The Formula Two meeting at Brands Hatch at the weekend was not terribly well attended. Sunday tickets were £17 in advance, which struck me as reasonable. But when World Series by Renault at Silverstone next month is free, suddenly it doesn’t seem as cheap.

It didn’t affect my enjoyment of the day – it made it easy to get in and out of the car parks, and there was no jostling for position at the inside of Druids. But it does make me question whether Formula Two is working.

Headline or support

After two seasons spent largely as a support category for the WTCC, F2 moved away from that for 2011. The stated reason was to visit more Formula 1 tracks, but presumably it was also an attempt to take more of the limelight. It’s not really worked though.

F2 now shares a bill with the International GT Open at most meetings. Even at Brands Hatch – a circuit owned by MotorSport Vision, the company which also runs Formula Two – it was a joint headline event. The Monza and Barcelona meetings are advertised purely as International GT Open – not even a cursory mention of F2.

The pecking order

So Formula Two has failed to build itself much of a profile.

It’s one of only five FIA world championships, yet in reality it’s certainly below GP2 in the motorsport pecking order, and possibly GP3 too. It probably sits alongside something like Formula Renault 3.5 – on the aforementioned World Series by Renault bill – in terms of notoriety.

F1 feeder series

So what is F2 for? Well, when it was relaunched, then FIA President Max Mosley said:

“The objective is to make top-level international single-seater racing available to drivers who at present have difficulty in raising enough money to demonstrate their talent. Formula One and other major championships will benefit by being able to draw on a far larger pool of drivers, while competitors from countries which do not yet have an established motor racing structure will find it easier to make progress.”

Clearly the intention was that F2 would be a Formula 1 feeder series – the prize of a Williams F1 test backs that up.

But it isn’t. Andy Soucek has been stuck in Superleague Formula since winning the 2009 title. Not what anyone hoped for.

Cheap route to GP2

With GP2 tests for the drivers who come second and third in the overall standings, there’s an implicit admission that F2 is more of a GP2 feeder series.

Which is possibly not such a bad thing when the other objective does seem to have been achieved: F2 is significantly cheaper than GP2, GP3, FR3.5 or F3 – at least according to its own website.

As a result, it has a healthy grid. But it’s still not that cheap – Will Bratt, for example, had to miss the Brands Hatch meeting due to lack of budget.

Perhaps if we give it a few years, Formula Two drivers will start to properly filter up to GP2 and eventually Formula 1. Which, I think, would constitute F2 working.

Palmer promotion

And in the meantime, at least Formula Two can be used as a promotional tool for MotorSport Vision boss Jonathan Palmer’s son.

Jolyon Palmer finished second overall in 2010 (and 21st in 2009), and this year races in GP2. But that doesn’t stop him getting plenty of mentions from @FIA_Formula_Two.

And, of course, a nice big double page spread in the programme for the Brands Hatch round, putting an unerringly positive spin on his as yet pointless – in the literal sense – rookie season of GP2.