The Dallara F2 2018 is one of the Dallara entries the open record knows by name, and by little else. That is not nothing: a name in the catalogue is where a car's story starts to be recoverable. Luca Pignacca drew it.
How it came about
The Dallara F2 2018 (originally known as the Dallara F2/18) was an open-wheel racing car developed by Italian manufacturer Dallara for use in the FIA Formula 2 Championship, a feeder-series for Formula One until being replaced by the Dallara F2 2024 from the 2024 season onwards. The F2 2018 was the second car used by the FIA Formula 2 Championship and was introduced for the 2018 championship as a replacement for the aging Dallara GP2/11 chassis.
As the Formula 2 Championship is a spec series, the F2 2018 was raced by every team and driver competing in the series as a cost-control method. The F2 2018 was Dallara's first ever turbo-powered Formula 2 car and also the first turbo-powered Formula 1 junior feeder-series car since the Dallara GP3/10 in the GP3 Series. The F2 2018 was also the longest-serving Dallara chassis in Formula 2 era to date.
The hardware
620 hp @ 8,750 rpm, 583 Nm torque is the published figure. It weighs 720 kg including driver and fuel. Work it out per tonne and you get about 861 horsepower — hypercar territory, where the limiting factor is the tyre, not the engine. The wheelbase is 3135 mm. These are manufacturer figures carried by Wikipedia and Wikidata, not road-test measurements.
Family and rivals
Its family tree is legible: it took over from the Dallara GP2/11; its successor was the Dallara F2 2024. Its Dallara stablemates include the Dallara 320 and the Dallara F191.