It is common for the F2 driver line-up to change for the season-ending Abu Dhabi weekend but, with the Azerbaijan and Qatar events also taking place in the usual post-Monza break, these switches have come early this time around.
Azerbaijan debuts
Luke Browning, ART
Fresh from finishing third in F3, Browning made the immediate jump to F2 as he replaced race winner Zak O’Sullivan, taking a best result of seventh in Baku.
During his F3 campaign with Hitech, his second at that level, Browning scored a pair of feature race wins in Bahrain and Austria, and arrived at the Monza finale with a chance of taking the title.
Prior to joining the F3 grid, Browning already had the British F4 and GB3 titles to his name, before adding a Macau Grand Prix victory to his trophy haul at the end of 2023.
Part of the Williams Academy, Browning won the 2022 Aston Martin Autosport BRDC Young Driver of the Year Award, which granted him a test at Silverstone in the Aston Martin AMR21.
His next taste of F1 will come in Abu Dhabi, where he will make his debut in an official session, taking part in FP1 with Williams. This will be followed by the post-season young driver test.
Gabriele Mini, Prema (Azerbaijan only)
Mini came agonisingly close to taking the 2024 F3 title, losing out at the final corner of the last lap of the season, when Leonardo Fornaroli threw his Trident machine to the inside of Christian Mansell to secure the points needed to overcome his countryman.
Part of the Alpine Academy, Mini had a strong karting record behind him before making the jump to cars in 2020.
Securing the Italian F4 crown at the first attempt and with four race wins, Mini spent two years in Formula Regional, finishing as the runner-up in his second term, before graduating to F3 in 2023.
Finishing seventh in his first year and third at the Macau Grand Prix, Mini pressed on this year, taking one victory – this in the Monaco feature race.
Mini made his one-off F2 appearance in Azerbaijan, replacing Oliver Bearman who had been called into F1 action to deputise for the banned Kevin Magnussen.
After finishing an impressive third on in his debut, a crash in the feature race put a stain on an otherwise stellar maiden weekend.
Christian Mansell, Trident
Mansell remained in the championship mix until the closing weekend of the F3 season but, with his chances merely mathematical and unlikely at best, he cut a relaxed figure at Monza.
With five podium appearances, although no wins, the Australian did enough to convince Trident that he was worthy to replace Roman Stanek for the rest of the F2 season, despite later confirming a drive with Rodin for 2025.
Moving to compete in British F4 in 2020 with Carlin, Mansell only scored one win but became a podium regular across the year. He finished third in GB3 the following year, and then moved to Euroformula Open, where he again ended the season third.
After two years of F3 competition, Mansell again stepped up and showed no fear at his debut F2 event, scoring points in each of the two Baku races.
Qatar debuts
Dino Beganovic, DAMS
Ferrari Academy member Beganovic replaces Juan Manuel Correa at DAMS for Qatar and Abu Dhabi.
Despite a difficult start to his F3 season, the Swede put himself on the fringes of title contention towards the end of the year although, like Mansell, his hopes were mathematical only at best. But, with two race wins in his second campaign – which enabled him to end the season in sixth – the time has come to step up.
Beganovic’s career highlight to this point is winning the 2022 Formula Regional European Championship, an accolade he achieved after defeating rivals Mini, Paul Aron and F1-bound Gabriel Bortoleto.
Max Esterson, Trident
Esterson steps up to F2 in place of Richard Verschoor with a record of just two points finishes in 24 F3 race starts.
Racing in GB3 in both 2022 and 2023, his results were also modest with one win and championship finishes of seventh and 11th.
Learning his trade in Formula Ford 1600 machinery, Esterson does, however, have victories in the Walter Hayes Trophy and the prestigious Formula Ford Festival to his name.
Richard Verschoor, MP Motorsport
Verschoor seems to have been around the junior categories forever, joining the F3 grid (then GP3) in late 2018. Now in his fourth full F2 season, Verschoor has been pushed out of Trident to make room for Esterson but, in turn, has taken the seat of Dennis Hauger at MP Motorsport.
The Dutch driver has twice been disqualified from race wins this term for technical infringements, but was safe from such action with his victory in the Baku feature race.
Verschoor returns to MP Motorsport, the team with which he raced in his first campaign in 2021.
John Bennett, Van Amersfoort Racing
After finishing second in GB3 at the third attempt, 21-year-old Bennett is taking the significant step up to join the F2 grid in place of Enzo Fittipaldi at Van Amersfoort Racing.
Relentlessly consistent in terms of points scoring, 2024 was a breakthrough year for the Briton, as he scored three wins and stood on the podium a further eight times, losing out only to the highly-rated Louis Sharp.
Starting his car racing in the Ginetta GT5 Challenge in 2020, Bennett built slowly in his rookie year before finishing second overall in 2021.
He made the switch to single-seaters the following year in GB3, where he remained until now.
Cian Shields, AIX Racing
Shields replaces Niels Koolen at AIX after a disappointing pair of weekends for the Dutchman, who had previously taken the drive of Taylor Barnard.
Alongside Sophia Floersch, Shields is the only other full-season F3 driver to end the campaign without a single point to their name.
The 19-year-old is in his third year of car racing, beginning his journey in GB3 in 2022, where he scored a single victory and finished 13th overall.
His most successful period to date came in 2023, when he scored four wins and finished second in Euroformula Open.
Abu Dhabi debut
Leonardo Fornaroli, Rodin
The newly crowned F3 champion had been set to watch his rivals gain crucial experience from the sidelines. But a late deal to replace Formula E-bound Zane Maloney for the season finale in Abu Dhabi at Rodin will negate this loss ahead of his 2025 switch to Invicta.
Fornaroli was the master of consistency across his championship-winning year in F3, taking the title without registering a single race victory – the first time this had happened in the category – but secured seven podium results and only two finishes outside the top 10, the lowest of which was 12th.
This was the first time that Fornaroli had tasted title success in his career, finishing third on three occasions in karting competitions.
