This season of Formula 2 has been like no other, with front runners Prema and ART falling down the order, while backmarker teams such as Campos and Hitech now find themselves at the very top of the standings.
Finlay McSporran
Published: 16:43, 30th May 2024
But perhaps the biggest surprise of the season has been Paul Aron. The Estonian rookie who now finds himself leading the F2 standings.
It has been a great start to the season for the 20 year old, having finished on the podium in each of the 5 opening rounds of the season, including a P3 last time out during the feature race at Monaco, a podium that saw him take the lead of the championship from Zane Maloney.
But to truly understand this achievement we first have to take a look back at his junior career.
Aron would start to make a name for himself in 2019 where he participated in both German and Italian F4 with Prema, finishing 7th and 3rd respectively in what was his first full year of car racing, having competed in karting the year before.
Aron would also become part of the Mercedes junior team that year, which would help him climb up the single seater ladder.
2020 would see Aron move up to the Formula Renault Eurocup, racing with ART. However this would prove to be a difficult season for him, as he was outscored by his more experienced teammates Grégoire Saucy and now F2 driver Victor Martins. His best finish that year was a P2 at the Nürburgring, his only podium that season.
After a difficult season with ART, Aron returned to Prema for the 2021 season with the series being rebranded as the Formula Regional European Championship.
That year he would finish 3rd in the standings, ahead of his teammates David Vidales and Dino Beganovic, with 2 wins and seven podiums to his name.
Aron would return to the series for a 3rd time in 2022, racing again with Prema he took the most wins out of anyone that season (6) and the most poles (7), however lost out on the championship to teammate Beganovic as he struggled for consistency, failing to score a single point during the Monaco round.
In 2023, Aron along with teammate Beganovic would make the jump up to F3 once again with Prema. Unlike 2022, Aron would have a far more consistent season, as he finished in the points 14 times out of 18 races, leading him to 3rd in the standings, ahead of teammate Beganovic with just one win to his name. This win came during round 5 of the season at the Redbull ring.
During qualifying for that weekend Aron set a lap that was good enough for pole, however this lap was deleted for track limits demoting him to 4th. This meant that he started 8th for the sprint race, and with rain hitting the track it looked like he could do little more than salvage a point or two.
However, with the odds stacked against him Aron climbed through the field, going from 8th to 1st in the wet to take his first and only win in F3, demonstrating his determination and wet weather ability
That brings us to today, where Aron has carried this consistency over to F2, with him scoring points in all but one of the opening ten races and finishing on the podium in 5 of those.
What makes this even more impressive is that after finishing 3rd in F3 last year, he was dropped by the Mercedes junior team meaning that unlike most of his rivals in F2 he is not supported by any F1 team and yet is leading the standings, ahead of fellow rookie and Mercedes junior driver Kimi Antionelli.
It makes one wonder if Mercedes should have dropped him from their junior team, and also begs the question why he’s not under consideration for an F1 seat at the moment, especially when there’s so many seats on offer.
Only time will tell whether or not Aron can hold on and win the F2 championship in his first season. If he does, he will be the first to do so since Oscar Piastry won the title in his first season back in 2021, and hopefully, like Piastry, Aron will be able to showcase his talent in F1 one day.
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