With three red flags in practice, two safety cars in the sprint race and a cancelled feature, Formula 2’s Melbourne event delivered little in the way of racing action. Still, there were a few major on- and off-track talking points Feeder Series gathered from the opening round of the season. 

By Martin Lloyd

Gabriele Minì qualified fastest on Friday but was adjudged to have impeded Jak Crawford during the qualifying session and handed a three-place grid penalty. This promoted Victor Martins to pole position and earned the ART driver two points. AIX Racing’s Joshua Dürksen won the sprint race ahead of Leonardo Fornaroli and Luke Browning, while Martins, Sami Meguetounif and Max Esterson crashed out. Sunday’s feature race was cancelled as downpours continued and the race’s allotted time evaporated. 

• Pre-weekend roundtable: F2 drivers support ‘fair consequences’ for pre-season testing disqualifications
• Pre-weekend roundtable: Martins: 2025 F2 season ‘my last chance’ to prove myself
• Qualifying report and quotes: ART’s Martins inherits Melbourne F2 pole after Minì penalised
• Sprint race report and quotes: Dürksen: Confidence from ‘perfect ending’ to 2024 fueled back-to-back F2 wins
• Feature race report: Melbourne F2 feature race cancelled because of rain; Martins keeps pole points

1. Dürksen’s delight continues into 2025

Dürksen was not expected to make waves when he joined the grid in 2024. The Paraguayan had most recently finished 14th and 19th in two seasons of FR Europe with the backmarker Arden outfit and had joined PHM, a team that had failed to score a single point in 2023. Yet with the renamed AIX squad, he was able to take victories at Baku and Yas Marina, additional podiums at Imola and Monza and a 10th-place finish in the drivers’ standings. Now, he has become the first F2 driver to win consecutive races across multiple seasons. 

Dürksen picked up exactly where he finished 2024 on Saturday in the sprint race. He started second and immediately passed reverse-grid polesitter Leonardo Fornaroli off the line before successfully defending from the Italian at Turn 3. From then on Dürksen was imperious, only being at risk at the two safety car restarts caused by the stricken Tridents of Max Esterson and Sami Meguetounif. Fornaroli kept Dürksen honest, with the gap between the pair 2.2 seconds at the end of the 23-lap race. 

Crucially, this victory showed that Dürksen’s 2024 performance was no fluke. Several competitors had made comments about the performance level of his 2024 power unit, but his racecraft was often superb. Dürksen showed this quality again on Saturday when he comfortably fended off the reigning F3 champion, who was driving an Invicta Racing car that won last season’s teams’ championship.

The question now is whether Dürksen can build on this run of form. As a three-time race winner in his second year in the championship, the 21-year-old will be expected to run at the front consistently, but the victory offers him the perfect springboard to start 2025.

2. Testing infringements haunt six drivers

Three teams seriously breached sporting regulations at the pre-season Barcelona test and felt the consequences at Melbourne. It had been announced on the second day of testing that the times of DAMS’ Jak Crawford, Rodin Motorsport’s Alex Dunne and Christian Mansell and Trident’s Max Esterson had been deleted because of a breach of article 10.2a of the Sporting Regulations. The teams had drilled sensors into the diffuser of each car to gather extra data, and further punishments were to come. 

On Thursday in Melbourne, the FIA stewards handed 10-place grid penalties to all six drivers from DAMS, Rodin and Trident for each of the two races. They recommended that the drivers be allowed to test for only two of the three days of the next test in Bahrain from 26–28 March. For each of the four cars specifically in violation of the regulations, the stewards also handed down a €10,000 fine to their respective teams. F2 said in a press release that the championship promoter would apply the stewards’ recommendations.

That means Kush Maini and Sami Meguetounif, the other DAMS and Trident drivers, have also been punished because the FIA ascertained that the teams could use the data gathered from the sensors to help both of their cars. Mansell’s penalties were applied to replacement driver Amaury Cordeel after the former withdrew from the championship.

Finally, the other eight teams will be allowed to apply for permission to install the same sensor at the Bahrain test to maintain fairness. 

The draconian nature of the punishments reflects the major breach of three regulations by the three teams. Article 1.5.2 of the technical regulations disallows any alteration of parts supplied to competitors by the series, including diffusers. Teams are also not allowed to install any sensors without the governing body’s and F2 promoter’s consent under article 8.4.10, while no sensors may ‘protrude’ from the car under article 8.4.11. F2’s status as a spec series means that any contravention of these rules is taken seriously, and severe sanctions were inevitable. 

3. Power cuts derail Friday running 

The weekend’s chaos was not restricted to Sunday’s cancellation or the stewards’ penalties. Late on Friday night, F2 announced the addition of a 15-minute shakedown session on Saturday morning to attempt to resolve “power cuts [that] randomly affected several cars, which compromised their performance”. The identities of those already affected during practice and qualifying were not revealed.

In addition to the technical problems on Friday, three red flags in practice heavily restricted running. For all of these reasons, the pecking order of drivers and teams is not especially clear after the opening round. 

The weekend was incomplete, with just nine drivers scoring points. That included Victor Martins, who scored two for pole position, and Gabriele Minì, who took the fastest lap in the sprint race. The next round will be in Bahrain from 11–13 April, with the in-season test taking place at the same venue two weeks prior.

Results and standings after round 1 in Melbourne

Results	P1	P2	P3
Qualifying	Gabriele Minì, 1:29.286	Victor Martins, +0.114	Jak Crawford, +0.301
Sprint race (23 laps)	Joshua Dürksen, 41:30.202	Leonardo Fornaroli, +2.198	Luke Browning, +2.879

Standings	Drivers	Teams
P1	Joshua Dürksen, 10	Invicta Racing, 12
P2	Leonardo Fornaroli, 8	AIX Racing, 10
P3	Luke Browning, 6	Hitech, 6
P4	Richard Verschoor, 5	Prema Racing, 6
P5	Roman Staněk, 4	MP Motorsport, 5
P6	Sebastián Montoya, 3	ART Grand Prix, 2
P7	Gabriele Minì, 3	Campos Racing, 1
P8	Victor Martins, 2	Rodin Motorsport, 0
P9	Pepe Martí, 1	Van Amersfoort Racing, 0
P10	Alex Dunne, 0	DAMS, 0

Header photo credit: Dutch Photo Agency