Felipe Drugovich, born on 23 May 2000, is a professional racing driver from Maringa in Brazil. With two race weekends to go, he is the leader, 233 points to 163 only for his closest rival, the highly rated Théo Pourchaire, in the 2022 FIA Formula 2 championship. A gap seldom seen in this highly competitive championship.
Only 22 years old, Drugovich has been impressive all season. He has won four feature race: Jeddah, Barcelona, Monaco and Zandvoort, one sprint race at Barcelona, and has claimed pole position, five times.
Despite not being a member of any F1 junior team, and being in a relatively small team (MP Motorsport), he dominates all the highly rated and well supported juniors in the field. Lawson, Izawa, Daruvala (Red Bull Juniors) and Sargeant, Doohan, Pourchaire (Williams, Alpine, Alfa Romeo) all quality drivers, all rightfully F1 hopefuls, are all miles behind in the championship.
At Spa-Francorchamps, the greatest track of all, where you can really compare the qualities of the drivers, where the greats always make a difference, Felipe was untouchable in qualifying, clocking a 1.58.232, to claim a fantastic pole position 0.4 sec quicker than anybody else.
Felipe Drugovich hopes his performances on track will convince F1 teams to give him a chance: “I want to be in Formula 1, I have dreamed of this all my life” he tells us, “I know there are only 20 seats available in F1, but am only 22 years old, therefor if I can’t get a race seat in 2023, am ready to invest a year in a reserve and development role in a F1 team, am sure I can prove my worth.”
The young Brazilian has proved on track that he is Formula 1 material. Now it’s time for all team principals to pay attention and seriously consider Felipe Drugovich.
