2021 F2 Pre-season Testing Roundup

With Formula Two pre-season testing now finished ahead of the 2021 season, we round up all three days of testing as drivers and teams got acquainted with one another ahead of the new campaign. 

This season sees eight new rookies join the grid whilst MP Motorsport are yet to finalise their second race driver as Richard Verschoor stepped behind the wheel for this test.

Returning drivers meanwhile were mainly adapting to their new teams with exception of Jehan Daruvala, Christian Lundgaard, Robert Shwartzman, Marino Sato and Guanyu Zhou who remain with their teams from last season.

Now here is a full roundup of all three days of testing followed by analysis on the overall state of play heading into the new season.

 

Day One

Several drivers opted for a quiet start to running in windy conditions as MP Motorsport’s Richard Verschoor soon triggered a red flag, breaking down on the back straight towards Turn 14.

Verschoor’s fellow rookie teammate, Lirim Zendeli meanwhile was amongst early pace-setters alongside Hitech’s Liam Lawson, who was amongst the top ten finishers in the morning session alongside fellow rookies – Oscar Piastri, Bent Viscaal and David Beckmann as Carlin’s experienced Dan Ticktum went fastest of all drivers.

Several drivers however found improvement throughout the afternoon session with Beckmann setting the quickest overall time in the closing moments of the day’s running with a 1m 42.844, which was 0.177 seconds quicker than Ticktum’s best effort in the morning session to bump the Brit down to second overall.

ART GP occupied third and fourth with their fastest laps coming in the afternoon as the returning Christian Lundgaard outpaced rookie and last season’s F3 Vice-Champions, Theo Pourchaire by just 0.036s as Lawson finished fifth quickest to round out the top five.

Jehan Daruvala was sixth quickest for Carlin ahead of Felipe Drugovich who has switched from MP Motorsport to UNI-Virtuosi, whilst Juri Vips, Piastri and Zendeli rounded out the top ten fastest overall times from the opening day of testing.

Verschoor meanwhile bounced back from his early stoppage to record the most laps out of all drivers throughout the day, having managed 77 laps of running.

Position	Driver	Team	Time	Session	Total Laps
1	David Beckmann	Charouz	1m 42.844	pm	50
2	Dan Ticktum	Carlin	1m 43.021	am	38
3	Christian Lundgaard	ART GP	1m 43.534	pm	53
4	Theo Pourchaire	ART GP	1m 43.570	pm	55
5	Liam Lawson	Hitech GP	1m 43.621	am	41
6	Jehan Daruvala	Carlin	1m 43.761	am	41
7	Felipe Drugovich	UNI-Virtuosi	1m 43.871	pm	53
8	Juri Vips	Hitech GP	1m 44.079	pm	34
9	Oscar Piastri	Prema	1m 44.088	pm	29
10	Lirim Zendeli	MP Motorsport	1m 44.095	am	71
11	Marino Sato	Trident	1m 44.279	pm	53
12	Bent Viscaal	Trident	1m 44.314	pm	59
13	Guanyu Zhou	UNI-Virtuosi	1m 44.322	pm	46
14	Marcus Armstrong	DAMS	1m 44.331	pm	47
15	Guilherme Samaia	Charouz	1m 44.332	am	47
16	Roy Nissany	DAMS	1m 44.581	pm	41
17	Robert Shwartzman	Prema	1m 44.678	pm	25
18	Richard Verschoor	MP Motorsport	1m 44.859	am	77
19	Matteo Nannini	HWA Racelab	1m 45.316	pm	53
20	Ralph Boschung	Campos	1m 45.496	am	41
21	Gianluca Petecof	Campos	1m 46.238	pm	60
22	Alessio Deledda	HWA Racelab	1m 48.816	am	47

 

Day Two

Lundgaard instantly set the early pace on Tuesday morning which ultimately saw him top the timesheets with a 1m 41.697 ahead of Trident’s Bent Viscaal by 0.331s overall across the entire day of running, with nine of the ten top times set in the morning session as Lawson once again set his best effort in the morning session to finish fifth fastest.

Dan Ticktum was the highest placed overall driver out of those who managed to find improvement on the afternoon to put his Carlin fourth overall, with a 0.973s improvement overall between his best morning and afternoon times.

Charouz’s Guilherme Samaia finished 14th fastest and 1.432s off the pace but managed to set the most laps throughout Tuesday’s combined running, having managed to complete 90 laps despite several red flags throughout the day.

HWA Racelab’s Alessio Deledda was the first driver to come to a halt as the Italian encountered mechanical issues midway through the morning session, before Gianluca Petecof, Zhou and Lawson all came to a halt during the afternoon running.

Position	Driver	Team	Time	Session	Total Laps
1	Christian Lundgaard	ART GP	1m 41.697	am	84
2	Bent Viscaal	Trident	1m 42.028	am	70
3	Marcus Armstrong	DAMS	1m 42.038	am	70
4	Dan Ticktum	Carlin	1m 42.185	pm	71
5	Liam Lawson	Hitech GP	1m 42.256	am	67
6	Robert Shwartzman	Prema	1m 42.257	am	60
7	Juri Vips	Hitech GP	1m 42.299	am	69
8	Theo Pourchaire	ART GP	1m 42.347	am	89
9	Roy Nissany	DAMS	1m 42.419	am	73
10	Oscar Piastri	Prema	1m 42.462	am	64
11	Jehan Daruvala	Carlin	1m 42.619	pm	71
12	Marino Sato	Trident	1m 42.997	am	57
13	Guanyu Zhou	UNI-Virtuosi	1m 43.114	pm	68
14	Guilherme Samaia	Charouz	1m 43.129	pm	90
15	Felipe Drugovich	UNI-Virtuosi	1m 43.194	pm	80
16	Ralph Boschung	Campos	1m 43.206	am	65
17	David Beckmann	Charouz	1m 43.954	am	67
18	Richard Verschoor	MP Motorsport	1m 44.335	pm	51
19	Lirim Zendeli	MP Motorsport	1m 44.346	am	52
20	Gianluca Petecof	Campos	1m 44.569	pm	43
21	Matteo Nannini	HWA Racelab	1m 45.865	am	38
22	Alessio Deledda	HWA Racelab	1m 46.413	am	43

 

Day Three

With day three representing the last chance for drivers to get acquired to teams and cars, the morning session saw plenty of frantic action as drivers mainly focused on a mixture of qualifying simulations and long runs.

Unlike the previous two morning sessions, there were no red flags as all drivers banked their fastest times in this morning session, which meant that Marcus Armstrong finished top with a 1m 42.173 from Hitech duo of Liam Lawson and Juri Vips as the top 17 were split by 0.986s.

This afternoon’s session consequently was mainly about data gathering with all drivers out of fresh tyres which meant plenty of long runs on used tyres to the checkered flag with Lawson and Daruvala the last pair to return to the pits to conclude pre-season testing.

Position	Driver	Team	Time	Session	Total Laps
1	Marcus Armstrong	DAMS	1m 42.173	am	83
2	Liam Lawson	Hitech GP	1m 42.218	am	52
3	Juri Vips	Hitech GP	1m 42.224	am	75
4	Guanyu Zhou	UNI-Virtuosi	1m 42.246	am	97
5	Lirim Zendeli	MP Motorsport	1m 42.356	am	82
6	Robert Shwartzman	Prema	1m 42.359	am	73
7	Ralph Boschung	Campos	1m 42.427	am	82
8	Richard Verschoor	MP Motorsport	1m 42.522	am	81
9	Oscar Piastri	Prema	1m 42.527	am	75
10	Felipe Drugovich	UNI-Virtuosi	1m 42.570	am	88
11	David Beckmann	Charouz	1m 42.587	am	81
12	Roy Nissany	DAMS	1m 42.590	am	85
13	Theo Pourchaire	ART GP	1m 42.595	am	82
14	Christian Lundgaard	ART GP	1m 42.674	am	81
15	Bent Viscaal	Trident	1m 42.815	am	75
16	Marino Sato	Trident	1m 42.920	am	74
17	Matteo Nannini	HWA Racelab	1m 43.159	am	70
18	Gianluca Petecof	Campos	1m 43.219	am	79
19	Guilherme Samaia	Charouz	1m 43.283	am	90
20	Dan Ticktum	Carlin	1m 43.496	am	88
21	Jehan Daruvala	Carlin	1m 43.585	am	85
22	Alessio Deledda	HWA Racelab	1m 45.076	am	72

 

Can Anyone Beat Lundgaard This Season?

With three days of pre-season testing now complete ahead of the season opener which kicks off in Bahrain from 26-28 March, Lundgaard ended the test looking like the driver to beat with the best overall time of a 1m 41.697 as ART go for a third driver title in four seasons.

The difference between those sat between second and 18th in overall best lap times however was just 0.892s which offers hopes of a cracking season, with Armstrong, Ticktum, Shwartzman and Zhou amongst those hoping to mount a title bid this season.

There however are some rookies in that mix like Lawson, Pourchaire, Piastri and Zendeli who will be looking cause some surprises, whilst Verschoor should also look to find himself in contention too if he is handed a race seat by MP Motorsport after constantly growing throughout this test.

HWA Racelab meanwhile looks set for another difficult season if their testing performance is any indication, with Deledda way off the pace but Nannini should find himself in the mix if we see some crazy races.

Either way, 2021 looks very close to call given that the eventual champion has failed to climb onto the podium or win in the opening round since Charles Leclerc in 2017 so bring on the action with a new three-race weekend format to boot.

Here are the full overall testing times below containing the best lap time set by each driver.

Position	Driver	Team	Time	Day
1	Christian Lundgaard	ART GP	1m 41.697	2
2	Bent Viscaal	Trident	1m 42.028	2
3	Marcus Armstrong	DAMS	1m 42.038	2
4	Dan Ticktum	Carlin	1m 42.185	2
5	Liam Lawson	Hitech GP	1m 42.218	3
6	Juri Vips	Hitech GP	1m 42.224	3
7	Guanyu Zhou	UNI-Virtuosi	1m 42.246	3
8	Robert Shwartzman	PREMA	1m 42.257	2
9	Theo Pourchaire	ART GP	1m 42.347	2
10	Lirim Zendeli	MP Motorsport	1m 42.356	3
11	Roy Nissany	DAMS	1m 42.419	2
12	Ralph Boschung	Campos	1m 42.427	3
13	Oscar Piastri	PREMA	1m 42.462	2
14	Richard Verschoor	MP Motorsport	1m 42.522	3
15	Felipe Drugovich	UNI-Virtuosi	1m 42.570	3
16	David Beckmann	Charouz	1m 42.587	3
17	Jehan Daruvala	Carlin	1m 42.619	2
18	Marino Sato	Trident	1m 42.920	3
19	Guilherme Samaia	Charouz	1m 43.129	2
20	Matteo Nannini	HWA Racelab	1m 43.159	3
21	Gianluca Petecof	Campos	1m 43.219	3
22	Alessio Deledda	HWA Racelab	1m 45.076	3