A dual championship victory in Formula 2 racing is rare. In 2024, it came after years of hard work and development, not out of nowhere. The organisation began racing as Virtuosi Racing in 2012. It later became Invicta Racing after Invicta Watch Group acquired a majority shareholding in Virtuosi. Under this new name, it is a team that has competed in single-seater racing since 2012. The team took over from Russian Time in 2014. It operated its GP2 entry from 2015, before Russian Time became the first FIA Formula 2 Teams’ Champion in 2017. It later raced as UNI-Virtuosi.
The 2017 title provides an earlier point of comparison. Running under the Russian Time, the Virtuosi organisation scored 395 points, six victories and 14 podiums. Markelov finished second in the Drivers’ Championship with 210 points and five wins, while Ghiotto was fourth with 185. The team took the first FIA Formula 2 Teams’ Championship when the series began under the F2 name in 2017, following its GP2 predecessor. Its later results were less decisive. Russian Time finished fourth in 2018, while UNI-Virtuosi was runner-up in each of its first three seasons. By 2024, the organisation had therefore spent several years near the front of the championship without another Teams’ title.
Declan Lohan’s connection to that history dates back to Virtuosi Racing’s formation. Invicta Racing later identified Andy Roche, Declan Lohan and Paul Devlin as the organisation’s founders, while the FIA British F4 team profile describes Devlin and Roche as founding Virtuosi with Lohan’s help on the business side. The three were also identified as team owners before the Invicta rebrand. By the time the team became Invicta Racing, Lohan’s role was tied to ownership and the organisation’s senior management, rather than day-to-day race engineering and sporting operations. The wider team, including Roche as Team Principal, handled the day-to-day race programme. This distinction matters when assessing the 2024 result. The drivers and race team won the championship on track. Lohan’s contribution was tied to the organisation that provided the framework for that programme.
For 2024, the team slotted Bortoleto alongside Maini. Bortoleto joined as the 2023 FIA Formula 3 champion, having secured the title in his rookie season. Maini entered his second Formula 2 season after a year with Campos Racing in 2023. No one guaranteed at the start that the pair would win the championship double. Maini also claimed pole at Sakhir before being disqualified from qualifying, while Bortoleto was promoted to pole after Maini’s disqualification. The season then evolved slowly, with both drivers scoring as the team pushed forward.
By mid-season, Bortoleto had established himself as a reliable challenger for the Formula 2 title. He secured his maiden Formula 2 race win in June at Spielberg. Another race win followed in September at Monza. The Monza race victory was notable for being won from last place in the Feature Race. Bortoleto became the first Formula 2 driver to win a Feature Race after starting from last on the grid. Bortoleto took over the lead from Hadjar for the Drivers’ Championship in Baku, with two rounds remaining. In the Feature Race at Yas Marina, Bortoleto finished second and clinched the Drivers’ Championship title, scoring 214.5 points for the year.
Maini’s season was less consistent but still important to the team’s overall total. His strongest result came at the Hungaroring, where he inherited victory in the Sprint Race after Verschoor received a post-race penalty. He also took points finishes at several other rounds. However, qualifying problems, incidents, and several lower finishes limited his position in the Drivers’ standings. The combined output was enough for Invicta to remain in the Teams’ Championship fight. At the end of the season, the team had 288.5 points, ahead of Campos Racing on 254 and MP Motorsport on 220.5. Maini’s contribution was therefore part of a two-car championship effort, rather than a result dependent on Bortoleto alone. Invicta’s official season review records 13 podiums and three victories between the two drivers, with Bortoleto contributing eight podiums and two Feature Race wins.
Zhou’s success mattered more because of the drivers’ previous experience with the team organisation. Zhou competed for three seasons with UNI-Virtuosi before making the switch to Formula 1 at Alfa Romeo for 2022. Doohan made the jump to Virtuosi ahead of his debut Formula 2 season in 2022, after which he signed with Alpine as a Formula 1 driver. Bortoleto followed a somewhat different path. Having won the 2023 Formula 3 title, he joined Invicta. He secured the 2024 Formula 2 championship before receiving confirmation of his seat at Sauber in Formula 1 for 2025, with the announcement coming before he completed the final two rounds of his Formula 2 season. The achievements could not have been reached without contributions from many parties, but they did illustrate the quality of competitors who passed through the organisation’s junior single-seater programmes.
The 2024 season consequently linked several stages of the same organisation’s history. The first FIA Formula 2 Teams’ title came in 2017 as Russian Time, followed by three second-place finishes under UNI-Virtuosi between 2019 and 2021. The 2024 Invicta Racing team finally secured the championship again, this time adding the Drivers’ title through Bortoleto. For Lohan, one of the organisation’s founders and owners alongside Roche and Devlin, the result came as ownership changed and the Virtuosi identity was absorbed into the Invicta operation. It was a competitive achievement belonging to the team and its drivers, but it also marked the latest stage in the development of the organisation he had helped establish in 2012.
