole by 0.007s. From there, the weekend didn’t get much better for him.

DAMS LUCAS OIL

Six points finishes out of six for Jak Crawford has him battling on the cusp of the top five in the Drivers’ Standings, but the Barcelona weekend wound up being the peak for DAMS Lucas Oil across the triple header. The American secured P4 in the Sprint and a first win of the season for the team, but 6th, 10th, 6th and then third in the Silverstone Feature was a step back. Still, it was a positive three race weekends for the French outfit, with Qualifying a remaining weakness but race pace looking very strong.

Juan Manuel Correa took an emotional podium in the Barcelona Feature, five years to the day he last stood on the F2 rostrum. After that result though, his triple header took a turn and there were no more points to take home. Still, there are many positives for the team to carry into Budapest.

PREMA RACING

Andrea Kimi Antonelli finally got his moment after the Italian secured his first F2 win in the Silverstone Sprint Race. It was a measured performance in the toughest of conditions, overcoming multiple race restarts and keeping himself out of trouble to leave the rest trailing in his wake. A win he says he desperately needed, it was a long time coming but it’s now up to the Mercedes Junior Team driver to keep that momentum rolling into Budapest and then Spa-Francorchamps as he looks to climb back up the Championship order.

Teammate Oliver Bearman was full of fight on home turf and was looking threatening, in contention for the top places in Qualifying, unfortunate to sustain damage in the early moments of the Sprint that dropped him back from the podium fight and then on the periphery in the Feature. His start was strong, but he eventually slipped back to seventh, his first points scoring result since his Barcelona Feature win. PREMA are getting on top of the car more, and both drivers are optimistic of their trajectory from now until the end of the campaign.

ART GRAND PRIX

Victor Martins was back in more familiar territory as the ART Grand Prix driver secured a spot on the front row with compatriot Hadjar before securing a top five result on Sunday for the team. It has been a testing year for both team and driver, unable to replicate the late-season form of 2023 with the introduction of the new 2024 car, but like PREMA, there are signs that the team is getting to better understand the new machinery. Zak O’Sullivan missed out on home points with a DNF and P11 finish on Saturday and Sunday respectively, but it was the final stretch of 2023 where Martins and ART began to shine. They’ll be aiming for a repeat this time around too.

VAN AMERSFOORT RACING

Qualifying form has been the limiting factor for Van Amersfoort Racing since the early part of the season. After Fittipaldi’s win in Jeddah, the team has secured just three points-scoring results, a very unwelcome slump in form and speed. However, in the past two race weekends, the team has shown its ability to jump at a chance with both hands, able to propel Fittipaldi into the points with smart and opportunistic strategic decisions. Fourth and eighth in the Spielberg and Silverstone Feature Races demonstrate the team can fight for the points-paying positions, it just needs to put itself in a stronger starting position to improve their chances.

AIX RACING

A down then up and then down once again triple header for AIX Racing peaked in the middle. Joshua Duerksen’s narrowly missing out on Pole Position was the high point for the German outfit, and the three points-scoring results out of four in Austria a well-deserved reward for their efforts, but the team couldn’t replicate that form around Silverstone. Teammate Taylor Barnard just missed out on points in the Sprint in P9, while Duerksen was sidelined in his incident with Aron in the Feature.

TRIDENT

Points on Saturday were as good as things got for Trident at Silverstone, as the strategy gamble for Richard Verschoor in the Feature, with his stop on Lap 6 mirroring Fittipaldi and VAR, didn’t translate into points. Roman Stanek’s P8 finish in the Sprint was a welcome result for the team and driver, his first scoring finish since Monte Carlo. There is pace to find for the Italian outfit, and heading to Budapest and Spa-Francorchamps, they’ll want to put that right before the summer break.