Before the Second World War, a "voiturette" class existed for smaller, less powerful cars. In 1946 the FIA introduced Formulas A and B (later 1 and 2); Formula Two, effective from 1 January 1948, permitted 2-litre naturally aspirated or 500 cc supercharged engines. Among the first F2 races was the 1948 Stockholm Grand Prix. Ferrari built the Ferrari 166 F2, debuting at the Florence Grand Prix on 26 September 1948. When Formula One attracted too few entrants, all 1952 and 1953 World Championship Grands Prix (except the Indianapolis 500) were run to F2 rules.
A new F2 for 1.5-litre cars launched in 1957, dominated by rear-engined Coopers and Porsches. Ferrari developed their Dino 156 "Sharknose" as an F2 car. The Coventry Climax FPF four-cylinder was the dominant engine. Jack Brabham won the 1960 Formula Two Drivers' Championship; the Manufacturers' Championship ended in a tie between Porsche and Cooper.
F2 was reintroduced for 1964 with 1.0-litre pure-bred engines. For 1967 the FIA raised the limit to 1600 cc and launched the European Formula Two Championship. Jacky Ickx, driving a Matra MS5, won the inaugural European F2 championship by 11 points from Australian Frank Gardner. The dominant engine was the Cosworth FVA four-cylinder (220 bhp at 9000 rpm). Formula One drivers competed in F2 on non-championship weekends under a grading system that prevented them from scoring championship points. Jim Clark was killed in a Formula Two race at Hockenheimring in 1968; Gerhard Mitter was killed at Nürburgring in 1969 during F2 practice.
Production-based 2.0-litre engines were introduced in 1972, with BMW-powered Marches eventually dominating. The European F2 Championship ran through this period. In the early 1980s Honda returned with a powerful V6 works engine, but costs rose and grids shrank. The FIA replaced F2 with Formula 3000 after the 1984 season.
The FIA re-established a Formula Two championship in 2009, managed by Jonathan Palmer's MotorSport Vision. It was a single-make series using a Williams-designed chassis with a 1.8-litre turbocharged Audi engine producing 480 bhp. Each full season cost £195,000 per driver. The inaugural championship was won by Andy Soucek. The 2010 season was marred by the death of Henry Surtees at Brands Hatch. The series was discontinued after 2012 due to small grids.
In 2017 the FIA rebranded the GP2 Series as the FIA Formula 2 Championship. The series suffered a fatality when Anthoine Hubert was killed at the 2019 Spa round after being struck by Juan Manuel Correa. Graduates from the current series to Formula One include Charles Leclerc, George Russell, Oscar Piastri, and Gabriel Bortoleto. All eleven teams run the Dallara F2 2024 chassis powered by a Mecachrome engine.
This article is based solely on the supplied corpus. No external sources were consulted; claims that could not be substantiated against the corpus were omitted under the drop-the-claim rule.
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