Photo: Red Bull
Formula 2 will hold its first ever races in North America this year as replacements for its cancelled rounds in the Middle East.
War in the region led to Formula 1 cancelling this month’s Bahrain and Saudi Arabian grands prix, with F2 and the FIA Formula 3 Championship due to be on the support bill of the former while F2 and F1 Academy was set to be supporting the latter.
In-season tests at Bahrain for F2 and F3 were also cancelled, and have not been replaced.
F2 has however recovered its lost races, bringing its season back up to 14 rounds, by supporting next month’s Miami (May 1-3) and Canadian (May 22-24) grands prix.
The Miami event on May 1-3 will mark the first ever races to be held in North America for F1’s primary feeder series, with the previous closest venture to the continent being the non-championship 1985 Curacao Grand Prix in the Caribbean.
Canada however has hosted the F2 category before, with the Moosehead Grand Prix in Halifax being a round of the British F2 championship in 1993 and ’94.
F1 Academy has responded to the loss of its Saudi Arabian round in Jeddah by adding a third race to its Canadian GP-supporting round in Montreal and its penultimate round on the United States Grand Prix (October 23-25) support bill at Circuit of the Americas.
“I would like to thank Stefano Domenicali and F1 for their support in making this possible, and also the FIA, the promoters of the Miami and Canadian grands prix, and of course my team, who have worked hard to put in place two new rounds in such a short amount of time,” said F2’s chief executive officer Bruno Michel.
“It was not an easy thing to do, but bringing F2 to North America for the first time is really fantastic. It’s something we have been wanting to do for a long time, and it enables us to ensure we’re back racing as quickly as possible. It will be a great new challenge for our teams and our drivers, who have all welcomed the news with enthusiasm. I am certain that the quality of racing will bring a lot of excitement to the fans and to everyone attending both grands prix.”