How Prema continued its dominance of F1's junior ladder in 2021

Prema has long been a synonym for success in FIA Formula 2 and F3, and that didn't change in 2021. Taking both drivers’ championships for the second consecutive year, along with another F2 teams’ title, the Italian outfit's winning track record remains firmly intact.

Oscar Piastri swept to the F2 title after a stunning rookie season, his third championship in as many years continuing the Australian's seemingly inevitable charge to the top, with team-mate Robert Shwartzman’s runner-up finish also securing the teams’ title by over 150 points. Piastri continued the firm tradition established by Pierre Gasly in Prema's first year at F2 level (when the series was still called GP2) in 2016, followed up by fellow Formula 1 drivers Charles Leclerc (2017) and Mick Schumacher (2020).

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It narrowly missed out on the F3 teams’ title in 2021, finishing just four points behind Trident in second, but Dennis Hauger bounced back from a torrid 2020 to continue Prema’s run of winning every drivers’ championship since GP3's merger with FIA F3 for 2019 after Shwartzman and Piastri.

Team principal Rene Rosin has overseen that run of success in both feeder series and beyond (Prema claimed a Formula Regional European Championship double in 2019 and 2020, scooped a fifth Italian F4 title in 2020, and also won ADAC F4 in 2017), nurturing a long line of future F1 stars while also maintaining strong links with Ferrari.

“It's been a good season,” he says, talking to Autosport ahead of the final F2 round in Abu Dhabi. “Of course, I would prefer to win also the Formula 3 [teams'] championship, because there's been a few factors that... Nothing to take out, credit to Trident, because of course they've done an amazing job. But I think we have lost a few points sometimes that compromise the title.

“It’s something very important - having won the [F2] team championship twice in a row, I would say in the last six seasons in GP2 and F2, we won four times. The drivers’ championship we won three times, and one time we were second in 2017 that we lost [the teams' title] in the last race to Russian Time at the time, now Virtuosi. I think all the people have deserved a great credit of all the jobs they've done, from every mechanic and engineer, because they've done an amazing job.”

Hauger won four times in 2021 on his way to a dominant title

Photo by: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images

The team’s title haul this year kicked off with Hauger’s F3 victory, the Norwegian sealing the championship in Sochi in September after a consistent season - despite the vagaries of the new-for-2021 format that introduced two reversed grid races per weekend. Scoring four wins and nine podiums, Hauger was a valuable asset for Prema, leading from the first round in Barcelona to see off Trident's Jack Doohan. 

Autosport 2021 Top 50: #41 Dennis Hauger

Hauger says although he came into the year believing he could win the championship – “as a driver, you have to believe that” – he was left questioning his ability by a demoralising 2020 season at Hitech in which he registered just 14 points and finished a lowly 17th in the standings.

“One of the things I started questioning myself was, ‘What’s happening? Am I good enough?’,” the 2019 Italian F4 champion says. “After that testing with Prema, working with Prema, I really learned mentally that I never have to doubt myself.

“Going into this season, at the end of 2020, that was definitely the goal. I knew this was going to be an important year, I was putting all the effort into the season, so happy to end it on top.”

"[Piastri's] consistency, his approach, has been an important part of the result. He’s been able to adapt in a championship that I would definitely rate very difficult for the type of format" Rene Rosin

Rosin says Hauger has had an “amazing season, coming after a difficult 2020 where he was not able to show his potential.” Asked where the Red Bull junior had most improved, Rosin replies: “I think self-confidence mainly, because he was arriving after a season where he was champion in F4, jumping to Formula 3, and struggling to get the results he wanted.

“When he arrived to us, his self-confidence was quite low. We worked a bit on his mind to make sure that he knew he could do this and that he is capable of doing this kind of stuff. And when he gets one result, two results, then he started automatically to turn around. [After] that, everything is getting easier and easier.”

The team’s success continued with its F2 title double, Piastri claiming the F2 crown in Abu Dhabi as Shwartzman overcame 2022 Alfa Romeo Formula 1 signing Guanyu Zhou in a tight battle for second. Taking six wins and 11 podiums, Piastri was the standout star in a talented field, overcoming many more experienced drivers including his team-mate to earn an Alpine F1 reserve berth for next year.

Piastri emulated Leclerc and Russell in winning F2 as a rookie in 2021

Photo by: Simon Galloway / Motorsport Images

In Piastri’s second season with Prema, having taken F3 spoils with the team in 2020, he was the year's best qualifier with a run of five straight poles between Silverstone and the Yas Marina finale that he converted to victory on all but one occasion. Tallied to remarkable consistency, failing to score in just four races during the season, Rosin was highly impressed by Piastri's title-winning campaign - which made him just the third rookie winner of the F2 era after Leclerc and 2018 champion George Russell.

Autosport 2021 Top 50: #23 Oscar Piastri

“His consistency, his approach, has been an important part of the result,” Rosin says. “He’s been able to adapt in a championship that I would definitely rate very difficult for the type of format, having this big, big gap [between events]. Especially for a rookie, [with] a lot of waiting time.

“But I will say he has done a remarkable job. His consistency - being able to come out from the difficult situation, even when he doesn't know the circuit, being quick to learn the circuit in free practice to be okay in quali - is the very strong point for the season.

“Honestly, we were expecting that he was a good driver, we were expecting him to be a frontrunner. [We've] been expecting to fight for the championship since the year one. Of course, when we signed him, we knew that he was a very good driver because he won with us last year, the year before he won the Renault Eurocup.

“But Formula 2 is quite a difficult season. It's not automatically that you win on the first year and what he is doing is something incredible.”

Despite his roaring success, Piastri is without a race seat for 2022, with rival Zhou securing the final seat on the grid at Alfa Romeo alongside former Mercedes driver Valtteri Bottas. Despite the setback, Piastri is aiming to find a spot on the F1 grid for 2023, and says he would be “pretty annoyed” if he fails in that quest.

Rosin agrees that he is “ready to step up in Formula 1,” blaming the late finish of the F2 season for his failure to move up straight away, adding “he's a driver that deserves to be in Formula 1.”

F2 standout Piastri won't race in F1 next year, but has an Alpine reserve drive in his pocket

Photo by: Formula Motorsport Ltd

Prema will expand its horizons further in 2022, with a new LMP2 programme to juggle alongside its junior series efforts. In collaboration with Iron Lynx, it will compete in the World Endurance Championship, marking its first foray into endurance racing in what Rosin calls an “incredibly exciting development” for the team.

As for its F2 and F3 line-ups, Rosin says the team is “finalising everything now, I think we will be able to announce that quite soon”.

"Next year will be again more difficult because everybody wants to beat us, so we need to continue pushing and continue working - but this is what we're used to" Rene Rosin

“Of course, we want to continue winning, we want to continue to demonstrate what we are capable of doing,” he says. “Next year will be again more difficult because everybody wants to beat us, so we need to continue pushing and continue working - but this is what we're used to. This is what our drivers are used to and I'm looking forward to going back in 2022.”

Rosin points out that “actually 2022 is already started”, the F2 squad in testing action at Yas Marina last week with Hauger and Jehan Daruvala. 

“In two months time we ship everything to Bahrain,” he adds, “so it never ends.”

With another successful year in the books and a team principal determined to continue its success, Prema will again be the team to beat in 2022.

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Photo by: James Gasperotti / Motorsport Images