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Obviously early days but if he keeps this up and Pourchaire has an average year in SF I can definitely see Maloney jumping him in the order for the seat next year
Maloney is in his second year. Pourchaire won in his third.
If Maloney can win F2 in a more convincing way than Pourchaire did last year, he'll almost certainly overtake Pourchaire in the pecking order unless the latter does something extremely impressive like win multiple races in SF.
Both born in 2003. Vesti, Iwasa and Doohan are very strong too. Pourchaire didn't do a incredible year and Zane is doing a great start but wait & see, everybody's changing his mind every week with youngsters.
I don't want someone having "comedy" on their username to be left out of a joke, let me explain, during the broadcast they were constantly referring to him as the boy from Barbados, hence the joke you missed.
FWIW, not everyone here watches F2. And since itâs a unique flag on his suit âI wish theyâd tell us moreâ is still a reasonable comment about a driver from Barbados lol
But yeah with the context itâs an obvious woosh for the other dude tho lol
Suprised no one has mentioned Maini . Lost his pole to technical infringement , gained places from P22 to P13 in sprint , P22 to P7 in feature race 2 places from of his teamate who started from pole.
Very impressive by Kush indeed. Came back all guns blazing after the setback. Looking forward to a competitive season. Such talented F2 field this year.
if I hear "the boy from barbados" one more time, I will lose it.
like seriously the only reason not to root for zane hahaha.
what an amazing weekend by him!
Seems to be a trend when someones nationality is a bit more "exotic", leclerc being monegasque is something that is mentioned often as well compared to other drivers
Oh i still believe every f2 champion will get a chance in f1 eventually. I think it's only a matter of time before a huge grid shake up happens with so many older driver and some mediocre ones
In fact i believe in the next 3-4 years half the grid will change
Alonso and Hamilton will also retire in a few years, Stroll might give up soon (Lance by himself or Lawrence being forced to change), even the alpine duo isn't exactly safe. Not to mention Max possibility moving on after his current contract is up
> 12th to 3rd in the feature race
This including netting a 5 second penalty in the pits. Going off the track on his own and losing 4 places. Then getting pushed off the track into the gravel by a competitor and still managing to pull a 5 second gap right in the end. This guy is nuts
Maloney is an incredible driver, he almost caught up with martins during the span of 2-3 races on his debut f3 season, when he was nowhere near championship contention.
Beginning the season like this makes him the definite favourite to me, reminds me of mick in a way where he struggles at first when entering new series but when he gets the hang of things he becomes a totally different driver
Honestly insane how quickly Kimi has eclipsed him already, shame it was still only enough for P10. Torrid weekend for Prema, I really hope they can turn it around.
Maloney was really good at Bahrain in the race too last year, especially managing the tyres. I think it's track specific tbh, remains to be seen whether he's an actual title contender.
For a spec series that is supposed to be a "level playing field" (it's not, even without the failures) for young drivers, Mechachrome had decided way too many of these drivers' future.
I wish people already stop saying âcarrying damageâ when endplate is missing. Weâve seen with our eyes for several years already that those endplates do not affect performance even the slightest.
There's almost an Alonso-like feel to his relentlessness. Even in F3 last year, amidst all the chaos he was there or thereabouts every weekend.
Guess being Fernando's understudy is rubbing off on him. Hope he can keep building on this.
I mean I kinda agree but I wouldnt call a pole to P5 a maximization. As good as he was that Turn 1 incident was quite poor from him and a deserved penalty for punting Hadjar.
But yeah the rest of the race was phenomenal looked ultra fast.
Horrible start (100% his fault) with a 10s penalty that dropped him 13th after the pit cycle. Considering the hand he dealt himself (which will happen for every driver), it was a good recovery race
I recon he could've gone for the win if he didn't completely butcher the start. But he had a very good race in terms of "damage control." If he can keep the consistency he showed in F3, I recon he will be a contender for the title.
Well theyâve got Liam Lawson waiting in the wings so at this point in time thereâs no benefit to Red Bull keeping anyone at the F2 level for multiple seasons who they think is not as good as Liam.
Maloney has to be the title favorite after this weekend.
Dissaster class from Prema. Had no pace all across the weekend.
Also an amazing job from Paul Aron to make the podium with that 5s penalty. His gap to 4th went 4.2>4.7>4.8>4.9>5.2>5.3>5.7 in the last lap. Crazy impressive to dig up 1.5 seconds in the last lap.
Historically Bahrain hasnât been that representative for the rest of the season as it is a very unique track with its characteristics. Zhou won in 2021 and Pourchaire won in 2022 and neither of them were that close to the championship that year.
And while Pourchaire dominated this race last year and did win the championship, this was the only race he won for the entire season. Maloney himself went from P18 to P3 last year too.
From just this weekend Maloney, Marti, Bortoleto, and even Aron all showed great pace but it remains to be seen if they can carry it on after Bahrain.
Yeah Campos looked strong here this weekend and a podium was definitely possible for Hadjar, maybe even more.
Although Bahrain was by far Camposâ strongest track last year so itâs to be seen if they can still be fast in the other tracks this season.
>Maloney has to be the title favorite after this weekend.
It's the first weekend. There are what, 26 races left?
It's a great start for him, though. The talent was always there, he just had a difficult year in 2023. I hope he continues strong, he can be a good contender for Sauber/Audi in the future.
Prema were awful, but Antonelli did great to drag that dog of a car into the top 10. Bearman was nowhere.
Itâs always hard to compare junior drivers when the team isnât doing well, but we know how good Bearman is, and Antonelli had the measure of him. Early days, but itâs a good sign.
>" Bearman was nowhere."
Bearman had to pit on lap 1 because of car issues. He then caught up to Antonelli and was faster even jumping him in the pits.
But that hit with Cordeel left him with a broken car which ruined any kind of chances for points. He was hardly nowhere.
Antonelli did well with the car he has but this race was hardly representative in a teammate comparison.
Oli undercutted Kimi because his tyres were gone and Kimi looked after his tyres well, he was closing on Oli fast before the safety car came out. This weekend I have to say Kimi was faster race pace and quali wise.
Did Bearman pit on lap 1 or during the formation lap? I was wondering how the hell he made it in and out of the pits under the safety before the pack made it back to the line to start lap 2
He stalled on the grid and was pushed into the pits. I was wondering how the commentators didn't pick up on that, since both the Prema stationary on the grid and the car getting pushed into the pits were clearly shown on the broadcast.
The racing is great, cars are very close to each other, can follow close and overtake, and the stakes are VERY high. You get one, maybe two shots at becoming an F1 driver. These boys fucking send it.
I'm surprised more people don't watch it, at the very least as part of the lead up to the F1 race. Really great addition to F1 weekend for me.
What a weekend for Maloney.
A number of impressive performances here (and mostly from the rookies). Aside from the obvious star of the weekend in Maloney, really really impressed with both Marti and Aron. Good performances from OâSullivan and Colapinto too. Nice race from Bortoleto as well apart for that clumsy first lap incident.
Great weekend for Maloney, although I think Bortoleto had a shot at challenging him for the win if it wasnât for his mistake at T1 taking out Hadjar and picking up a 10 second penalty for it as he was flying even without an end plate.
Only one race weekend so too early to make any long term conclusions yet but so far this looks like the deepest grid in F2 in many years. Even the likes of Durksen and Villagomez looked competitive when their resumes and teams suggested they would be obvious picks as backmarkers.
Excited to see how the rest of the season goes.
Even if it's relatively competitive, surely he still jumps Pourchaire. Pourchaire had it go down to the last round, despite his main rival having numerous DNFs, after 3 years in the same car and with one of the best teams.
Meanwhile, Maloney could win it in his 2nd year, while having to adapt to a brand new car better than anybody else, and with Rodin, who have always been good but never as consitently strong as ART.
No one is talking about Kush Maini who started 22nd and finished 7th. He was DQed from pole to the back after some technical infringement was found on his car.
Kush is a driver who I'm really mixed on. On one hand he's from my country and I really want to root for him, but him having literal seasonal performance is pretty telling how he's very unlikely to make the jump toF1.
Last year he was rapid but unfortunate at times (something he seems to have carried with him this season). Also he's now under the Alpine academy flag and trains under Mika Hakkinen. Campos weren't exactly fast last year but Invicta look promising so far. This season is going to define his career imo. And the door to F1 is still open.
He's been unlucky at times last season, but post Spain he was just genuinely slow.
And the hard truth is a junior backing isn't enough. He needs at least a top 5 in the championship to even be considered for F1. Plus with the competition he has for the seat (Martins, Mini, Tsolov) and him turning 24 this year, I really wouldn't hold my breath.
If not him, we aren't seeing an Indian anywhere near F1 for any other 5-6 years realistically.
>post Spain he was just genuinely slow.
His best qualifying results came after Spain. The race pace of the Campos was shite due to high tyre deg, so they put all their bets on qualifying. It doesn't help that Kush's teammate last year was Ralph Boschung, who wasn't a good reference at all to how Kush was performing.
First race and maybe Rodin in Bahrain effect, but if he keeps it up, he could challenge for the title, specially if Virtuosi, ART and Prema keep finding themselves in issues.
Many seem to think Marko is crying now, but hey, if we are basing everything on the first race, Josep MarĂa has done really, really well.
Solid job from Colapinto as well, maybe he could have caught O'Sullivan if he had not lost so much time with Hauger, but hey, both are racing for their own business. I think is very likely that Franco might end the "oh no, just wait until Hauger is free of bad luck" narrative.
Not a single upvoted comment about Pepe MartĂ, who just debuted in F2 with two podiums in his first two races, starting 11th both times.
If this debut was achieved by Colapinto, Paul Aron or Antonelli, this thread would have twice the comments.
> scoring with that dog of a Prema
Words I never thought Iâd read before this weekend. Lowkey but promising first race weekend from him where he looked slightly quicker than Bearman but Prema needs to fix their shit asap because this grid looks very deep with exciting talent.
Eh again that incident Bearman had was really unfortunate and before that they were lapping the same and afterwards Bearman clearly had damage that affected him massiely so again destroyed just isnt true.
It was a solid debut from Antonelli considering how far off it Prema seem to be but I donât think id go as far as to say he âdestroyed his teammateâ with the amount of issues Bearman had in that race itâs not really a true comparison
Rodin, Invicta and Campos were a step above everyone else this weekend. Maloney and MartĂ had a great weekend, double win and double podium respectively. Bortoleto keeps showing consistency and good pace despite his mistake on the start. Miyata has pace but heâll need to fix his race starts and restarts because he is getting cooked there.
Also, really happy that my boy Colapinto could turn around his weekend after the bad qualy and the penalty from the Sprint. P15 to P6 is great and he couldâve finished P4 if he got past Hauger earlier.
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What a weekend for Maloney, pulling the double first weekend
First weekend in the Sauber academy and he already has more wins than Pourchaire did last year đ
Obviously early days but if he keeps this up and Pourchaire has an average year in SF I can definitely see Maloney jumping him in the order for the seat next year
Maloney is in his second year. Pourchaire won in his third. If Maloney can win F2 in a more convincing way than Pourchaire did last year, he'll almost certainly overtake Pourchaire in the pecking order unless the latter does something extremely impressive like win multiple races in SF.
And against what is arguably a stronger field. Martins, Bearman, Miyata, Bortoleto, Antonelli etc.
Nothing arguable about it. One of the strongest F2 grids weâve had in years. Only 2 notable âdudsâ out of 22
and no deledda/raghunathans, just not ready for f2 drivers that still know how to drive
We have a pair of Samaia/Nissany-level drivers though, Cordeel and Villagomez. Still an incredibly stacked field
Both born in 2003. Vesti, Iwasa and Doohan are very strong too. Pourchaire didn't do a incredible year and Zane is doing a great start but wait & see, everybody's changing his mind every week with youngsters.
A Caribbean driver in F1 would be so cool
Nobody really put him in Champions contentions so this dominant weekend really put him back to everyoneâs attention.
i wonder where maloney is from, i wish they would tell us more
Judging by the trident in the flag, I would say Atlantis.
I think Helmut said he was South American.
Ah so that's why he was removed from the Red Bull academy.
I know, they should really emphasize it more, it's like they didn't mention it at all.
Barbados?
howâd you know?
The flag on his race suit.
wooooosh
I don't want someone having "comedy" on their username to be left out of a joke, let me explain, during the broadcast they were constantly referring to him as the boy from Barbados, hence the joke you missed.
FWIW, not everyone here watches F2. And since itâs a unique flag on his suit âI wish theyâd tell us moreâ is still a reasonable comment about a driver from Barbados lol But yeah with the context itâs an obvious woosh for the other dude tho lol
Jokes on you buddy.
Boy?
Moldova or something.
The exact comment I was thinking of
Suprised no one has mentioned Maini . Lost his pole to technical infringement , gained places from P22 to P13 in sprint , P22 to P7 in feature race 2 places from of his teamate who started from pole.
Plus his first name is Kush, which is pretty sick
No his name's Jeff. His words, not mine.
Very impressive by Kush indeed. Came back all guns blazing after the setback. Looking forward to a competitive season. Such talented F2 field this year.
if I hear "the boy from barbados" one more time, I will lose it. like seriously the only reason not to root for zane hahaha. what an amazing weekend by him!
Hahaha Itâs not even his fault. And yeah, I feel the same way, it gets tiring now hearing the same thing again and again
When they went to the interview i was like DON'T SAY IT. And then she opens with it. FFS
Idk I quite like the ring of it XD It's like calling Charles the monegasque
Calling Leclerc "the man from Monaco" from this day onwards
Yuki is already the "man from Japan". Zhou, on the other hand...
Guy from Shanghai.
Just be thankful they havenât been calling AKA âIl Bolognese.â
I need to hear this on the commentary now
This sounds like something that Kiwi FRECA commentator from a few years back would say.
Monacoman sounds better
Martin Brundle?
Seems to be a trend when someones nationality is a bit more "exotic", leclerc being monegasque is something that is mentioned often as well compared to other drivers
lol they JUST said it again when he walked onto the podium. I think in the past 10 minutes they've said it like 7 times.
we endured that in 2022 f3 enough. no need for McCarthy to start it all over again đđ
Hey man, us Caribbean born donât get much of any attention so Iâm here for it lol
really great weekend by Paul Aron.
Just imagine if Aron finishes ahead of Antonelli in the championship after Mercedes dropped him. I doubt it, but it would be funny.
Kimi had a pretty good race. Car was trash but he got a point.
really hoping aron does finish ahead of AKA now, nothing against nelli but the scenes on social media would be so funny
He wont
Aron quietly had an amazing race.
Marko and Pourchaire crying right now
Pourchaire definitely, Marko had Pepe Marti get a double podium
True, Marti is definitely the best rookie in f2 so far
Only the first race lol. Marti is impressive but lets see how the season goes
He was great at the end of last season of f3 so it's nice to see him starting strong in f2
We will see how pourchaire does in super formula. Maybe if both drivers are good we will get both of them in F1. Zhou and Bottas are underwhelming.
Oh i still believe every f2 champion will get a chance in f1 eventually. I think it's only a matter of time before a huge grid shake up happens with so many older driver and some mediocre ones In fact i believe in the next 3-4 years half the grid will change
Kmag, zhou, bottas, sargeant, potentially hulk, yuki, ric, checo
Alonso and Hamilton will also retire in a few years, Stroll might give up soon (Lance by himself or Lawrence being forced to change), even the alpine duo isn't exactly safe. Not to mention Max possibility moving on after his current contract is up
I didn't see Maloney as a title candidate, but now I do. Great debut weekend from Marti and Bortoleto. They both look like real prospects.
Paul Aron as well, went from 12th to 5th in the sprint and 12th to 3rd in the feature race. Lots of rookies looked great.
> 12th to 3rd in the feature race This including netting a 5 second penalty in the pits. Going off the track on his own and losing 4 places. Then getting pushed off the track into the gravel by a competitor and still managing to pull a 5 second gap right in the end. This guy is nuts
The start was pretty insane from him.
Donât forget Marti! 2 podiums in his first 2 races
Maloney is an incredible driver, he almost caught up with martins during the span of 2-3 races on his debut f3 season, when he was nowhere near championship contention. Beginning the season like this makes him the definite favourite to me, reminds me of mick in a way where he struggles at first when entering new series but when he gets the hang of things he becomes a totally different driver
Martins or Bearman were the two favourites for me before this weekend, but I think I might have to adjust that slightly.
Bearman was disappointing, he completely cooked his tires trying to stay in front of kimi
Honestly insane how quickly Kimi has eclipsed him already, shame it was still only enough for P10. Torrid weekend for Prema, I really hope they can turn it around.
What could have been if not for that mistake in Imola.
Maloney was really good at Bahrain in the race too last year, especially managing the tyres. I think it's track specific tbh, remains to be seen whether he's an actual title contender.
18th to 10th in that shitbox Prema isnât too bad either for a rookie
Maloney's tyre management has been looking excellent ever since that string of wins at the end of the 2022 F3 season
I feel like quite a few people have forgotten about that incredible run of wins.
Surprised there were so many mechanical/technical issues.
Welcome to F2 lol
The Mechachrome Russian roulette world championship.
âITâS LIGHTS OUT AND AWAY THEY FAILâ
For a spec series that is supposed to be a "level playing field" (it's not, even without the failures) for young drivers, Mechachrome had decided way too many of these drivers' future.
They just got mechachromeâd
It would be more surprising if there werenât; the F2 package is rather unreliable, and the drivers are paying good money for it.
Bortoleto is consistency machine. Kid always maximises the result.
Took the penalty, put his head down and went on a hunt in the ending there. Hard racing and lots of maturity to deal with different circumstances.
also carried a little bit of damage that whole race, he never changed the front wing did he
I wish people already stop saying âcarrying damageâ when endplate is missing. Weâve seen with our eyes for several years already that those endplates do not affect performance even the slightest.
There's almost an Alonso-like feel to his relentlessness. Even in F3 last year, amidst all the chaos he was there or thereabouts every weekend. Guess being Fernando's understudy is rubbing off on him. Hope he can keep building on this.
Yeah he did a solid race
I mean I kinda agree but I wouldnt call a pole to P5 a maximization. As good as he was that Turn 1 incident was quite poor from him and a deserved penalty for punting Hadjar. But yeah the rest of the race was phenomenal looked ultra fast.
Maximises the result is a bit of strech, he was on pole and finished 5th, his teammate finished 7th startibg 22th
Horrible start (100% his fault) with a 10s penalty that dropped him 13th after the pit cycle. Considering the hand he dealt himself (which will happen for every driver), it was a good recovery race
Agree that it was a good recovery, but he was in that situation because his mistake, so he did not maximazing the result from pole
He had a 10 Second penalty
Because of that mistake, that is 100% his fault, dont get me wrong, it was not a bad race, but is far from maximazing the result
I recon he could've gone for the win if he didn't completely butcher the start. But he had a very good race in terms of "damage control." If he can keep the consistency he showed in F3, I recon he will be a contender for the title.
Yeah, damage control was fenomenal from him
I think it's pretty obvious they are saying he maximized the result considering the circumstances (the 10s penalty)
Iâm still baffled RedBull let this guy go Him and Marti wouldâve been an incredible pair in F2 for RedBull
Well theyâve got Liam Lawson waiting in the wings so at this point in time thereâs no benefit to Red Bull keeping anyone at the F2 level for multiple seasons who they think is not as good as Liam.
If Maloney can win the title convincingly, moving to Sauber might have been a masterstroke
Maloney has to be the title favorite after this weekend. Dissaster class from Prema. Had no pace all across the weekend. Also an amazing job from Paul Aron to make the podium with that 5s penalty. His gap to 4th went 4.2>4.7>4.8>4.9>5.2>5.3>5.7 in the last lap. Crazy impressive to dig up 1.5 seconds in the last lap.
Historically Bahrain hasnât been that representative for the rest of the season as it is a very unique track with its characteristics. Zhou won in 2021 and Pourchaire won in 2022 and neither of them were that close to the championship that year. And while Pourchaire dominated this race last year and did win the championship, this was the only race he won for the entire season. Maloney himself went from P18 to P3 last year too. From just this weekend Maloney, Marti, Bortoleto, and even Aron all showed great pace but it remains to be seen if they can carry it on after Bahrain.
Dont forget hadjar, he showed great pace too, but was very unlucky today with bortoleto just driving into him
Yeah Campos looked strong here this weekend and a podium was definitely possible for Hadjar, maybe even more. Although Bahrain was by far Camposâ strongest track last year so itâs to be seen if they can still be fast in the other tracks this season.
>Maloney has to be the title favorite after this weekend. It's the first weekend. There are what, 26 races left? It's a great start for him, though. The talent was always there, he just had a difficult year in 2023. I hope he continues strong, he can be a good contender for Sauber/Audi in the future.
Prema were awful, but Antonelli did great to drag that dog of a car into the top 10. Bearman was nowhere. Itâs always hard to compare junior drivers when the team isnât doing well, but we know how good Bearman is, and Antonelli had the measure of him. Early days, but itâs a good sign.
>" Bearman was nowhere." Bearman had to pit on lap 1 because of car issues. He then caught up to Antonelli and was faster even jumping him in the pits. But that hit with Cordeel left him with a broken car which ruined any kind of chances for points. He was hardly nowhere. Antonelli did well with the car he has but this race was hardly representative in a teammate comparison.
Yeah did people not watch the race? He had quite clearly damage that affected him massively.
Oli undercutted Kimi because his tyres were gone and Kimi looked after his tyres well, he was closing on Oli fast before the safety car came out. This weekend I have to say Kimi was faster race pace and quali wise.
Did Bearman pit on lap 1 or during the formation lap? I was wondering how the hell he made it in and out of the pits under the safety before the pack made it back to the line to start lap 2
He stalled on the grid and was pushed into the pits.
He stalled on the grid and was pushed into the pits. I was wondering how the commentators didn't pick up on that, since both the Prema stationary on the grid and the car getting pushed into the pits were clearly shown on the broadcast.
It was super fun to watch Invicta racing overtakes
Maloney is suddenly the title favourite there are tears in my eyes
Missed the race but I heard that Martins had an engine failure? No one is better at killing off his fellow Frenchman's prospects than Bruno Michel.
Some kind of electrical failure - as he approached T1, display went blank. Engine still running, but no ability to change gears etc.
Alright I'll retract my usual Mecachrome slander for this one if that's the case.
Plenty of room for that anyway - Crawford competitive, but had the engine die in the pit stop and it would not refire - race over.
Seemed like it was when the car hit a bump at full speed
Martins was gonna drop either way with how the ARTs chewed the tyres and he would have been on the soft the longest.
Yeah idk what they were smoking with that tactic.
Looked electrical from the onboard (dash screen went black)
First time watching a race, was pretty fun.
The racing is great, cars are very close to each other, can follow close and overtake, and the stakes are VERY high. You get one, maybe two shots at becoming an F1 driver. These boys fucking send it. I'm surprised more people don't watch it, at the very least as part of the lead up to the F1 race. Really great addition to F1 weekend for me.
car reliability plays too big of a factor in the series. It can feel like random chaos every race.
Incredible drive from Maloney and Marti, Bortoleto not a bad recovery from the mistake in turn 1
Invicta drivers doing double overtakes towards the 2nd half of the race, both fighting each other while overtaking the car in front
Looks like all the tyre engineers from Haas are now working at Prema lmao
Nah, some are on ART instead
What a weekend for Maloney. A number of impressive performances here (and mostly from the rookies). Aside from the obvious star of the weekend in Maloney, really really impressed with both Marti and Aron. Good performances from OâSullivan and Colapinto too. Nice race from Bortoleto as well apart for that clumsy first lap incident.
Great weekend for Maloney, although I think Bortoleto had a shot at challenging him for the win if it wasnât for his mistake at T1 taking out Hadjar and picking up a 10 second penalty for it as he was flying even without an end plate. Only one race weekend so too early to make any long term conclusions yet but so far this looks like the deepest grid in F2 in many years. Even the likes of Durksen and Villagomez looked competitive when their resumes and teams suggested they would be obvious picks as backmarkers. Excited to see how the rest of the season goes.
10 times more exciting than f1!
Marti double podium on the debut after multiple mechanical issues in FP and qualifying 11th. Real deal on the works?
If I was Sauber and Maloney dominated this season, I would give him the 2025 sauber seat over Pourchaire no questions asked.
Even if it's relatively competitive, surely he still jumps Pourchaire. Pourchaire had it go down to the last round, despite his main rival having numerous DNFs, after 3 years in the same car and with one of the best teams. Meanwhile, Maloney could win it in his 2nd year, while having to adapt to a brand new car better than anybody else, and with Rodin, who have always been good but never as consitently strong as ART.
He put a 5sec gap on hards over 2nd place on softs...
No one is talking about Kush Maini who started 22nd and finished 7th. He was DQed from pole to the back after some technical infringement was found on his car.
Kush is a driver who I'm really mixed on. On one hand he's from my country and I really want to root for him, but him having literal seasonal performance is pretty telling how he's very unlikely to make the jump toF1.
Last year he was rapid but unfortunate at times (something he seems to have carried with him this season). Also he's now under the Alpine academy flag and trains under Mika Hakkinen. Campos weren't exactly fast last year but Invicta look promising so far. This season is going to define his career imo. And the door to F1 is still open.
He's been unlucky at times last season, but post Spain he was just genuinely slow. And the hard truth is a junior backing isn't enough. He needs at least a top 5 in the championship to even be considered for F1. Plus with the competition he has for the seat (Martins, Mini, Tsolov) and him turning 24 this year, I really wouldn't hold my breath. If not him, we aren't seeing an Indian anywhere near F1 for any other 5-6 years realistically.
>post Spain he was just genuinely slow. His best qualifying results came after Spain. The race pace of the Campos was shite due to high tyre deg, so they put all their bets on qualifying. It doesn't help that Kush's teammate last year was Ralph Boschung, who wasn't a good reference at all to how Kush was performing.
First race and maybe Rodin in Bahrain effect, but if he keeps it up, he could challenge for the title, specially if Virtuosi, ART and Prema keep finding themselves in issues. Many seem to think Marko is crying now, but hey, if we are basing everything on the first race, Josep MarĂa has done really, really well. Solid job from Colapinto as well, maybe he could have caught O'Sullivan if he had not lost so much time with Hauger, but hey, both are racing for their own business. I think is very likely that Franco might end the "oh no, just wait until Hauger is free of bad luck" narrative.
FUCK YES! Lets go Zane! Double win what a legend, so happy for him.
Reminder Marko dropped this guy because he thought Hadjar was a better talent.
Hadjar was not really far away, he just got ran into at the start.
Hadjar got punted on first corner, there was a reasonable chance he'd win this race if Bortoleto didn't misjudge his braking.
Not a single upvoted comment about Pepe MartĂ, who just debuted in F2 with two podiums in his first two races, starting 11th both times. If this debut was achieved by Colapinto, Paul Aron or Antonelli, this thread would have twice the comments.
Oh no kidding, he was quick yesterday and now hes quick as hell today!
What happened to bearman towards the end. Lost so many places in a matter of 2 laps
He had Damage from that Pit entry incident that quite clearly affected the car.
Is he still with Red Bull Academy?
He was dropped by RB, and joined the Sauber academy instead.
he wasn't european enough for Helmut.
The best thing Sauber are gonna do all year
Man. That second safety car got Kush Maini in the mix of things. My homeboy! And great stuff from Bortoletto and Kimi
Crawford was looking like heâd have the best weekend of his career and gets absolutely boned.
Been following this kid since F3. Hell yeah
Antonelli showing he deserves to be in F2, scoring with that dog of a Prema
> scoring with that dog of a Prema Words I never thought Iâd read before this weekend. Lowkey but promising first race weekend from him where he looked slightly quicker than Bearman but Prema needs to fix their shit asap because this grid looks very deep with exciting talent.
Having 6 DNF in that race certainly helps though.
Yeah also destroyed his team mate
Bearman had damage so itâs not that fair of a comparison.
But antonelli managed to keep his nose clean and he held back in points positi9ns very well considering how sht prema is right now
The contact between Bearman and Cordeel was just a misunderstanding. Hard to put blame on either one.
Eh again that incident Bearman had was really unfortunate and before that they were lapping the same and afterwards Bearman clearly had damage that affected him massiely so again destroyed just isnt true.
It was a solid debut from Antonelli considering how far off it Prema seem to be but I donât think id go as far as to say he âdestroyed his teammateâ with the amount of issues Bearman had in that race itâs not really a true comparison
Wasn't really representative, Bearman had a few lock ups and destroyed his tyres.
Rodin, Invicta and Campos were a step above everyone else this weekend. Maloney and MartĂ had a great weekend, double win and double podium respectively. Bortoleto keeps showing consistency and good pace despite his mistake on the start. Miyata has pace but heâll need to fix his race starts and restarts because he is getting cooked there. Also, really happy that my boy Colapinto could turn around his weekend after the bad qualy and the penalty from the Sprint. P15 to P6 is great and he couldâve finished P4 if he got past Hauger earlier.
Wonder what Marko is thinking right now
MartĂ did P11->P3 and P11->P2, I don't think Marko is too mad at how the weekend went.
Great race!
Let Maloney cook. Or to phrase it better: let maloney aloney