Barnard completes Formula 2 grid by joining PHM

The final place on the grid for the new Formula 2 season has been taken by Taylor Barnard, who will drive for PHM.

The 19-year-old British racer will graduate to the series after finishing his first season in Formula 3 with 10th place in the standings. Barnard took a single win for Jenzer in the feature race at Spa-Francorchamps after starting the rain-affected race from 10th on the grid on wet weather tyres while those ahead of him opted for slicks.

Barnard is part of PHM’s driver academy, having raced for them across three Formula 4 categories in 2022 before joining their partner F3 team Jenzer. He is currently racing for PHM again in the Formula Regional Middle East championship, where he lies second in the standings with three wins from the first nine races.

“Being the most successful PHM Academy Driver, it is the logical step to evaluate Taylor as best promising option to be as successful as possible,” said PHM’s sporting director Roland Rehfeld. “He deserves the chance and until now he fulfilled our expectations through all classes with pure dedication, will, natural talent and speed and increasing technical precision. All these efforts brought up good results, meaning in the last three FIA F3 rounds [of] 2023 he was the most successful driver by points.”

He will join fellow F2 rookie Joshua Duerksen in PHM’s line-up for the new season. “It is another step up the ladder towards my dream,” said Barnard. “Of course I wish to be more prepared, but I will do everything in my power and more to perform.”

Barnard is part of a large cohort of drivers moving up from F3 to F2 this year. Meanwhile the top four drivers in last year’s F2 championship – Theo Pourchaire, Frederik Vesti, Jack Doohan and Ayumu Iwasa – have all moved elsewhere.

2024 Formula 2 driver line-up

Team	Driver 1	Driver 2
MP	Franco Colapinto	Dennis Hauger
Rodin	Zane Maloney	Ritomo Miyata
ART	Zak O’Sullivan	Victor Martins
Prema	Andrea Kimi Antonelli	Oliver Bearman
Hitech	Paul Aron	Amaury Cordeel
DAMS	Jak Crawford	Juan Manuel Correa
Virtuosi	Gabriel Bortoleto	Kush Maini
PHM	Joshua Duerksen	Taylor Barnard
Trident	Richard Verschoor	Roman Stanek
Van Amersfoort	Enzo Fittipaldi	Rafael Villagomez
Campos	Isack Hadjar	Pepe Marti

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