Formula 1 wants its primary feeder series supporting more grands prix, but talks to take Formula 2 to America have so far not come off.
Created as GP2 in 2005, the series initially ran with 10 European rounds alongside races in Bahrain and Turkey (on the Asian side of the city of Istanbul). Bahrain was dropped for 2006, rejoined in ’07, then was dropped again in ’08 as the schedule was shortened.
However a spin-off GP2 Asia series was launched in 2008, with Bahrain, China, Indonesia, Malaysia and the United Arab Emirates hosting races. Qatar was visited in 2009, and GP2 Asia was absorbed into the main series in 2012. Turkey was dropped, with Bahrain, Malaysia and Singapore the non-European hosts. The UAE rejoined in 2013.
Trips to Eurasia came in 2014 onwards, starting with Sochi in Russia. Azerbaijan claimed European status when it first hosted F1 and F2 in 2016 by using the European Grand Prix title for its race on the opposite side of the Caucasus.
All of these were journeys east for teams, and the trend continued in 2021 when Saudi Arabia became a long-term calendar addition. The first ever race in the southern hemisphere got ticked off when F2 (and the FIA Formula 3 Championship) supported the Australian Grand Prix for the first time in 2023.
So why has F2 not headed west, the biggest growth area in F1’s calendar?
“Stefano [Domenicali, F1 CEO] would like us to be everywhere,” said F2 and F3’s CEO Bruno Michel recently, explaining it would be impossible on F2 teams’ budgets to do a 24-round, multi-continental season.
Some saw Australia as impossible, but Michel made it work as series organiser by paying the freight costs for shipping all cars and equipment. It made more than Domenicali interested in F2 attending further flyaways.
“More and more promoters want us to come,” Michel revealed.
“When I increased the number of [rounds] from 12 to 14, I’ve been helping financially the teams for the additional two races. And that’s the kind of thing you have to do to make sure that I’m not destroying the thin balance of this business.”
He added: “I would like to get a race in America, but I have to find the proper agreement with them to race there. Which I have not found yet.”
“I’ve discussed with Miami, I’ve discussed with Austin, but at the moment we haven’t really agreed. But we’re working on that, and then there’ll be some other possibilities because I would like to be on this side of the Atlantic as well. Asia, so far we’re going to the Middle East, and we’re going quite a lot to the Middle East, which is great. Because the tracks are great and it’s very easy to work, and it’s really a part of the world where everybody likes to go.”
GP2’s European rival Formula Renault 3.5 visited Turkey (2006) and Russia (2012-’14), then successor series FV8 3.5 raced in Bahrain, Mexico and on Austin’s United States Grand Prix-hosting Circuit of the Americas in 2017.