The two Scuderia Ferrari Driver Academy students are about to tackle the penultimate round of the FIA Formula 2 championship in Qatar. While Oliver has just two more rounds to go in this category, Dino is making his debut prior to a fulltime drive next year.
This racing year has been the busiest ever for Oliver Bearman. Over the next two Formula 2 rounds, the Englishman will be back behind the wheel of the car for the first time since Monza three months ago, winning the Sprint and coming seventh in the Feature Race. He missed the following round in Baku as he was called up to race in Formula 1 for the Haas team. While his Formula 1 future was confirmed a while ago, Ollie still has two rounds of the junior category to race in on consecutive weekends at Lusail and Yas Marina. He will now have to reacquaint himself with the car, although he knows the Lusail track having raced here last year.
Debut. This will be a completely new experience for Dino Beganovic who, with his Formula 3 season now over gets the chance to race in the final two Formula 2 races with the DAMS team. This weekend marks his debut in the category prior to a fulltime drive next season. “I can’t wait to make my debut on track,” said an enthusiastic Dino. “Formula 2 is the natural next step in my career. I know it’s a very competitive field, but being able to do this will be a great help for 2025. Everything will be new to me, the car the team and the track and I will try and learn as much as possible, although I’d also quite like to score some points.”
The track. The 5.429 kilometre Lusail track is very technical. The final turn 16 leads onto the main straight after which the first two sectors consist of a series of slow corners. The third sector begins after turn 10 with a sequence of high speed banked turns at 12, 13 and 14 which are very demanding, while there is always the risk of exceeding track limits especially in qualifying.
Programme. Free practice is on Friday at 14 local (12 CET) with the action resuming in the evening with qualifying getting underway at 19.10 (17.10 CET.) The Sprint race is on Saturday at 19.20 (17.20 CET) and the final Feature Race is on Sunday at 15.20 (13.20 CET).