Yas Marina Preview: A title fight to the finish

We’ve seen 24 races, 15 different race winners and five lead changes in the Drivers’ Championship, but now all that remains is one last battle as the Yas Marina Circuit plays host to the 14th and final round of the 2023 FIA Formula 2 Championship.
An action-packed weekend awaits as Théo Pourchaire, Frederik Vesti and Ayumu Iwasa all vie for ultimate glory, whilst Victor Martins and Oliver Bearman aim to take the top rookie honours and finish inside the top three. Meanwhile, ART Grand Prix and PREMA Racing will be hoping their stars of the ’23 campaign get the job done in the Teams’ Championship.
Here is everything to keep an eye on at Round 14 in Abu Dhabi.
THE FORM BOOK
The lead of the Drivers’ Standings flowed back and forth until Pourchaire took control in Spa-Francorchamps. Since then, the ART Grand Prix driver has solidified his advantage, carrying a 25-point lead into the season finale with only 39 points left to play for.
It’ll be a busy weekend for the Sauber junior as he gets behind the wheel of Alfa Romeo’s C43 in Formula 1’s first Free Practice session. He’ll be joined by familiar company with title rival Vesti (Mercedes), Jack Doohan (Alpine), Oliver Bearman (Haas) and Isack Hadjar (Red Bull) all in action, alongside 2022 Champion Felipe Drugovich (Aston Martin) and 2021 runner-up Robert Shwartzman (Ferrari), whilst Zak O’Sullivan will make his F1 debut with Williams ahead of his graduation to F2 next year.
After failing to score in the last three Feature Races, Vesti sits second on 166 points and needs a big haul if he is to overtake Pourchaire. Meanwhile, DAMS’ Ayumu Iwasa remains in contention, but must achieve a perfect weekend and hope his rivals both do not score.
THE CHAMPIONSHIP STANDINGS
Doohan sits fourth on 138 points, just ahead of top rookie contenders Martins and Bearman, on 131 and 130 points respectively. Pourchaire and Martins’ ART team retain the lead in the Teams’ Championship on 332 points, 26 points ahead of PREMA and Rodin Carlin round out the top three on 212.
Two Formula 3 graduates will make their debut runs in Formula 2. Williams junior Franco Colapinto joins MP Motorsport ahead of his 2024 campaign with the Dutch squad, replacing Jehan Daruvala. Paul Aron will take over the #21 Trident car in place of Clément Novalak, off the back of his third-place finish in the F3 Standings.
WHERE TO WATCH THE SESSIONS
FROM THE GRID – THÉO POURCHAIRE, ART GRAND PRIX
“My hopes and expectations are to clinch the Formula 2 title. I want to win it, but I also want to win the Teams’ Championship. It will be my last F2 race ever and my last race in the Road to F1. I did one year in Formula 3 and three seasons in F2, so I’m going to be a bit emotional because that’s a good part of my life.
“Hopefully, we can finish this amazing story with a beautiful title. So, let’s focus on that and I want to enjoy this moment, that’ll be super important and I’m sure we will do a great job.
“The key overtaking areas are for sure the two big braking zones after the two DRS zones at Turns 6 and 9. Every time we see some overtakes at Turn 6, but there is another DRS detection point just after Turn 7 and the other driver can re-overtake the driver who overtook him two corners before. It’s very interesting, you have to be very intelligent on the track. Also Turn 5 can be one of them, especially on the first lap of the race.
“Tyre management is always a key factor in Formula 2, but in Yas Marina, I don’t think it will be that hard. As always, it’s important to focus and save the rear tyres and the front right tyre a little bit because Turn 9 is a very long and difficult corner for them. It’s not going to be really hard, but you do still need to take care of the tyres.”
TECHNICAL PREVIEW
Since the redevelopment of the Yas Marina Circuit for 2021, the layout has become even more strenuous in terms of fuel consumption. With a higher percentage of the lap now made up of flat-out blasts along the two long straights between Turns 5 and 6 and 7 and 9, that is the highest demand placed upon the cars in Abu Dhabi.
Protecting the tyres in the slower speed sections will also reward drivers later in the stints, with superior grip providing a late-race advantage over those that use up the best of their tyres immediately. The final sector is tight and twisty while Sectors 1 and 2 emphasise aero balance and top-end speed. The long and fast Turn 9 hairpin will hurt the front right tyre the most.
Braking capabilities are important to pull off overtaking manoeuvres in the heaviest braking zone around the circuit into Turn 6, but they are relatively light in terms of overall demand versus other venues like Monza, which features several major braking areas across the lap
RACE STRATEGY
Drivers will have the red-walled soft and yellow medium compound Pirelli tyres available to them this weekend.
It was a tightly-contested Feature Race in 2022 as Ayumu Iwasa converted pole position into victory, but it took a monumental defensive display to keep Felipe Drugovich behind. Starting on the soft tyres, Iwasa pitted on Lap 9 from the lead to switch to the mediums before Drugovich responded one lap later.
Battling all the way to the 33rd and final lap, the DAMS driver kept the 2022 Champion behind to take the final win of the season by just over half a second, with third-place finisher Liam Lawson just 1.3s off the leader in the end.
Mario Isola, Pirelli Motorsport Director
“The FIA Formula 2 Championship season traditionally ends in Abu Dhabi with a round that will award both the Drivers’ and the Teams’ titles for 2023. P Zero Yellow medium and P Zero Red soft compounds have been chosen for this final weekend of the Championship. On a track where traction has always been a particularly critical phase for tyre degradation, the best strategy on paper for the Feature Race is to start on Soft for an initial stint of around 10 laps before switching to mediums.
“However, in the past it has not been uncommon to use a medium-soft strategy, extending the first stint as long as possible and then using the grip advantage of the softer compound in the closing stages, when those on mediums may be struggling more. Over the 23-lap distance of Saturday’s Sprint Race, it is almost certain that the compound of choice for all drivers will be the one indicated by the yellow band.”
STAT PACK