Felipe, Bruno Michel, Felipe Drugovich discussed on The Autosport Podcast

Automatic TRANSCRIPT

And also we'll talk about the formula two champion. And what they do next. Stick around those stories are on the way. Okay, welcome back to the podcast now, Megan. Let's talk a little bit about the Monza madness. The chaos of that weekend, because as you've told us already, drugovich was crowned champion whilst he was out of the car, watching the race unfold his nearest competitor, couldn't get the points. He needed. But that was the same for F three that you told us about a couple of weekends ago, but that was because the F three race was stopped on the Sunday, bearing in mind F two was decided on Saturday. And they decided not to restart F three because they had an F two race to get to, but the F two race, there was nothing up for grabs in terms of the championship. I love the drama, but there was a lot of it. And it was just funny, you know, Felipe had basically tied up the title. If he had finished, if he'd finished, if Tao had finished, I think, 5th or above, then it would have been he could have been in contention still. But given that he started 14th, it was always unlikely. So it was kind of a given that the sprint race was going to decide the title. But then Felipe gets knocked out on the first lap and you sat there and everyone in the media center is like, what is happening? Felipe sat there in the pit lane, and he wins the title, and he said, you know, it was a bit odd, but it was quite nice. So he got to celebrate with his team from the pit lane, and then as you mentioned on the Sunday, the F three title was also decided in quite a odd way. The series CEO Bruno Michel did say that he would rather have seen the F two feature race on the Sunday. You know, sure and you've got F three first thing in the morning, normally it's some sort of awful time, like 8 30. And then F two is directly after that. And then there's Porsche Super Cup and then they have to get everything ready for F one. So there's not much time for maneuver in such a busy schedule. And I think that is why they just canned the end of the F three race. When really they could have done the barrier repairs, half the length of the F two race given that the title was already decided. Let the F three race be decided on track rather than from the pit lane like the F two one was. So it was a bit of an odd ending to an odd championship in both series. Well, then tell us then. What happens next when you win formula two? You've mentioned all of the incredible names that we know very well from Formula One and GP two before it as well. Some of the legends of Formula One have come up that way, not to say other series aren't great, but this is for most the route into Formula One. And then what happens next according to the rules, once that Felipe drugovich has won formula two, I mean he wouldn't want to go back to it for a fourth year, but he can't, right? Bruno Michelle said that he thinks that it's it needs to be an up and out model because he wouldn't want them to become professional championships, because if you do that, you're going to have people staying in the same championship, having a big advantage winning it repeatedly. And that would be bad for the young drivers. And that's something that he feels is really important to the series. But Felipe said, in his opinion, either your champion and you can not stay anymore and you have to be promoted to F one or you can stay. And that he thinks what needs to change is whoever wins the championship needs to get a go in F one. And it's not often been the case that the champion hasn't got an F one seat, but if you look at if you look back in the past 2019, Nick devries one F two didn't get enough one seat. Oscar piastre. The whole Oscar piastre thing is a different kettle of fish, but Oscar pierce street, one F two last year and did not get immediately promoted to F one. He spent a year as our penis test and reserve driver, and now we'll be going to F one with McLaren. A lot of differing opinions over what should happen to the F two champion, given that they're not allowed to return, you know, do they move somewhere else if there's not enough one seat? Do they try formula E do they try IndyCar? But really most of these guys are in F two and they want to get to F one. So a lot of them had to spend a year not racing essentially, which as strokes said in his champions press conference is not ideal for a driver, having to spend a year not racing. But Felipe is going to be Aston Martin's test and reserve driver for 2023. He is also the first member of their new kind of driver development program. He'll be doing lots of testing, lots of sim work. He's doing his first Formula One FP one session at Abu Dhabi. So you'll have lots to keep him occupied. What a great story of the year and I'm sure he will be repeated again next year Fast & Furious action. Megan, thank you so much for joining us on the auto sport

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