What the future holds for two Red Bull juniors fighting in the F2 battleground

Prema Racing was flying high at the end of 2021. Finishing top of the teams’ standings, 156.5 points clear of second-placed Virtuosi, and with Oscar Piastri and Robert Shwartzman taking a 1-2 in the drivers’ championship, the team sealed its second double in as many years.

Entering 2022, the squad secured a strong Red Bull junior driver pairing, with third-year driver Jehan Daruvala joining from Carlin and reigning FIA Formula 3 champion Dennis Hauger making the step up the feeder series ladder with the team.

But this season has, as Daruvala put it, been “a bit disappointing”. The Indian driver sits fifth in the standings, while Hauger is 12th, having had a “rollercoaster” start to his rookie campaign. Though Prema only sits fifth in the teams’ standings, it does have much to be cheerful about, with nine podiums and two wins secured so far, both victories courtesy of Hauger.

Despite the “up and down” start to the season, both drivers are finding their feet, and with four rounds remaining are optimistic about their chances heading into the triple-header of Spa-Francorchamps, Zandvoort and Monza, which starts this weekend.

Seasoned F2 racer Daruvala has been ever the bridesmaid this year, with five second-place finishes to his name but victory has proven evasive, and his time is running out with the Indian driver’s tenure in the series drawing to a close at the end of 2022, having competed for three seasons.

Looking back over 2022, Daruvala rated his season a six out of 10 – “it’s definitely not going to plan” – but said he has had “good potential, we’ve had good pace”. He believes qualifying has been his Achilles heel but, once those issues are ironed out, he is ready to fight for that much-needed win.

Speaking to Autosport at the Austrian Grand Prix last month, Daruvala said that, though he is disappointed with his one-lap performance so far this year, he has been “one of the fastest” when it comes to race pace.

“We started off quite well, but the last couple of weekends, especially qualifying hasn't been great, lacking a bit of one-lap pace,” he said. “We seem to be quick in the races, but just can't get things quite there in qualifying. I mean, a lot of the tracks we've had the potential to be in front. But yeah, this weekend, especially, it was a bit disappointing because, right from free practice, we were just not quick enough.

“It's hard to pinpoint. You know, in other tracks, we've had good potential, we've had good pace. Here [at the Red Bull Ring], every sector I did yesterday was just not quick enough. The car balance felt pretty good, but we were lacking a lot in sector one yesterday, it was pretty much only Turn 1, which is hard to get our head round.

Daruvala puts his underwhelming F2 campaign down to poor qualifying performances

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“My best qualifying of the year was in Barcelona, and we had an engine failure on the right strategy. So at the end, we missed out on a lot of points there. But it's no excuse. I think we're not quick enough right now to be fighting for the championship. If you keep qualifying like seventh, eighth, ninth, you can only score a limited amount of points on the weekend. We really need to fight for those front rows and score heaps of points over one race weekend.”

Despite trailing championship leader Felipe Drugovich by 86 points, and fellow title contender Theo Pourchaire by 65, Daruvala is “feeling quite confident” heading into the triple-header, having taken one of his 2021 wins at Monza.

Though, admittedly, “the championship looks a long way off,” he says: “I’m not gonna give up. I need to get on a roll, win some feature races and then anything is possible.”

With his third-year team-mate facing pressure to perform as his tenure in the series draws to an end, Hauger has been given different pressures making the step up to F2, and fronted up to arguably the most scrutiny among his F3 graduate peers as the reigning F3 champion – though he says he hasn’t compared himself to the likes of Logan Sargeant, Frederik Vesti and 2021 F3 runner-up Jack Doohan.

Despite his a sprint race win in Monaco and a feature race win in Baku, plus a podium at Imola, Hauger says he “wants to be higher up” and “would've liked to be more consistent, but I’ve just got to try and keep working on it”.

Having undergone two F1 young driver tests with McLaren recently - Red Bull was “more than happy for me to take that opportunity” despite it being with a rival team - Daruvala believes he is ready to make the step up

Like Daruvala, the Norwegian has found himself frustrated with “a few hard rounds”, failing to score in three of the last four weekends. Some of those have been out of his control – the feature race at Silverstone a prime example, where DAMS driver Roy Nissany went wide after Stowe, coming back on track and making contact with Hauger, who then flew over the sausage kerbs and landed on Nissany’s car as they both piled into the gravel.

But Hauger too is optimistic about the remaining rounds, and has put in the work over the summer break to hit the ground running at Spa.

“We’ve been working hard, I think over the summer now and on the simulator, to really try and get back to where I think we belong,” he told Autosport ahead of this weekend’s outing. “But yeah, I had a few good rounds, obviously, the victory in Baku and winning in Monaco was really good. Although it's been a few hard rounds, I think we've got to stay positive and obviously keep working forwards. Three weeks in a row now with races, and it's gonna be good to get back after the summer break.

Hauger has endured mixed fortunes in his rookie F2 campaign but has shown moments of potential

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“I think [my confidence] has obviously built up throughout the season, all the time learning and getting experience. But yeah, they were definitely good moments, and obviously when you get a win and get more comfortable with it, you get a bit more confidence with everything, so that was definitely a good thing for me to get. The potential has always been there, we’ve just got to keep focusing ahead and try and get more trophies over the next couple of weekends.”

Despite having had an up and down season, both Hauger and Daruvala have support for one another, the older driver praising his “really strong team-mate”, who he believes will be “a championship contender for sure” should he undergo a second F2 season.

Hauger, meanwhile, says he has learned a lot from Daruvala: “He has the experience and also definitely, things I could have taken and have taken in to this season as a rookie, obviously, a lot of new things on the way and always learning stuff.

“So in that sense, it's been good and I think since Monaco, really, we’ve been quite consistent, I would say. Sometimes he's a bit over and sometimes I am, so I think just getting more and more comfortable with the car, and really trying to get myself to 100% with it. And I think when that happens more, I think we should be back where we belong.”

Something else the pair share is membership of the Red Bull Formula 1 team’s junior academy, with Daruvala joining in 2019 after finishing third in F3, while Hauger has a long-standing relationship with the team – and was recently touted as a future AlphaTauri prospect by boss Helmut Marko.

They are joined in the junior roster's somewhat busy F2 line-up by Carlin driver Liam Lawson, who will undertake his first FP1 session at Spa this weekend for AlphaTauri, and rookies Doohan (Virtuosi) and Ayumu Iwasa, driving for DAMS.

The pair are buoyed by the team’s support both during and around race weekends, with Daruvala saying this is the year he has been “most involved with everything”, though he acknowledged the unlikely chances of any driver to graduate to F1 next year with the team.

For Hauger, who is still only 10 rounds into his F2 career, this is not a problem, and it’s likely he will continue his campaign in 2023, though he says he is unsure of his plans at this point in the season.

But it paints a different picture for Daruvala, who is looking to move into the top tier, even if that is to a test and reserve driver role – one currently occupied at both Red Bull teams by Lawson.

Both Daruvala and Hauger are part of a very competitive Red Bull-backed field in F2 including Lawson, Doohan and Iwasa

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Having undergone two F1 young driver tests with McLaren recently - Red Bull was “more than happy for me to take that opportunity” despite it being with a rival team - Daruvala believes he is ready to make the step up. He said the outings at Silverstone and Portimao “went really well”, but is aware, like so many others, of the lack of race seats currently available in F1.

“If I'm honest for next year, I think if I'm not in F1 I won’t be doing much at all,” he said. “Hopefully I can get a reserve role in Formula 1 and try to get a race seat for 2024. But that'll probably be most likely otherwise I’m not looking at anything else for next year, but obviously, from 2024 and beyond, I need to analyse further options.

“I definitely want to race and make racing my living and my career, so it's not going to stop if I don’t go to Formula 1. I want to stay in single-seaters. So, probably Formula E or IndyCar is something I'd like to do, if not Formula 1. I'll be probably trying to stay in single-seaters more than pushing the sportscars. IndyCar is good, Formula E, if you look at the grid, the drivers who are in Formula E, they could have all been in F1 if their luck was different. But yeah, at the end of the day, I'm still trying to get to F1. It's my number one priority and goal, and I’m still working hard towards that.”

"We’re working hard to get on top of things and try to reset over the summer break to get back to the trophies" Dennis Hauger

For now, both drivers are focusing on the rest of the campaign, with their team currently 89 points adrift of championship leader ART Grand Prix, whose star Pourchaire is currently on the charge towards the title, while rookie Vesti has had an impressive upturn in form across the second half of the season.

“I think I’ve just got to take it race by race going into the last part of the season,” Hauger says. “We’re working hard to get on top of things and try to reset over the summer break to get back to the trophies. We’re motivated and confident we can do that, we’ve just got to keep working hard and take it race by race from here on.”

The Prema duo are aiming for a late season surge to defend the team's F2 titles

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