2009 FIA Formula Two Championship

The series saw the drivers using a chassis that was built at the WilliamsF1 team's headquarters at Grove in Oxfordshire. It was named as the JPH1, incorporating the initials of series boss Jonathan Palmer and Patrick Head, engineering director for Williams.[1] The car was given two shakedown tests at Palmer's Bedford Autodrome by Steven Kane,[2] before the car was officially launched on 2 March at Brands Hatch – the headquarters of MotorSport Vision, who run all the cars in the series.[3]

At each event there were two 30-minute practice sessions, two 30-minute qualifying sessions and two races of varying length; the distances for each announced prior to each race weekend. Points were awarded to the top eight drivers in the race, and were awarded in the same system as Formula One: 10-8-6-5-4-3-2-1, and only a driver's best fourteen scores counted towards the championship.[4] That said, no driver had to drop scores in the championship due to all of them having two or more non-points-scoring races.

The winner of the FIA Formula Two Championship received a full test with the AT&T Williams F1 team, which was run in such a way as to seriously evaluate the driver with regard to their potential as a Formula One driver. Drivers finishing in the first three places in the final classification of the Formula Two Championship qualified for an FIA Super Licence.

The season was overshadowed by the fatal accident suffered by Henry Surtees at Brands Hatch. All the cars carried a tribute to Surtees for the rest of the season.

• During a question & answer session at the 2009 Autosport International show in Birmingham, series boss Jonathan Palmer announced that the Formula Two field will expand from 20 to 24 cars.[5] This then became 25 as Edoardo Piscopo joined the line-up and Jens Höing returned after contractual issues.[6] After Henry Surtees' death, there were only 24 cars at Donington Park, before returning to 25 for Oschersleben, with Ollie Hancock making his debut.[7]

No.	Driver[8]	Rounds
2	Sebastian Hohenthal[9]	All
3	Jolyon Palmer[10]	All
4	Julien Jousse[11]	All
5	Alex Brundle[12]	All
6	Armaan Ebrahim[13]	All
7	Henry Surtees[14] †	1–4
8	Tobias Hegewald[15]	All
9	Pietro Gandolfi[16]	All
10	Nicola de Marco[17]	All
11	Jack Clarke[18]	All
12	Robert Wickens[11]	All
14	Mirko Bortolotti[19]	All
15	Mikhail Aleshin[20]	All
16	Edoardo Piscopo[21]	1–7
17	Carlos Iaconelli[22]	1–7
18	Natacha Gachnang[23]	All
20	Jens Höing[24]	All
21	Kazim Vasiliauskas[25]	All
22	Andy Soucek[26]	All
23	Henri Karjalainen[27]	All
24	Tom Gladdis[28]	All
25	Miloš Pavlović[29]	All
27	Germán Sánchez[30]	All
31	Jason Moore[31]	All
33	Philipp Eng[32]	All
38	Tristan Vautier[33]	8
44	Ollie Hancock[34]	6–8

The first group test was held on 6 May, at Snetterton in Norfolk. In the morning, 21 of the series' 24 drivers were within a second of each other. Two sessions were held, one in the morning and one in the afternoon. There was another group test at Silverstone on 18 May, with two dry sessions and one wet session. Two other test days were held during the session, one at Donington Park, and one at Circuit de Catalunya.

The Formula Two calendar consists of eight rounds with two races at each event.[38]

Round		Circuit/Location	Country	Date	Supporting
1	R1	Circuit Ricardo Tormo, Valencia	Spain	30 May	WTCC Race of Spain
	R2			31 May
2	R1	Masaryk Circuit, Brno	Czech Republic	20 June	WTCC Race of the Czech Republic
	R2			21 June
3	R1	Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps	Belgium	27 June	International GT Open
	R2			28 June
4	R1	Brands Hatch, Kent	United Kingdom	18 July	WTCC Race of UK
	R2			19 July
5	R1	Donington Park	United Kingdom	16 August	Stand-alone event
	R2
6	R1	Motorsport Arena Oschersleben	Germany	5 September	WTCC Race of Germany
	R2			6 September
7	R1	Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari, Imola	Italy	19 September	WTCC Race of Italy
	R2			20 September
8	R1	Circuit de Catalunya, Barcelona	Spain	31 October	International GT Open
	R2			1 November

• The official website of the FIA Formula Two Championship
• 2009 Formula Two Technical Regulations As archived at www.webcitation.org on 23 December 2009
• 2009 Formula Two Sporting Regulations As archived at www.webcitation.org on 23 December 2009
• 2009 FIA Formula Two Championship Standings As archived at www.webcitation.org on 23 December 2009