Dennis Hauger, Yas Marina, 2021

Hauger, Lawson, Daruvala, Vips and Iwasa confirm F2 seats for 2022

Formula 2

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The makeup of the 2022 Formula 2 grid is beginning to take shape with five Red Bull junior drivers – Dennis Hauger, Liam Lawson, Jehan Daruvala, Juri Vips and Ayumu Iwasa – all being confirmed for the new season.

Reigning FIA Formula 3 champion Dennis Hauger will move up to Formula 2 with Prema, the team with which he claimed the title last year. He will be joined by Jehan Daruvala, who will move from Carlin after two Formula 2 campaigns with the team.

Daruvala’s seat at Carlin will be filled by fellow Red Bull junior Liam Lawson, while Juri Vips will contest his third year in the category with Hitech, who he raced for in 2021.

Ayumu Iwasa will also step up to Formula 2 for the 2022 season, joining Roy Nissany at DAMS. Iwasa finished his debut Formula 3 season in 12th place.

With the announcement of the five Red Bull junior drivers securing places on the 2022 Formula 2 roster, there are now only six seats remaining to be filled on the grid. ART, Campos, Charouz and Hitech each have one remaining driver to be confirmed, while the new Van Amersfoort team have not yet announced any drivers for their upcoming debut season in the series.

The Formula 2 championship will take place over 14 rounds in 2022 with a revised format for this season. Each round will consist of a sprint race on Saturday, followed by a feature race on Sundays for a total of 28 races across the season.

Last year’s F2 champion, Oscar Piastri, will not contest the 2022 F2 campaign due to rules preventing the reigning champion from participating in the following year’s championship.

TeamDriverDriver
ARTTheo PourchaireTBA
CamposRalph BoschungTBA
CarlinLogan SargeantLiam Lawson
CharouzCem BolukbasiTBA
DAMSRoy NissanyAyumu Iwasa
HitechJuri VipsTBA
MPFelipe DrugovichClement Novalak
PremaJehan DaruvalaDennis Hauger
TridentCalan WilliamsTBA
Van AmersfoortTBATBA
VirtuosiJack DoohanMarino Sato

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Will Wood
Will has been a RaceFans contributor since 2012 during which time he has covered F1 test sessions, launch events and interviewed drivers. He mainly...

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9 comments on “Hauger, Lawson, Daruvala, Vips and Iwasa confirm F2 seats for 2022”

  1. Daruvala is slightly surprising as he’s already done two full campaigns.
    I guess RB wants to give him one more chance in lower single-seaters.
    I honestly don’t see a point for Nissany continuing since he won’t become a regular F1 driver anyway.
    He should move to a non-junior series such as FE, WEC, IndyCar, SF, etc., rather than taking space from someone in lower formulas.

  2. Make or break this year for Daruvala, I feel. He’s been fast-ish during his last two campaigns but not very consistent. In a Prema he will have no excuses, especially up against Hauger who you wouldn’t necessarily expect to be on the pace straight away.

  3. Barry Bens (@barryfromdownunder)
    14th January 2022, 11:44

    Makes sense for Red Bull, but I’m wondering how much this will set them back money-wise. They now get a great head-to-head (times 5) with their juniors which is good, as they really need to have something ready if Yuki has another disappointing season in F1. Not to mention they’re all talents that eventually might get to drive alongside (or in place of) Max Verstappen when the time comes.

    Personally I home Liam Lawson manages to impress with Prema (can’t claim the team wasn’t good enough if he doesn’t) as I really like the guy, butHauger and Vips are both pretty chill as well. with too few seats available in F1 (Red Bull-owned at least), it’s a shame they can’t all go through. But it does show the Red Bull-juniorprogram is as healthy as it’s ever been. Which was quite different a few years ago.

    Then again, with situations like this, they’re becoming a bit like Mercedes a few seasons ago: a lot of talent ikn their pool, but not enough places for all of them. Not saying Nyck de Vries and Pascal Wehrlein (and in some way Ocon) didn’t end up just fine, but (aside from Ocon) they didn’t make it properly in F1.

    1. Albon going to Mercedes powered Williams instead of De Vries is the icing on the cake.

    2. @barryfromdownunder Having this many drivers in F2 is good also considering Gasly’s teammate’s situation.

    3. @barryfromdownunder Lawson is joining Carlin, not Prema. And I don’t believe De Vries was a Mercedes junior when he was in F2.

  4. Hauger for the win!

  5. What a stacked line-up Red Bull have. It’s the polar opposite to Ferrari who, running no drivers in F2 this year, feel Giovinazzi/Schumacher could cover any temporary gaps.

    It’s likely Daruvula’s last chance this year, but they’ve given him the best opportunity possible with Prema. Iwasa could get away with being quiet this year, maybe less so for Hauger given his F3 performances. Then adding Lawson and Vips into the equation, I’ve no idea how Red Bull plan to fit all this talent into F1. If they dropped Daruvula at the end of 2022, and gave Iwasa another season, they’d still have 2-3 drivers to assess (depending on if Hauger starts out strong or not), with a maximum of two seats available in Alpha Tauri, and that’s still moderately unlikely.

    Are Red Bull still scarred from the shortage of talent they had around mid 2017-2019?

  6. So Alpine and Ferrari now have zero drivers in F2 from their academies, while Red Bull increases to 5. I guess the pressure is well and truly on Yuki now!

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