diff --git a/cluster/gce/gci/configure-helper.sh b/cluster/gce/gci/configure-helper.sh
index 7dfd2c18a4a..4e22bc84f8e 100644
--- a/cluster/gce/gci/configure-helper.sh
+++ b/cluster/gce/gci/configure-helper.sh
@@ -1621,7 +1621,13 @@ function start-kubelet {
   echo "Using kubelet binary at ${kubelet_bin}"
 
   local -r kubelet_env_file="/etc/default/kubelet"
-  local kubelet_opts="${KUBELET_ARGS} ${KUBELET_CONFIG_FILE_ARG:-}"
+
+  local kubelet_cgroup_driver=""
+  if [[ "${CGROUP_CONFIG-}" == "cgroup2fs" ]]; then
+    kubelet_cgroup_driver="--cgroup-driver=systemd"
+  fi
+
+  local kubelet_opts="${KUBELET_ARGS} ${KUBELET_CONFIG_FILE_ARG:-} ${kubelet_cgroup_driver:-}"
   echo "KUBELET_OPTS=\"${kubelet_opts}\"" > "${kubelet_env_file}"
   echo "KUBE_COVERAGE_FILE=\"/var/log/kubelet.cov\"" >> "${kubelet_env_file}"
 
@@ -2967,6 +2973,11 @@ function override-kubectl {
     fi
 }
 
+function detect-cgroup-config {
+  CGROUP_CONFIG=$(stat -fc %T /sys/fs/cgroup/)
+  echo "Detected cgroup config as ${CGROUP_CONFIG}"
+}
+
 function override-pv-recycler {
   if [[ -z "${PV_RECYCLER_OVERRIDE_TEMPLATE:-}" ]]; then
     echo "PV_RECYCLER_OVERRIDE_TEMPLATE is not set"
@@ -3060,6 +3071,13 @@ EOF
       cni_template_path=""
     fi
   fi
+
+   # Use systemd cgroup driver when running on cgroupv2
+  local systemdCgroup="false"
+  if [[ "${CGROUP_CONFIG-}" == "cgroup2fs" ]]; then
+    systemdCgroup="true"
+  fi
+
   cat > "${config_path}" <<EOF
 version = 2
 # Kubernetes requires the cri plugin.
@@ -3089,6 +3107,8 @@ oom_score = -999
 # See: https://github.com/kubernetes/k8s.io/issues/3411
 [plugins."io.containerd.grpc.v1.cri".registry.mirrors."k8s.gcr.io"]
   endpoint = ["https://registry.k8s.io", "https://k8s.gcr.io",]
+[plugins."io.containerd.grpc.v1.cri".containerd.runtimes.runc.options]
+  SystemdCgroup = ${systemdCgroup}
 EOF
 
   if [[ "${CONTAINER_RUNTIME_TEST_HANDLER:-}" == "true" ]]; then
@@ -3398,6 +3418,7 @@ function main() {
     fi
   fi
 
+  log-wrap 'DetectCgroupConfig' detect-cgroup-config
   log-wrap 'OverrideKubectl' override-kubectl
   if docker-installed; then
     # We still need to configure docker so it wouldn't reserver the 172.17.0/16 subnet