With only 20 seats on the F1 grid, many F2 champions and prodigies like Felipe Drugovich, Robert Schwartzman, and Callum Ilott have been waiting on the sidelines for years. Oliver Bearman was able to make a breakthrough and secure the Haas seat for 2025. Meanwhile, Liam Lawson is in contention for a seat in the Red Bull family.
Regardless, they’re among the very few able to make it to F1 in recent years. Former F2 driver Clement Novalak comments on the same issue. “It’s always been the case with F1, especially with the way it was in the last 5 years where a lot of drivers left and many came in. Those guys aren’t going anywhere”, said Novalak on the Track Limits podcast.
The LMP2 racer explained how the new generation of drivers [who graduated from F2 in 2019] on the grid like Lando Norris, George Russell, and Charles Leclerc aren’t leaving anytime soon. This, in turn, doesn’t leave any seats for the current F2 drivers. Novalak gave an example of Robin Frijns, who had a similar meteoric rise to Oscar Piastri but wasn’t able to secure a seat.
Novalak himself raced in the F2 series for a couple of years before being replaced by Paul Aron at the end of 2023. He now races with Inter Europol Competition in the WEC LMP2 category. Many others like the French-Swiss racing driver aren’t able to step up to F1.
Bearman got the surprise debut as Carlos Sainz’s replacement for the Saudi Arabian GP. The Brit grabbed the opportunity and finished in the points. Lawson, on the other hand, stood in for Ricciardo last year in five races when he was matching Tsunoda’s pace. These opportunities massively helped the youngsters to get in contention for full-time seats.
Novalak did suggest that having more teams on the grid will ease this situation somewhat. He recalled the early 2010s when F1 had 24 cars. Nonetheless, the former F2 driver explained that other sports have a similar issue and it isn’t limited to F1.
Novalak on swimming and other sports have the same issues as F1
With thousands of people dreaming and working towards becoming the cream of the crop in a specific sport, and the top spots being limited, it is obvious that many would not be able to make it.
F1 is similar to other sports in this aspect. Some make it all the way to F2 but fail at the last hurdle. While many don’t even make it to F2. Novalak gave an example of his friend who was the best swimmer in the nation from 10-16 years of age. But then, genetics stopped him and he wasn’t able to grow further.
The WEC driver explained how only the top 50 or top 100 are making the big bucks while others are waiting for the chance, be it F1, or other sports like swimming and tennis.
