FIA F2 races to begin in July; Indian ace Jehan Daruvala, raring to go

Paris, 2 June 2020: Top Indian racer Jehan Daruvala, who was signed by Red Bull team in February for their Junior Programme is raring to go as the FIA F2 season begins in July with the first race to be held at Austria.

Following Formula 1’s announcement of their opening eight races of the revised 2020 calendar, FIA Formula 2 and FIA Formula 3 are pleased to confirm that their 2020 season will also start on July 03-05 at the Red Bull Ring and will continue alongside F1 in the succeeding seven rounds.

The Indian prodigy, billed as the next-best bet for an Indian in F1, saw Red Bull Racing Formula One Team sign him up which means, Jehan will race for Carlin team, alongside fellow Red Bull Junior Yuki Tsunoda, in his maiden F2 season.

The Red Bull Junior program has been instrumental in producing some of the world’s best F1 racers over the years including, four-time World F1 Champion – Sebastian Vettel, Max Verstappen, Daniel Ricciardo, Alex Albon, and many others. The selection into the Red Bull program is a huge recognition for the young Indian who has consistently performed well at the top of every series he has participated in, culminating in a fantastic season last year where he finished 3rd in the FIA F3 championship. Importantly, in the last ten years, all Red Bull Racing F1 & AlphaTauri F1 (earlier Torro Rosso) racers have come from the Red Bull Junior Program.

Both the F2 and F3 championships were planned to start their 2020 campaign at Sakhir, Bahrain on 20-22 March, but was put on hold due to the global COVID-19 pandemic.

Since then, F2 and F3 have monitored the situation alongside Formula 1 who has been working closely with promoters, authorities in Europe and the FIA to put in place a revised calendar that allows a return to racing in a safe way for the visited communities and the paddocks.

We currently expect the events will take place without fans, with the hope to have them included in future rounds later this year. The opening calendar will include holding two consecutive events at the same circuit one week apart (Spielberg and Silverstone) as well as a number of back to back events.

As stated by F1 in their announcement, the health and safety of all involved will continue to be priority number one. A robust and detailed plan with strict procedures put in place by Formula 1 and the FIA to ensure the events have the highest level of safety will also apply to the F2 and F3 community and paddock.

The rest of the 2020 F2 and F3 calendar will be revealed at a later date.

F2 and F3 CEO Bruno Michel: “First of all, I would like to thank Formula 1TM and the FIA for making this revised opening calendar possible in such difficult circumstances. I am very pleased to confirm that F2 and F3 will be able to race alongside F1 in the first eight events.

“It is unfortunate that currently we don’t expect fan attendance in these opening events, but we are however glad that we are able to bring them the entertainment of our racing in the safest way possible.

“We will also follow the very detailed safety plan put in place by Formula 1 and the FIA as our priority is to make sure no risks are taken.

“Our 2020 season will continue beyond Monza. We will announce the second part of our calendar as soon as possible.”

*FIA Approved Calendar