Photo: Formula Motorsport Ltd
Josh Mason has confirmed to Formula Scout that he will continue to drive for PHM Racing by Charouz in the remaining rounds of the Formula 2 season.
The 21-year-old Briton joined the team last month at Spa-Francorchamps to make his F2 debut, and had a tricky maiden weekend in the Dallara F2 2018 car having never tested it before.
He took the place of American rookie Brad Benavides, who claimed one top-10 finish from 18 races.
Mason’s first ever experience of the F2 car was in a wet practice session at Spa, and after initially being significantly off the pace there were improvements in laptimes but his session was ended early when he came to a stop at the exit of Spa’s Formula 1 pitlane. Qualifying was also wet, and Mason got stuck in the gravel trap at turn nine before even setting a lap.
The races that weekend were also trying. He stalled on the formation lap for the sprint race, then drove all the way around to the pits to make the start once pushed away by the marshals. But that earned him a drive-through penalty, and he finished a very distant 20th place. The feature race went better, as he was 14th in the final classification.
Mason was then confirmed for the Zandvoort round after the summer break, which took place last weekend, and was slowest by some margin in practice and qualifying. In the latter he was almost a second off team-mate Roy Nissany, who was one position ahead.
He was 18th when the sprint race was abandoned after a few laps due to rain, and finished 15th in the feature race.
“Second weekend in F2 at a track which I’ve never been before. Had to learn and adapt very quickly as the weather was tricky,” he said to Formula Scout. “Overall, it was another great step in the right direction and looking forwards to be racing at Monza.”
The penultimate round at Monza is this weekend, then the season finale at Yas Marina Circuit takes place 12 weeks later.