Seventh year in F2 for Markelov as he joins HWA

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Artem Markelov will drive in Formula 2 for the seventh year in a row after signing a deal to drive for HWA Racelab in 2020.

HWA has taken over the entry of Arden, who Markelov raced for at the end of last season in place of the late Anthoine Hubert.

Markelov made his debut in the category in 2014 under its previous name GP2 and has stated a total of 114 races at this level. A long-time part of Russian Time’s line-up, he scored his first win for them in Monaco in 2016.

The following year he took five wins finished runner-up to Charles Leclerc in the championship, when it took on the name Formula 2. He slipped to fifth in the standings the following year but claimed three more victories.

Markelov was initially without a drive at the beginning of 2019 but drove as a substitute for Hubert as well as Jordan King at MP. He has also raced in Japanese Super Formula this year.

He tipped his team, which was previously Arden’s technical partner, to make a strong start next season. “I think we will gel quickly,” he said. “HWA has a vast wealth of motorsport experience, from which I am sure I will benefit.”

HWA CEO Ulrich Fritz described Markelov as “the ideal driver for us in our first season as an independent team in Formula 2.

“He has lots of experience at this level. His tally of eight race wins speaks for itself. His expertise as a driver will help make our introduction to the series easier. I am pleased that we were able to acquire his services.”

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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23 comments on “Seventh year in F2 for Markelov as he joins HWA”

  1. AllTheCoolNamesWereTaken
    22nd November 2019, 13:13

    Correct me if I’m wrong – but isn’t the primary purpose of F2 to act as a feeder series for F1?

    If you’ve been racing in F2 for six years and you haven’t made it into F1, smart money says you never will. So why stick around?

    More to the point: Why even allow someone to stick around for that long? With so many up-and-coming young drivers looking for a chance to prove themselves worthy of a F1 drive, this seems a bit like waste of a good seat.

    1. It is a strange situation, but F2 seats are paid for. If young driver had the budget he would get in F2.

      It is a strange situation, if you are good enough for F1 then in the olden days drivers skipped F2 altogether. But if you are not, F2 is the best racing series in the world.

      Equal chassis, equal engine, equal tires… go forth and prove yourself.

      I wish F1 drivers drove a few F2 races every year, just for some bonus fun.

    2. Have you watched much F2?

      Markelov is one of the better drivers. He’s obviously just not found the right person to pay for an F1 seat. Maybe HWA will change that…

      1. Well, he became “one of the better” in his like third season. Just because he had a reaaaly long time to adjust himself for the series which other drivers hadn’t

    3. You are right. In my opinion, the point of feeder series is to, well, feed the higher series. There is something seriously wrong somewhere (not enough seats in F1, too much money poured into F2 by sponsors who want to keep their drivers there, etc.) if there are these “old timers” going round season after season.

      1. There is something seriously wrong somewhere

        Yes. And the names of those problems are Grosjean and Stroll.

    4. If you are surprised about Markelov, just wait until you find out about Jack Hughes

  2. Either promote F2 to GP1 (or introduce GP1), therefore making it a destination series for the talent to spend their career in or introduce a limit on seasons a driver has the ability to show his/her metal. I’d say 4.
    Because unlike The Road to Indy, the ladder system has largely gone by way of money. And the sponsors do get an awful lot of exposure with the series as it is now, obviously worth it running it for years on end.

    Or wait until The Captain signs with the next Agag/Dorma and recreates CART internationally.

    1. I don’t understand a word you said, what has any of that random words got to do with this article???

      1. petebaldwin (@)
        22nd November 2019, 17:53

        Makes perfect sense to me – maybe take a nap and try again?

        I think a definite problem F2 has now is that it’s not really a feeder series anymore. Drivers buy their way into it and unless they get picked up, they remain there rather than moving on.

        A limit on seasons would help to push it back towards being a feeder series but it might result in more drivers getting picked up as test/reserve drivers and having a few years on the sidelines rather than racing.

        1. @petebaldwin, does it have to be the case thought that Formula 2 has no purpose or identity in and of itself other than to feed Formula 1 though?

          Doesn’t it somewhat tie in to the point that Dieter raised a number of months ago about the lack of diversity in the motorsport sector due to the rise of spec feeder series whose only purpose is to feed drivers into Formula 1 with an almost machine like quality? Is it not that very mentality that breeds the staleness of thought and design that we see in most junior series now, where everything is made as standard spec parts by a narrow group of manufacturers because F1 sucks in the resources and talent that might once have been able to make those junior series more diverse, but are now faced with the mentality of “F1 or nothing”?

          Why can’t lower series, such as Formula 2, have a sense of purpose to be something other than just “a feeder series”? Why must those lower series be yoked to F1 and forever bound to do nothing but to serve F1, and all drivers must be deemed to be a dismal failure if they have a successful career in a junior formula instead of in F1?

      2. The Captain is obviously Penske. I’d sure like to have that series back….

  3. Well done to him to staying there so long. Haters will hate, but he is doing what he can to stay up the top of the racing chain towards f1, and he can always fall back to wec, dtm at anytime he wants. There have been far worse drivers in f1 for 7 years at times.

  4. He’s the only person on Earth who knows GP2 engine more than Alonso.

    Actually he’s participation at F2 at earlier eras would not even considered as a problem, formerly some guys enjoyed themselves as crowned kings of former small ccm world motogp series like Carlo Ubbiali and Ángel Nieto and examples can be found at series like F3 too. Or many F1 drivers raced at F2 or other series just because they enjoyed it, or tried to grind money while doing that or something else.
    This is just considered because, the world changed to an elitist direction, and of course F2 is very expensive today too, and now it’s considered as a feeder or development championship, and nothing else. Guys are not there to get old. He’s quite good, but his promotion is quite unlikely, because he will be beaten again by some new talents inevitably. But sadly this year’s F2 had a lot of more pay-driver-grade guys than him. It would be good to increase F2’s license requirements to make it function better as a development series.

    1. I have much less problem with guys like Markelov participating in F2, than guys like Mahaveer Raghunathan, because at least he’s experienced, and a challenging opponent so makes F2 to act better as a development championship and the races more exciting of course.
      The good Mahaveer likely could never win an F3 European or World championship by his own talent. Guys like him is the reason for some superlicense point’s barrier for F2.
      Almost noone haa a modern F2 car to play around, it’s so much uncommon comparet to having an F3 or F4 model.

  5. I don’t watch GP2/F1 as much as I used to, but I remember his debut well. He was far too young for GP2, he’s developed into a decent driver now at 25, but obviously staying in F2 this long is a bit bizarre. Reminds me of Cecotto jr

    1. Additionally, even if he wins the title now it’s significance is severely limited. Look at Valsechi, he doesn’t even race now! And Fabio Leimer. Jolyon Palmer made to F1 but my god he was useless, and now seems content to never race again.

  6. Formula 2 veteran. He might even be grandfather before he retires.

  7. Very happy ! Markelov forever ! :)

  8. Maybe time to step up to Formula E …if he’s good enough?

  9. Just put him with Stroll in F1

  10. My only question is… why?

    1. because he wants to race? he wants to have a career? money?

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