F2® and F3®: Future stars step out in Melbourne
Friday, 17 February 2023
Looking for the next Leclerc, Russell or Piastri? There's a fair chance you'll find them at Albert Park.
Watching the present while keeping a keen eye on the future is one of the reasons we love sports, no matter what your favourite code, competition or category is. Who's the transcendent baby-faced football star, the budding basketball protégé, the fledgling fast bowler set to take international cricket by storm?
Australian FORMULA 1® fans have never had that first-hand chance to link the 'now' with the 'next' since Melbourne became a permanent fixture on the F1® calendar in 1996, but this year puts that wrong right. For the first time, the FIA Formula 2® Championship and FIA Formula 3® Championship categories will take to the track at the FORMULA 1 ROLEX AUSTRALIAN GRAND PRIX 2023, meaning we can see the stars of the future on their stepping stones to the top flight, not just once they've got there.
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Don't know a lot of names on the Albert Park F2® and F3® starting grids this year? Don't worry; the initial collection of entrants for the first-ever GP2 (now F2®) season in 2005 and the inaugural GP3 (now F3®) campaign in 2010 had some names that left anyone but hardcore motorsport fans scratching their heads, too. If history is any guide, the cream typically rises to the top – and some in a manner that, when you reflect on it, makes perfect sense.
Of the 20 drivers on this year's F1® grid, 16 of them competed in GP2/F2® and GP3/F3®, or both. Lewis Hamilton (2006), Nico Hulkenberg (2009), Pierre Gasly (2016) and Nyck De Vries (2019) were all one-time GP2/F2® champions, while Valtteri Bottas (2011) and Esteban Ocon (2015) both annexed a single GP3/F3® crown on the way to F1®.
The truly special – before F1® anyway – did the double: Charles Leclerc (GP3, 2016 and F2®, 2017), George Russell (GP3, 2017 and F2®, 2018) and Australia's F1® rookie Oscar Piastri (F3®, 2020 and F2®, 2021) aced both feeder series before they made it to the summit, and in consecutive years too. Given both Leclerc and Russell have won F1® races and found themselves in title-contending teams so soon in their F1® journeys gives you an international perspective on how Piastri is rated, and why Australian hopes are so high the 21-year-old can progress along that same path paved by the current Ferrari and Mercedes stars at McLaren.
The four drivers who didn't race in F2® or F3® (or their predecessors) have their reasons (we're not counting Lance Stroll, 2016 champion in the FIA Formula 3 European Championship that was merged with GP3 to form the FIA Formula 3 Championship F3® in 2019). Fernando Alonso came from the F3000 championship – GP2's forerunner – straight to his F1® debut in 2001 as a teenager, while Kevin Magnussen and Carlos Sainz both raced in the now-defunct Formula Renault 3.5 Series, winning titles in 2013 and 2015 respectively.
The big outlier? Max Verstappen, who bypassed both series altogether to go straight to F1® with Toro Rosso, becoming the youngest-ever driver to start a Grand Prix at Albert Park in 2015 at 17 years and 166 days of age. So quick, so quickly that he didn't need F3® or F2®? As we've seen in the years since, the reigning two-time F1® world champion continues to be the exception to most accepted rules …
In short, the succinct summary is this: there's more than one way to get to F1®, but if the 2023 grid is any guide, the F3®/F2® pathway is the best way. And this year's first-time feeder series action in Australia is set up for maximum entertainment and the perfect proving ground.
All Albert Park debutants, all in equal equipment, all with no knowledge of or data from the circuit and the prevailing conditions … and all with an equal opportunity to impress. It's the most level playing field imaginable – and one where, when you look back at 2023 in years to come, you might remember that day you saw the first signs of the 'next' Leclerc, the 'next' Russell, or – go on, let's speak it into existence – the 'next' Piastri …
