How the 2024 Championship compares to previous Formula 2 seasons

There are two rounds left in this fascinating 2024 Formula 2 season and with both Championships being closely fought, we wondered how this campaign compares to the seven that have come before it.
Gabriel Bortoleto and his Invicta Racing team are currently at the top of both Standings, but they are being pushed by Isack Hadjar and his Campos Racing squad.
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However, the question is, how does each Championship match up to previous Formula 2 seasons?
Bortoleto took the lead in the Standings last time out in Baku, a fourth-place finish in the Feature Race was enough to send him to the top of the leaderboard.
Hadjar trails him by just 4.5 points heading to Lusail for Round 13, meaning this is the closest the top two have ever been at this stage of the season.
The previous closest gap was actually in 2023 when Théo Pourchaire led Frederik Vesti by 12 points going into the penultimate race weekend at Monza.
But Bortoleto and Hadjar are not the only drivers still fighting for the title, as mathematically Zane Maloney, Paul Aron, Jak Crawford, and Andrea Kimi Antonelli all have a chance.
That means there are six drivers still chasing the crown, which is a slight drop from 2023 when 10 drivers had a mathematical chance heading into the final two rounds.
In 2022 though, only Felipe Drugovich and Pourchaire were title contenders at this stage of the season. 2021 was similar to 2023 as 10 drivers still had a shot, while there were nine hopefuls in 2020.
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Six drivers remained in the hunt in 2018, while 2017 and 2019 had the fewest in the contention, with five still in play during those seasons.
While there may be six contenders left in the title fight, the new F2 car introduced this year has arguably made the 2024 season one of the most competitive in the Championship’s history.
The drivers and teams have been learning this car all year, and while it is close, we have seen fluctuations in performance from weekend to weekend.
So far,10 out of the 11 teams have won races this year, with Hitech Pulse-Eight the only ones yet to do so, but they have gone close a few times and their driver, Aron, is still a contender.
This is all to say that it has not been the easiest of seasons for our title challengers and the win percentage statistic shows just how difficult this year has been.
Our six title contenders have won 11 out of the 24 races, a win percentage of 45.8% and an interesting statistic when compared to the other F2 seasons.
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In 2023, the title contenders had won 81.8% of the races with two rounds to go, it was even higher at 88.8% in 2021. The previous year, it was at 80%, which was a jump up from 72.2% in 2019. In 2018, the six title contenders had won 75% of the races, while it was 66.6% in 2017.
The 2022 campaign is the only comparable season, where Felipe Drugovich and Pourchaire had won eight out of the 24 races with two rounds to go, giving them a win percentage of 33.3%.
However, there were the only two contenders that year, showing just how competitive the 2024 season has been and that every driver and team is capable of winning a race on any weekend.
So far this season, we have had four drivers lead the Championship Standings, with Maloney, Aron, Hadjar, and Bortoleto all having led the way at various stages.
This is in keeping with the trend of the previous three seasons in which four drivers have been at the top of the Standings at one stage or another.
What is different though is the number of changes we have had at the top. This year, the lead has only swapped four times. In 2023, it switched on eight occasions throughout the entire campaign, while it was six in 2022 and five in 2021.
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In fact, this is the lowest number of changes at the top since 2019, also four. Interestingly, in 2017 and 2018, only twice did the lead change hands.
Now, there is of course two rounds to go and there is plenty left to be decided, so that number could still change.
The Teams’ Championship is also up for debate with Invicta leading on 243.5 points, sitting 35.5 points clear of Campos. But the entire field remains close, illustrating the earlier point of how competitive this season has been.
Currently, there is a gap of 169.5 points from Invicta to last placed Van Amersfoort Racing. The deficit from first to last has never been this close.
From 2017 to 2021, with two rounds left that gap would have put VAR sixth in the Standings. In 2022, it would have them ninth and in 2023, the Dutch outfit would be seventh.
To further show how close the field has been, Invicta’s 243.5 is the lowest points total by the leaders at this stage of the season, as is Campos’ 208 points for the second-placed team.
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This is because teams in the bottom half of the Standings have scored record points. For example, ART Grands Prix 156 points is a highest amount for a seventh-place team with two rounds remaining.
This is the same for DAMS Lucas Oil, on 146 points in P8, Trident’s 97 in P9, AIX Racing’s 79 in 10th and VAR’s 74 in 11th.
It has been a very competitive year and there are still four races left and plenty to play for, so who knows what will happen next.