Photo: Prema
Prema team principal Rene Rosin feels optimistic approaching F2’s final four rounds, despite it being “a bit more difficult season compared to what we were expecting” so far. Are his high hopes well placed?
Boasting two of the most exciting drivers on the grid, Prema had been expected to continue to be Formula 2’s benchmark, despite or maybe even because of the introduction of a new car in 2024. Yet, after 10 rounds the team languishes down in seventh in the standings, and is on course for its worst season since 2019.
“But on the other hand, there’s been some good moments that show a great performance of our team,” stresses Prema’s team principal Rene Rosin, adding “we still have in front of us four events that can prove that we are in the good direction and on the good path”.
Rosin was talking to Formula Scout following the most recent F2 round at Spa-Francorchamps, and admitted “we were not expecting to be where we are at the moment” and is “not happy” to be there either as Prema “want to win”. After three events featuring victories, Prema scored two points at Spa.
“We still have quite a lot of points, and everything is still possible, both in the teams’ and driver’s championships. I don’t say that we will be back on the title bids, but for sure we can perform in the best way possible.”
Prema and its drivers actually remain in title contention, and race wins have been delivered by both sides of the garage, but at this point in the season there is more of an expectation that Andrea Kimi Antonelli and Ollie Bearman will be off the podium rather than on it.
Rewind half a year though, and the lack of pace in the Bahrain season opener was a shock, although pre-season testing at the same venue had given some indication of struggles. Prema’s cars qualified 17th and 18th, and it left with one point.
Photo: Formula Motorsport Ltd
“We lost a bit of the first day in Bahrain with some issues, [but still] the first weekend was below our expectations. But after that, if I look race-by-race, there has always been a reason why we have not been performing.”
Rosin believes Prema has “always been able to perform well in quali, [but] sometimes in races we’ve had a bit bad luck or we got the wrong strategy” in 2024. Does that stack up?
Following on “from being nowhere in Bahrain”, Rosin said Prema “bounced back in Jeddah”. Bearman set the pace and Antonelli was sixth in qualifying, but a last-minute Formula 1 call-up meant Bearman missed the F2 races. Melbourne followed, and Antonelli qualified second. “This is something that I need to still take the positive out of,” Rosin remarked.
Also highlighted were the performances at the Red Bull Ring, Silverstone and the Hungaroring which resulted in wins.
There has been no magic solution to turn things around. As Rosin makes clear, Prema continued with “the same procedure, the same path, the same method that we’re always trying to do every time when the results didn’t come as we all expected”.
“During the weekend, we try to adjust and try to make everything working as smoothly as possible. But then when we’re back home, already from the Sunday evening, we try to understand what we could have done differently.
“You need to put down on the table what we have done, what we think we’ve done wrong, being constructive in a discussion between all engineers, everybody in the team has his own input from the performance to the race engineer to the technical director, to the drivers and to the management.”
This season has been one of F2’s most open, with 14 winners from 20 races so far and every driver still in title contention. Of the more likely of those to actually become champion, Rosin points out they “always have a good weekend, a bad one, another good weekend and a bad one” and only Campos Racing at the top of the teams’ standings has more wins than Prema.
Photo: Prema
Of course, Prema’s record means expectations are always high, not least from Rosin: “If I’m there, I don’t want to be a number, I want to be a protagonist but we are not competing against nobody, we are competing against the best teams below F1.”
Having emphasised that “the level in F2 is tremendously high”, it’s clear Rosin respects his paddock rivals.
Both Bearman and Antonelli will race in F1 in 2025. Since the start of this season, the level of attention and ‘hype’ from the public and media they have been subject to has been intense, even unrealistic. How has Prema managed to shield them from the speculation and pressure from outside?
“[The drivers] are listening to what is being told outside,” revealed Rosin. “We try to do our job in the best way possible, but still we need to remember one is [19] years old, one [18] years old, it is still difficult. It’s not something that is very easy to do.
“Within the F2 team, we try not to listen to whatever is happening outside. If you read all the press there’s been this year, I would say a lot of rumours, a lot of moments that can put everybody in difficulties [exist].”
Rosin has been highly impressed with Antonelli’s “extremely positive” progress as a rookie who came from Formula Regional.
“He still needs to improve sometimes on tyre management, but if I look at the progression, considering where he was at beginning of the season, jumping from FRegional when you don’t have the tyres management, you don’t have one-lap quali, where you can do more laps in quali, you can push all the time with the tyres without any issue, what he’s doing now is absolutely remarkable.
“Look at the race in Budapest and look at the race in the wet [in Spa], the overtaking he has done to [Franco] Colapinto in Eau Rouge was absolutely extraordinary.” He adds with a smile: “Honestly, I was a bit scared myself, but it was an absolutely amazing move.”
Photo: Formula Motorsport Ltd
From his time working with Bearman and Antonelli, Rosin they are “a good combination of two characters that they really copy each other, and they’re really working very well together”.
Rather than see their occasional trips into F1’s world as a potential distraction, Rosin believes those have only been positive.
“When they are in F2, they are fully concentrating on F2 and they’re not making any comparison with all their activities in F1. Of course, they are learning from it, and it is increasing their package of experience.”
Even the best drivers and teams have seasons where things don’t go smoothly. How a driver reacts to those moments can say more about their potential than a string of dominant victories, and Rosin is full of praise for the way his drivers have dealt with their troubled seasons.
“Even on difficult moments, the vibes are absolutely extremely positive only,” is his perception. “Because the expectations were totally different, I think this will be a good lesson for them in their future when they will be with the big boys in F1.”
“This moment in F2 is giving both of them, and as well to us, a good shower of realism that is very, very important to continue progress.”
Though far from being the only team to fall victim to technical problems, engine issues have compromised Prema’s season on multiple occasions, notably at Silverstone and the Red Bull Ring, although Rosin is hesitant to pin the blame for bad performances on the engine supplier Mecachrome.
“I don’t want to just point out, ‘ah yes, but we’ve been unlucky’. No, it’s part of the process. It’s for sure frustrating, especially when you’re in a good position, but, on the other hand, this is somehow part of racing.
Photo: Haas F1 Team
“We are working very hard on our side to improve if there is something to improve, we are working together with the promoter mainly, and, of course, all the suppliers to make sure that if there is something there is always an exchange of information to make sure that this problem will not happen again.
“It is quite a difficult topic, but I’m sure that everybody is working to make sure that everything will be sorted out as soon as possible.”
The introduction of the Dallara F2 2024 overhauled F2’s pecking order, with 2023 title rivals Prema and ART Grand Prix facing struggles while Hitech GP and Campos are more consistently at the front. But to attribute Prema’s downturn to the change of chassis would be overly simplistic.
“The new car has been a big challenge for everybody but I think that now we are in the direction that as the team we understood [how] we want to make the car work.”
It is “for sure is a bit peaky” but “it’s not a totally different car compared to the previous one, a different aero but at the end it is the same concept”.
“The car has small window of operation, and you need to be right in that window. Once we’re in the window it’s absolutely fine.”
But “we just need to be more focused on the window that this car is operating in”, perhaps indicating Prema hasn’t always found the window Rosin describes. After several challenging months, his focus is primarily on the future rather than the past.
“We are working to make sure that in the next four events we do the result as we want. We need to look forward,” he states.
“I’m sure that from next weekend [at Monza] onwards, we can be there fighting the top guys again, because still we’ve been fighting and we’ve been able to perform as best as we can.”