Engine issues keep Crawford from points finishes at Monza

Texan from second to fourth in F2 championship with three weekends remaining

MONZA, Italy (7 Sept. 2025) – American F1 hopeful Jak Crawford had his weekend compromised by engine issues as the FIA Formula 2 Championship resumed with Round 11 at Monza following the summer break.

After an unlucky qualifying session due to a new engine under-performing, the 20-year-old Texan worked his way into contention in both weekend races, only to fall back in the late going to place 16th in Saturday’s Sprint Race and 11th in Sunday’s Feature Race.

Crawford ran as high as second in Friday’s practice, eventually placing ninth – four-tenths of a second off the fastest lap. Qualifying was marred by a pair of red flags, with a third incident ending the session early. Crawford lost both of his best laps due to red flags, placing 12th in the session.

“Qualifying was tricky,” said the DAMS Lucas Oil driver. “We struggled with engine issues all weekend, and that made for tricky qualifying. It was unfortunate with the red flags. We didn’t get to show our pace, even with issues. So it was a rough start for the weekend.”

Crawford was slotted 11th on the grid for the 21-lap Sprint Race. He got off to a clean start, moving up to 10th, and then took ninth before a safety car on the second lap. He managed to dodge an incident shortly following the restart to move up to sixth. From that point, though, engine issues resulted in him falling back through the field.

“It was a good start, but then my engine kept deteriorating throughout the race,” he explained. “That made it pretty tricky to drive in the end. There was nothing I could do. I was missing tons of speed on all the straights.”

A post-race penalty to a competitor put Crawford 10th at the start for Sunday’s Feature race, with all competitors opting to start the race on the super-soft compound tire. Crawford passed the championship leader to take ninth on lap three and then pitted along with another competitor at the first opportunity to switch to the soft compound on lap seven.

Unfortunately, a crash on the following lap allowed the remainder of the field to get a free pit stop, dropping Crawford to 15th.

On the restart, Crawford managed to slip his way through a multi-car incident near the front of the field, coming out in sixth before a third safety car slowdown. The ensuing restart saw Crawford get off cleanly and take fifth position with 14 laps remaining. From that point, engine issues made it difficult to defend his position, dropping out of the points on the final lap.

“It was the same situation in the Feature Race,” Crawford said. “Some good starts, and up in the field on some restarts, and then the engine deteriorating as the race went along. The early yellow right after we pitted was quite unfortunate, because we had a good strategy. But I was lucky to make it up on the next restart. Then we had the same issue with the engine deteriorating that we had in the Sprint Race.”

Crawford is now fourth in the championship with three rounds remaining with 137 points, trailing third by seven points.

After a free weekend, F2 action resumes at Baku City Circuit in Azerbaijan Sept. 20-21. The season concludes with back-to-back events at Lusail international Circuit in Qatar Nov. 29-30 and Yas Marina Circuit in  Abu Dhabi Dec. 6-7.

“We’ll have a new engine in Baku,” he said. “Our car was fast this weekend, and I have no doubt we can do a good race in Baku.”

Photos via © Dutch Photo Agency