Formula 2 will begin the second half of its 2025 season at the British Grand Prix this weekend. Feeder Series spoke to three members of the F2 paddock on the eve of the Silverstone round about the unique challenge with tyre wear that the drivers will face throughout the event. 

By Martin Lloyd

Managing the Pirelli tyres will be critical to a successful weekend at Silverstone. The circuit’s large number of high-speed, long-radius corners –  including Abbey, Farm, Maggots, Becketts, and Chapel – makes it harder on tyres than most other tracks.

F1 has gone one step softer in its tyre compound choices for the British Grand Prix, but F2’s allocation remains the same as in previous years. Drivers will have available the soft and hard tyre compounds, which are two steps apart in the series’ compound ladder. This presents a different challenge to other events, such as last-weekend’s round at the Red Bull Ring, where the series used the soft and super-soft tyres. The soft will therefore flip from being the harder ‘prime’ compound to the softer ‘option’ compound. 

“Tyre management on race runs is going to be absolutely crucial,” Invicta Racing team principal James Robinson told Feeder Series. “This is a much more front-limited circuit than the Red Bull Ring, and so the key focus here is just ensuring that we get performance out of the car, especially in the feature race. But managing in the sprint race too will be a challenge.” 

Drivers are not likely to make a pit stop during the 21-lap sprint race. The 29-lap feature race will feature one mandatory pit stop, which drivers may take from the end of lap six onwards. Last year, race winner Isack Hadjar switched from softs to hards on lap eight, while in 2023, Victor Martins did so at the end of lap seven.

“Running softs at this track – which is probably the hardest track on the calendar for tyres, especially when it’s warm – is a real challenge,” Robinson added.

The ever-unpredictable British weather could wreak havoc again this weekend, with temperature uncertainty as well as a risk of rain on both Saturday and Sunday. In 2024, Andrea Kimi Antonelli dominated the sprint race, which featured torrential rain. DAMS’ Kush Maini, then driving for Invicta, finished third in that race. He is the highest-placed driver from that event who remains on the F2 grid.

Prema Racing rookie Sebastián Montoya, who sits eighth in the drivers’ standings, explained how he prepares for high-degradation circuits such as Silverstone or Barcelona, where he finished second in the feature race last month.

“Knowing that it’s so hard on the tyres as a driver, you prepare for that mentally,” Montoya told Feeder Series alongside selected media at a virtual roundtable. “Also, you work on that on the sim, with the engineers on the data from previous years to understand what you need to do. 

“As a rookie, I’ve used sprint races a lot to help me to make a step forward for the feature races to find a bit more pace and understand what I have to do.”

“I think the biggest thing is to try to learn that, obviously with not just one but two steps, it’s going to be even more crucial to make sure the option lasts as long as it needs to last and maximise the speed on both,” he added.

Montoya and his peers are chasing MP’s Richard Verschoor, who leads the standings on 114 points after seven rounds. Verschoor spoke to Feeder Series in the paddock, fresh from his third feature race win of the season in Austria. 

“Here, the option run in the feature race will be a tough one. So far we’ve always been good on the hards and that’s quite promising for us, even though it might rain this week,” Verschoor said.

“It’s a bit of a different track to what we have been to with a lot of high-speed corners so maybe there will be a bit of a switch in which teams or drivers will be at the top of the [timing] page, but I’m feeling confident still.”

Behind Verschoor, Rodin’s Alex Dunne sits second on 90 points ahead of DAMS’ Jak Crawford, who is third on 88 points. Invicta driver Leonardo Fornaroli is fourth on 86 points, while Briton Luke Browning in fifth place is just three points behind on 83. 

Header photo credit: Dutch Photo Agency