Carlin, Fortec Motorsports, and Charouz Racing System join the F2 for 2018

The second season of the championship under the name Formula 2 will see a whole new generation of single-seaters equipped with the Halo (which the F1 will also adopt) and a brand new non-hybrid V6 turbo engine. This therefore requires all teams to acquire two cars each. Some teams have chosen this moment to leave the championship while others have decided to join it.

In the list of departures, first comes the Italian team Rapax, which has been competing in the championship since 2010. The team actually won the driver’s championship in its inaugural year with Pastor Maldonado, as well as the team championship. Apart from Sergey Sirotkin’s third-place finish in the driver standings last year, the team’s results have often been quite modest. However, the Italian structure managed to make it to the podium several times this season and win the long race in Monaco, thanks to Nyck de Vries.

The other team that will leave the championship is the Russian team RUSSIAN TIME, which has been present in the championship for four years. The year 2013 will indeed be marked by a title in the team standings. The structure was clearly built around Artem Markelov, who also had a convincing season this year with four wins and two podiums. The end of the team’s presence in the championship will therefore force the driver to find a new destination.

On the arrivals side, the arrival of the british team Carlin is more of a comeback since the team was present in the championship between 2011 and 2016. This presence was rewarded in 2014 by an unfortunately unsuccessful title fight in which Felipe Nasr participated. Carlin also helped three other drivers make it to F1.

A second British team will make its debut this season in F2, it is the Fortec Motorsports team coming straight from the Formula V8 3.5 championship (which will not take place next season due to lack of sufficient participants). The team has enabled Robin Frijns and Oliver Rowland to win their titles as well as helped Stoffel Vandoorne to finish as vice-champion. It is also a team that has always performed well in the championship with a driver consistently in the top five of the standings since 2009.

To finish, the latest arrival will be the Czech team Charouz Racing System, which also comes from the former Formula Renault 3.5 and participated there under the name of Lotus. The team’s story with the championship will end well with the driver title conquered by Pietro Fittipaldi. The structure also allowed Matthieu Vaxiviere to become vice-champion in 2015.

It is therefore a well-stocked field of 11 teams that will compete in the championship next year but the arrival of a twelfth team could be announced soon.

Here is the complete list of participants for the 2018 F2 season: