Formula 2 keen to become more attractive to American drivers in the future

Formula 2 is keen to attract more American drivers to follow Colton Herta and race in the series in future, ahead of its first races in North America next month.

The postponement of the races in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia in April led to F2 finding replacement rounds on the Formula 1 calendar, joining the support card in Miami and Montreal. Those races mark the first two visits for the category, even under its previous guise of GP2 that dates back to 2005, and CEO Bruno Michel wants to create a stronger pathway for drivers interested in racing in the series.

“What we want at the end of the day is to get many more drivers from America, that's really the idea,” Michel told RACER. “If you look at the nationalities of drivers in Formula 3 and in Formula 2, we have drivers from all over the world. But we didn't have really, really the number from America. Before Jak Crawford, the last one we had was Logan Sargent, who after that got to Formula 1, which is good, but we know we need more.

“And we know we also need to create the aspiration for the young American drivers to come and race with us because we're mainly outside America. We're mainly in Europe and in the Middle East and in Australia, but not on the American continent at all. And that's something that we want to attract.

“There's a very big market in America and by doing that, we're not taking drivers from IndyCar because on the other hand, you have a lot of F2 drivers that are coming to IndyCar – and they're all quite successful, by the way.

“So what we really want is to give this opportunity to American drivers to come and race in our system, which is Formula 3 and Formula 2, starting maybe from other categories in America – and I know also there are some FIA championships in America that probably need to be strengthened, but there are some possibilities.

“But it’s really, really important that we get drivers from this part of the globe because if they're successful in Formula 3 and then in Formula 2, they will go to Formula 1. And that's the way to do it.”

Michel says the talent already exists in the United States to have more F1 drivers, but that the success of so many who have come through the feeder series proves it helps prepare them in the best way.

“I think that something that Colton understood extremely well, that even going directly from Indy – which is the top category for single seaters in America – to Formula 1 is difficult. If they go to Formula 3 and then to Formula 2, they learn the tracks, they learn the tires, they learn the format, they race in front of the F1 world,” he said. “It's a completely different approach, but that is a quite natural one for drivers to come to Formula 1.

“If you see what has happened last year with [Kimi] Antonelli, with [Gabriel] Bortoleto, with [Ollie] Bearman, with [Isack] Hadjar, all these guys arriving and be immediately on the spot. And [Arvid] Linblad, the same this year. It's such a plus for the drivers when they arrive in F1 to have been through our system.

“And that's why we created this pyramid with the FIA and they have under that the Formula 4 and the Formula Regional. And that's the kind of thing that we really want to develop.

“So, of course, racing with our top category F2 in America is a plus and is a demonstration of what we want to do. And we want not only to have American fans following us, but to havalso have also American drivers wanting to come and race with us.”