The battle to be Britain's next F1 star

A Mercedes driver fighting a McLaren racer and a Renault star for glory, all the while battling a host of more experienced opponents, each with their own excellent chance of victory. It would make pretty good viewing at a grand prix event, wouldn't it?

In 2018, Mercedes part-time Formula 1 reserve and reigning GP3 champion George Russell steps up to Formula 2 alongside McLaren reserve and last year's European Formula 3 title winner Lando Norris, with Renault standby and '17 GP3 runner-up Jack Aitken joining them on the F2 grid. Russell and Aitken will transfer to F2 with category stalwart ART Grand Prix (with which they both competed in the third tier last term), while Norris is racing with the returning Carlin team.

They each completed six days of pre-season testing at Paul Ricard and in Bahrain with their respective squads - plus the post-2017-series tests in Abu Dhabi (Norris drove for Campos Racing ahead of Carlin's return). But their experience differs coming into the new season.

Russell and Aitken join the series from GP3 and, while there are inevitably crossovers between the two series, even those aren't as simple as they might seem.

"[F2 uses] the same family of [Pirelli] tyre as GP3, but it's not the same characteristics entirely," says Aitken. "There's definitely more degradation in F2. GP3, particularly last year, was quite conservative in terms of deg, so you just had to drive up to the limit and make sure that you were not wrecking the tyre. But in F2, it's a bit more of a subtle art."

Although Norris retired from the Abu Dhabi feature race with an engine problem he reckons making that one-off appearance "helped me compared to some of the other rookies."

Backing from F1 giants naturally brings pressure to succeed. But all three British rookies, knowing that there can of course be only one champion at the end of the year, explain that other factors will be at play when it comes to how their benefactors will assess their F2 seasons.

Russell is "here to win the championship - but Mercedes will be judging me on performance rather than results". Aitken says he and Renault feel "there's no point saying 'You need to be in this position by X', when we've got a bit of history together and we know what we expect". And Norris, highlighting that McLaren want him to use this year to fully prepare for F1, explains that the team "wants me to win the championship, but it's not the end of the world if I don't".

"But that doesn't mean that I'm not going to push as hard to win and take the risks I need to win the championship," he adds.

It's no surprise that the trio are united in their desire to win the title and then make the final step up to the biggest stage of all, but, as all three are level-headed and well aware of the volatile nature of the category, expectation management is understandable. The stakes, after all, are high.

If Russell impresses in F2 this season, then there's every chance Mercedes will find a place for him in one of its customer F1 teams - most likely Force India where he took part in two practice sessions after securing the GP3 title last year. Norris certainly is in the frame for a McLaren seat should Fernando Alonso or Stoffel Vandoorne move elsewhere for 2019, while Aitken could force Renault to find a space for him in F1 if he is the driver to beat in the second-tier.

"There's a lot of hype around Lando in particular, and George as well. I've got no issue going up against them - it's a good thing and I'm not too worried" Jack Aitken

Ahead of Carlin's F2 return, Norris described signing for the team as a "risk" because it had not run in the category since it was known as GP2 in 2016. Team boss Trevor Carlin agreed, explaining that as the team was unproven "of course it's a risk".

But Russell reckons being a new team will not have any impact on Carlin's performance, particularly as it has hired or promoted several engineers with previous GP2/F2 experience, including Daniele Rossi, who worked with Antonio Giovinazzi and Antonio Fuoco at the all-conquering Prema Racing squad in 2016 and '17 respectively.

With the 2018 season getting underway in Bahrain this weekend, the trio naturally have their sights on the first competitive action. But it's arguably F2's toughest test, thanks to the hot conditions and high degradation track surface. Last season, category veteran Artem Markelov won the opener as eventual runaway champion Charles Leclerc (leading above) struggled with tyre management in the first feature event. But that race didn't set the tone for the season, which was really established by the new Sauber F1 driver's charge in the sprint race.

"It's a very tricky circuit," says Russell. "And you can very easily overdo it and drop off big-style. It's going to be very tricky, but over the course of the season I'm feeling very confident [about tyre management]."

The field encountered significantly less tyre degradation and different handling characteristics in the colder conditions they tested in at Paul Ricard, so it well may be that the Bahrain event proves to be an outlier once again.

But once the season gets into full swing - and thanks to Leclerc re-establishing what rookie drivers can achieve in F2 - it would surprise few observers to see Russell, Aitken and Norris battling it out on-track and in the standings. Nothing is guaranteed, of course, especially with Prema's recent dominance of the category, but such a fight is something all three are relishing.

"I see it as a good thing because there's a lot of hype around Lando in particular, and George as well, and a bit for myself," says Aitken. "I've got no issue with going up against them, it's far more the opposite - it's a good thing and I'm not too worried for the moment."

"I'm here to prove myself to be the best, or work towards being the best driver out there, to try and fulfil my place in an F1 seat next season," is Russell's take. "And I have the approach that I'm going to have to beat everyone at some point in my career and if I want to be the best, that's what you have to do."

Norris adds: "It's good for our sport and it's good to have some British drivers so close to F1. But it's a good opportunity for me to prove hopefully that I can beat them. It's a good thing that I'm going up against them - especially George, who won GP3. It's a good opportunity to see what I can do, and at the same time have some great battles throughout the year."

Fitting words for what could well be one of the most unpredictable and exciting seasons in F2's history.

"McLaren want me to make sure I'm learning and developing, but at the same time I still need to prove I can win, I can beat these drivers, and show I'm worthy of being where I am" Lando Norris

As well as the new turbocharged F2 2018 car the teams have been getting to grips with in recent weeks, nine other drivers with links to F1 teams or engine suppliers will race in the category this season. Markelov - now a Renault junior - heads the experience stakes, with proven race winners Nicolas Latifi (Force India test and reserve driver), Sergio Sette Camara, Antonio Fuoco (Ferrari Academy) and Nyck de Vries (McLaren) all returning. The last named heads Prema's line-up alongside Sean Gelael as the Italian squad bids for a third consecutive drivers' title.

McLaren-backed de Vries triumphed in the Monaco sprint race in 2017, and was the top rookie driver (behind dominant champion Leclerc) in the final standings. Last year, he shone in qualifying but was unable to make the crucial feature-race breakthrough - but he did well to cope with switching teams mid-year, from Rapax to Racing Engineering, which have now both left the category.

De Vries' presence adds an intriguing subplot to the season, in addition to the British rookies' battle, as he will vie with Norris for McLaren's attentions.

"He's a very good driver," says Prema team boss Rene Rosin. "He's trying to focus on every single detail, trying to optimise everything. He's working very hard with his engineer and with the team, so he's well prepared."

Another driver Aitken needs to be wary of is Markelov, given the Russian's new status as a Renault test and development driver. But really, Markelov is a title threat to all three given his ability to keep the famously fragile Pirelli F2 tyres alive to his advantage. He's also started 86 GP2/F2 events and scored five wins in 2017, only two behind Leclerc in the final tally.

But across the trio of British rookies, confidence is high going into round one.

"[McLaren] want me just to make sure I'm learning and developing throughout the year," says Norris. "But at the same time I still need to prove that in this new championship I can still do very well - I can still win, I can still beat these drivers, and [show] I'm still worthy of being where I am."

Aitken says he's "cautiously optimistic at the moment, [on] the year as I whole".

"I think I'm going to get better and better as rookie and I'll learn more, especially when we get to the European leg of the season where I know more of the tracks [and] it'll be a bit easier," he adds.

"I'm feeling confident for the season ahead - I feel like we're in good stead," says Russell. "There's a lot of competitive drivers on the grid this year - so it really is the highest level of junior series. I would say across the board this is probably one of the most competitive fields in terms of the sheer quantity of quality."

Leclerc stole the show in 2017, but this season with a new car likely to throw up surprises, Prema is wary that will result in a "reshuffle of everything", according to Rosin. With three hugely talented and likeable British rookies eying glory and F1 promotion, the battle on the F1 undercard is going to be unmissable.