Palmer: Full grid shows F2 potential

Speaking at the public unveiling at Brands Hatch of the new 450bhp, Williams-built car, at Brands Hatch, MotorSport Vision boss Palmer - whose company will run the cars at the eight-venue 16-round series - said that driver interest in F2 had been unprecedented.

"I don't think any other championship can boast the same demand from drivers as we've had in such a short space of time, particularly in its first year," said Palmer. "To have all 24 slots filled so quickly is excellent and F2 will give these drivers all the chance to prove their skill against each other on a level playing field. And help them towards their aim of racing in Formula One."

Palmer added that he wanted to ensure that the category became a realistic option for talented drivers that aren't necessarily well-funded.

"I had to fight to make my own way to F1 without a lot of parental funding, or funding from anywhere," he said. "I had to work hard to raise a bit of sponsorship and do what I could.

"It has long been an aim of mine to create a path that gives drivers an opportunity to make their way at a good value. We were looking into the idea of taking Formula Palmer Audi on another step when the FIA put F2 out for tender anyway."

Williams co-owner Patrick Head added that his company, which designed and built the new single-seater, had relished the challenge of building a cost-effective, high performance chassis.

"The car looks nice but like any engineering project, it will have its problems and we have the time to sort them out during testing and development now," said Head. "It's quite a challenge to design a simple car with quite good performance, to make it not too complex, not too expensive, but to still produce quite a lot of downforce.

"But I am sure it will be a good car for the championship."

British Touring Car Championship driver Steven Kane completed a few demo laps with the new car round Brands Hatch's Indy circuit on Monday, having shaken it down at MSV's Bedford Autodrome the previous week.