Bahrain to host motorsport’s future stars in Formula 2, Formula 3 pre-season testing this week in Sakhir

TDT | Manama

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com

A busy month of top-class international motorsport—to be headlined by the Formula 1 Gulf Air Bahrain Grand Prix 2022 from 18 to 20 March—gets underway today at Bahrain International Circuit (BIC) in Sakhir, with the first of three days of pre-season testing in the Formula 2 and Formula 3 championships.

The two international single-seater racing series are the chief feeder categories for F1, featuring talented young drivers from around the world who are looking to climb up the motorsport ladder to the top flight.

They are set to become some of the sport’s future stars, with many of today’s household names in F1 having graduated from F2 and F3 earlier in their careers.

F2 and F3 will alternate their sessions across the three days of testing until Friday. The F3 field will be first to hit the tarmac along BIC’s 5.412-kilometre Grand Prix circuit on each day from 9 am to 11.30 am, to be followed by the F2 runners between 11.45 am and 2.15 pm.

The F3 contenders will then return for their afternoon session from 2.30 pm to 5 pm, and then F2 will wrap up the day’s running between 5.15 pm and 7.45 pm under BIC’s bright floodlights. The tests are set to take place behind closed doors.

Both F2 and F3 will be running their 2022 drivers and cars as they continue their preparations for the start of their respective seasons, which follow just a couple of weeks later this month at BIC in support of this year’s F1 Gulf Air Bahrain Grand Prix.

F2 will have 22 drivers from 11 teams in Sakhir, led by defending champions Prema Racing with last year’s F3 champion Dennis Hauger and returning contender Jehan Daruvala.

They will be joined by Virtuosi Racing’s Jack Doohan and Marino Sato, Carlin’s Liam Lawson and Logan Sargeant, Hitech Grand Prix’s Marcus Armstrong and Juri Vips, ART Grand Prix’s Frederik Vesti and Theo Pourchaire, MP Motorsport’s Felipe Drugovich and Clement Novalak, Campos Racing’s Olli Caldwell and Ralph Boschung, Dams’ Roy Nissany and Ayumu Iwasa, Trident’s Richard Verschoor and Calan Williams, Charouz Racing System’s Enzo Fittipaldi and Cem Bolukbasi and Van Amersfoort Racing’s Jake Hughes and Amaury Cordeel. Almost all of the F2 outfits are also among the 10 F3 entrants, who will feature three drivers each.

They are to be spearheaded by last year’s title winners Trident, with Jonny Edgar, Roman Stanek and Zane Maloney in their cars.

Also in the field are Arthur Leclerc, Jak Crawford and Oliver Bearman for Prema Racing; Victor Martins and Gregoire Saucy for ART Grand Prix; Caio Collet, Alexander Smolyar and Kush Maini for MP Motorsport; Laszlo Toth, Ayrton Simmons and Francesco Pizzi for Charouz Racing System; Kaylen Frederick, Isack Hadjar and Nazim Azman for Hitech Grand Prix; David Vidales, Hunter Yeany and Josep Maria Marti for Campos Racing; Ido Cohen, Patrik Pasma and William Alatalo for Jenzer Motorsport; Zak O’Sullivan, Brad Benavides and Enzo Trulli for Carlin; and Franco Colapinto, Rafael Villagomez and Reece Ushijima for Van Amersfoort Racing.

The Bahrain tests will be the third successive year that F2 has chosen BIC for its first on-track action of the year. F3 also had pre-season running at the F1 track in 2020, when both series held joint-testing at BIC. This year’s joint tests of F2 and F3 will be followed by F1 pre-season testing, also to be held over three days, from 10 to 12 March.

That will set the stage for the F1 season’s opening round in Bahrain, which is set to be a historic, once-in-a-generation event that will usher in “A New Era” in F1 following the biggest shake-up of rules and regulations in modern motorsport history. For more information on the tests, visit bahraingp.com or call the BIC Hotline on +973- 17450000.