Will Lawson, Piastri or Zhou follow in the footsteps of fellow Bahrain F2 winners?

Winning in Bahrain has become somewhat of a good omen for Formula Two drivers, ever since the inception of the category in 2017.

In 2020, Yuki Tsunoda won the feature race at the Sakhir circuit, in 2019, Nicolas Latifi won the same event and Lando Norris was also victorious in the feature race back in 2018. Furthermore, in the first iteration of F2 in 2017, Charles Leclerc won the sprint race.

What do these four drivers have in common? They all graduated to Formula One the year after their race win in F2 at the Bahrain International Circuit.

Clearly there’s a link between winning in Bahrain and getting a seat in F1 the following year; could any of this year’s F2 winners make the step up and continue the trend?

Sprint Race 1 Winner - Liam Lawson

In his first ever F2 race, Liam Lawson took the world by storm. Starting from P3 on the grid, he leapfrogged both David Beckmann and Theo Pourchaire as soon as the lights went out, and ultimately dominated from start to finish.

But does he have what it takes to grab an F1 seat next year?

Lawson is a Red Bull Racing junior driver and is competing for Hitech GP in his rookie F2 season. He was announced as a new recruit for Red Bull’s academy in February 2019 after firstly impressing in the NZ F1600 Championship Series, claiming 14 victories in the 15 races to become the youngest ever Formula Ford champion in the world at the time, and later the 2018 ADAC Formula Four championship in which he finished second in the championship with five wins and 13 podiums.

In 2019, he finished first in the Castrol Toyota Racing Series, taking five wins and 11 podiums from 15 races whilst also finishing 11th in the inaugural FIA Formula Three Championship.

After finishing fifth in F3 last year, he was promoted to F2, and it’s looking like an inspired decision.

However, having only competed in three races in F2, the win in the first sprint race, a retirement in the second sprint race and a P3 finish in the feature race, it’s too early to judge whether he is ready to step up or not.

After the first round of three races, Lawson is P2 in the championship and one thing to note is that Yuki Tsunoda only competed in one F2 season and has already impressed for AlphaTauri in the premier competition of motorsport. Could Lawson be next?

Sprint Race 2 Winner - Oscar Piastri 

Yet another F2 rookie, it’s Australian Oscar Piastri who took the win of the second sprint race on the final lap after an exceptional move past Guanyu Zhou, who looked set to take victory.

Piastri finished fifth in the first sprint race, and had a DNF in the feature race, but sprint race two was his time to shine.

He charged through the pack, and after a gruelling battle with the leaders, managed to pull away from Christian Lundgaard and Zhou to take P1.

Unlike the Red Bull affiliated Lawson, Piastri is an Alpine academy driver, and has been so since January 2020, after his early career impressed the French team.

There are several Apine academy drivers on the F2 grid this year, but does Piastri have the most potential?

At just 19-years-old, like Lawson, Piastri is one of the youngest of the 22 F2 drivers this year, and clearly one of the most talented.

The Aussie driver made his single-seater debut in the Formula 4 UAE Championship, claiming two podiums to take sixth in the championship back in 2016, and his speed was evident from the get-go.

The next year, he raced in the British F4 championship, claiming six wins and six pole positions to finish as runner-up to British driver Jamie Caroline.

After competing in Formula Renault Eurocup in 2018 and finishing ninth, he won the category in 2019 after taking seven wins and 11 podiums to ensure victory.

That led to a promotion to F3 in 2020, and yet again Piastri was victorious, with the aforementioned Lawson only P5, winning two races and claiming four podiums along the way as he beat Theo Pourchaire by three points to take P1.

A graduation to F2 was inevitable and with Piastri already showing his talent in the category, Alpine will surely be eyeing him up as a long-term replacement for Fernando Alonso.

In fact, he has already driven an F1 car, during the young drivers test in Bahrain last October.

Feature Race Winner - Guanyu Zhou

After discussing the chances of one Alpine academy driver making it to F1, we move onto another in the form of the aforementioned Chinese driver Zhou.

Zhou was initially part of the Ferrari Driver Academy, having joined in 2014 whilst he was still karting. However, he left the programme at the end of 2018 to join the Alpine, then-known as Renault, academy and has been with the team ever since.

His junior career was clearly successful enough to attract the Prancing Horses, and in 2015 this was displayed in the Italian F4 Championship, with Zhou taking P2 after three wins and nine podiums.

Then in 2016, he began the first of three seasons in Formula 3, finishing 13th in his debut year, eighth the year after, and eighth again in 2018.

Moving up to F2, Zhou finished the 2019 season in P7, before finishing sixth in 2020, with one win, two pole positions and six podiums to his name.

In the early stages of 2021, Zhou took part in the F3 Asian Championship, winning four races and taking 11 podiums to secure first place, and an excellent start to the year.

After winning the feature race in Bahrain, achieving a P3 finish in the second sprint race and seventh place in the first sprint race, Zhou is currently leading the F2 standings this year, and the early signals are that it could be his best year so far.

Which F2 Bahrain winner do you think is the most likely to make the step up to F1 next year?