Four of the nine Formula 2 champions race in Formula 1 today: Charles Leclerc, George Russell, Oscar Piastri and Gabriel Bortoleto. That fact alone is enough to dismantle the idea that Formula 2 is a minor category. It is not. It is Formula 1’s waiting room, and since F1 changed scale it has also been the series that gained the most from it.

My argument is simple: Formula 2 wins when Formula 1 wins, because it lives inside the same weekend, in front of the same crowd and under the eyes of the same teams. For a brand, that changes how it should be seen: not a miniature F1, but a way into the paddock with its own rules and its own costs.

What is Formula 2

The current FIA Formula 2 Championship was born in 2017, when the FIA renamed the GP2 Series, which had been Formula 1’s main support series since 2005. The name changed, the role did not: it is the last step before F1 on the FIA single-seater ladder, above Formula 3.

It is a one-make championship. Every team runs the Dallara F2 2024, introduced in 2024, with a 3.4-litre Mecachrome V6 turbo producing 620 horsepower and the same titanium halo used in Formula 1. Tyres are supplied by Pirelli, as in F1. In 2026 the championship fields 11 teams and 22 drivers over 14 scheduled rounds, all on Formula 1 Grand Prix weekends. This year F2 raced in North America for the first time, in Miami and Montreal, and made its debut in Madrid.

Formula 1 and Formula 2: the differences

The first difference is the car. In Formula 1 each team designs and builds its own car; in Formula 2 everyone has the same chassis and the same engine. What matters is the driver and the team that sets the car up, far more than the engineering budget.

The second is the format. As a rule, each Formula 2 round has a single free practice session and qualifying on Friday, then two races: the Saturday sprint, with the top ten from qualifying in reverse order, and the Sunday morning feature race, longer and with a mandatory tyre change, a few hours before the Grand Prix, while the grandstands are already filling up.

The third is the age and the job of the people driving. Formula 2 drivers are mostly very young, and many of them are tied to Formula 1 teams’ academies. Every race is also a job interview, and it shows: they attack more and take more risks, because the Formula 1 seat is won there.

Formula 1’s waiting room: the champions

The roll of honour from 2017 to 2025 reads: Charles Leclerc (2017), George Russell (2018), Nyck de Vries (2019), Mick Schumacher (2020), Oscar Piastri (2021), Felipe Drugovich (2022), Théo Pourchaire (2023), Gabriel Bortoleto (2024) and Leonardo Fornaroli (2025). Leclerc races for Ferrari, Russell for Mercedes, Piastri for McLaren, Bortoleto for Audi. De Vries and Schumacher reached Formula 1 and then left it.

Fornaroli is the most recent example of how the mechanism works. He won Formula 3 in 2024 and Formula 2 in 2025, with 211 points, sealing the title with a round to spare. In December McLaren brought him into its driver programme and for 2026 named him reserve driver. Translated into commercial language: whoever backs a Formula 2 driver is also buying an option on that driver’s future career.

Why Formula 2 wins when Formula 1 wins

I think of Formula 2 as the opening act at a big concert. The audience did not come for it, but it is already there, it has already paid for the ticket and it is ready to pay attention. When the headliner fills bigger and bigger stadiums, the opening act plays to more people. Without doing anything differently.

That is what has happened. The Formula 1 calendar has grown from 21 Grands Prix in 2018 to 24 in 2024, and in 2024 the circuits welcomed around 6.5 million spectators. Formula 2 is on track on the same weekends, in front of those grandstands, inside the same paddock. On television it follows the same path: in the United Kingdom Sky Sports F1 shows practice, qualifying and races live, and in the United States from 2026 F2 can be watched on F1 TV, included in the Apple TV subscription that holds the Formula 1 rights.

In my view the most underrated asset is the paddock itself. A Formula 2 partner shares the space where Formula 1 team principals, managers and sponsors work, the most valuable networking room in motorsport.

How much does Formula 2 cost

There are no official figures, and I would be wary of anyone who quotes just one. The estimates most often cited by the specialist press put a competitive seat at between 2 and 3.5 million euros a season, almost always covered by the driver through personal sponsors, an academy or the family. For a sense of scale: in Formula 1 a top title sponsor pays tens of millions a year, as we explain in our guide to how much it costs to sponsor a Formula 1 team.

For a company the point is not the seat but the space on the driver, the car and the team, which costs a fraction of a Formula 1 sponsorship deal. The possible formats, from the team to the individual driver, are covered in our analysis of F2 and F3 sponsorship.

Three mistakes I see brands make

The first is treating Formula 2 as a cheap Formula 1. It is not: television exposure is lower, and anyone who buys F2 for F1 numbers ends up disappointed. You buy it for the paddock, for the drivers’ stories and for the relationship with the teams.

The second is betting everything on one driver without protecting the investment. If the driver moves up to Formula 1, the contract must state what happens to the partner: image rights, right of first refusal, continuity. Without those clauses the driver’s success becomes someone else’s success.

The third is not activating. A logo on the car with no hospitality, content or client meetings remains a sticker on a car that races in the morning.

What Formula 2 leaves a brand with

Formula 2 does not need Formula 1 to be spectacular, but it does need Formula 1 to be seen. For a brand this is its value: entering the most watched weekend in motorsport with a budget that can be discussed, and travelling with the drivers who will be on the grid tomorrow. Drivers move on, the paddock stays. Always.