Cem Bölükbaşı, who has achieved a very good momentum in recent years with the slogan “From virtual to reality”, will compete with Charouz Racing in Formula 2, a sub-support series of Formula 1, in 2022.
Cem, with the Van Amersfoort team, which has just joined the series, took the tests in Abu Dhabi at the end of 2021 and successfully completed the F2 tests, although it was his first official test session with his Formula 2 car. It was thought that Cem would compete with Van Amersfoort in F2 as well as in the Euroformula Open, but at today’s press conference it was announced that the F2 team that Cem will compete with will be Charouz Racing System and will compete for the full season.
It has been claimed for a while that Cem Bölükbaşı will compete in F2, and these claims eventually became official. Cem will participate in Formula 2 races in 2022 and thus will be one step closer to his Formula 1 goal. Cem also announced that he will fight Evans GP in the 2022 F3 Asian series.
Cem Bölükbaşı will also be the first Turkish racer to compete in Formula 2. Jason Tahincioğlu and Can Artam competed in the previous period, when the series was called the GP2 Series, and Artam managed to score points in Monaco. After Tahincioğlu’s struggle in 2008, it will be the first time that such a high-level Turkish driver has competed in the single-seater series.
Born in 1998, Cem started motor sports with motocross at the age of 5, and in 2006 he participated in the Turkey Karting Championship in the 25 Little Men project organized by Petrol Ofisi. Cem, who participated in various karting races in the following years, later made some tests with Formula 4 and Formula 3 vehicles, but his main turning point was in virtual races.
Cem Bölükbaşı, who managed to participate in the eSports organization organized by Formula 1 in 2017, leaving behind thousands of people, managed to reach the final and won one of the final races. After his success in this championship, Cem first joined Fernando Alonso’s eSports team, then Toro Rosso and Red Bull’s eSports teams.
Cem’s performance in virtual races caught the attention of the Turkish team Borusan Otomotiv Motorsport, which represents Turkey in the motor sports arena, and the BOM team provided Cem with the opportunity to compete in the GT4 European series in 2019. Cem and his experienced teammate İbrahim Okyay came on the podium as the 2nd in their class in the second race they started together. Thus, Cem met the podium in his second race in auto racing. Cem took the track in Formula Renault Eurocup the same year and experienced his first open wheel series race.
Having spent his first full season in the GT4 European Championship with BOM in 2020, Cem finished second in the Pro-Am class with his teammate Yağız Gedik. Cem competed in the F3 Asian series in 2021 and made the transition to the single-seater series. Cem won 61 points in this championship and became 9th at the end of the season, but he managed to be 2nd among rookie pilots. Cem continued to compete with BOM in the GT4 European series in the summer and won victories.
In parallel with the GT4 European series, Cem started to compete with Van Amersfoort Racing in the Euroformula Open series. Having made his first race in Hungaroring, Cem attracted attention by impressively winning his first race. Joining the mid-season struggle, Cem became a partner in the leadership struggle and finished the season in fifth place, despite missing the first three legs of the calendar, with another victory in Barcelona on the last race weekend.
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