Highly-rated Sauber junior Theo Pourchaire will be a full-time Formula 2 driver this year as he graduates to the series with ART.
The 17-year-old remains at the team which took him to second place in Formula 3 last year, just three points behind Prema’s champion Oscar Piastri.Pourchaire subsequently made his debut in F2 at the end of last season, starting the final four races of the series with HWA.
He graduated from karts to cars in 2018. After racing in the French Formula 4 series, Pourchaire joined Sauber’s young driver programme and won the German Formula 4 championship.
“Theo’s progress has been remarkable since his debut in motorsports,” said ART team principal Sebastien Philippe. “F4 champion in 2019, he ended last season as F3 runner-up.
“Beyond the final result, he impressed the team by his evolution in a delicate context and with an extremely competitive field. Theo had nothing to gain by doing a second season in F3 and his move to F2 is the logical next step of our collaboration. The step is high, but between his talent, his determination and his thirst for learning, I’m sure he can make this transition a success.”
Pourchaire said he feels “perfectly ready” to make the step up to Formula 2. “I will probably be the youngest driver in the F2 championship this year,” he said, “so the goal will be to gain as much experience as possible and to progress throughout the season.”
The identity of Pourchaire’s team mate is yet to be confirmed.
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2021 Formula 2 driver line-up so far
Team | Car | Driver |
---|---|---|
ART | 1 | Theo Pourchaire |
ART | 2 | TBA |
Campos | 1 | Ralph Boschung |
Campos | 2 | TBA |
Carlin | 1 | Jehan Daruvala |
Carlin | 2 | TBA |
Charouz | 1 | TBA |
Charouz | 2 | TBA |
DAMS | 1 | Marcus Armstrong |
DAMS | 2 | TBA |
Hitech | 1 | Liam Lawson |
Hitech | 2 | Juri Vips |
HWA | 1 | Matteo Nannini |
HWA | 2 | Alessio Deledda |
MP | 1 | Lirim Zendeli |
MP | 2 | TBA |
Prema | 1 | Robert Shwartzman |
Prema | 2 | Oscar Piastri |
Trident | 1 | TBA |
Trident | 2 | TBA |
Virtuosi | 1 | Felipe Drugovich |
Virtuosi | 2 | TBA |
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Formula Two
- Verschoor wins, Bortoleto takes points lead as crash disrupts Baku feature race
- Duerksen passes Mini to claim maiden F2 win in Baku sprint race
- Hadjar is first Formula 2 driver to be penalised for causing a red flag in qualifying
- Verschoor pips Antonelli to pole as bizarre brake problem halts Hadjar
- Antonelli and Bearman’s F1 graduations show the limitations of its feeder series
Qeki (@qeki)
25th January 2021, 9:01
It was going to happen sooner or later.
Retired (@jeff1s)
25th January 2021, 17:22
Sooner is the best option, as for this time.
Pourchaire is very promising and lectures the game with consistency, in F2 he’ll have to demonstrate where he belongs as a talented driver amongst a field of brillant drivers and gentleman drivers.
wsrgo (@wsrgo)
25th January 2021, 9:04
I hope to heck that his teammate isn’t Lundgaard. ART have shown a complete inability to run two drivers in F2 in recent years, leading to some lopsided margins between teammates (Aitken in 2018 against Russell, Mazepin in 2019 against De Vries and Armstrong last year against Lundgaard).
Pourchaire probably represents F1’s best chance of beating Verstappen’s youngest race winner record for a while, though he’ll need to earn an F1 seat for next year that’ll be good enough to give him a win by April. More realistically, he’s probably gonna get a Sauber seat once the Hinwil team are free of their Ferrari/Alfa Romeo links.
Shimks (@shimks)
25th January 2021, 13:48
Very exciting news, @wsrgo. This guy has bags of talent and is so exciting to watch. I was waiting to see with which team he would race and I was starting to get a little bit worried that we hadn’t heard anything yet.
Interesting comments from you about ART. I’ll keep my eye on that. Do you think they are strong enough to challenge Prema and give Pourchaire a chance at the championship? I hope so.
wsrgo (@wsrgo)
25th January 2021, 16:19
@shimks I hope ART are up to the task, but Prema have retained a line up of the two most recent F3 champions (Shwartzman and Schumacher last year, Piastri and Shwartzman this year) and that will be formidable. Prema have shown they can run two cars very well, except for the two years when Sean Gelael drove for them. Also I expect strong showings from Carlin, Virtuosi and Hitech, and possibly DAMS as well.
We’re on for another packed F2 field this year, once Ticktum, Lundgaard and some other F3 recruits like Sargeant and Beckmann are confirmed. Can’t wait. Lots of glory and heartache in the offing.
Shimks (@shimks)
26th January 2021, 13:25
Aye, @wsrgo, looking forward to it very much! Thanks for your insight. This will only be my 3rd season watching F2 and F3, and I’m not that clued-up yet. I guess I used to looked down my nose at the junior series. I’ve been watching F1 for two decades and who would have thought I would find F2 and F3 so much more exciting.
Dave
25th January 2021, 9:23
He has the potential.
Brian (@bealzbob)
25th January 2021, 11:52
He keeps doing the business in every series he’s put into despite his age so this is totally deserved. Having said that, I would expect him to have an adjustment season this season. Surely (surely!) he can’t possibly challenge for the F2 title as a rookie aswell! If he _does_ end up challenging then we’ve got an absurdly good prospect on our hands. He’s well ahead of schedule. Either way, can’t wait to see how he does over the season.
sumedh
25th January 2021, 12:32
If he is a Sauber junior, the first call on his services are with Alfa Romeo / Ferrari? Or can Alfa Romeo let him be part of Merc / Renault / Mclaren young driver programs?