George Russell was the reigning drivers' champion, having won the title at the final round of the 2018 championship in Abu Dhabi. Russell would drive in Formula One for Williams in 2019.[1][a]Carlin were the reigning teams' champions, having secured their first Formula 2 title in Abu Dhabi. ART Grand Prix driver Nyck de Vries won the drivers' championship after the win in the Feature race at Sochi. In the teams' championship DAMS secured their first team title over UNI-Virtuosi Racing after the win in the Feature race at Abu Dhabi.
The following teams and drivers competed in the 2019 championship. As the championship is a spec series, all competitors raced with an identical Dallara F2 2018 chassis with a V6 turbo engine developed by Mecachrome. Teams competed with tyres supplied by Pirelli.
Defending champion Virtuosi Racing, which had operated the under the Russian Time banner, acquired the team at the end of the 2018 season and runs the team under the name UNI-Virtuosi Racing.
Defending champion Virtuosi Racing, which operated under the Russian Time banner, took over the team outright from Svetlana Strelnikova. Virtuosi had run the team the past three years, now competes under the name "UNI-Virtuosi Racing".[10][11]Fortec Motorsports had been granted an entry to the Formula 2 grid in 2018, but were later given permission to defer their entry until 2019.[12] However, they were subsequently omitted from the draft entry list for the 2019 championship.[2]
Artem Markelov made a one-off return in Monaco as a replacement for Jordan King at MP Motorsport, who was competing in the 2019 Indianapolis 500 with Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing.[34] After collecting twelve penalty points on his racing license for incurring three Virtual Safety Car infringements during the Paul Ricard feature race, Mahaveer Raghunathan was banned from the series for the Red Bull Ring round.[35] Raghunathan's MP seat was filled in Austria by 2018 Indy Lights champion and 2019 IndyCar Series driver Patricio O'Ward.[3]
Shortly after the Paul Ricard round, Arjun Maini was announced to be replacing Dorian Boccolacci at Campos Racing for the Red Bull Ring and Silverstone rounds.[36]Marino Sato replaced Maini prior to the Spa round.[37]
After encountering funding problems, Ralph Boschung left Trident prior to the Red Bull Ring round. Former GP3 driver Ryan Tveter joined the team in Boschung's place.[38] Tveter was later replaced by Boccolacci. Boschung returned to the team ahead of the Hungarian round.[8]
BWT Arden was represented only by Tatiana Calderón at Monza after Anthoine Hubert's fatal accident.[39] Juan Manuel Correa, who was also involved in the incident, was forced to miss the rest of the season due to injuries.[40] Sauber Junior Team by Charouz did not replace him at Monza, running only Callum Ilott. Giuliano Alesi's car was impounded by Belgian authorities as part of their investigation into the accident at Spa, limiting Trident to a single entry for the next round. Ralph Boschung was stood down to allow Alesi to compete.[4]
For the Sochi and Yas Marina rounds, Matevos Isaakyan, who raced in the 2018 European Le Mans Series, took Juan Manuel Correa's seat at Sauber Junior Team by Charouz.[41] Artem Markelov replaced Anthoine Hubert at BWT Arden for the same rounds, although the Russian raced with #22 as the #19 had been retired for the remainder of the season in honour of the late French driver.[42]
Calendar
The following twelve rounds were scheduled to take place as part of the 2019 championship. Round 9 was abandoned. Each round consisted of two races: a Feature race, which was run over 170 km (105.6 mi) and included a mandatory pit stop; and a Sprint race, which was run over 120 km (75 mi) and did not require drivers to make a pit stop.[f] The 2019 calendar retained the same twelve rounds from the 2018 season.
Points were awarded to the top 10 classified finishers in the Feature race, and to the top 8 classified finishers in the Sprint race. The pole-sitter in the feature race also received four points, and two points were given to the driver who set the fastest lap inside the top ten in both the feature and sprint races. No extra points were awarded to the pole-sitter in the sprint race as the grid for the sprint race were based on the results of the feature race with the top eight drivers having their positions reversed.
† – Drivers did not finish the race, but were classified as they completed more than 90% of the race distance.
Notes
^Under the series' sporting regulations, the defending drivers' champion is not permitted to continue racing in the championship, so Russell would not be able to defend his title.
^At Monza, Alesi drove the car which had previously been driven by Ralph Boschung after Alesi's car was impounded by Belgian authorities as part of their investigation into the accident at Spa-Francorchamps which resulted in the death of Anthoine Hubert. Despite this, Alesi ran with his usual number of 20.[4][5]
^The Feature and Sprint races are time-certain. In the event that the full race distance cannot be completed, the Feature race will end after one hour and the Sprint race after forty-five minutes.
^Nobuharu Matsushita set the fastest lap, but did not finish in the top 10, so was ineligible to be the point-scorer for the fastest lap. Jack Aitken was the point-scorer instead for setting the fastest lap of those finishing in the top 10.
^Luca Ghiotto set the fastest lap, but did not finish in the top 10, so was ineligible to be the point-scorer for the fastest lap. Sérgio Sette Câmara was the point-scorer instead for setting the fastest lap of those finishing in the top 10.
^Sean Gelael set the fastest lap, but did not finish in the top 10, so was ineligible to be the point-scorer for the fastest lap. Nicholas Latifi was the point-scorer instead for setting the fastest lap of those finishing in the top 10.
^Nyck de Vries and Sérgio Sette Câmara recorded identical lap times (1:18.159), but de Vries set it earlier, so he was recognised as the fastest lap holder.
^The race session was stopped on lap 2 and was not resumed, after a heavy accident involving Anthoine Hubert, Juan Manuel Correa, Giuliano Alesi and Marino Sato.[45] With less than two laps completed, regulations dictated that no points would be awarded.[46] No race results were published, and the race was declared abandoned.
^The sprint race was cancelled following the death of Anthoine Hubert the previous day in the feature race.[47]
^Mick Schumacher set the fastest lap, but did not finish in the top 10, so was ineligible to be the point-scorer for the fastest lap. Luca Ghiotto was the point-scorer instead for setting the fastest lap of those finishing in the top 10.
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