Alessio Deledda and Matteo Nannini will move up to Formula 2 with HWA this year, the team has announced.
Deledda attained notoriety last year when footage purportedly showing him driving a car on public roads at speed appeared on his social media account. He subsequently issued an apology for the video.The 26-year-old has spent the last two seasons with Campos in Formula 3, starting a total of 34 races without scoring a point, achieving a best race finish of 16th.
His team mate is the nephew of former Formula 1 driver Alessandro Nannini, whose career was ended by a helicopter crash in 1990 which severed his right arm. The 17-year-old Matteo won the Formula 4 UAE championship in 2019, and placed 18th in Formula 3 last year with Jenzer.
As F2 and F3 will race on different weekends from this year, Nannini will take advantage of the change to compete in both categories for HWA.
HWA team principal Thomas Strick said “we have found a good mix for our team with a young and very talented driver, together with a slightly older but equally ambitious driver.
“We have taken a conscious decision to field Matteo in both series. The advantage for the young driver is that he can be introduced more quickly to the high performance of a Formula 1 car, as the Formula 2 car comes far closer to matching this performance.”
Rivals DAMS have also announced Marcus Armstrong will join their line-up for his second season in Formula 2. Half of the places on the 22-car grid have now been taken.
“We are aiming for the title,” said Armstrong. “We’ve discussed that it’s not in my interest to finish second and they firmly agreed because they have the exact same targets.
“By no means is it going to be easy with such fierce competition, but I feel that when I’m in the right environment with a great team I can really do special things.”
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2021 Formula 2 driver line-up so far
| Team | Car | Driver |
|---|---|---|
| ART | 1 | TBA |
| ART | 2 | TBA |
| Campos | 1 | Ralph Boschung |
| Campos | 2 | TBA |
| Carlin | 1 | Jehan Daruvala |
| Carlin | 2 | TBA |
| Charouz | 1 | TBA |
| Charouz | 2 | TBA |
| DAMS | 1 | Marcus Armstrong |
| DAMS | 2 | TBA |
| Hitech | 1 | Liam Lawson |
| Hitech | 2 | Juri Vips |
| HWA | 1 | Matteo Nannini |
| HWA | 2 | Alessio Deledda |
| MP | 1 | Lirim Zendeli |
| MP | 2 | TBA |
| Prema | 1 | Robert Shwartzman |
| Prema | 2 | Oscar Piastri |
| Trident | 1 | TBA |
| Trident | 2 | TBA |
| Virtuosi | 1 | Felipe Drugovich |
| Virtuosi | 2 | TBA |
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Formula Two
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- “In my mind I won twice this weekend” says Hadjar after penalty
- Fortune finally favours Hadjar with Melbourne feature race win
- Bearman loses first F2 point of 2024 after penalty
- Hadjar loses sprint race win to Stanek after penalty for causing start crash
Napier Railton (@napierrailton)
22nd January 2021, 10:39
Not exactly a winning lineup. Deledda didn’t score points last year and Nannini wasn’t much better.
Best of luck anyway
Aiii (@)
22nd January 2021, 11:07
Must have quite the financial backing if he can pay for a F3 and F2 seat simultaneously.
Dave
22nd January 2021, 11:08
Reckless driver steps up to F2…
Retired (@jeff1s)
22nd January 2021, 12:25
« Son of » and « reckless driver » financially graduated to F2.
BasCB (@bascb)
22nd January 2021, 16:15
Nephew, not son
Dave
23rd January 2021, 9:59
Like what I said before. Deledda will only be known for his reckless driving outside of the track.
J_Olivier
22nd January 2021, 14:34
Well, FIA plan to help rich kids and sons of friends is already working.
mirko710
22nd January 2021, 16:09
‘gentleman driver’ class goes all the way to F2
Gelael helped Giovinazzi
Neil (@neilosjames)
22nd January 2021, 15:41
Incredible how much wealthy young people and their families will pay for the privilege of hanging around near the F1 paddock for a couple of years while doing badly at a dangerous hobby.
I won’t apply that view to Nannini as he’s very young and may have potential, but Deladda just seems like a magnificent, genuine example of that overused phrase… “waste of a seat.”
Will
24th January 2021, 14:13
“starting a total of 34 races without scoring a point, achieving a best race finish of 16th.”
Ouch.
Great to see that the cream always rises to the top! Oh wait….
PT (@pt)
24th January 2021, 18:38
Guess it will be Armstrong vs. Daruvala for the F2 title in 2021.
Chris (@chrisgalaz)
24th January 2021, 22:52
My money would be on Shwartzman. But in my opinion the field looks quite weak compared to 2016-2019…
Minardi (@gitanes)
25th January 2021, 3:08
Surely Drugovich has to be a favorite at this point.