Future stars, cult heroes, less than heroes and heartbreak: F2 reaches 200 races

Today’s Formula 2 feature race sees the series reach race number 200, and in that time spanning from 2018 to now we’ve seen it all ranging from special moments, special wins, rookie champions, crazy races and devastating heartbreak.

F1 graduates

Over half the 2025 Formula grid has raced in F2 including race winner Oscar Piastri, other F1 race winners like George Russell & Lando Norris as well as established names like Alex Albon, Yuki Tsunoda as well as newbies Jack Doohan, Liam Lawson and Ollie Bearman among others.

Rookie Champions

3 drivers have won the F2 championship (in its current form) at the first attempt: George Russell, Oscar Piastri and Gabriel Bortoleto. You’ll notice a theme with that; if you’re that good, you make it to F1.

Other champions

Mick Schumacher, Nyck De Vries, Felipe Drugovich and Theo Pourchaire all have taken the F2 title, but between them they’ve amassed less than 60 F1 starts (Schumacher 43, De Vries 11).

Other graduates

21 drivers in total have taken the step from F2 to F1 with varied success. Names like Nicholas Latifi, Sergei Sirotkin and Logan Sargeant figuring in motorsport’s elite series. Williams have actually handed the most opportunities to young drivers with six afforded the opportunity when you include Jack Aitken, George Russell and Franco Colapinto in the aforementioned trio.

Less than heroes

Some drivers made a name for themselves for other reasons in F2. Some for being slow, some for being viewed as dangerous, and some for just not lasting very long in the series.

Alessio Deledda famously required permission to race in Monaco for HWA Racelab after failing to reach the 107% qualifying requirement, while Dutchman Niels Koolen also struggled to be on the pace of his peers for AIX.

Roy Nissany and Amaury Cordeel had their good moments, but were very clearly unpredictable at times, suffering odd crashes or in Nissany’s case, upsetting commentator Davide Valsecchi during a battle in one race in Bahrain. Let’s also not forget Mahaveer Raghunathan!

Special moments

The standout one of these came in last year’s Barcelona weekend where Juan Manuel Correa stood on the podium for DAMS, for the first time in five years - exactly five years to the day after he stood on the podium in France with Anthoine Hubert.

We never ever forget…

In 2019, Formula 2 suffered the most heartbreaking moment where in Spa Francorchamps, Anthoine Hubert lost his life in a horrible accident on the exit of Raidillon.

Hubert’s car was collected by Juan Manuel Correa, and Hubert sadly passed away as a result of the injuries sustained, at the age of 22.

Formula 2 retired the number 19 in honour of Hubert, and every time F2 - and any other series - goes racing, Anthoine is in mind.

📸 Image credits: Formula Motorsport Limited, BBC Sport, Sky Sports.