Autobayng News Team
Formula 2 CEO Bruno Michel says a new prize fund for drivers entering the series should make it easier for them to complete a full season.
Starting this year, the top five finishers in the Formula 3 season will each receive a six-figure sum to go towards the cost of a seat in F2. The total pay-out will be €1 million, with the winner receiving €300,000 and the remainder awarded in decreasing €50,000 increments to €100,000 for fifth place.
Pirelli already awards €300,000 to the F3 champion, meaning they will immediately receive €600,000 towards an F2 season. Michel acknowledged that won’t be enough to fund a full season in F2 but said it will be a valuable contribution towards it.
“Already a prize fund of one million euros is something that is quite important,” he told media including RaceFans. “It’s good that we share it between the top five drivers. We could have decided to give it to only one driver, but I think it would not be fair.
“The idea to do it as it is, of course, is not going to finance a full season in Formula 2. There’s no doubt about that. Even if the first driver, if you add up what he’s already getting as a prize fund from Pirelli, plus what this prize fund will give to him, it’s going to be 600,000 euros. It’s already a good amount of money.
“It’s true that for the driver who is [fifth] in the championship, 100,000 euros is not going to finance a full season of F2, but it’s a help. The drivers need to find money and generally find money from several sources, not only from only one. And that will be one of them.”
A full-time seat in F2 typically costs several million euros. Michel hopes the added award means drivers who might have struggled to put together a budget for a full season will find it easier to do so.
“We’re doing that to make sure that the drivers are completing a full season in Formula 2,” he said. “You probably realised that until we got to Baku, we had exactly the same drivers since the beginning of the year, towards Monza, which is quite a good achievement.
“So the prize will be fully given as long as the driver is fully competing on the season.”
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