This is a follow-up to Prema/FDA Venn diagram which summarizes the outcomes of 2020 season for the drivers listed there. The 2021 FDA status is not known at present.
Tracking the movement of drivers between the following categories: F1, F2, F3, FR (“regional”), and F4 (but not those coming into F4, of which there are too many).
F2 to F1
Nikita Mazepin
Mick Schumacher
Yuki Tsunoda
F3 to F2
Liam Lawson
Oscar Piastri
Lirim Zendeli
F4 to F3
Jak Crawford
Jonny Edgar
Skipping FR is a risky move, but it worked out spectacularly for some (Pourchaire in 2020).
FR to F3
Ayumu Iwasa
Arthur Leclerc
Iwasa appears here and below because he moves from F4 to F3 while contesting FR Asia in between.
There are good reasons to have reverse grid races in Formula 2. There may also be good reasons to award 4 points for pole position, though I am not aware of them. Anyway, Formula 1 does not have either thing, and only awards 1 point for fastest lap (with a slight difference in rules, which I think is immaterial for the following).
Top five in the final standings 2020 Formula 2 season:
Driver
Points
Schumacher
215
Ilott
201
Tsunoda
200
Shwartzman
177
Mazepin
164
F2 scoring
And here they are with the points awarded according to F1 logic: no reverse grid races, no pole position points, 1 point for fastest lap.
Driver
F1 Points
Tsunoda
142
Schumacher
139
Ilott
137
Mazepin
117
Shwartzman
116
F1 scoring
The drivers moving up to F1 rank 1, 2, 4 in F1 order instead of 1, 3, 5 in F2 order.
This is not an attempt to calculate exactly how many Super Licence points each driver has. Instead, the goal is to find how many points they earned in the last two seasons of FIA Formula 2 and Formula 3. The previous iteration (for 2018-19) is at Super Licence points, simplified.
In the 2017-20 format of Formula 2 weekend, a driver could score at most:
4 for pole position
25 for feature race win
2 for fastest lap in feature race
15 for sprint race win
2 for fastest lap in sprint race
for the maximum possible total of 48. Nobody reached the maximum, and nobody will, since the weekend format will be different in 2021. The best total was 45 earned by Leclerc in Baku 2017: he scored all of the above except the sprint race result was P2, with 12 points instead of 15.
Tsunoda scored the second-best total of 43 in the very last weekend in this format, Sakhir 2020.
Three of these came in a season finale, perhaps with some extra career-related motivation
Formula 3 used a slightly different format in 2020 and 2019, with 10 positions reversed for sprint race in 2020. Placing the feature race winner at P10 instead of P8 naturally reduced the totals.
In 2019, the top F3 results were:
39 points for Armstrong in Sochi (again, a season finale)
37 for Shwartzman in Barcelona
37 for Lundgaard in Budapest
In 2020, the top F3 result was 32, achieved three times: by Zendeli at Spa, and, surprisingly, both Piastri and Pourchaire did it over the same weekend in Budapest.
One way to measure the level of competition in a championship is to divide the points earned by the runner-up by the champion’s points. Expressed as a percentage, this quantity is between 0 and 100. Measured by it, ADAC Formula 4 was the most competitive championship in 2020, while Formula 1 was the least competitive.
Series
Champion
Runner-up
Percentage
F4 Germany
Edgar
Crawford
99.3
F4 Britain
Browning
O’Sullivan
99.0
F3
Piastri
Pourchaire
98.2
FR Europe
Petecof
Leclerc
95.5
F2
Schumacher
Ilott
93.5
F4 UAE
Pizzi
Fluxá
91.3
F3 Britain
Frederick
Maini
89.8
Formula Renault
Martins
Collet
87.4
FR Asia
Alders
Doohan
86.1
F4 USA
Yeany
Blanco
80.0
F4 France
Iwasa
Sato
76.0
F4 Italy
Minì
Pizzi
73.2
F4 Spain
Haverkort
Boya
71.0
FR Americas
Lundqvist
Malukas
70.6
Euroformula
Ye
Dunner
67.2
F1
Hamilton
Bottas
64.3
Omitted: a few series I don’t bother reading about
Consider that FR Americas uses the same scoring system as F1, and its season also had 17 races. Lundqvist won 15 out of 17 (finishing P2 and P6 in the other two), and even that championship was closer than F1.
The Mugello race did not change the 1-2 graph of F1, but some things changed in the finishing record, with Latifi’s DNF, Albon’s podium and Russell’s P11. Four drivers were classified in every race so far. With their (best-worst) positions, they are:
Hamilton (1-7)
Bottas (1-11)
Norris (3-13)
Albon (3-15)
Hamilton has the “best worst” result: P7. Grosjean is now the sole owner of “worst best” result: P12.
Formula 2
This is getting complicated.
Graph of 1-2 finishes
The F2 graph begins to resemble an organic molecule. One would not guess from it that Ilott is the championship leader: Ghiotto, Mazepin, Schumacher, and Shwartzman all have higher vertex degree. Of these, Ghiotto looks like the central character of F2 season, which he was not really.
Classified in every race so far: Delétraz (2-19), Daruvala (4-19), and Piquet (7-21). The best worst result is shared by Delétraz and Daruvala: P19. The worst best result is Samaia’s P14.
Formula 3
And just like that, the season is over…
F3 season
Pourchaire and Piastri have degree 5; Sargeant, Vesti, Hughes, and Lawson have degree 4. An extremely impressive performance by Pourchaire, considering he came to F3 straight from F4 which is rarely done nowadays (only Hauger and Staněk did the same, with far less spectacular results.)
Classified in every race: Pourchaire (1-26), Verschoor (2-27), Fittipaldi (4-26), Staněk (8-26). The best worst result (P26) is shared by Pourchaire, Fittipaldi, and Staněk. The worst best result is Deledda’s P20.
Peroni dominated intra-team qualifying battle, which was not a battle at all.
The wild F1 race created a small 1-2 component, which is very unikely to get connected to the rest of the graph.
Russell and Verstappen remain unbeaten by teammates in qualifying. Five drivers were classified in every race so far. With their (best-worst) positions, they are:
Hamilton (1-7)
Bottas (1-11)
Norris (3-13)
Albon (4-15)
Latifi (11-19)
This means that Hamilton has the “best worst” result: his worst result was 7th place. The “worst best” result is shared by Grosjean and Russell: their best result was 12th place finish.
Formula 2
Right after I exposed the two-party system in Formula 2, it was broken by Monza Feature Race, where Schumacher and Ghiotto were 1-2. This means F2 now has a connected 1-2 graph, in which the Schumacher-Ghiotto edge links two parts that were previously separate. It is a neat graph with relatively few loops, easy to draw on a plane.
The graph has a large diameter: Ticktum and Zhou are separated by 7 edges. It has two centers: Schumacher and Ghiotto share this role (every other vertex is within distance 4 of them).
Four drivers were classified in every race so far:
Delétraz (2-19)
Aitken (3-19)
Daruvala (4-19)
Piquet Jr. (7-21)
Therefore, the best worst result (19th place) is shared by Aitken, Daruvala, and Delétraz. On the other hand, Samaia has the worst best result: 14th place.
Aitken and Ticktum remain unbeaten by their teammates in qualifying.
Formula 3
The F3 graph of 1-2 finishes is more loopy, which makes it harder to draw.
It is still a planar graph
Four drivers were classified in every race so far:
Pourchaire (1-26)
Verschoor (2-27)
Fittipaldi (8-26)
Staněk (8-24)
Perhaps surprisingly, Staněk has the best worst result (24th). Less surprisingly, Deledda has the worst best result (20th).
Peroni remains unbeaten by his teammates in qualifying.
The two-party system works as follows: in each F2 race so far this season, one of two parties took both P1 and P2: the president and vice-president posts. The parties are evenly matched, in that each won 7 out of the 14 races held so far. However, the split is uneven in feature/sprint categories.
Ilott’s party won 2 feature races (Austria and 70th anniversary) and 5 sprint races (Austria, Styria, Hungary, Britain, and Spain).
Shwartzman’s party won 5 feature races (Styria, Hungary, Britain, Spain, and Belgium) and 2 sprint races (70th anniversary and Belgium)
Ilott’s party tends to win on pace, while Shwartzman’s party is stronger in strategy. There is also a geopolitical aspect to this division: Shwartzman’s party represents mostly Asia and Russia (with exception of Schumacher), Ilott’s party is mostly European and has no drivers from either Asia or Russia.
Party lines tend to cut across F2 teams. Just two teams entirely align themselves with one of two parties: ART is Ilott’s, and Prema is Shwartzman’s. Three teams are in the awkward position of having teammates of different affiliation: UNI, MP, and Hitech. In DAMS, Carlin, and Charouz one of two teammates is an independent, while Campos, HWA, and Trident stay out of politics entirely.
Ilott’s party has 7 members connected by 6 edges, each representing a 1-2 finish (Lundgaard/Ticktum got 1-2 twice) Shwartzman’s party has 6 members connected by 7 edges, each representing a 1-2 finish.
While Ilott is an undisputed leader of his party, Shwartzman is facing serious threat of an internal coup: primarily from Tsunoda, but also from Schumacher and Mazepin.
A major change on top of the standings table, with Shvartsman dropping from 1st to 3rd after scoring just 4 points in 4 races. But let’s look at the larger picture: what are the chances of Shvartsman driving in F1 in 2021? I don’t think there are any to speak of. The driver market is tight (Alonso coming back, Hulkenberg trying to come back, the number of seats does not increase…) and any F1 team would be right to be concerned about Shvartsman’s one-lap pace: so far, he qualified in positions 8, 6, 11, 18, 11 in F2. Winning F2 championship without having a F1 seat lined up is not a great career move: it rules out another season in F2 and none of other series would be a step forward in single-seater racing career.
So, Shvartsman’s target in the 2020 championship ought to be the 2nd place, not for the 1st. From the FDA pipeline perspective, it would be logical to promote Ilott, drop Alesi, and keep Armstrong, Schumacher, and Shvartsman for another year in F2.
Back to the graphs of 1-2 finishes. Unusually, there are two large components with 5 vertices each: Ilott’s component and Shwartsman’s component. The former has mostly European drivers (plus Armstrong), the latter has drivers from Russia and Asia (plus Schumacher). And the small Deletraz-Drugovich component remains isolated.
Combined 70th anniversaty podium (by total points earned):
Ilott (33)
Aitken (25)
Tsunoda (23)
Most consistent in 2020 so far: Mazepin, finished in top 14 in every race. Since “top 14” does not sound that great, I’ll add he also scored in the last 7 races, the longest active scoring streak.
Unbeaten in intra-team qualifying competition: Aitken, Drugovich, Lundgaard, Ticktum.
Formula 3
Graph of 1-2 finishes. Both components expand but remain disjoint
Combined 70th anniversary podium (by total points earned):
Sargeant (29)
Lawson (23)
Hughes (22)
Most consistent in 2020 so far: Beckmann, finished in top 10 in every race. In other words, the only driver who scored in every race so far.
Unbeaten in intra-team qualifying competition: Peroni. His teammates at Campos do not appear to threaten his qualifying record.
Bonus feeder series
Formula Regional Americas Championship has a very simple graph: Lundqvist won all 8 races held so far.
Go Linus!
Incidentally, here is Lundqvist showing off one of his eight FRAC trophies on Swedish TV.