O que deixa os brasileiros entristecidos é que essa história do motor só existe quando brasileiros ganham. Foi a mesma coisa esse ano. Gabriel venceu porque é um diamante, o melhor da base. O acerto da Invicta Racing era péssimo de reta, comparado por exemplo com a AIX e Campos.
I don't disagree that he is a loose cannon - his mentality is by far his biggest weakness no doubt - but tbh I struggle to see how Campos messing up basic procedures or engines failing is at all related to that
I follow F1 feeder series for some years now. Particularly in F2 case, I think (due to limited testing/practice times) teams tends to follow a single setup philosophy for both cars, sometimes it works for both drivers, most of the time it suits only one of them, in that case there's no much reason for the team to put efforts in changing what is working, it's the other driver job to adapt. But the peak of performance tends to be when there're more agressive setup choices, Drugovich is the perfect example of that, MP car was fast in high speed corners, but slow in the straights and bad at slow corners. It worked for him. And we all know how it ended up when he tried Virtuosi.
Not much to add here tbh, certainly all valid information. Only wondering a little bit what specific team you were thinking about for this year when writing this - MP was probably the biggest upset and I feel like Hauger wouldn't have stayed if he wasn't happy with the team. But then again it is a new chassis after all
@RaceWeekReview Aron/Hitech. Hadjar/Campos. Bortoleto/Invicta. Durksen/AIX. In my opinion all of them are examples of a good pairing between team/driver. Bortoleto's case is particularly interesting, at some point in the season he started to gather the team around him, meanwhile Kush performance dropped severely. About Hauger, I he failed to adapt to MP required driving style, in my opinion he should have stayed at Prema for his second season. Colapinto in the other side showed he's a fast learner.
@@jadermiani Bortoleto said in a podcast that before he signed with Invicta, they had shown him Doohan's data and he realised their setup philosophy was suited for his driving style
Super excited for the Prema lineup in F1. Also very interested in how Miyata will perform in a second season if ART bring a solid package, I still rate Ritomo very highly as a driver.
It's been a completely bonkers season. 18 winners, 21 podium finishers, every team won at least once. Consistency was hard to find for everyone, the new car upended the pecking order and the rumours of an engine lottery just won't go away! All the teams were actually quite well matched, they all had moments to shine, which was really nice to see. A load of 'Awards:' Driver of the year: Probably Gabriel Bortoleto as he came out on top of all the chaos and took the championship. Honourable mentions: Isack Hadjar, Andrea Kimi Antonelli.. Team of the year: Campos. In 2023 they started strong and faded badly. This time round they started strongly and managed to keep it up, despite several attempts at self-sabotage. Honourable mentions: Invicta for winning the championship, AIX for being more competitive than they probably should've been, but there is a caveat here (more on that later). Biggest Disappointment (Driver): Ritomo Miyata. I was really hoping he'd do well, what with him being the reigning Super Formula and GT500 champion coming to Europe rather than an F2 driver going to Japan, but in the end his season was quite disappointing, even taking into account the fact that he was learning the circuits, mostly because he kept picking up penalties which lost him points and even a podium in Spain. Hopefully he'll do better with ART next year. (Dis)honourable mention: Oliver Bearman Biggest Disappointment (Team): Prema. This team is usually right at the top end of the pecking order, but the new car seemed to stump them. They were all over the place but five wins and 5th in the championship is perhaps a decent salvage operation, it looked like it could've gone a lot worse at times. (Dis)honourable mention: ART Biggest mystery: Oliver Bearman. Maybe he struggled doing double duty with F2 and his Haas FP1 appearances, and there is the caveat that he had to withdraw from Jeddah (where he'd taken pole) and Baku to race in F1, but even with all that Bearman was all over the shop somewhat. His speed was never really in doubt, but I feel like Antonelli might've been a little more consistent. Both of them will do well in F1 next year, of that I am certain. The 'not sure what to think of it': AIX and the engine rumours. Joshua Dürksen had a really good second half and had put in some decent results in the first even if he didn't have many points on the board, so I think his balance sheet is generally pretty positive, but the engine rumours will probably taint how his season's perceived. Feel-good story of the year: Juan Manuel Correa getting on the podium in the Feature race in Spain (and actually getting to keep it having been DQ'd from a podium position in the Sprint). The 'could've perhaps achieved more': Paul Aron. Really consistent in the first half but then fell away a bit later on. Honourable-ish mentions: Zane Maloney, Franco Colapinto (who knows how he would've finished the season had he not got the Williams drive?). Unluckiest driver: A joint award here as I can't really separate them: Richard Verschoor and Pepe Martí. They genuinely seemed cursed at times this year, but at least they both won a race in the end and Verschoor had a really solid second half of the season even through his switch from Trident to MP. Honourable mention: Victor Martins. Really let down by ART. Maddest moment: Dennis Hauger and Gabriel Bortoleto finishing in a dead heat for 8th in Monza and sharing the point between them! Radio message of the year: Isack Hadjar's radio after losing out in Monaco. Need I say more? Most impressive of the mid-season debutants: Dino Beganovic. On the pace pretty much from the start and got a podium out of his cameo. Honourable mentions: Gabriele Mini for basically the same reasons, Oliver Goethe, Christian Mansell. Most surprising driver: Hear me out here, this might be stupid but... Amaury Cordeel. Honestly, I think this year was probably the most competent he's looked in an F2 car, he put in some legitimately solid drives and unlike the last two years when he put in those performances during the last few rounds, he put them in on several occasions across the entire campaign this year.
Great write-up as always, not much to add so I'll just jump in where I disagree - Campos over Invicta despite the mistakes made that probably cost Hadjar the title. And Cordeel as surprise of the year, I know what you mean, he was less terrible than usually. But still, nah 😁 No awards for finishing 17th in that car, not even this one haha
@RaceWeekReview I knew you'd disagree with Cordeel! As I said, the surprise for me was that he didn't follow the pattern if his previous two seasons. I was being somewhat serious with picking him though, I genuinely found it tricky to think of a more 'derserving' driver for that category, at least in a positive sense. Maybe Dürksen, but that's tainted somewhat by the engine rumours, maybe Aron for his sheer consistency in the first half of the season. Or maybe Colapinto would've been a better shout now I've thought about it more, for essentially bursting on to the scene and getting himself an F1 drive. I really wasn't sure. But I did genuinely want to give Cordeel at least a little bit of credit, from being a meme throughout 2022 by getting banned twice he does seem to have genuinely improved and learnt from that over the last couple of years. Ok, he's not going to F1 and I find it hard to believe he'd end up in a top-line sportscar drive, but still. (Oh and it was 22 podium finishers this year, not 21. Still bonkers though!)
I was thinking about a more deserve candidate but wasn't sure if you were considering rookies! In that case either Colapinto or Bortoleto for me personally although I also understand the Dürksen nomination. As you know, I do share the need to shout out the lesser seen drivers in some ways haha
@RaceWeekReview I was considering rookies, although I thought the rookie class coming into this year was quite strong, so the surprises would've been if they'd performed exceptionally well or exceptionally badly, which I felt was a bit tricky to get a feel for given the madness that went on and how much reliability and the like was a factor. I've watched F1 for basically two thirds of my life and been following other motorsports really closely for about a decade (Formula E was probably the first series other than F1 I religiously followed, and that was from its very first race! I had casually followed the BTCC (supported Gordon Shedden and Matt Neal, I think at random) and MotoGP (Casey Stoner and Dani Pedrosa) before that), so I like to think I have a decent handle on how I perceive drivers to have performed at least! But at the same time, I do still find it tricky sometimes to balance the result, the way the race went, my perception of the quality of the equipment etc. Thing is of course, we can only go on what we see and read, we don't have the actual data to hand, so I don't think we can ever truly be judge and jury on a driver's performance! It's still fun though.
In some ways it makes it more fun doesn't it? I know in other team sports numbers don't tell the full story either but motorsports really do require an exceptional amount of interpreting all the stats and numbers - almost ironic considering 'the stopwatch never lies' is both a popular phrase and of course true as well.
Now the thing with comparing drivers against their teammates, in example downplaying Aron with the rocketship claims just because Cordeel was competent, doesn't make much sense to me personally. Because yes, whilst they're on the same team, that doesn't automatically mean they share the same luxuries in the engine department. For the best example of this I'd say maybe Barnard and Dürksen. No offence to Dürksen of course, but there is just no way that Barnard was that much worse than him. Now I'm not saying that the hitech wasn't a rocket at times, it certainly was at times. Hell, everyone's cars were rockets at times. For example Dürksen during the final half of the season and then, IMO, Bortoleto in the last 4 or so race weekends.
I won't tell you you're wrong because all of this is true - Cordeel's engine hasn't really been a topic all year but that doesn't mean it wasn't a bit too quick at times. But I guess I am not willing to write off an entire year of F2 and have tried to draw some conclusions despite the messy engine situation. But I agree, good chance they don't mean much thanks to information not available to us.
FWIW I agree with your most “controversial” take - Aron had the best average qualifying pace across the season and he continually frittered away good results in the best car. I think he’ll be found out if he ends up in an F1 car at some point next year, to be honest.
@@milanwyd441 That's probably true - the stat came from the fact that taking the average quali pace across the year (with a couple of dropped scores) I had Aron on 100.224%, with Bortoleto 2nd (100.251%) and Hadjar 3rd (100.274%). But yes, I agree that a lot of that is probably down to Hitech. I also can't claim that this stat is accurate as it's just me plugging some numbers into a spreadsheet (...I do have a life, honestly!)
@@Chicane_Soup thats probably true, he was fastest when we just look at qualy times, my stats are not quite up to date because i did them around sumemr break but im pretty sure its still reasonably accurate. i used direct teammate comparisons and cordeel vs p1, in previous years cordeel was well over a second away from pole on average while this year its only about 7-8 tenths. arons gap to cordeel is also less than what doohan had or hughes had
Both him and Pourchaire must be super disappointed. And considering we'll have so many rookies next year, it'll be mad difficult to find a seat in the next few years too
Great video man! Do you think Alex Dunne will get the Rodin seat next year considering he practiced with them last week. Looked good too. There hasn't been a confirmation yet, should that be a worry?
I've got 0 inside knowledge but him getting the seat has also been the consistent rumour so I'd think that is still happening. Definitely wouldn't be too concerned with no announcements just yet
I've just watched a couple of your videos, and in one of them you said that Freddie Slater really is the biggest prospect coming up after Kimi Antonelli, but that you wouldn't quite put Freddie in the same category as Kimi. Could you reply with a comment or make a video where you compare the two drivers? I've been following Kimi since the Zandvoort FRECA weekend last year, where he dominated in the rain. I've gone back to watch a lot of races of his F4 UAE and F4 Italian championships, a few races from the ADAC F4 German series, and I've looked at the races in the European Karting Championships he won in 2020 and 2021. I learned about Fast Freddie through your videos. I've gone back to watch a few of his races in Italian F4 and a few of his karting races from 2021 and 2022, if I'm not mistaken. It's safe to say I know a lot more about Kimi than I do about Freddie. Could you explain to me what the differences are between them? When looking at their single-seater careers up to this point, both of them have basically won or dominated every series they participated in, and both have won either European or World Karting Championships. All things considered, why do you rate Kimi higher than Freddie? Thank you! Edit: Thank you for making these videos. Recently, I've become increasingly interested in all the Formula feeder series and in karting, but I don't have the time to watch all these different categories. Your channel is perfect for people like me who are interested in these series but don't have the time to watch them all. Thank you so much for the time and effort you put into making these videos! I was surprised to see how few subscribers you have when considering the quality of your videos and the value you provide. In my eyes, your channel has significant potential, and I'll be supporting you all the way.
First of all thank you very much for the nice words and the support - people like you are exactly who I had hoped to reach with this channel 😁 Regarding Kimi vs Freddie, I hope I said I don't rate him quite as highly *yet*. You are correct, both have basically won everything possible in cars so far (well, up until Kimi's F2 run of course). But I find Kimi's karting career to be even more flawless in the latter years and I am waiting to make sure Freddie can do it in faster cars, although his GB3 debut was basically enough to convince me already. The karting argument is super nitpicky (I rate Euros a lot higher than World Championship for example) and realistically I am just a bit biased towards Kimi to be entirely honest. But of course there are huge expectations on Freddie for 2025 to keep that status if that makes sense. All of that said this might end up being a video after all if Freddie stays on that trajectory, comparing their careers head to head should be quite interesting!
@RaceWeekReview You said it in your "11 NEW CHAMPIONS In One Weekend?! | Race Week Review WK39" video at 12:46, and you didn't use the word "yet," but it doesn't really matter all too much since your reply perfectly answers all my questions. Also, what is your opinion on the Mercedes junior driver Kenzo Craigie? I saw that he won two world championship titles this year in the OKJ and in the IAME X30 Junior classes. What other drivers around his age are at his level or better than he is, and how do you rate him? I know it's hard to properly rate him since he's only 14 years old, but you must know much more than I do about these things. Cheers, mate!
Haha I like the dedication, I may have had a weird day there then 😅 Craigie has so far most impressed me with an ability to show up in the really big races, as you said the double world title and how he got it was certainly impressive. Driver of the year in his class was Dries van Langendonck though and personally I also rated Niklas Schaufler and Christian Costoya a bit higher over the year. As you say though, doesn't mean too much yet anyway - basically just that I'd expect all of them to be above average in a good F4 series. The rest time will tell, none of the current crop look like Kimi or Freddie imo. DVL maybe getting there.
Your take on Paul Aron is interesting. I also believe the car had the capability to win the title and in some way he ‘bottled’ it - he really struggled with his starts. But it’s not all his fault in hindsight. He did a good job At Belgium and lost 15 points on the last lap, and who knows what could have happened in the Monza feature race, while he lost a lot of points at Abu Dhabi because of a team mistake. I think even if he theoretically had the best car it doesn’t mean he had the best team. HiTech have made mistakes that the likes of Invicta Prema and ART just don’t make (think of Cordeel’s pit stop in Imola). I would say even more so for Campos. Operationally Campos are not a strong team this was evident across the season especially at Hungary and Baku. Back to Paul Aron, I think it’s also fair to say he was under more pressure than Bortoleto or Hadjar. They are academy backed drivers, but Aron was on a shoestring budget after being dropped by Mercedes. But at the end of the day his errors at Silverstone and Hungary were his own fault. He’s the most ‘interesting’ driver of the season I guess because expectations were very low of HiTech they were expected to be backmarkers and I think Paul himself was very surprised to be fighting for podiums. He kind of built these high expectations out of nowhere, then had that mid season errors and the late season was marked by good form mixed with bad luck. I wasn’t surprised to see him announced as the Alpibe reserve driver. I think Paul demonstrated the pace of that HiTech and maybe? that helped Oliver Oakes get the promotion to F1 as team boss? Like a debt to be paid really. Depending on who has more power Oakes V Briatore we might see him in the Alpine car in F1.
The most important bit here is the operational aspect - very much agree that both Hitech and especially Campos were far from great operationally. A decent chunk of what I keep calling 'bad luck' for Hadjar was really down to Campos messing up as well. I understand the connection to Oakes but it still blows my mind a bit that they spend time and money and Martins only to sign someone else last minute. Not that Aron is a bad signing in isolation though.
Hitech is Off Course a good Team but You didn’t mention Aron‘s bad luck and if he had more luck like Bortoleto or Hadjar for example italy where he got taken out while leading or Belgium where he lost a Podium on the last lap.
Spa was especially heartbreaking but all the front runners were rather unlucky, I don't think he had it as bad as Bortoleto and Hadjar. Might be interesting to actually do the maths on that one, it has been one crazy season.
aron's luck? MORE luck like hadjar? aron was WAY luckeir than the others, he had bulletproof reliability up until spa, he lost WAY less points to luck than everyone else around him. msot of his poit losses were his own driver errors
Was always going to be a bit of scattered season with the new car, with different teams nailing setup every other weekend. That makes it a little bit harder to judge the talent but I think in general the top 2 guys were a step ahead of everyone else. Also think Aron's season is a tad bit underrated just because nobody had him as their favourite before the season started. So he gets a bit more scrutinised than the favourites where the excuses come flooding through. Sure he had an inconsistent season but honestly every driver on the grid did. Nobody was really that rock solid, everyone was making mistakes. Have to say as well that Miyata was hugely disappointing for someone who is a Super Formula champion. I mean, I was expecting some struggles with him early in the season with the tyres but to just be as lost as he was was unexpected. I get he's not familiar with the tracks but I think at this level that's no excuse, have to be able to get on top of that side quickly.
There might be something to that second paragraph for sure. It is a difficult case - he did better than expected but at the same time it should have probably been even better. Miyata was super disappointing no doubt but to still highlight the track situation, I think this is a pretty unique scenario, joining on that level of competition and racing against all the kids that grew up on these tracks. Can only really compare that to people transitioning to IndyCar I suppose. Nevertheless I agree that can't excuse everything - if it was just the tracks he would have been noticably better around the non-European tracks that his peers aren't too familiar with either I reckon. Between Australia, Qatar and Baku he had his opportunities.
totally agree with your aron assesment, that hitech was an absolute rocketship, aron got so goddam lucky. put someone like antonelli/bearman/martins in it and they easily win the title i reckon
the hitech/aron take is bang on. he had everything to walk this title and his own driver errors are the only reason he didnt. he can be a deent driver and have a decent career elsewhere, but he is nowhere near good enough for f1 and this year proved that. formula e with envision seems a likely destination still though i didnt find him too impressive in his 2 starts in berlin
I'll happily give people a pass for sucking during their Formula E debut - not everyone is Taylor Barnard 😁 Must be one of the worst series to come into as a rookie
@RaceWeekReview yeah it's definitely one of the tougher ones, difficult cars to get used to, especially how to make them work over a race distance, but yeah barnard is a good comparison, f2 didnt do justice to his talent but thankfully he can show it elsewhere
My take on Martins is, that he is a great qualifier, if not the best on the F2 grid. But he is lacking a bit of Consistency or Racecraft. I know that ART wasn't the best car this year and I also think he was unlucky many times, but his race pace isn't as good as his qualifying results. Last year is also some kind of proof of that, he was faster on one lap than Pourchaire, but in the race Pourchaire most of the time got the overhand.
Hadjar: "What's the gap for Bortoleto"
So sweet.
Gotta admire the optimism 😁
@RaceWeekReview hope is the last thing to die
The team: "He was the champion"... kkkk
O que deixa os brasileiros entristecidos é que essa história do motor só existe quando brasileiros ganham. Foi a mesma coisa esse ano. Gabriel venceu porque é um diamante, o melhor da base. O acerto da Invicta Racing era péssimo de reta, comparado por exemplo com a AIX e Campos.
Hadjar could be the faster, but just has no mental. It's not about bad luck, is about do things beeing under presure
As both of them had 8 top 4 in qualifying, I wouldnt be so quick to qualify one of them as faster than the other
Just dropping by to compliment the great quality content, congratulations! Good luck coming from Brazil
Cheers man, much appreciated!
I dumb guy once said, "Maini is going to beat bortoleto in 2024"
He then deleted his comments 😊
Let's see the reality of Formula 3 and Fromula 2. Who were the last champions? His name is Gabriel Bortoleto! and with one detail: being a Rookie.
Hadjar is a loose cannon, his “bad luck” is his own making.
I don't disagree that he is a loose cannon - his mentality is by far his biggest weakness no doubt - but tbh I struggle to see how Campos messing up basic procedures or engines failing is at all related to that
@RaceWeekReview real question, is that really what happened at that start?
Not at all, but there has been an entire season before that one start.
I follow F1 feeder series for some years now. Particularly in F2 case, I think (due to limited testing/practice times) teams tends to follow a single setup philosophy for both cars, sometimes it works for both drivers, most of the time it suits only one of them, in that case there's no much reason for the team to put efforts in changing what is working, it's the other driver job to adapt. But the peak of performance tends to be when there're more agressive setup choices, Drugovich is the perfect example of that, MP car was fast in high speed corners, but slow in the straights and bad at slow corners. It worked for him. And we all know how it ended up when he tried Virtuosi.
Not much to add here tbh, certainly all valid information. Only wondering a little bit what specific team you were thinking about for this year when writing this - MP was probably the biggest upset and I feel like Hauger wouldn't have stayed if he wasn't happy with the team. But then again it is a new chassis after all
@RaceWeekReview Aron/Hitech. Hadjar/Campos. Bortoleto/Invicta. Durksen/AIX. In my opinion all of them are examples of a good pairing between team/driver. Bortoleto's case is particularly interesting, at some point in the season he started to gather the team around him, meanwhile Kush performance dropped severely. About Hauger, I he failed to adapt to MP required driving style, in my opinion he should have stayed at Prema for his second season. Colapinto in the other side showed he's a fast learner.
@@jadermiani Bortoleto said in a podcast that before he signed with Invicta, they had shown him Doohan's data and he realised their setup philosophy was suited for his driving style
Super excited for the Prema lineup in F1. Also very interested in how Miyata will perform in a second season if ART bring a solid package, I still rate Ritomo very highly as a driver.
It's been a completely bonkers season. 18 winners, 21 podium finishers, every team won at least once. Consistency was hard to find for everyone, the new car upended the pecking order and the rumours of an engine lottery just won't go away! All the teams were actually quite well matched, they all had moments to shine, which was really nice to see.
A load of 'Awards:'
Driver of the year: Probably Gabriel Bortoleto as he came out on top of all the chaos and took the championship. Honourable mentions: Isack Hadjar, Andrea Kimi Antonelli..
Team of the year: Campos. In 2023 they started strong and faded badly. This time round they started strongly and managed to keep it up, despite several attempts at self-sabotage. Honourable mentions: Invicta for winning the championship, AIX for being more competitive than they probably should've been, but there is a caveat here (more on that later).
Biggest Disappointment (Driver): Ritomo Miyata. I was really hoping he'd do well, what with him being the reigning Super Formula and GT500 champion coming to Europe rather than an F2 driver going to Japan, but in the end his season was quite disappointing, even taking into account the fact that he was learning the circuits, mostly because he kept picking up penalties which lost him points and even a podium in Spain. Hopefully he'll do better with ART next year. (Dis)honourable mention: Oliver Bearman
Biggest Disappointment (Team): Prema. This team is usually right at the top end of the pecking order, but the new car seemed to stump them. They were all over the place but five wins and 5th in the championship is perhaps a decent salvage operation, it looked like it could've gone a lot worse at times. (Dis)honourable mention: ART
Biggest mystery: Oliver Bearman. Maybe he struggled doing double duty with F2 and his Haas FP1 appearances, and there is the caveat that he had to withdraw from Jeddah (where he'd taken pole) and Baku to race in F1, but even with all that Bearman was all over the shop somewhat. His speed was never really in doubt, but I feel like Antonelli might've been a little more consistent. Both of them will do well in F1 next year, of that I am certain.
The 'not sure what to think of it': AIX and the engine rumours. Joshua Dürksen had a really good second half and had put in some decent results in the first even if he didn't have many points on the board, so I think his balance sheet is generally pretty positive, but the engine rumours will probably taint how his season's perceived.
Feel-good story of the year: Juan Manuel Correa getting on the podium in the Feature race in Spain (and actually getting to keep it having been DQ'd from a podium position in the Sprint).
The 'could've perhaps achieved more': Paul Aron. Really consistent in the first half but then fell away a bit later on. Honourable-ish mentions: Zane Maloney, Franco Colapinto (who knows how he would've finished the season had he not got the Williams drive?).
Unluckiest driver: A joint award here as I can't really separate them: Richard Verschoor and Pepe Martí. They genuinely seemed cursed at times this year, but at least they both won a race in the end and Verschoor had a really solid second half of the season even through his switch from Trident to MP. Honourable mention: Victor Martins. Really let down by ART.
Maddest moment: Dennis Hauger and Gabriel Bortoleto finishing in a dead heat for 8th in Monza and sharing the point between them!
Radio message of the year: Isack Hadjar's radio after losing out in Monaco. Need I say more?
Most impressive of the mid-season debutants: Dino Beganovic. On the pace pretty much from the start and got a podium out of his cameo. Honourable mentions: Gabriele Mini for basically the same reasons, Oliver Goethe, Christian Mansell.
Most surprising driver: Hear me out here, this might be stupid but... Amaury Cordeel. Honestly, I think this year was probably the most competent he's looked in an F2 car, he put in some legitimately solid drives and unlike the last two years when he put in those performances during the last few rounds, he put them in on several occasions across the entire campaign this year.
Great write-up as always, not much to add so I'll just jump in where I disagree - Campos over Invicta despite the mistakes made that probably cost Hadjar the title.
And Cordeel as surprise of the year, I know what you mean, he was less terrible than usually. But still, nah 😁 No awards for finishing 17th in that car, not even this one haha
@RaceWeekReview I knew you'd disagree with Cordeel! As I said, the surprise for me was that he didn't follow the pattern if his previous two seasons.
I was being somewhat serious with picking him though, I genuinely found it tricky to think of a more 'derserving' driver for that category, at least in a positive sense. Maybe Dürksen, but that's tainted somewhat by the engine rumours, maybe Aron for his sheer consistency in the first half of the season. Or maybe Colapinto would've been a better shout now I've thought about it more, for essentially bursting on to the scene and getting himself an F1 drive. I really wasn't sure.
But I did genuinely want to give Cordeel at least a little bit of credit, from being a meme throughout 2022 by getting banned twice he does seem to have genuinely improved and learnt from that over the last couple of years. Ok, he's not going to F1 and I find it hard to believe he'd end up in a top-line sportscar drive, but still.
(Oh and it was 22 podium finishers this year, not 21. Still bonkers though!)
I was thinking about a more deserve candidate but wasn't sure if you were considering rookies! In that case either Colapinto or Bortoleto for me personally although I also understand the Dürksen nomination.
As you know, I do share the need to shout out the lesser seen drivers in some ways haha
@RaceWeekReview I was considering rookies, although I thought the rookie class coming into this year was quite strong, so the surprises would've been if they'd performed exceptionally well or exceptionally badly, which I felt was a bit tricky to get a feel for given the madness that went on and how much reliability and the like was a factor.
I've watched F1 for basically two thirds of my life and been following other motorsports really closely for about a decade (Formula E was probably the first series other than F1 I religiously followed, and that was from its very first race! I had casually followed the BTCC (supported Gordon Shedden and Matt Neal, I think at random) and MotoGP (Casey Stoner and Dani Pedrosa) before that), so I like to think I have a decent handle on how I perceive drivers to have performed at least! But at the same time, I do still find it tricky sometimes to balance the result, the way the race went, my perception of the quality of the equipment etc.
Thing is of course, we can only go on what we see and read, we don't have the actual data to hand, so I don't think we can ever truly be judge and jury on a driver's performance! It's still fun though.
In some ways it makes it more fun doesn't it? I know in other team sports numbers don't tell the full story either but motorsports really do require an exceptional amount of interpreting all the stats and numbers - almost ironic considering 'the stopwatch never lies' is both a popular phrase and of course true as well.
Bortoleto ❤
congrats on the video, i watched it and only after saw that you have less than a thousand subscribers, truly underrated
Cheers, appreciate it!
Now the thing with comparing drivers against their teammates, in example downplaying Aron with the rocketship claims just because Cordeel was competent, doesn't make much sense to me personally. Because yes, whilst they're on the same team, that doesn't automatically mean they share the same luxuries in the engine department. For the best example of this I'd say maybe Barnard and Dürksen. No offence to Dürksen of course, but there is just no way that Barnard was that much worse than him.
Now I'm not saying that the hitech wasn't a rocket at times, it certainly was at times. Hell, everyone's cars were rockets at times. For example Dürksen during the final half of the season and then, IMO, Bortoleto in the last 4 or so race weekends.
I won't tell you you're wrong because all of this is true - Cordeel's engine hasn't really been a topic all year but that doesn't mean it wasn't a bit too quick at times. But I guess I am not willing to write off an entire year of F2 and have tried to draw some conclusions despite the messy engine situation. But I agree, good chance they don't mean much thanks to information not available to us.
@RaceWeekReview They seriously desperately need an engine supplier that isn't Mechachrome, it's ridiculous at this point
This unfortunately is the single best phrase to sum up the year. So not worthy of this level of competition
Excellent content. Thanks for all the videos you've shared with us this this year! Looking forward to 2025.
Agree 💯👏
FWIW I agree with your most “controversial” take - Aron had the best average qualifying pace across the season and he continually frittered away good results in the best car. I think he’ll be found out if he ends up in an F1 car at some point next year, to be honest.
Solid take - at least I think his chances of ending up in F1 line up well with that assessment
based on his gaps to cordeel who's pretty bad i wouldnt say he ahd the best qualy pace, it really seems like hitech just had the best pace
@@milanwyd441 That's probably true - the stat came from the fact that taking the average quali pace across the year (with a couple of dropped scores) I had Aron on 100.224%, with Bortoleto 2nd (100.251%) and Hadjar 3rd (100.274%). But yes, I agree that a lot of that is probably down to Hitech. I also can't claim that this stat is accurate as it's just me plugging some numbers into a spreadsheet (...I do have a life, honestly!)
@@Chicane_Soup thats probably true, he was fastest when we just look at qualy times, my stats are not quite up to date because i did them around sumemr break but im pretty sure its still reasonably accurate. i used direct teammate comparisons and cordeel vs p1, in previous years cordeel was well over a second away from pole on average while this year its only about 7-8 tenths. arons gap to cordeel is also less than what doohan had or hughes had
So many rookies in 2025. Drugovich had such a bad luck.
Both him and Pourchaire must be super disappointed. And considering we'll have so many rookies next year, it'll be mad difficult to find a seat in the next few years too
Great video man! Do you think Alex Dunne will get the Rodin seat next year considering he practiced with them last week. Looked good too. There hasn't been a confirmation yet, should that be a worry?
I've got 0 inside knowledge but him getting the seat has also been the consistent rumour so I'd think that is still happening. Definitely wouldn't be too concerned with no announcements just yet
I've just watched a couple of your videos, and in one of them you said that Freddie Slater really is the biggest prospect coming up after Kimi Antonelli, but that you wouldn't quite put Freddie in the same category as Kimi. Could you reply with a comment or make a video where you compare the two drivers?
I've been following Kimi since the Zandvoort FRECA weekend last year, where he dominated in the rain. I've gone back to watch a lot of races of his F4 UAE and F4 Italian championships, a few races from the ADAC F4 German series, and I've looked at the races in the European Karting Championships he won in 2020 and 2021.
I learned about Fast Freddie through your videos. I've gone back to watch a few of his races in Italian F4 and a few of his karting races from 2021 and 2022, if I'm not mistaken. It's safe to say I know a lot more about Kimi than I do about Freddie. Could you explain to me what the differences are between them? When looking at their single-seater careers up to this point, both of them have basically won or dominated every series they participated in, and both have won either European or World Karting Championships. All things considered, why do you rate Kimi higher than Freddie? Thank you!
Edit: Thank you for making these videos. Recently, I've become increasingly interested in all the Formula feeder series and in karting, but I don't have the time to watch all these different categories. Your channel is perfect for people like me who are interested in these series but don't have the time to watch them all. Thank you so much for the time and effort you put into making these videos! I was surprised to see how few subscribers you have when considering the quality of your videos and the value you provide. In my eyes, your channel has significant potential, and I'll be supporting you all the way.
First of all thank you very much for the nice words and the support - people like you are exactly who I had hoped to reach with this channel 😁
Regarding Kimi vs Freddie, I hope I said I don't rate him quite as highly *yet*. You are correct, both have basically won everything possible in cars so far (well, up until Kimi's F2 run of course). But I find Kimi's karting career to be even more flawless in the latter years and I am waiting to make sure Freddie can do it in faster cars, although his GB3 debut was basically enough to convince me already. The karting argument is super nitpicky (I rate Euros a lot higher than World Championship for example) and realistically I am just a bit biased towards Kimi to be entirely honest. But of course there are huge expectations on Freddie for 2025 to keep that status if that makes sense.
All of that said this might end up being a video after all if Freddie stays on that trajectory, comparing their careers head to head should be quite interesting!
@RaceWeekReview You said it in your "11 NEW CHAMPIONS In One Weekend?! | Race Week Review WK39" video at 12:46, and you didn't use the word "yet," but it doesn't really matter all too much since your reply perfectly answers all my questions.
Also, what is your opinion on the Mercedes junior driver Kenzo Craigie? I saw that he won two world championship titles this year in the OKJ and in the IAME X30 Junior classes. What other drivers around his age are at his level or better than he is, and how do you rate him? I know it's hard to properly rate him since he's only 14 years old, but you must know much more than I do about these things. Cheers, mate!
Oh I might be mistaken. I think you might have meant that you wouldn't put Oleksandr Bondarev in the same category as Freddie Slater...
Haha I like the dedication, I may have had a weird day there then 😅
Craigie has so far most impressed me with an ability to show up in the really big races, as you said the double world title and how he got it was certainly impressive. Driver of the year in his class was Dries van Langendonck though and personally I also rated Niklas Schaufler and Christian Costoya a bit higher over the year. As you say though, doesn't mean too much yet anyway - basically just that I'd expect all of them to be above average in a good F4 series. The rest time will tell, none of the current crop look like Kimi or Freddie imo. DVL maybe getting there.
Ha, that sounds much more likely! Bondarev is certainly in contention for best karting graduate of the year but no Kimi / Freddie.
Your take on Paul Aron is interesting. I also believe the car had the capability to win the title and in some way he ‘bottled’ it - he really struggled with his starts. But it’s not all his fault in hindsight. He did a good job At Belgium and lost 15 points on the last lap, and who knows what could have happened in the Monza feature race, while he lost a lot of points at Abu Dhabi because of a team mistake.
I think even if he theoretically had the best car it doesn’t mean he had the best team. HiTech have made mistakes that the likes of Invicta Prema and ART just don’t make (think of Cordeel’s pit stop in Imola). I would say even more so for Campos. Operationally Campos are not a strong team this was evident across the season especially at Hungary and Baku.
Back to Paul Aron, I think it’s also fair to say he was under more pressure than Bortoleto or Hadjar. They are academy backed drivers, but Aron was on a shoestring budget after being dropped by Mercedes. But at the end of the day his errors at Silverstone and Hungary were his own fault. He’s the most ‘interesting’ driver of the season I guess because expectations were very low of HiTech they were expected to be backmarkers and I think Paul himself was very surprised to be fighting for podiums. He kind of built these high expectations out of nowhere, then had that mid season errors and the late season was marked by good form mixed with bad luck.
I wasn’t surprised to see him announced as the Alpibe reserve driver. I think Paul demonstrated the pace of that HiTech and maybe? that helped Oliver Oakes get the promotion to F1 as team boss? Like a debt to be paid really. Depending on who has more power Oakes V Briatore we might see him in the Alpine car in F1.
The most important bit here is the operational aspect - very much agree that both Hitech and especially Campos were far from great operationally. A decent chunk of what I keep calling 'bad luck' for Hadjar was really down to Campos messing up as well.
I understand the connection to Oakes but it still blows my mind a bit that they spend time and money and Martins only to sign someone else last minute. Not that Aron is a bad signing in isolation though.
Hitech is Off Course a good Team but You didn’t mention Aron‘s bad luck and if he had more luck like Bortoleto or Hadjar for example italy where he got taken out while leading or Belgium where he lost a Podium on the last lap.
Spa was especially heartbreaking but all the front runners were rather unlucky, I don't think he had it as bad as Bortoleto and Hadjar. Might be interesting to actually do the maths on that one, it has been one crazy season.
aron's luck? MORE luck like hadjar? aron was WAY luckeir than the others, he had bulletproof reliability up until spa, he lost WAY less points to luck than everyone else around him. msot of his poit losses were his own driver errors
Aron had the best car but lost points when he shouldn't have
@RdeCGaming Yeah because his Engine blew up or he got taken out by Marti
@milanwyd441 No only in Spain he made a mistake in Hungary Maloney decided to stop in the middle of a Corner
i hope audi gives a nice car to gabriel and hulkemberg
Was always going to be a bit of scattered season with the new car, with different teams nailing setup every other weekend. That makes it a little bit harder to judge the talent but I think in general the top 2 guys were a step ahead of everyone else.
Also think Aron's season is a tad bit underrated just because nobody had him as their favourite before the season started. So he gets a bit more scrutinised than the favourites where the excuses come flooding through. Sure he had an inconsistent season but honestly every driver on the grid did. Nobody was really that rock solid, everyone was making mistakes.
Have to say as well that Miyata was hugely disappointing for someone who is a Super Formula champion. I mean, I was expecting some struggles with him early in the season with the tyres but to just be as lost as he was was unexpected. I get he's not familiar with the tracks but I think at this level that's no excuse, have to be able to get on top of that side quickly.
There might be something to that second paragraph for sure. It is a difficult case - he did better than expected but at the same time it should have probably been even better.
Miyata was super disappointing no doubt but to still highlight the track situation, I think this is a pretty unique scenario, joining on that level of competition and racing against all the kids that grew up on these tracks. Can only really compare that to people transitioning to IndyCar I suppose. Nevertheless I agree that can't excuse everything - if it was just the tracks he would have been noticably better around the non-European tracks that his peers aren't too familiar with either I reckon. Between Australia, Qatar and Baku he had his opportunities.
totally agree with your aron assesment, that hitech was an absolute rocketship, aron got so goddam lucky. put someone like antonelli/bearman/martins in it and they easily win the title i reckon
the hitech/aron take is bang on. he had everything to walk this title and his own driver errors are the only reason he didnt. he can be a deent driver and have a decent career elsewhere, but he is nowhere near good enough for f1 and this year proved that. formula e with envision seems a likely destination still though i didnt find him too impressive in his 2 starts in berlin
I'll happily give people a pass for sucking during their Formula E debut - not everyone is Taylor Barnard 😁 Must be one of the worst series to come into as a rookie
@RaceWeekReview yeah it's definitely one of the tougher ones, difficult cars to get used to, especially how to make them work over a race distance, but yeah barnard is a good comparison, f2 didnt do justice to his talent but thankfully he can show it elsewhere
is martins leaving alpine ??
No idea, but does it matter much at this point? Difficult to imagine him ever getting a shot if they don't even value him enough to be the reserve.
It's insane how much alpine have disrespected the talent of Martins.
Story of his career really
My take on Martins is, that he is a great qualifier, if not the best on the F2 grid. But he is lacking a bit of Consistency or Racecraft. I know that ART wasn't the best car this year and I also think he was unlucky many times, but his race pace isn't as good as his qualifying results. Last year is also some kind of proof of that, he was faster on one lap than Pourchaire, but in the race Pourchaire most of the time got the overhand.
@ Martins is exceptional on the brakes for overtaking but I understand your point
😎🏎️❤