2020 Formula Beta Season

The **2020 Formula Beta Season** is the first season of the revived Formula Beta series of the International Formula Racing Committee (IFRC). 17 teams are scheduled to compete for the Formula Beta title, the most number of teams since 2010 when after that season only 12 teams remained.

Campos are the defending team's champions having won the title in 2018. The 2018 driver's champion, Jamie Braig, participated in the 2019 Formula NX but was out of the series by the end of the season.

Although this series is part of ESPLAR it will be a Lean278 mention-only series due to the excessive number of teams which cannot be handled in Grand Prix 4. It will also not be hosted in NR2003 due to lack of F1 tracks that have been made for NR2003.

The current championship leader as of Race 3 is **Taniko Shimamura** of **Prema**.

## Signed Teams and Drivers

The following teams and drivers are scheduled to compete in the 2020 Formula Beta season. As Formula Beta is a spec series all competitors race with an identical IGTech FB 2020 chassis with a V6 turbo engine developed by Mecachrome. Teams compete with tyres supplied by Pirelli.

- The teams that returned in 2019 after the year long hiatus are: Campos, DAMS, ART, Prema, MP, Arden, UNI-Virtuosi, Carlin, Trident, Russian Time and Caterham.

- Porsche made their return to Formula Beta after 5 seasons absent.

- Some Altruras R&D racing companies joined Formula Beta in hopes of developing their cars within the boundaries of the Formula Beta car. They include Laronia-based Rigrex Motorsport (actually called Rigrex Motorsport Systems), Evanshire's MEAU Enterprises, the rising Leiko-Ulist racing technology company Kennax, and Estlenhar's Alphacom, based in Rockport.

- The Altruras Racing Foundation, which also hosts the main foundation of ESPLAR, established Sphenodon Autosport as a grassroots racing team this season, hoping to further Altruran involvement in formulae racing.

## Preseason Changes

### Driver Changes

* Taniko Shimamura graduates to Formula Beta driving for the popular **Prema Racing** team.
* Altruran driver Amelia Frost was let go from **Team Parachki** in the ESPLAR Lites at the end of the 2019 season despite test-driving for them prior to their planned debut in 2020. As a result Frost signed with **Prema Racing**.
* ESPLAR Atlantic Regional Series drivers Askan Krasnicki (Albania) and Ailas Naegwyn (Leiko-Ulist) signed with Arden and Kennax, respectively for their road course performances.

## Schedule

The following fifteen rounds are scheduled as part of the 2020 championship. Each round consists of two races: a Feature race, which is run over 200 km (124.3 mi) and includes a mandatory pit stop; and a Sprint race, which is run over 120 km (75 mi) and does not require drivers to make a pit stop. Unlike the real-life Formula 2 the sprint race is always run before the feature race, with the results of the sprint race resulting in a flip in the starting grid for the top 10 in the finishing results for the feature race.

Many of the events are Formula NX companion events but some events are also Formula Sigma companion events. There are a few races towards the end of the season that are standalone races.

- Kymi Ring and Sentul International Circuit will make their first Formula B/Beta appearance this season.

## Points System

Points are awarded in the following format.

Sprint Race: Pole winner receives 4 bonus points, with FL receiving 2 bonus points. Finishing order points are: **1st 15, 2nd 12, 3rd 10, 4th 8, 5th 6, 6th 4, 7th 2, and 8th 1.**

Feature Race: No pole winner bonus, with FL receiving 2 bonus points. Finishing order points are like in Formula NX and Formula Sigma: **1st 25, 2nd 18, 3rd 15, 4th 12, 5th 10, 6th 8, 7th 6, 8th 4, 9th 2, and 10th 1.**

## Season Summary

In the 2 preseason testing sessions at Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, Askan Krasnicki and Cedric Barthel of Arden topped the times in both days respectively, but were followed by both Prema Racing cars of Shimamura and Frost.

### Race 1: Austin

In practice, Carlin's Luirlan Gwyllan topped the times with Russian Time's Valdeko Levandi in 2nd and Campos' Jamie Braig in 3rd. However, it was the newcomer Ailas Naegwynn for Altruran team **Kennax** that ultimately won the pole at CotA and the 4 bonus points with it. Prema struggled during qualifying and eventually qualified in 26th and 29th.