The weekend
Every F2 round shares its bill with a grand prix and packs into three days: a 45-minute practice and a 30-minute qualifying on Friday, the sprint race on Saturday, and the feature race on Sunday before the F1 cars roll out. Qualifying sets the feature race grid directly — but the sprint grid reverses the top ten qualifiers, so the driver who qualifies tenth starts the sprint from pole and the pole-sitter lines up tenth. The sprint runs to 120km or 45 minutes; the feature is the main event at 170km or 60 minutes.
Points
The feature race pays the top ten 25-18-15-12-10-8-6-4-2-1; the sprint pays the top eight 10-8-6-5-4-3-2-1. Feature race pole is worth two points — reversed-grid sprint pole pays nothing. The fastest lap in each race earns one point, but only if its setter finishes in the top ten; otherwise it goes to the quickest driver who did. A perfect weekend is 39 points.
What decides things
The feature race carries a compulsory pit stop in which all four tyres must be changed, and both of the weekend's dry Pirelli compounds must be used unless wets come into play — so tyre offset and stop timing decide as many feature races as raw pace does. The sprint has no stop at all: a flat-out single stint where the reversed grid hands midfield qualifiers a genuine shot at victory while the title contenders carve forward for lesser points. Everyone runs an identical Dallara chassis and engine, so there are no machinery excuses — which makes Friday qualifying, the session that shapes both grids, the most valuable half hour of the weekend.
The championship
Two titles are awarded: the drivers' championship and the teams' championship, with both of a team's cars scoring at every round. Ties are broken on countback — most wins, then most second places, and so on. F2 is the final rung of the FIA's single-seater ladder, and the rule that defines its character: the champion is barred from returning, so every season crowns a champion who must move on and clears the stage for the next contender.