Weather Keeps Crawford from capitalizing on fast start in Australian F2 opener

Texan has engine trouble in Sprint, rain cancels Feature Race

MELBOURNE, Australia (16 March 2025) – American Jak Crawford opened his third FIA Formula 2 Championship campaign in promising style, running near the front in both practice and qualifying for the Australian Grand Prix F2 opener.

Unfortunately, the 19-year-old Texan never had the opportunity to capitalize on his momentum in the races, dropping out with engine issues near the beginning of Saturday’s Sprint Race while Sunday’s Feature Race was cancelled due to an extended deluge.

The DAMS Lucas Oil driver ran a close second throughout most of Friday morning’s practice, eventually placing fifth.

In qualifying, Crawford held the pole after 10 minutes of running, and was third when he pitted with 18 minutes left in the 30-minute session. After a break, he posted a solid lap of 1:29.587 to run second with seven minutes remaining. The opportunity for an even better time was thwarted when Crawford was impeded by the eventual polesitter, who was given a post session grid penalty for the infraction.

That lap held up for third. Crawford was confident that he had a good opportunity to move forward, having last year qualified 22nd before going on to finish 10th in both races.

“Practice was very good, and I had good speed in qualifying as well,” Crawford said. “Top three was very promising, especially after we were not competitive last year. It’s great to see the improvement, and I was very happy with both sessions.”

That result was dampened by a penalty resulting from penalties for technical infractions issued following pre-season testing, with six drivers from three teams penalized 10 grid positions in both weekend races for modifications to their race cars.

“I learned about it on Thursday, so I knew it would affect the weekend,” he said. “It’s quite unfortunate, but it wound up not affecting me at all.”

Gridded 18th due to the penalty for Saturday’s Sprint Race, Crawford improved four positions over the opening two laps. Moments later, though, he pulled into the pits and stepped out of the cockpit, his day over with engine issues.

“We found out before the race that we might have an issue with the engine,” Crawford explained. “We had to go out there and race, to see if nothing would happen. Unfortunately, we had signs early on that we had problems, and it gave up on the second lap. I had a good start, and it would have been nice to progress and get some points.”

On Sunday, he never had the opportunity to turn a lap in anger, as rain pelted the Albert Park circuit. Cars made the formation lap around the 3.288-mile circuit, but conditions proved so treacherous the red flag halted the field. With the clock winding down, another attempt was made as the field made a few laps behind the safety car, but the rain failed to let up. With less than 15 minutes remaining, the event was cancelled.

“It was definitely way too wet,” he explained. “My car was almost underivable, and guys were spinning behind the safety car. It would not have been easy race, and they made the right call to cancel it.”

Round 2 of the F2 Championship will be April 11-13 at Sakhir’s Bahrain International Circuit. A year ago, he opened his second season in F2 with a second-place finish in the Sprint Race.

“I’m excited, because now I’ll go to Bahrain with no penalties hanging over my head, with a clean slate.”