2010 FIA Formula Two Championship explained

The 2010 FIA Formula Two Championship season was the second year of the FIA Formula Two Championship. The championship began on 18 April at Silverstone and concluded on 19 September at the Circuit Ricardo Tormo in Valencia, after nine double-header rounds.

For most of the season, the championship battle revolved around a pair of British drivers, returning driver Jolyon Palmer and Formula Renault UK graduate Dean Stoneman. Stoneman and Palmer won eleven of the season's eighteen races – Stoneman won six and Palmer five – but more podiums for Stoneman helped him in the long run, and eventually sealed the championship title, and a prize test for the Williams F1 team, with a race to spare.^[1] Palmer finished a comfortable second place in the standings, 42 points behind Stoneman and 85 ahead of his nearest rival.

Third place in the standings remained a five-way battle until the final race with newcomers Sergey Afanasyev of Russia, another British driver Will Bratt and Belgium's Benjamin Bailly, as well as returnees Kazim Vasiliauskas of Lithuania and Austria's Philipp Eng all in contention for the remaining FIA Super Licence awarded to the top three championship finishers. Despite not winning a race, it was Afanasyev that prevailed, scoring points in all but three races including four podiums. Vasiliauskas' only victory of the season came in the final race of the season in Valencia, and allowed him to jump from seventh pre-race to an end fourth place in the standings, four points behind Afanasyev. Bratt finished fifth, winless but with four podiums, ahead of three-time winner Eng by two points and Bailly, a winner at his home round of Zolder was 12 points further behind. Eighth-placed Nicola de Marco was the only other race-winner on the season, winning at Brno and Valencia.

Regulation changes

As announced at the FIA's World Motor Sport Council meeting in December 2009, Formula Two cars in the 2010 season had a base power of 4250NaN0, up from 400bhp in 2009.^[2] The overboost also increased from 50bhp to 55bhp, giving a maximum power of 480bhp.^[2] Races were also extended to 40 minutes in duration,^[2] and implemented the 25–18–15–12–10–8–6–4–2–1 point-scoring system as was introduced to the 2010 Formula One World Championship.^{[3] [4]}

Drivers

The number of drivers admitted to the series had been expected to increase to 30.^[2] However, this was altered back to 24,^[5] with only 22 drivers appearing on the Silverstone entry list.^[6]

	Driver	Rounds
2	Will Bratt^[7]	All
3	Jolyon Palmer^[8]	All
4	Benjamin Bailly^[9]	All
5	Ricardo Teixeira^[10]	All
6	Armaan Ebrahim^[11]	All
7	Ivan Samarin^[12]	All
8	Plamen Kralev^[13]	All
9	Mihai Marinescu^[14]	All
10	Benjamin Lariche^[15]	All
11	Jack Clarke^[16]	All
12	Kelvin Snoeks^[17]	1–5, 7–9
14	Sergey Afanasyev^[18]	All
16	Ramón Piñeiro^[19]	9
17	Johan Jokinen^[20]	1–3
19	Nicola de Marco^[21]	All
21	Kazim Vasiliauskas^[22]	All
22	Johannes Theobald^[23]	8–9
24	Tom Gladdis^[24]	1, 6–7
26	nowrap	Parthiva Sureshwaren^[25]	1–6
27	Paul Rees^[26]	1–4
28	Ajith Kumar^[27]	1–3
	Julian Theobald^[28]	6–8
33	Philipp Eng^[29]	All
48	Dean Stoneman^[30]	All
77	Natalia Kowalska^[31]	1–7, 9

Driver changes

Entering FIA Formula Two Championship

• Russian drivers Sergey Afanasyev – who was International Formula Master runner-up – and Ivan Samarin made their debut in the series.
• Formul'Academy Euro Series champion Benjamin Bailly graduated to the championship.
• Euroseries 3000 champion Will Bratt debuted in the series.
• Johan Jokinen switched from the Formula 3 Euro Series to the championship.
• After all taking a year's sabbatical, Natalia Kowalska, Ajith Kumar and Julian Theobald all returned to racing competition.
• International GT Open driver Plamen Kralev switched to Formula Two.
• Benjamin Lariche, who had a dual programme in the Formula Renault Eurocup and the Formula Renault 2.0 West European Cup in 2009, joined the championship.
• Mihai Marinescu, who competed in the Formula Renault 3.5 Series with Interwetten.com Racing, joined the championship.
• Formula Palmer Audi graduates Ramón Piñeiro and Paul Rees moved into the series.
• Kelvin Snoeks, who had a season in International Formula Master joined the series' grid.
• Formula Renault UK driver Dean Stoneman made his series debut.
• A1 Grand Prix driver Parthiva Sureshwaren moved into the series.
• After competing in the GP2 Series in 2009, Ricardo Teixeira switched to the FIA Formula Two Championship.

Leaving FIA Formula Two Championship

• Third-placed Mikhail Aleshin returned to the Formula Renault 3.5 Series with Carlin.^[32]
• Mirko Bortolotti joined the Ferrari Driver Academy and moved into the GP3 Series with the Addax Team.^[33] Robert Wickens and Tobias Hegewald also moved to the series.^{[34] [35]}
• Alex Brundle switched to the British Formula 3 Championship with T-Sport.^[36]
• Natacha Gachnang joined the newly created FIA GT1 World Championship with Matech Competition.^[37]
• Pietro Gandolfi moved into the Italian Prototype Championship.
• Ollie Hancock switched to the World Sportscar Masters series.
• Sebastian Hohenthal, Jens Höing, Jason Moore and Germán Sánchez all retired from auto racing.^{[38] [39]}
• Carlos Iaconelli and Edoardo Piscopo switched to Auto GP with Durango and DAMS respectively.^{[40] [41]}
• Julien Jousse moved to Superleague Formula.
• Henri Karjalainen moved into the Finnish GT3 Championship.
• Miloš Pavlović took a two-year hiatus.
• Champion Andy Soucek became Virgin Racing Formula One test and reserve driver.
• Henry Surtees died in a racing accident during the series' 2009 event at Brands Hatch.
• Tristan Vautier switched to the Star Mazda Championship with Andersen Racing.

Calendar

A nine-round calendar was published on 21 October 2009.^[42] The series ventured outside of Europe, racing in Marrakech, after being an all-European series in 2009.

Round		Circuit/Location	Country	Date	Supporting
1	R1	Silverstone Circuit		18 April	Stand-alone event
	R2
2	R1	Marrakech Street Circuit		1 May	FIA WTCC Race of Morocco
	R2			2 May
3	R1	Autodromo Nazionale Monza		22 May	FIA WTCC Race of Italy
	R2			23 May
4	R1	Circuit Zolder		19 June	FIA WTCC Race of Belgium
	R2			20 June
5	R1	Autódromo Internacional do Algarve, Portimão		3 July	FIA WTCC Race of Portugal
	R2			4 July
6	R1	Brands Hatch, Kent		17 July	FIA WTCC Race of UK
	R2			18 July
7	R1	Masaryk Circuit, Brno		31 July	FIA WTCC Race of the Czech Republic
	R2			1 August
8	R1	Motorsport Arena Oschersleben		4 September	FIA WTCC Race of Germany
	R2			5 September
9	R1	Circuit Ricardo Tormo, Valencia		18 September	FIA WTCC Race of Spain
	R2			19 September

Results

Round		Circuit	Pole Position	Fastest Lap	Winning Driver	Report
1	R1	Silverstone	Jolyon Palmer	Jolyon Palmer	Jolyon Palmer	Report
	R2		Philipp Eng	Philipp Eng	Philipp Eng
2	R1	Marrakech	Dean Stoneman	Dean Stoneman	Dean Stoneman	Report
	R2		Philipp Eng	Dean Stoneman	Philipp Eng
3	R1	Monza	Jolyon Palmer	Johan Jokinen	Jolyon Palmer	Report
	R2		Jolyon Palmer	Mihai Marinescu	Jolyon Palmer
4	R1	Zolder	Dean Stoneman	Dean Stoneman	Dean Stoneman	Report
	R2		Benjamin Bailly	Sergey Afanasyev	Benjamin Bailly
5	R1	Algarve	Jolyon Palmer	Jolyon Palmer	Jolyon Palmer	Report
	R2		Jolyon Palmer	Dean Stoneman	Dean Stoneman
6	R1	Brands Hatch	Dean Stoneman	Dean Stoneman	Dean Stoneman	Report
	R2		Kazim Vasiliauskas	Dean Stoneman	Philipp Eng
7	R1	Brno	Dean Stoneman	Nicola de Marco	Nicola de Marco	Report
	R2		Dean Stoneman	Jolyon Palmer	Jolyon Palmer
8	R1	Oschersleben	Sergey Afanasyev	Nicola de Marco	Dean Stoneman	Report
	R2		Dean Stoneman	Kazim Vasiliauskas	Dean Stoneman
9	R1	Valencia	Nicola de Marco	Will Bratt	Nicola de Marco	Report
	R2		nowrap	Kazim Vasiliauskas	nowrap		Kazim Vasiliauskas	nowrap	Kazim Vasiliauskas

Standings

Drivers' Championship

Pos. Driver SIL MAR MNZ ZOL ALG BRH BRN OSC VAL Points 1 Dean Stoneman 2 Ret 1 2 2 4 1 3 11 1 1 12 2 2 1 1 9 3 284 2 Jolyon Palmer 1 2 Ret 5 1 1 2 2 1 2 8 Ret 5 1 3 12 7 13 242 3 Sergey Afanasyev 3 6 8 7 Ret 2 4 15† 9 12 6 5 3 4 4 3 5 5 157 4 Kazim Vasiliauskas 5 7 10 4 3 Ret 3 7 4 Ret 11 Ret 11 3 2 2 Ret 1 153 5 Will Bratt 6 5 Ret 3 4 3 14 5 Ret 5 4 3 8 10 6 7 2 15 144 6 Philipp Eng 4 1 2 1 11 Ret 15 12 15 6 10 1 6 18 7 9 4 11 142 7 Benjamin Bailly 11 11 Ret Ret 6 6 6 1 2 3 13 11 4 5 5 5 8 9 130 8 Nicola de Marco 9 10 Ret Ret Ret Ret 10 Ret 5 7 7 4 1 6 9 15 1 Ret 98 9 Jack Clarke Ret 4 Ret Ret Ret 12 Ret 4 3 Ret 2 8 Ret 9 12 DNS 16 2 81 10 Armaan Ebrahim 8 9 6 6 Ret 5 5 Ret 7 Ret 9 7 Ret 13 11 10 3 7 78 11 Mihai Marinescu 7 8 Ret 14 5 16 8 6 12 4 12 6 16 11 13 6 13 6 68 12 Ivan Samarin DSQ 15 4 Ret 12 8 7 8 13 8 3 9 14 16 Ret 8 10 4 64 13 Kelvin Snoeks 12 Ret 3 9 13 DSQ 11 10 Ret Ret 7 8 8 4 12 8 48 14 Benjamin Lariche 10 19† 9 10 8 9 Ret 9 8 10 14 10 10 7 Ret 11 6 14 33 15 Tom Gladdis Ret Ret 5 2 12 12 28 16 Ricardo Teixeira 17† 14 5 Ret 16† 13 9 Ret 6 Ret 16 16 9 Ret 10 16 14 Ret 23 17 Johan Jokinen Ret 3 Ret Ret 7 Ret 21 18 Paul Rees 13 13 7 8 9 7 13 13 18 19 Natalia Kowalska 14 12 Ret 11 Ret 14 Ret 11 10 9 15 13 Ret 14 Ret 16 3 20 Plamen Kralev 15 17 12 12 10 11 Ret 14 Ret Ret Ret 15 15 17 15 14 17 17 1 21 align=left nowrap Parthiva Sureshwaren 16 16 11 Ret 15 10 12 Ret 14 11 18 14 1 22 Ramón Piñeiro 15 10 1 23 Johannes Theobald 16 13 11 12 0 24 Ajith Kumar 18 18 13 13 14 15 0 25 Julian Theobald 17 17 13 15 14 Ret 0 Pos Driver SIL MAR MNZ ZOL ALG BRH BRN OSC VAL Points

Bold – Pole Italics – Fastest Lap † – Retired, but classified

External links

• The official website of the FIA Formula Two Championship

Notes and References

1. News: De Marco wins race as Stoneman seals title. FIA Formula Two Championship. MotorSport Vision. 18 September 2010. 27 March 2011. https://web.archive.org/web/20101231163019/http://www.formulatwo.com/news/stoneman-clinches-2010-title.aspx. 31 December 2010. dead. dmy-all.
2. News: World Motor Sport Council, 11/12/2009 . fia.com . . 2009-12-11 . 2009-12-11 . https://web.archive.org/web/20091214204808/http://www.fia.com/en-GB/mediacentre/pressreleases/wmsc/2009/Pages/wmsc_111209.aspx . 14 December 2009 . dead .
3. News: World Motor Sport Council, 11/03/2010. fia.com. Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile. 2010-03-11. 2010-03-11. https://web.archive.org/web/20100314051513/http://www.fia.com/en-GB/mediacentre/pressreleases/wmsc/2010/Pages/wmsc_110310.aspx. 2010-03-14. dead.
4. News: Formula Two adopts new F1 points system . . . 2010-03-11 . 2010-03-11 . https://web.archive.org/web/20100313140857/http://www.formulatwo.com/news/f2-adopts-new-points-system.aspx . 13 March 2010 . dead .
5. News: Fifteen drivers already confirmed for the 2010 FIA Formula Two Championship . . . 2010-02-17 . 2010-02-18 . https://web.archive.org/web/20100220213220/http://www.formulatwo.com/news/fifteen-drivers-already-confirmed-for-the-2010-fia-formula-two-championship.aspx . 2010-02-20 . dead .
6. Web site: FIA Formula Two – 17/18 April 2010 Silverstone GP: Entry lists as at 14/04/10 . https://web.archive.org/web/20160422155005/http://www.msvracing.co.uk/media/1327397/web%20entry%20lists.pdf . dead . 2016-04-22 . MSV Racing . . 2010-04-14 . 2010-04-15 .
7. News: Briton Will Bratt joins the 2010 Formula Two grid . . . 2010-03-15 . 2010-03-15 . https://web.archive.org/web/20100322193713/http://www.formulatwo.com/news/will-bratt-joins.aspx . 22 March 2010 . dead .
8. News: Jolyon Palmer to make Formula Two return . . . 2010-03-08 . 2010-03-10 . https://web.archive.org/web/20100413060614/http://www.formulatwo.com/news/jolyon-palmer-rejoins.aspx . 13 April 2010 . dead .
9. News: Benjamin Bailly joins Formula Two for 2010 . . . 2010-02-22 . 2010-02-22 . https://web.archive.org/web/20100328203546/http://www.formulatwo.com/news/benjamin-bailly-joins-f2.aspx . 28 March 2010 . dead .
10. News: Ricardo Teixeira switches from GP2 to F2 . . . 2010-03-02 . 2010-03-02 . https://web.archive.org/web/20100407175420/http://www.formulatwo.com/news/ricardo-teixeira-joins.aspx . 7 April 2010 . dead .
11. News: Armaan Ebrahim returns to Formula Two . . . 2010-02-18 . 2010-02-18 . https://web.archive.org/web/20100220213840/http://www.formulatwo.com/news/armaan-ebrahim-returns-to-formula-two--.aspx . 20 February 2010 . dead .
12. News: Ivan Samarin graduates to Formula Two . . . 2010-02-24 . 2010-02-24 . https://web.archive.org/web/20100227203848/http://www.formulatwo.com/news/ivan-samarin-joins.aspx . 27 February 2010 . dead .
13. News: Formula Two welcomes Plamen Kralev for 2010 . . . 2010-03-19 . 2010-03-19 . https://web.archive.org/web/20100323082123/http://www.formulatwo.com/news/plamen-kralev-joins.aspx . 23 March 2010 . dead .
14. News: Silverstone testing gets underway . . . 2010-04-12 . 2010-04-15 . Romanian Mihai Marinescu and Briton Tom Gladdis again join the test, as both drivers finalise arrangements to be on the grid for the 2010 season. . https://web.archive.org/web/20100414145242/http://www.formulatwo.com/news/silverstone-testing-underway.aspx . 14 April 2010 . dead .
15. News: Benjamin Lariche secures place on the F2 grid . . . 2010-03-03 . 2010-03-03 . https://web.archive.org/web/20100407163233/http://www.formulatwo.com/news/benjamin-lariche-secures-place-on-the-f2-grid.aspx . 7 April 2010 . dead .
16. News: Jack Clarke makes Formula Two return . . . 2010-02-26 . 2010-02-26 . https://web.archive.org/web/20100402091323/http://www.formulatwo.com/news/jack-clarke-makes-formula-two-return.aspx . 2 April 2010 . dead .
17. News: Kelvin Snoeks signs up for Formula Two in 2010 . . . 2010-02-19 . 2010-02-19 . https://web.archive.org/web/20100220213524/http://www.formulatwo.com/news/kelvin-snoeks-2010-.aspx . 20 February 2010 . dead .
18. News: Russian Sergey Afanasiev confirmed in Formula Two line-up . . . 2010-03-01 . 2010-03-01 . https://web.archive.org/web/20100304044643/http://www.formulatwo.com/news/afanasiev-joins-f2.aspx . 4 March 2010 . dead .
19. News: Spain's Ramón Piñeiro joins Formula Two for Valencia . 2010-09-09 . . . 2010-09-09 . https://web.archive.org/web/20100911234603/http://www.formulatwo.com/news/ramon-pineiro-joins-f2.aspx . 11 September 2010 . dead .
20. News: Johan Jokinen signs up for 2010 Formula Two drive . . . 2010-03-30 . 2010-03-30 . https://web.archive.org/web/20100402231404/http://www.formulatwo.com/news/johan-jokinen-joins.aspx . 2 April 2010 . dead .
21. News: Nicola De Marco aiming for title in second F2 season . . . 2010-03-13 . 2010-03-13 . https://web.archive.org/web/20100323025310/http://www.formulatwo.com/news/de-marco-returns.aspx . 23 March 2010 . dead .
22. News: F2 race winner Kazim Vasiliauskas returns for second season . . . 2010-03-12 . 2010-03-12 . https://web.archive.org/web/20100413054952/http://www.formulatwo.com/news/kazim-rejoins.aspx . 13 April 2010 . dead .
23. News: Johannes Theobald to make F2 debut on home soil . 2010-09-03 . . . 2010-09-03 . https://web.archive.org/web/20100902045028/http://www.formulatwo.com/news/johannes-and-julian-theobald.aspx . 2 September 2010 . dead .
24. News: Gladdis buoyed by Snetterton pace. FIA Formula Two Championship. MotorSport Vision. 2010-04-09. 2010-04-15. Gladdis is making final arrangements in order to contest the entire 2010 season, but he is confident of making a strong start to the year at Silverstone, and admits he already has a very good feeling of the new Williams JPH1B F2 car.. https://web.archive.org/web/20100415055358/http://www.formulatwo.com/news/gladdis-snetterton.aspx. 2010-04-15. dead.
25. News: Parthiva Sureshwaren signs up for 2010 F2 season . 2010-03-18 . . . 2010-03-18 . https://web.archive.org/web/20100322203911/http://www.formulatwo.com/news/parthiva-sureshwaren-joins.aspx . 22 March 2010 . dead .
26. News: Paul Rees graduates to Formula Two . . . 2010-03-14 . 2010-03-14 . https://web.archive.org/web/20100323025315/http://www.formulatwo.com/news/paul-rees-joins.aspx . 23 March 2010 . dead .
27. News: India's Ajith Kumar signs up for Formula Two . 2010-03-23 . . . 2010-03-23 . https://web.archive.org/web/20100326101024/http://www.formulatwo.com/news/india%E2%80%99s-ajith-kumar-signs-up-for-formula-two.aspx . 26 March 2010 . dead .
28. News: Julian Theobald buoyant ahead of F2 debut . 2010-07-16 . . . 2010-07-16 . https://web.archive.org/web/20100717203531/http://www.formulatwo.com/news/theobald-bouyant-ahead-of-f2-debut.aspx . 17 July 2010 . dead .
29. News: Philipp Eng returns for F2 title attack . 2010-03-23 . . . 2010-03-23 . https://web.archive.org/web/20100327035704/http://www.formulatwo.com/news/philipp-eng-returns-for-f2-title-attack.aspx . 27 March 2010 . dead .
30. News: Dean Stoneman joins Formula Two . . . 2010-03-20 . 2010-03-20 . https://web.archive.org/web/20100325024426/http://www.formulatwo.com/news/dean-stoneman.aspx . 25 March 2010 . dead .
31. News: Natalia Kowalska confirms place on F2 grid . . . 2010-04-01 . 2010-04-01 . https://web.archive.org/web/20100404074043/http://www.formulatwo.com/news/natalia-kowalska-joins.aspx . 4 April 2010 . dead .
32. News: Aleshin joins Carlin for FR3.5 return. Mills. Peter. 2010-02-26. autosport.com. Haymarket Publications. 2010-02-26.
33. News: Bortolotti joins Addax Team . 2010-03-11 . . GP2 Motorsport Limited . 2010-10-15 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20110716071205/http://www.gp3series.com/news/2010-pre-season/Bortolotti-signs-with-Addax/ . 2011-07-16 .
34. News: Status GP confirm Robert Wickens. 2010-03-30. GP3 Series. GP2 Motorsport Limited. 2010-03-30. https://archive.today/20100405224120/http://gp3series.com/news/2010-pre-season/Wickens-signs-with-Status/. 2010-04-05. dead.
35. News: Team RSC Mücke Motorsport completes GP3 line-up with Tobias Hegewald . 2010-03-25 . . GP2 Motorsport Limited . 13 April 2012 . https://archive.today/20100410212420/http://www.gp3series.com/news/2010-pre-season/Mucke-complete-line-up/ . 10 April 2010 . dead .
36. News: Anderson. Ben. Brundle switches to British F3. Haymarket Publications. autosport.com. 2010-02-08. 2010-02-08.
37. Web site: Matech Competition: Bernoldi joins Mutsch . . . 2010-03-02 . 2010-03-03 . https://web.archive.org/web/20110711132557/http://www.gt1world.com/news/article/matech-competition-bernoldi-joins-mutsch . 2011-07-11 . dead .
38. News: New targets on the horizon. Sebastian Hohenthal. NorenWeb. 2010-01-22. 2010-08-14. https://web.archive.org/web/20100813122924/http://www.hohenthal.se/?pid=21&aid=174. 13 August 2010 . live.
39. Web site: A modo de despedida... . Sánchez . Germán . Germán Sánchez (racing driver) . germansanchez.es . . es . 2010-04-22 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20100802012600/http://www.germansanchez.es/ . 2010-08-02 .
40. News: Reid the fastest in Free Practice. autogp.org. Auto GP. 23 April 2010. 13 April 2012. https://web.archive.org/web/20100430144222/http://www.autogp.org/en/news.php?id=0093. 30 April 2010 . live.
41. News: Piscopo joins Auto GP with DAMS. autogp.org. Auto GP. 7 April 2010. 13 April 2012.
42. News: World Motor Sport Council, 21/10/2009 . fia.com . Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile. 2009-10-21 . 2009-10-21. https://web.archive.org/web/20091024035442/http://www.fia.com/en-GB/mediacentre/pressreleases/wmsc/2009/Pages/wmsc_211009.aspx. 24 October 2009 . live.