Photo: Formula Motorsport Limited
Lirim Zendeli will return to the Formula 2 grid at Spa-Francorchamps as he takes the place of the banned Olli Caldwell at Campos Racing.
An accumulation of more than 12 penalty points during the season to date has prevented Caldwell from being allowed to take part in this weekend’s races, and his seat will be occupied by Zendeli.
Since losing his own seat partway through his rookie F2 season in 2021 due to budget issues, Zendeli has only raced cars once as he made a FIA Formula 3 Championship appearance with Charouz Racing System earlier this year.
His 2021 F2 campaign featured four points finishes in 17 races, and before that he won once across two seasons in FIA F3 and also claimed podiums in the Toyota Racing Series.
“I’m very excited and happy to be racing a F2 car again,” said Zendeli. “It’s been a year now since my last time in F2 and I’m looking forward to this experience. Spa has been good to me, last time I drove there in F3 [I won].
“Taking over the keys from Olli will be a big challenge but I will try my best to find the limits again as soon as possible. I also want to thank Olli and Campos for their trust in me and I’ll give it my all to return it in good results.”
Campos is set for an all-new line-up this weekend, as the injured Ralph Boschung is still out of action and his stand-in Roberto Merhi is set to be racing in Super GT in Japan.
“After the last sanction imposed by the FIA, unfortunately, we cannot have Olli with us in this race. Zendeli comes in his place and I wish him a very good weekend, we know he has been out for a year but we hope he will have a quick adaptation to the car and I think that wiyh all the support of the team we can have a good weekend.”