The Formula 2 CEO Bruno Michel said the 2024 season was the “best season we ever had“ as Formula 1 will have five graduates from the series in 2025.
There were 18 different race winners and 21 different podium finishers in 2024 – both smashing the previous records held in F2.
Four of those race winners; Gabriel Bortoleto, Andrea Kimi Antonelli, Oliver Bearman and Isack Hadjar – will all race in F1 next season.
Jack Doohan will be the fifth driver, who competed in F2, on the grid next year after he last competed in the junior series back in 2023.
Doohan served as a reserve driver in 2024 for Alpine, before competing in the final round in Abu Dhabi, and he will race for the Enstone-based outfit in 2025.
After Bortoleto was crowned champion last weekend in Abu Dhabi, Michel spoke about the historic season and the performance of the new F2 car for 2024.
“Well I think it’s been probably the best season we ever had in F2, let’s put it that way,” Michel told media including Motorsport Week.
“I think the level of the grid was absolutely amazing, I think the racing has been great all season long, very impressive races.
“And I think the result of that is that there are going to be quite a lot of drivers coming from Formula 2 to Formula 1 at the end of this season.
“Also the fact that we had two F2 drivers that started in F1 in the middle of the season, Bearman in Jeddah and Franco Colapinto for the rest of the season.
“They did well and they showed everybody that they were ready for F1 which is the main objective of Formula 2.
“So all together yeah I’m very very happy with this season and very happy with the new car.”
F1 teams make ‘big mistake’ by not hiring reigning Formula 2 winners
The 2024 F2 World Champion Bortoleto will race for Sauber next season, the first champion of the series to do so since Oscar Piastri – after he was promoted to F1 in 2023 after winning the junior category in 2021.
The 2023 and 2022 F2 champions Theo Pourchaire and Felipe Drugovich, have yet to secure a full-time seat in F1.
Bortoleto has broken the trend this year and secured a seat in the highest level of the sport which left F2 boss Michel delighted.
He said: “It’s fantastic because that’s what we are here for.
“Bortoleto has been winning F3 as a rookie then he’s winning F2 as a rookie.
“The precedent of this performance are Charles Leclerc, George Russell and Oscar Piastri.
“So I think the teams are not making a big mistake when you have a driver that is achieving this kind of result and is [not] going to Formula One.
“What is for sure is the last two seasons the number one problem we had is that there were no seats available in Formula 1 because the Formula One [teams] had not changed driver, except for Logan Sargeant – who is the only one that got to Formula 1.
“And the fact that whether it was Felipe Drugovich or Theo Pourchaire, they achieved their result in at least three years.
“And that is for sure less exciting for the Formula 1 teams than to see Gabriel arriving as a rookie and winning the F2 championship.”
Michel wants F1 teams to take ‘gamble’ on F2 rookies
Antonelli, after his first season in F2, will replace Lewis Hamilton at Mercedes whilst Bearman joins Haas for 2025.
When asked if F1 teams were taking a gamble by promoting the likes of Bearman, Antonelli and Bortoleto, he added: “Well I hope it’s not a gamble.
“I can tell you it’s not a gamble, it’s a very important choice for an F1 team.
“I would say that for a few years, the F1 team[s] have been a little bit difficult into taking F2 drivers because they thought that it was probably better for them to have more experienced drivers in the F1 cars.
“Because a difference of one position in the F1 championship makes quite a lot of money.
“So that was that was probably a quite defensive approach.
“I think what Ollie showed in Jeddah and what Franco showed for the rest of this season as well, has been showing that there are young drivers ready to come.
“Probably much more motivated and much more hungry than the drivers that have been there for quite a long time.
“So I think they’re making a very good decision there when they decide to do that.
“Now let’s see next year what happens but I’m quite confident about it.”
READ MORE: Gabriel Bortoleto: F2 title win in Abu Dhabi ‘the best feeling of my life’
