Formula 2 drove its fourth weekend of the 2024 season in Imola. The lower house of the premier class provided some exciting races, but the entire race weekend was almost overshadowed by an incident in the pit lane.
An extremely dangerous situation arose at Sunday’s F2 race. During a pit stop on the 31st lap, a tire on Belgian Amaury Cordeel’s car was not mounted correctly when he left his pit box. Specifically, it was the Hitech driver’s right rear tire.
Pit stop error: Tire almost hits crew member
The Pirelli tire was thrown forward into the next pit, where the Campos team was also busy with a pit stop. The tire missed a crew member by just centimeters and instead hit the right rear tire, which was lying on the ground next to it – ready to be changed.
It was only with luck that the tire that was thrown around didn’t cause any damage. But the danger didn’t end there. Because the crew on the Campos vehicle, distracted by the competitors’ flying tires, made the same mistake. The left rear tire, which had just been hit by the competitor’s tire, was also not fixed when Pepe Marti’s car left the pits. This tire also immediately came loose and rolled away, but luckily it didn’t cause any damage either.
Fine for Campos and Hitech
The Formula 2 stewards looked at both situations and noted that in both cases the lollipop man had already cleared the car for departure before the tire was fixed. Both Campos Racing and Hitech GP were hit with fines of 1,000 euros, to be paid by the respective teams.
In their justification for the same penalty, the race stewards mentioned that the Campos pit crew was probably distracted by the competition’s failed tire change, but they did not see this as a reason for a lower penalty. “Safety is a priority and the obligation to leave the car out of the pits in a safe condition remains,” argued the stewards.
Apart from this incident, there was also a sporting drama in the pits in Sunday’s Formula 2 race. Ferrari junior Oliver Bearman, who is considered the top favorite for a cockpit at Haas in the 2025 Formula 1 season, stalled his car while changing tires while lying in a promising position and fell hopelessly far behind.
Red Bull Junior Isack Hadjar ultimately won the Sunday race ahead of Gabriel Bortoleto and the German-Paraguayan Joshua Dürksen. Bearman came away empty-handed. The Argentinian Williams junior Franco Colapinto won the sprint race on Saturday ahead of Paul Aron and Zane Maloney. Maloney is still leading in the championship. Bearman sits in 20th place with just six points after a difficult start to the season.