Formula 2 teams ran the first examples of their new chassis for the 2024 season at the Circuit de Catalunya today.
Each of the 11 teams ran a single car each, shared between 20 drivers who have been confirmed for the upcoming season which will begin at the Bahrain International Circuit in February.Victor Martins, who was recently confirmed as one of ART’s drivers this year, said there were no problems with the car on its first run.
“We had a good run plan to get a first feeling of how the car is handling in corners and how it behaves,” he said. “Everything went fine with no reliability issues. It’s a very positive start.”
The new car features an extensively revised aerodynamics package including a dramatically sculpted rear wing. “Today was also about checking the aerodynamics because that’s the biggest change compared to the previous car, and to start working on set-up that will be relevant for when we go to Bahrain,” said Martins. “We also checked that everything is working properly on the car.
“Of course, the goal is to go step-by-step, not damage the car and make the most out of the track time to develop and test different things, but I pushed also. I like it when straight away, you can push, you get the confidence. Honestly, I’m happy. It’s the first morning of the new season and it went well. I brought the car to the limit at some point, and I could feel I have a good car under me.”
The teams logged over 3,000 kilometres of running between them, amounting to 649 laps of the track which hosts the Spanish Grand Prix. F2 will race there in June.
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Formula 2’s technical director Pierre-Alain Michot was pleased by the amount of running teams were able to conduct.
“The purpose of this shakedown was for the teams to understand how the new car operates, to make sure that all systems are working fine together and to understand how everything behaves,” he said. “We are
quite happy with the running achieved today. The teams have been able to complete a lot of mileage which is a good first step.
“The first milestone was reached with all the cars hitting the track this morning when the lights turned green. It was important to see them straight out of the box, it was quite an emotional moment. And the second positive step was having them all return to the pits without any issue.”
He was especially encouraged by the lack of any interruption in their running. “There have been no red flags, which means that all cars have performed as expected while the teams are learning how to work with this new machine.”
Testing will continue in Bahrain with each team running a pair of cars.
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RandomMallard
24th January 2024, 18:21
If they’ve managed a full day with no red flags, that could be a (very) early sign that they’ve starting to fix the reliability issues that have plagued the Mechachrome V6 since 2018. I’m really hoping they have managed to sort it out…
Shimks (@shimks)
24th January 2024, 21:12
Yes, hopefully. When all teams are working with the same basic hardware, it’s even more galling if a driver loses the chance of earning points due to a reliability issue.
BasCB (@bascb)
25th January 2024, 9:10
Let’s all hope that works out, because these issues have been so annoyingly hurting the series for far too long now, yeah.
Scottie (@scottie)
26th January 2024, 3:38
I dare say there’s as minimal mechanical changes as possible to achieve the new design. I’m glad the cars are reliable. I’ll be watching this year after a year off.