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Six Formula 2 drivers from three teams have been handed grid penalties for both Melbourne races in support of Formula 1’s Australian Grand Prix after their teams were discovered to have been drilling spec parts to illegally measure aerodynamic loads in pre-season testing. This had been done in an apparent attempt to gain valuable set-up information for the 2025 F2 campaign, using additional data on car airflow other than that provided to all teams as part of the championship’s spec arrangement. The breaches impact Jak Crawford and Kush Maini from DAMS , Amaury Cordeel and Alex Dunne from Rodin Motorsport , plus Trident duo Sami Meguetounif and Max Esterson .
They will all serve 10-place grid penalties in both the Melbourne F2 feature and sprint races, although for Meguetounif and Maini, they will cop the sanctions even though the illegal measuring only occurred on the cars of their respective team-mates. The saga unfolded at F2’s sole pre-season test at Barcelona last month, where the cars of Cordeel, Dunne and Esterson were discovered to have been fitted with a sensor drilled into the diffuser (fitted via two holes drilled into the Trident car and one each drilled into the same part on the Rodin-run machines). The discoveries were made on the second of three days of running at the Barcelona track, at the same time as Crawford’s car was found with five holes drilled into its diffuser, although the sensor was back in the DAMS garage when this was revealed.
The teams concerned were found to have broken Article 10.2a of the F2 sporting regulations, as well as Article 1.5.
2, Article 8.4.10 and Article 8.
4.11 of the FIA Formula 2 technical rules. This was during a hearing convened by the specific F2 stewards at the Australian GP – the next event after the Barcelona test and so this panel exercised jurisdiction over the matter.
Jak Crawford, Dams Photo by: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images In explaining their findings and rulings, the stewards declared that “the F2 championship is based on a single chassis and single engine”. “Aerodynamic data is provided to all teams from the chassis manufacturer,” the bulletin continued. “The technical regulations specifically limit how the external airflow may be measured.
“In addition, the modification of a standard part [the diffusers in this case] is only allowed per the regulations, the user manuals, or a technical bulletin. The modification of a part so as to fit a sensor (which includes the tube to transmit the air pressure and the sensor itself) is forbidden.” This is different from F1, where teams can run dedicated sensors – and even illegal parts – during testing as the aero loads are all unique and the proprietary data of each team via their differing chassis designs.
For all three F1 squads, their team managers admitted “the standard diffuser was modified by the drilling of a hole in order to install a tube and sensor to measure the external airflow”. Although in the case of Crawford’s DAMS-run car, the team claimed although it had been prepared to use an illegally-fitted sensor, it did not go ahead with such a test as it was collecting data from the similar method of such measurement that is permitted in the F2 rules. As well as the grid drops, all three teams were fined €10,000 and will likely lose one day of the upcoming Bahrain F2 test.
The other eight F2 squads are set to be allowed to fit the diffuser sensors in the same manner at this event and run it for the duration, as the FIA cannot know how long the Barcelona sensors had been fitted for. It will be up to the governing body to decide if this goes ahead and if it does, DAMS, Rodin and Trident will not be allowed to use the additional sensor. In the cases of Meguetounif and Maini, the Melbourne stewards decreed that because Trident and DAMS could potentially use the additional data to benefit their cars with different set-up options the other teams have not yet accessed, in a bid to ensure some restoration of fairness, they must serve the same grid drops as their team-mates at this weekend’s event.
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