Formula 2 CEO Bruno Michel says he is aware of the malaise caused by the large gaps between championship rounds this year, with the series currently analysing the potential a format tweak in 2022.
As a measure to cut costs, F2 listed eight rounds on its 2021 calendar compared to 12 in 2020, and revamped its format to introduce a second Sprint Race into the weekend.
The reduced number of venues has also led to larger gaps between rounds, with a break of two months existing between some events; the next round of Formula 2 will not be until Monza, in mid-September. Following Sochi’s round in late September the next event will not be until Jeddah in December.
Michel outlined that he has heard fan disappointment on the matter and confirmed that the series is looking at alternative options.
“I would say that there is too much time in between events,” Michel said. “And that’s something that we understand and the feedback we have from the fans, [who are] quite obvious about it.
“It’s more difficult to get involved into a championship when you have one month, one month and a half or even two months between two events.
“When we go to Silverstone, everybody forgot about Baku. You know, that’s the problem. And you get there and people don’t really remember where is Guanyu Zhou, where is Oscar Piastri.
“So that’s something that we really need to carefully look at, because we don’t want to lose fans because of that. And obviously, that’s an issue.”
Under Formula 2’s new-for-2021 format qualifying still sets the grid for the Feature Race, though that now takes place on Sunday.
However, in a change, the top 10 in the qualifying session are reversed to form the starting grid for Sprint Race 1 on Saturday, with the top 10 finishing order from that race reversed to establish grid slots for Sprint Race 2.
Michel recognises that the new format is difficult for fans to understand, while also revealing that three races across a weekend is a massive workload for the teams in Formula 2.
“The second thing that we can see which is more in the cons is that the format is a little bit more complicated to understand,” Michel said.
“And we need to explain it and explain it and explain it again. And the fact that we have races every month or every month and a half, it doesn’t help to understand the format.
“Then, one thing that people have been saying also is that they would like to have F2 and F3 together with F1 more often, which is good, but [it] also doesn’t allow us to support F1 as much as we would like to, because we can’t do too many races.
“And the last thing that is we’ve been through, for F3 it’s OK, but for F2, a three-race weekend is a very, very heavy workload for the teams.
“So we’re considering all this. And as I said, I give you the pros, we look at the cons. And that’s why it’s not an easy decision to make. Altogether, I would say this new format works very well on the track.
“And I’m quite happy about it. The question is, does it make real sense in terms of challenge? Let’s put it that way. And that’s where we are discussing at the moment with the FIA, and with F1 to know where we’re going to go for next year.”
