At the Autodromo Nazionale Monza today, the FIA Formula 2 Championship revealed its new car, which is set to make its debut for the 2024 season and be raced in 2025 and 2026 as well. Speaking to Feeder Series and selected media after the car launch, F2 CEO Bruno Michel and FIA deputy president for sport Robert Reid shed some light on what is expected of the new car, the successor to the Dallara F2 2018.

By George Brabner

The Dallara-designed chassis currently used in F2 has been in operation since 2018, the second year since the series re-branded to F2 from its previous identity as the GP2 Series.

Several years on track and a F1 regulation overhaul later, the Dallara F2 2018 noticeably diverged from its parent series in aerodynamics.

Aiming to give drivers in F2 a driving experience similar to F1’s, the 2024 car is set to use ground effect to increase downforce compared to its 2018-spec predecessor.

The under-floor changes are paired with a host of revamped aerodynamic components, including a bold rear wing reminiscent of that of Super Formula’s new SF-23 – all of which combine for a distinctive visual design.

With similarities between the 2024 F2 and current F1 machinery obvious, Michel says that the new F2 car has been designed with the on-track spectacle firmly in mind using the FIA’s knowledge from F1’s hunt to make wheel-to-wheel racing easier with the 2022 regulations.

“[The racing spectacle is] one of the key values of Formula 2, and it’s always been in the DNA of Formula 2 to have this kind of racing,” Michel told Feeder Series.

“Of course, we want to make sure that not only we keep it, but we try to improve it. And that’s something that we’ve done together with the FIA because the FIA had done quite heavy studies with Formula 1 to understand how much downforce you lose when two cars are following each other, and we’ve been benefitting from their work on that.

“So I think even if we had already fantastic racing, we are going to have even more fantastic racing in the future. That’s really something that we want to work on.”

A push for safety and accessibility

However, the new car’s on-track performance has not been the FIA and F2’s sole focus.

Speaking on the four-year anniversary of Anthoine Hubert’s death at Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps in an F2 race – a tragedy that raised question marks over the safety of the 2018 F2 chassis – Michel said that the biggest difference between the 2024 F2 car and the machine it replaces was the level of driver safety provided.

“Number one is safety. There’s been quite a lot of changes in terms of safety directed by the FIA to adapt to have all the latest safety standards available for this car because this car will comply with the 2024 Formula 1 safety standards, which are very, very advanced,” Michel explained.

The new car’s weight has not been disclosed, but Michel said he does not expect the 2024 F2 car to be heavier than the current chassis despite the addition of the new safety features.

“The thing is always the same: the more safety you add, the more weight you have on the car, so it’s something we’ve been working on,” Michel told Feeder Series.

“Between what we’ve been doing between the FIA, ourselves and Dallara, we should have a car that is not going to be heavier. We should have a little bit more horsepower, and we should have also some aerodynamic gains, so the car should be slightly faster.”

Michel and Reid also expressed their desire to make the 2024 F2 car as accessible as possible.

Michel said that the FIA and F2 “completely feel that power steering is not needed” after improvements in suspension geometry compared to the 2018-spec car. He also said that the car now offers the option to change the braking force demanded from the driver after comments from female drivers completing tests in FIA F3 cars in the past two years “were not at all on the steering effort but were much more on the braking effort”.

Header photo credit: Formula Motorsport Limited