Junior Academy Programs 2022-2023-2024

This topic / thread can be used to post news / updates about the (F1) Junior Academy programs. Or people can just post their opinions about those juniors (or their results) in this topic.

 

It is meant to give an overview of which (young) drivers are in which programs. Nowadays many / most drivers arrive in F1 via an Academy.
I will post the current Junior Academy rosters and it can be filled up later when anouncements are made for new members.

 

F1 TEAM ACADEMIES  (the age of the drivers I mention is the age they have today)

 

 

RED BULL JUNIOR ACADEMY

 

Dennis  HAUGER  (Norway), 19,  since 2018. Will stay in F2 in '23 but move from Prema to MP Motorsport. Hauger has underperformed seriously in '22, he was one of the dissapointments of the year in '22 in F2 after joining the best F2 team having won the '21 F3 title for them. But since he has a very strong CV (WSK Super Masters in Mini, German Jr & Sr karting champion, F4 & F3 title winner). he will stay at the Red Bull Academy.
He will become Red Bull & AlphaTauri reserve driver next year for the F1 races that overlap with Super Formula (were 3rd driver Lawson will drive) but he will have to perform next year. He can't afford another dissapointing season in F2.

 

Liam  LAWSON  (New Zealand), 20, since 2019 had a slightly underwhelming '22 F2 season because he wasn't able to challenge for the title (Drugovich was the dominating force in F2 this year) but he's been better as het gets credit for and still managed to jump to 3rd overall in the final race.
Lawson did win 4 F2 races in 2022 but all of them were sprint races with top 10 grid reversed. Helmut Marko still kept his confidence in him, citing that Lawson impressed during his F1 tests and did well in the simulator.

Should have won the DTM title in 2021 if it wasn't for the dirty games Audi and mainly Mercedes played in the final round.

He will be in Super Formula next year which is a tough formula since those Japanese drivers know every inch of the tracks they drive on. Risks getting leapfrogged by another Red Bull Junior if they manage to fight for the F2 title but a strong campaign could launch Lawson in a 2023 F1 seat, in particular if Tsunoda (or maybe de Vries) dissapoint. 

 

Ayumu IWASA  (Japan), 21  since 2021  Following in the footsteps of Yuki Tsunoda, Iwasa followed a similar path as Yuki jumping to F2 after just a single season in F3. He was mighty impressive at Le Castellet where he dominated the feature race. He seems more relaxed and focussed as Yuki. A strong F2 campaign in F2 could land him an F1 seat for '24.

 

Isack HADJAR  (France)  18 since 2022  a product of the French federation FFSA, who are known for their expertise to train drivers, he has been a revelation 2 years in a row now. Will be at Hitech in F2 in '23 and a lot of eyes will be on him.

 

Jak CRAWFORD  (USA)  17 since 2020  had a dissapointing F3 campaign since his Prema team mates Oliver Bearman & Arthur Leclerc beat him but he was far from bad. What was more problematic for him is that Hadjar also beat him in a lesser team. Still Crawford is a talented youngster so don't count him out yet. He will team up with Hadjar at Hitech in F2 in '23 so if the Frenchman beats him again that could damage his F1 prospects. But he's still very young, that's often forgotten. He will be just 18 in May '23.

 

Jehan DARUVALA  (India)  24 since 2020. Daruvala is certainly a quality driver and underrated on this forum. But he hasn't been able to deliver the goods in F2. Not beiing able to mount a title challenge at Prema means he is probably out of the Red Bull program for 2023.

 

Jonny EDGAR  (GB)  18 since 2018.  He'll be 19 in Februari and will stay in F3 after a poor campaing at Trident (the second best team in F3). 12th overall as a title candidate really is not good but.... he missed 2 weekends and suffered from an illness that no doubt had an impact on his form at the end of '21 and in '22. He recovered quicker as expected from that illness and was very consistent in the final 3 weekends with 6 points finishes in a row but it most probably isn't enough to be retained in Red Bull's Academy. The latest rumours say he's likely out.

 

Ren SATO  (Japan)  21 since 2022.  As a Honda Junior he lost out to Iwasa for the French F4 title in 2020, Iwasa got promoted to Red Bull's Academy and Sato had to go back to Japan from Honda. There he managed to enter Super Formula with 3rd overall in Super Formula Lights and eventually also got added to Red Bull's program. Mainly because Red Bull wanted the promotion in Super Formula in Japan, not because they saw him as an F1 prospect. With Lawson moving to Super Formula next year the Red Bull sponsorship will move to his car (and to Team Mugen) meaning Sato is probably out of the Academy.

 

Sauto ARAO  (Japan)  16 since 2022. Will turn 17 in December '22. He impressed me this year. Red Bull will no doubt have expected the title but that isn't really fair since he came straight from karting against several more experienced drivers. Hugh Barter was the dominating driver this year in French F4 but he already was vice-champion last year and combined that with Spanish F4 so he had vastly more experience, and Alessandro Giusto (who won the title because Barter couldn't count all his points because he also raced in Spain) was best rookie the year before.

Arao showed he has  a lot of raw pace, and he scored a pole on just his 2nd weekend in cars.
It is unknown what he will be doing next year. I would certainly keep him in the Red Bull program but Honda may want to get him back to Japan, they could also place him in F. Regional. I hope they retain him. He had a strong rookie year in cars.

 

Yotu NOMURA  (Japan)  17, since 2022.  The other young Honda driver Red Bull had added. He wasn't as consistent as Arao but he showed raw speed as well winning two races. His lack of consistency meant that he was only 7th overall and 4th best rookie after Arao, Enzo Peugeot and Colombian Jeronimo Berrio. Honda will probably move him back to Japan. Despite showing promise he's unlikely to be retained. Arao clearly beat him.

 

Noel LEON  (Mexico)  17 (18 in december),  since 2022.   I was surprised that Red Bull had added him. But Red Bull sometimes tries out a driver from a leftfield championship in the US. Leon won the Mexican & US F4 championships back to back. But if you realise that the level in US single seaters is a lot lower as in Europe that doesn't really mean much. Hunter Yeany won the US F4 title and was a distant backmarker in F3.

Leon was added to Red Bull's program after Sergio Perez tipped Marko on him. But Leon seriously underperformed in F. Regional this year. As I had expected actually because he came from the US scene and that is far less competitive. As a young driver it's important to always try to face the toughest competitors of your age because then you'll learn and get stronger imho.

Leon drowned in F. Regional this year frankly and that's understandable since he just came to Europe and then a driver needs a year to adapt. He is considering F3 currently but should really stay in F. Regional to continue his learning process, I think he will eventually stay in F. Regional. If he's smart he doesn't go to F3 yet, he isn't ready for it at all. I can't imagine him staying in the Red Bull Academy.

 

Arvid LINDBLAD  (GB)  15, since 2021. Arguable the biggest talent in Red Bull's Junior program. Born in London and living in Surrey, he's from Swedish descent but drives under the British flag, he was born & raised in England after all. He's been an absolute megastar in karting. Part of what I call a 'golden generation' of karting with the likes of Antonelli, Camara, Tsolov, Taponen & Ugochukwu. 
Lindblad can read a race like few can and attack at just the right moment. And he's an excellent overtaker, not too agressive but just right. Red Bull put him in KZ shifter karts this year, against much older full time pro's in what is essentially the F1 of karting. And he immediately diced with the very best and, like Antonelli the year before, he stunned the experienced drivers there.
He did do some F4 races after August, when he turned 15 (minimum age of F4) and was very quick in testing but Van Amersfoort lacked pace to Prema this year. During the final F4 weekend he was very fast but twice he missed his start. He will be a title candidate next year.

After initially signing up with Van Amersfoort, he tested for Prema recently.
It looks like Prema wants an F4 super team again by lining up Ugochukwu with Lindblad, Nakamura Berta, Wharton & Taponen.

 

Enzo FITTIPALDI  (Brazil)  21, from 2023.  Former Ferrari Academy member. He won the Italian F4 title for them but then lost out to Frederik Vesti in F. Regional. After a dissapointing rookie campaign in F3 Enzo was dumped by Ferrari. But that wasn't really that fair because he drove for HWA and actually did quite well for them with several points scores in what we know now was a poor single seaters team (in particular in F2 though).

Fittipaldi jumped halfway 2021 from F3 to F2 in what was a learning year. But this year he was a very consistent points scorer in F2 and Helmut Marko decided to add him because he (Marko's words): 'overperformed in a lesser team'.

That is true but I'm not convinced (yet) if Enzo is F1 material. He for sure is better as Pietro (Haas reserve driver) or Emmo Jr (in F4). Time will tell if he can prove that Marko was right to add him.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

Helmut Marko said, when he anounced Enzo Fittipaldi, that more change is to come for the Red Bull Junior program with more drivers to be added as well.

 

I believe Daruvala, Edgar, Ren Sato, Leon & Nomura will be dropped. And Arao's future is unknown.

But who else could be added? Well I wish they would pick up Caio Collet & Hadrien David from the Alpine program because they're talented and are currently treated very badly by Alpine. But I don't think they will be picked up. Both are looking at sportscars now with Alpine refusing to invest more in their Academy, very sad.

 

Well in the rumours mill the name of Sebastian Montoya, son of Juan-Pablo Montoya, has been circling around as a Red Bull target. I believe that's mainly because Montoya became a Red Bull athlete half a year ago and some journalists believe that he will become a full Red Bull F1 Junior member. But what they fail to see is that the Red Bull athletes program is completely separate from the Red Bull F1 Junior program. Those two have nothing to do with each other, other people decide that.

So I'm not convinced he's going to be added but he might be since his famous last name is a marketing asset. And he has shown speed in F. Regional and on his F3 debut. Montoya is expected to move to F3 next year.

 

David Vidales is a name I would consider. He is flying a bit under most people's radar because when you drive at Campos in F3 you tend to be rather anonymous. But he is imho highly talented. He made his single seater debut quite late because of lack of money. The likes of de la Rosa & Campos managed to find a budget for him but he had to skip F4 because he already lost time, he was on pole during his car debut back in '20. He hasn't been able to show the stuff he showed in his debut year but his potential is big.

 

Franco Colapinto is another driver I like a lot in F3 and one worth considering for an F1 Academy. He was mighty impressive in LMP2.

 

Zane Maloney who moves to F2 with the vice-F3 title under his belt could also be a Red Bull target. Red Bull already has several drivers at F2 level but they also dropped Vips and may still drop Daruvala and they'll probably drop Edgar in F3 as well. Red Bull hasn't been shy to add a lot of drivers so not impossible that Maloney will join Fittipaldi as a Red Bull Junior. he's from the Bahamas and like Colapinto still just 19.

 

Taylor Barnard is the one I would advise Red Bull the most to sign up. Has had a tough start in F4 initially but due to no fault of his own. As a Nico Rosberg protégé he first ended up, end of '20 and in '21 at BWR. A new German F4 team where Nico Rosberg is said to be co-owner, in any case he certainly is heavily involved in that team. But that team turned out to be terrible. In 2021 they abandoned their campaign so they could be 'learning how F4 works'.....
In 2022 BWR even abandoned F4 after just 3 weekends, ruining the reputation of the very talented young Italian Sicilian Alfio Spina who may look bad if you look at his F4 stats but realise that he was at BWR and then at another terrible team. A bad team in F4 can already end your carreer there. Spina is also a driver to consider for an Academy imho. But Barnard is the real deal imho, he was competitive this year at another new team, PHM.
PHM is also a new German team and... they offer drivers in F4 a seat without asking money for it: they look for the money!
That's how it should be. An F4 seat costs around 250.000 euro these days (just 115.000 in F4 France though) so that's a bargain, in particular if you don't have major backing like Barnard. Despite Barnard beiing the best karting driver together with Mini before the Antonelli generation (Barnard actually still drove against Antonelli half a year).

Please sign him up Red Bull! This kid deserves backing. Don't know how much Nico Rosberg is still involved in managing his carreer (Nico was already Barnard's manager in karting), he managed his F4 start pretty bad in any case.

Barnard is expected to move to F3 with Jenzer next year together with his PHM F4 team mate Nikita Bedrin (who's also talented but I wouldn't touch a Russian driver with a finger as an Academy today. Even though Bedrin was born in Italy and races under Italian flag now). Jenzer isn't ideal though, the only driver who managed to impress at Jenzer was... Yuki Tsunoda!

 

Fernando Alonso was seen talking to Helmut Marko & Christian Horner in Brazil. Maybe they have an interest in Gabriel Bortoleto, a Brazilian driver Alonso is managing. Bortoleto is certainly pretty good but I would grab Caio Collet from Alpine if I were Red Bull if they want a Brazilian.

 

Alex Dunne (Ireland) & Hugh Barter (Australia with Japanese mother) are two interesting F4 drivers as well. Dunne will move to GB3, Barter probably to F3 with Campos. Dunne lost the shootout for a Ferrari Junior place to Tuuka Taponen last week. Maybe second chance at Red Bull?

 

Polish driver Tymoteusz Kucharczyk is a talent as well. But his main problem is that he competed against Nikola Tsolov. And Tsolov anihilated all oposition in Spanish F4. So although Kucharczyk drove very well, 3rd overall as a rookie in a 40 driver field. But Tsolov, who also was a rookie, won almost all races... Red Bull will probably think 'no he was trashed by Tsolov' but he might still be worth a look at, he's still pretty good.

 

From karting I would certainly look at Tomass Stolcermanis, Enzo Deligny, Freddie Slater, Nathan Tye, Evan Giltaire or Ean Eyckmans (was quick in a tiny independent outfit) or maybe James Egozi, who slightly dissapointed this year though, if they want another US driver. 

 

I'll post my thoughts and the details of the other F1 Junior Academies tomorrow (or later).

Edited by William Hunt, 22 November 2022 - 11:59.

If the decision around Gasly to move to Alpine had been taken now rather than when it actually was, Lawson might have just about done enough to partner Tsunoda at Alpha Tauri in 2023.  He has decent speed but his achilles heel has always been qualifying.  He will need to improve that if he hopes to do well in Super Formula.  The real risk is that he won't be around the F1/F2 paddock as much in 2023 and Dr Marko has a pretty short attention span.

FERRARI JUNIOR ACADEMY

Edited by William Hunt, 22 November 2022 - 11:50.

Hauger needs to perform next year. And Lawson has the issue of De Vries who had dinner with Verstappen, who subsequently told De Vries to have a chat with Helmut Marko and warmed Marko up for De Vries.

Otherwise in the Red Bull Junior pool, there are no indications to me that any of them will enter F1 prior to 2025. So that's a bit far away for now to discuss any possibility in joining. Because for all we know, all of them might be the next Felix da Costa.

Thanks William, for the thorough walk-through. Appreciated.

William - You have one pound to stick on a Go Karter who you think will be F1 WDC in the future, where’s your £1 going?

Why did I think Gabriele Mini was FDA affiliated?

 

More importantly, why hasn't an F1 team snapped him up for their junior program?

William - You have one pound to stick on a Go Karter who you think will be F1 WDC in the future, where’s your £1 going?

 

Andrea Kimi Antonelli but he is already in F4 off course (and F. Regional next year). I actually have no doubt about him, he looks like a mix between Senna & Prost. He has the raw speed of Senna and the cleanness of Senna. Maybe he's more an Alberto Ascari because once he is in the front he's gone.

 

But you asked for a future F1 world champion, I'm unsure if there is one in karting that will be world champion right now (there might be) but of Antonelli I'm convinced he will win a world title in F1. I know bold statement but it's how it feels to me. First time I saw Senna as a kid I also felt that way, and I felt that about Hamilton too when he was young.

 

PS: I probably would put Arvid Lindblad second in terms of F1 world champion potential, he is going to be a Red Bull F1 driver one day. Lindblad still was in karting this year but made his F4 debut after the summer already. Watch out for him next year. Title favourite in Italian F4 with Ugochukwu imho.

Edited by William Hunt, 22 November 2022 - 17:07.

Colapinto's management has stated there was interest in him from three different F1 organisations. The rumour in Argentina, and I don't know how sound it is, is that there are advanced talks with Williams.

Andrea Kimi Antonelli but he is already in F4 off course (and F. Regional next year). I actually have no doubt about him, he looks like a mix between Senna & Prost. He has the raw speed of Senna and the cleanness of Senna. Maybe he's more an Alberto Ascari because once he is in the front he's gone.

But you asked for a future F1 world champion, I'm unsure if there is one in karting that will be world champion right now (there might be) but of Antonelli I'm convinced he will win a world title in F1. I know bold statement but it's how it feels to me. First time I saw Senna as a kid I also felt that way, and I felt that about Hamilton too when he was young.

I remember the hype for Hamilton in about 2002/3 and rather we Liuzzi, I think I first heard of Antonelli (quite possibly through yourself) on these boards but I was tempted to stick a really long game bet on it!

Senna / Prost combo was pretty much my childhoods idea of the perfect racing driver.

Is Luna Flux any good I feel the name alone merits a punt?

Edited by DavidAntW, 22 November 2022 - 16:52.

It might sound silly, but.... I think Colapinto is a beautiful sounding name. Is that a silly reason to support a driver or to want to see him go to F1?  Who else supported a driver because you liked the sound his name?

Used to like Valentino Rossi purely for his name, then I read his 2005 autobiography and viewed him slightly less favourably 😂

Nigel Roebuck once wrote: "Clay Reggazoni, was there ever a more mellifluous name for a racing driver?"

It might sound silly, but.... I think Colapinto is a beautiful sounding name. Is that a silly reason to support a driver or to want to see him go to F1?  Who else supported a driver because you liked the sound his name?

It should be in the superlicence rules. After all, the world championship started correctly with Alfa Romeos driven by Farina and Fagioli - wonderful-sounding words all. (So long as you don't translate them, when the drivers become flour and beans).

 

David Vidales is a name I would consider. He is flying a bit under most people's radar because when you drive at Campos in F3 you tend to be rather anonymous. But he is imho highly talented. He made his single seater debut quite late because of lack of money. The likes of de la Rosa & Campos managed to find a budget for him but he had to skip F4 because he already lost time, he was on pole during his car debut back in '20. He hasn't been able to show the stuff he showed in his debut year but his potential is big.

 

 

 

He is managed by same company as Palou and now targeting a year in Japan, currently testing in Super Formula Lights (former Japan F3)

Edited by JvsKVB77, 23 November 2022 - 15:54.

Why did I think Gabriele Mini was FDA affiliated?

 

More importantly, why hasn't an F1 team snapped him up for their junior program?

He managed by Nicolas Todt and for now he happy without F1 teams. 

Edited by JvsKVB77, 23 November 2022 - 16:13.

He managed by Nicolas Todt and for now he happy without F1 teams. 

 

He recently gave an interview about this. There actually were 2-3 F1 teams interested in snapping him up for their Junior Academy back when he was still in karting but he opted for Nicholas Todt's management program instead, he called that a 'semi F1 junior academy'.
It's the right decission for sure imho. Todt has a fantastic track record with the drivers he manages and if you opt for an F1 Junior program there is a very big risk that you arrive in F2 and perform well there that you are blocked out of F1 because there is no available seat in that particular F1 team free.

If you are not in such a program you are more free to be snapped up by an F1 team with an open seat. Beiing in an F1 Academy has both advantages and disadvantages but it's better to be free imho otherwise you depend more on timing (a seat opening up in the right team at exactly the right time).

I remember the hype for Hamilton in about 2002/3 and rather we Liuzzi, I think I first heard of Antonelli (quite possibly through yourself) on these boards but I was tempted to stick a really long game bet on it!

Senna / Prost combo was pretty much my childhoods idea of the perfect racing driver.

Is Luna Flux any good I feel the name alone merits a punt?

 

Yes she is, I think she's the most promissing young female driver. She made history by becoming the first female driver to win a IAME Euro Series karting by  winning the IAME X30 Mini championship last year. She won the finals at Genk & Castelletto and was 2nd in Zuera and convincgly beat Roman Kamyab (GB) & Sacha van 't Pad Bosch (Ned) to the title and those are good drivers.

 

This year she became a Junior and that's always a big jump from Mini and she's still only 12 and you compete against 14 year olds in Junior on a much more powerful kart as in Mini so the jump is huge, much bigger as between Junior & Senior.
So naturally, that's normal for rookies in Junior, she struggled a lot the first half year. Over the season she managed to reach final (top 36) on 6 out of 18 weekends but she was each time in the final in het last 4 events of 2022 so she clearly made progress.

I've written a 2023 update for William's excellent summary as I thought others would be interested. This is a big one, so stick with me:

Red Bull Junior Team

Out for 2023 were: Jonny Edgar (poor results, partly due to Crohn's disease diagnosis), Jüri Vips (issues with racism, homophobia, crashing), Jehan Daruvala (lack of results in F2), Noel León (had a poor season in FRECA), Yuto Nomura (returned to Japan) and Ren Sato (poor season in Super Formula).

Liam Lawson, 21, New Zealander — Currently 2nd in Super Formula (Mugen)
Frankly, I think not being in contention for the Formula 2 championship last year was a bitter disappointment to both Red Bull and Lawson. As it was, Red Bull picked the Pierre Gasly route for Lawson, and sent him to Japan for a year in Super Formula. And what a superb year he’s had. Thrown into the deep end, in a Championship on tracks he hasn’t raced, against some fiercely competitive and experienced local drivers, Lawson has been brilliant. Granted, he joined the best team in Mugen, but team-mate Tomoki Nojiri is an incredibly fast and polished driver who has taken two dominant championship wins in a row. Yet, Lawson has been matching Nojiri toe-to-toe, winning on début at Fuji, and taking a further two victories at Autopolis and the second Fuji visit to notch up three wins to Nojiri’s two. Granted, Nojiri had to miss the Autopolis round through illness, but it shows just how accomplished Lawson has been in 2023. It has to be said, however, that there are still some rough edges - trying to go around the outside of Nojiri at Motegi caused him to spin and finish outside of the points, which has allowed TOMS’ Ritomo Miyata to steal a march in the championship.

Of course, with Ricciardo breaking his hand, Lawson has already started his Formula 1 career, has been impressive, and has already picked up his first points at Singapore. But, with Tsunoda and Ricciardo being re-signed for 2024, this appears to have left Lawson on the sidelines for another year.

Ayumu Iwasa, 21, Japanese — Currently 3rd in Formula 2 (DAMS)
Despite a surprising promotion into F2, Iwasa was a revelation last year, taking two feature race victories seemingly out of nowhere. That thrust him into the spotlight, and along with it came the pressure of being one of the favourites for the championship in 2023. He has had his moments this year where he has looked nigh-on unbeatable, with an eye on an AlphaTauri seat for 2024 or 2025. However, along with the highs, he has had a tendency to go missing on a few too many weekends to really fight Pourchaire and Vesti for the title. With the logjam at AlphaTauri, it’s likely that there’ll be nowhere to go for Iwasa next year, bar a few possible F1 tests. What does seem likely is a similar trajectory to Lawson, in that he’ll be shipped back home for a year to Super Formula. He’ll need to show similar adaptability to Lawson to prove that he deserves an F1 seat in the future.

Enzo Fittipaldi, 22, American-Brazilian — Currently 7th in Formula 2 (Carlin)
Fittipaldi worked wonders for Charouz in 2022, earning 6 podiums for a team that hasn’t even scored any points at all in 2023. 8th in the Championship was the maximum anyone could have extracted from that car, and joining both Carlin and the Red Bull Junior Team for 2023 looked as though Enzo was primed for a Championship push this year. For whatever reason, however, things haven’t quite gone to plan. Carlin took Lawson and Sargeant to 3rd and 4th in 2022, but things haven’t quite gelled for Fittipaldi, and he’s only one position in the championship better off this year. He has taken his first win this year - albeit in a sprint race - and a further three podiums, but it’s not clear if he’ll even beat his points total from last season. I’m not sure where Fittipaldi can go from here as his momentum appears to have stalled.

Dennis Hauger, 20, Norwegian — Currently 8th in Formula 2 (MP Motorsport)
It looks as though this will be Hauger’s final year with Red Bull. I’ve seen many people on the Internet tout Hauger as the “fastest driver in Formula 2”, but there has been very little evidence of that fact in 2023. Granted, he has had some miserable luck on occasion, but there has been no marked improvement in his second season, despite a move to last year’s champions MP Motorsport. It’s uncertain what the future holds for Dennis.

Zane Maloney, 19, Barbadian — Currently 10th in Formula 2 (Carlin)
Rumour has it that Helmut Marko’s axe will also fall on Maloney at the end of the season, which would seem somewhat unfair. Granted, he hasn’t had the finest season, but there have been four podiums - three in feature races - which show he has potential. A fine end to last years’ F3 season didn’t really generate the momentum he would have liked going into his rookie Formula 2 season, but I would have thought a second season would be the least he deserves. However, it has been posited that Dr. Marko holds Maloney in very little regard, which seems to make his exit from the junior team all the more likely.

Jak Crawford, 18, American — Currently 13th in Formula 2 (Hitech)
I have to admit, I thought Red Bull pushing Crawford into F2 came a season too early. He showed flashes of speed on his way to 7th in F3 last year, along with a host of rookie errors. Whilst 2023 hasn’t been a stellar campaign, I also think Crawford has performed better than expectations. He’s had a sprint race victory, and added four further podiums to his name during the season. I’d say he’s definitely done enough, with minimal expectations, to grant him a stay of execution and another year in F2.

Isack Hadjar, 18, French-Algerian — Currently 14th in Formula 2 (Hitech)
…and somewhat the opposite to Crawford, I think expectations were a lot higher for Hadjar this season. In F3, he showed a huge turn of speed, as well as some fearless overtaking skills, but it hasn’t quite translated into any headline F2 results this year. He’s had a couple of strokes of bad luck - breaking down from what looked like a certain win in Monaco being the lowlight - but he never appears to have kicked on. That’s not to say he doesn’t deserve a second season to show what he can do in F2; it looks as though he’ll also be getting an FP1 drive for AlpaTauri in Mexico. Supposedly, he is Dr. Marko’s golden boy out of the six F2 drivers they’ve had this year, and it looks as if he doesn't mind Hadjar having a learning year…

Pepe Martí, 18, Spanish — 5th in FIA Formula 3 (Campos)
Martí has had a good season in F3, apart from the last two rounds of the season at Spa and Monza, which were… not exactly great showings. Coincidentally, he signed for the Red Bull Junior Team just prior to the Spa meeting. Hopefully he won’t continue like that! I’d expect to see Martí in F2 next year, possibly continuing with Campos.

Sebastián Montoya, 18, (American born) Colombian — 16th in FIA Formula 3 (Hitech)
Montoya was inarguably a flop this year - after looking like he took to F3 like a duck to water in a couple of guest appearances in 2022. He’s never seemed to gel with the Hitech team, and hasn’t really had anywhere near the pace of team-mates Gabriele Minì or Luke Browning (though he only finished one position behind Browning in the championship). The rumour on the street is that he will be staying with Red Bull next year, and possibly moving to a plum Prema seat. Whether he deserves a seat in arguably the best team on the grid is another matter; on the basis of this season, the answer would be a resounding “no”, but perhaps things will pick up for Seb next year.

Souta Arao, 17, Japanese — Currently 24th in GB3 (Hitech)
Expect Arao to be dropped at the end of the year. He’s had an utterly appalling season in GB3, littered with bad luck, crashes, and everything in between. He’s second-to-last in the Championship - only ahead of Shawn Rashid, who had never raced anything prior to this season - and behind the likes of Daniel Mavlyutov, who is, frankly, terrible. I see no reason for Red Bull to keep him on. I assume he’ll return to the Japanese junior racing system.

Enzo Deligny, 15, French-Chinese — Currently 6th in Spanish Formula 4 (Campos)
I think Deligny’s 6th place in the championship belies how good he’s been this year - apart from a wet first weekend of the season, he has the best average qualifying pace; he also had a brilliant weekend at Aragón where he took the most points of anyone. It’s obvious he has good raw speed, so he needs to shape that into consistent results. Deligny has also been running a part-time campaign with AKM Motorsport in Italian F4, which, rather impressively, has yielded 8 points, despite there being 7 Premas and 5 US Racing cars which usually take the lion’s share of the points. None of AKM’s full time drivers have got any points on the board at all! I would expect a second season in F4, probably Italian F4, to be the order of the day for next season.

Arvid Lindblad, 16, British-Swedish — Currently 1st in Italian Formula 4 (Prema)
Lindblad has had stiff competition in Italian F4, even just in his Prema team - the likes of Ferrari juniors Tuukka Taponen and James Wharton, plus McLaren junior Ugo Ugochukwu, have been pushing him hard all season. Lindblad has risen to the challenge perfectly, however, and has so far put together a fantastic campaign that sees him with a comfortable lead in the standings.

Enzo Tarnvanichkul, 14, Thai — Karting
The youngster has been in karting this year, and I’ll admit I know very little about the karting scene currently. I’ll have to leave this to someone who knows karting better than I do! (William?). So far, however, it looks as though Tarnvanichkul has been quick, though he did narrowly miss out on the OK European Championship this year.

Ferrari Driver Academy

Out for 2023 were: Robert Shwartzman (though he continues as a reserve driver), Mick Schumacher (possibly looking towards sportscars), and Laura Camps Torras (poor karting results meant her supposed F4 season never materialised)

Oliver Bearman, 18, British — Currently 6th in Formula 2 (Prema)
Bearman is a big talent, and has risen quickly to become the top Ferrari junior below F1. He dominated both Italian and ADAC F4 in 2021, quickly found his feet in FIA in F3 in 2022 (finishing 3rd in the championship, and the top Prema), and set about solidifying his quickly growing reputation in F2. Indeed, in just his fourth weekend in the series, he completely dominated the Baku round, with a pole position and both sprint and feature race wins. He has had his fair share of rookie errors, however, which have taken him out of the championship fight. Still, he has shown the paddock that there is a lot of latent talent there. I expect he’ll do another season in F2, though the pressure will be on to win it.

Arthur Leclerc, 22, Monegasque — Currently 15th in Formula 2 (DAMS)
Unlike his Ferrari stable-mate Bearman, there has been little to shout about this year for the younger Leclerc. He had a good weekend early on in Melbourne, culminating in a feature race podium, but points have otherwise been sporadic in what has proven to be a challenging and inconsistent year. His race pace has been pretty decent - he’s not been particularly far off of team-mate Iwasa - though his qualifying pace has left a lot to be desired. I don’t think we’ve seen the best of Leclerc this year, and he’ll likely get another year in F2 to show what he’s made of. Personally, I do wonder whether his lack of grounding in karting, especially when compared to his elder brother, has compromised his racing career.

Dino Beganovic, 19, Bosnian-Swedish – 6th in Formula 3 (Prema)
Beganovic graduated into F3 with a FRECA championship under his belt, and stepping straight into a Prema car made him an instant contender for the Championship. Unfortunately, things didn’t quite turn out that way. Beganovic did have a fair slice of bad luck this year, with mechanical issues in qualifying relegating him to the back of the grid on a couple of occasions. The pace has been there - he was the second fastest driver on average in qualifying after Bortoleto - but there has been both a lack of fortune and race pace. I expect he’ll get another shot at F3 next year, but he’ll need to be there or thereabouts to progress towards F1.

Rafael Câmara, 18, Brazilian — Currently in 4th FRECA (Prema)
Câmara is a great driver, with one very big problem. That problem has been in the neighbouring garage for the last two years now, and goes by the name of Andrea Kimi Antonelli. Câmara came 3rd in ADAC Formula 4 in 2022. A good result - but team-mate Antonelli was the runaway winner. Fair enough, Rafa didn’t run all the races. He was running full-time in Italian F4 anyway, where he was another strong 3rd in the championship, taking two wins in the process. That’s a result that’s not to be scoffed at. But team-mate Antonelli took the championship, and a whole 11 wins more than Rafa.This year, he’s been in good form in FRECA. He’s taken two wins, and currently lies 4th in the championship. But yet again, just across the garage, is Anontelli. And he’s taken 4 wins, and leads the championship. What Rafa needs is a year away from Antonelli, and he might just get that. I expect Câmara in FIA F3 next year.

Maya Weug, 19, Belgian-Spanish-Dutch — Currently 17th in FRECA (KIC)
I think 17th in FRECA belies how good Weug has been this year. She’s had six points finishes in FRECA, which features a thirty-plus-strong grid with some great young talents. Also bear in mind that KIC, the team which Weug drives for, scored a grand total of 0 points in 2022. Her assortment of team-mates this year have also scored nothing between them, so Maya is doing all the heavy lifting at KIC, and then some… I think she’s seriously making a case for being the best female racer in open-wheelers right now. I’d expect to see her in FRECA next year, and hopefully in a better team.

James Wharton, 17, Australian — Currently 4th in Italian Formula 4 (Prema)
Wharton started the year strongly, with a championship win in F4 UAE over the winter break, repaying a little of the faith Ferrari have placed in him. However, this is his second year in Italian F4, and he’s currently a fair way off of the championship battle, which is somewhat of a disappointment. Whilst he’s certainly no slouch, I’m not sure I see a particularly special spark in Wharton’s driving. I expect he’ll be looking towards FRECA next year, though possibly not with Prema.

Tuukka Taponen, 16, Finnish — Currently 5th in Italian Formula 4 (Prema)
Taponen has graduated into cars this year with a strong karting career under his belt. He raced with Prema in UAE F4 during the winter break, and immediately showed he was up to speed - pushing Wharton, already in his second year of F4, all the way to the final round of the championship. Unfortunately, the championship was decided in a clash between the two that put Taponen out of the race, and out of contention. His main focus this year has been on Italian F4, and whilst he’s had his standout moments, the pace he showed in the Middle East has not quite materialised and he’s been somewhat off of the pace of team-mates Lindblad, Ugochukwu, and Wharton. He’ll probably do another year at F4 level next year.

Aurélia Nobels, 16, (American born) Belgian-Brazilian — Currently 24th in Italian Formula 4 (Prema)
Prema’s drivers have scored 825 points so far in Italian F4 this year (with an average of 118 points per driver), plus an additional 275 in the spin-off Euro 4 series. Nobels’ contribution to that 1,100 points total has been… absolutely nothing. Not being able to score in a Prema car in Formula 4 is unfortunately pretty damning. Frankly, she has no place in the Ferrari Driver Academy.

Mercedes Junior Team

Out for 2023 was: Daniel Guinchard (reasons unknown - he wasn't doing particularly poorly)

Frederik Vesti, 21, Danish — Currently 2nd in Formula 2 (Prema)
Vesti has made a good step up compared to last season. Paired with Théo Pourchaire at ART in 2022, he looked somewhat out of his depth at the start of the season, though started stringing together some decent results in the later part of the year as he settled into Formula 2. Moving to Prema this year instantly catapulted him into a position where he was one of the favourites for the title, and it’s safe to say he has, on the whole, delivered. 5 wins is the most of anyone on the grid - compared to, for example, ex-team-mate Pourchaire’s 1 - though 3 of those 5 have been sprint race wins. Vesti has for the most part looked calm, consistent and mature, but has also seen his fair share of bad luck at the back end of the season. There are still some question marks, most notably a silly mistake crashing on the reconnaissance lap at Spa. It’s difficult to see what Mercedes will do with him from here, as it looks like he may be eclipsed in the junior team in the coming couple of seasons…

Paul Aron, 19, Estonian — 3rd in FIA Formula 3 (Prema)
Aron put together a quietly confident and consistent rookie year in F3 this year. He posted only one retirement, and finished in the points on all but three other occasions. Both his qualifying and race pace was right up the sharp end where it needed to be, so he’s plenty impressive enough. The only downside is that he was rarely posting big headline results - he only took one win, in the Red Bull Ring sprint race - and coming off of two years of 3rd places in FRECA, there may still be questions over his ultimate speed. Silly things like squabbling with team-mate Beganovic for a second year in a row may also raise questions, but I would like to see Aron in Formula 2 next year as I think he deserves a move up to the next tier.

Andrea Kimi Antonelli, 17, Italian — Currently 1st in FRECA (Prema)
Antontelli could very possibly be the best driver in this whole list. Since he stepped up into cars from karts, in every championship he has competed full time… he’s won. 2022 ADAC F4 - 15 starts, 9 wins, championship trophy. 2022 Italian F4 - 20 starts, 13 wins, championship trophy. This season, he stepped up into Formula Regional machinery. Over the winter break, he took part in the Middle East. 15 starts, only the 3 wins, but still - a championship trophy. In FRECA, it took him a few rounds to bed in completely - it was only the 8th race of the season, the wet Spa day that unfortunately claimed the life of Dilano van ‘t Hoff, where Antonelli finally stood on the top step. Since then, he’s added another three wins to his tally, and with 4 races to go, finds himself in an all-too-familiar place - at the head of the championship, with a comfortable gap to second place. The rumour mill is swirling that Toto Wolff will be sending Antonelli straight to Formula 2 next year. It’ll be sink or swim, but based on current evidence, Antonelli is a better swimmer than most. If there is any chink in the armour, it’s wheel-to-wheel racing - something that he doesn’t have to do a whole lot of. When pushed by Taylor Barnard in the Middle East this year, there was a hint of desperation in Antonelli’s driving… who knows what the future will bring, but there’s no doubt he’s Mercedes’ golden child.

Mercedes have a few karting youngsters on their way up. Alex Powell (16, American-Jamaican) was 2nd last year in the European Karting Championship, OK class, and a runner up this year in the Karting World Cup in KZ2. Cui Yuanpu (15, Chinese) is running at a similar level to Powell, but lacks results compared to his stable-mate. Luna Fluxá (13, British-Spanish) has been putting together good results at junior levels, and as the Fluxá family is not short on money, she’ll likely have the means to keep moving up the ladder. Kenzo Craigie (13, British) was a runner-up in his class in the British karting championship, and is now looking to expand to the International circuit.

McLaren Driver Development Programme

In and back out as quickly as he came was: Álex Palou (what is a contract?)

Pato O’Ward, 24, Mexican — 4th in IndyCar (Arrow McLaren)
The mercurial Mexican is still at the top of McLaren’s fledgling programme. This has probably been O’Ward’s most consistent season in terms of speed, but he hasn’t quite had the big results he’s had in previous seasons. Starting a minor beef with both Scott Dixon (a somewhat careless collision at Long Beach) and Marcus Ericsson (in the closing stages of the Indy 500) during the course of the year was probably a lowlight; 7 podiums were a highlight, but it obviously rankled with O’Ward that he couldn’t quite clinch a win. He’ll be back again in force next year, but first will get another run in the F1 car at Abu Dhabi. Of course, one thing O’Ward has going for him at McLaren is loyalty… let’s leave that one there.

Ugo Ugochukwu, 16, Italian-American — Currently 3rd in Italian Formula 4 (Prema)
The best thing about Ugochukwu is that he has been exciting to watch this year. The worst thing is that he has been exciting to watch this year! Though he is now a fair way behind Lindblad in the championship fight, Ugochukwu has been fighting up the sharp end all season, with two wins and a further six podiums to his name. As fast as he has been, however, he has been somewhat volatile - he has been getting into a lot of scrappy fights and has often been coming off worse through damage or penalties. The speed is there, but he needs to rein in some of the wilder driving - I expect he’ll be looking to run another F4 season next year if FRECA is out of reach.

Ryo Hirakawa, 29, Japanese — Currently 4th in Super Formula (Impul), 1st in WEC (Toyota)
When I was reviewing the F1 academies to make this list, I have to admit that it completely passed me by that Hirakawa is a McLaren junior - and that he’s supposedly the reserve driver for next year! This development has only come this previous weekend, but one has to think that Hirakawa is a curious choice - after all, he’s a good deal older than anyone else on this list! He is a seasoned campaigner in his native Japan; this is his 9th season in Super Formula and he has 4 wins to his name with a best championship finish of 2nd in 2020. Still, Hirakawa is more known for his sports car exploits, with the 2022 WEC title and a Le Mans win to his name. The link up may be a precursor to a McLaren return to Le Mans - I would be very surprised if we ever see Hirakawa racing a McLaren in F1, but his experience may be of use to the team in terms of development in both F1 and sports cars.

Alpine Academy

Out for 2023 were: Caio Collet (though he is technically still affiliated, money issues), Hadrien David (money issues), Olli Caldwell (talent issues) and Oscar Piastri (Otmar Szafnauer terrible at job issues)
Unknown status: Aiden Neate (Has dad Andy crashed into his racing career, like he's crashed into everything else?)

Jack Doohan, 20, Australian — Currently 4th in Formula 2 (Virtuosi)
Frankly, this season is a “what-might-have-been” for Doohan. A strong second half to the season has somewhat saved face, but for whatever reason, Jack was simply missing in the opening part of the year. “Missing” in this case is possibly generous - Doohan was outqualified twice in the first five races on merit by Amaury Cordeel. Thankfully for Jack, whatever issues he was having at Virtuosi seemed to have blown over by midway through the season, culminating in two feature race victories in a row in Hungary and Belgium, reminding us all that on his day, Doohan is unbeatable. But the damage had already been done, and he’s arguably in danger of being overtaken in the Alpine pecking order by Martins. I expect a few more F1 tests are on the cards, but Doohan needs to watch his back. It’s unclear whether he’ll be doing a third F2 season currently, or focusing on test and reserve duties for the F1 team.

Victor Martins, 22, French-Portuguese — Currently 5th in Formula 2 (ART)
Martins has possibly been the outright quickest driver in Formula 2 this year. His raw pace has been staggering, and he’s outqualified highly-rated team-mate Pourchaire 6-5 (and leads him 10-9 in fastest race laps to boot). What’s clear is that when Martins gets all his ducks in a row, he can take on anyone in Formula 2 and beat them. A dominant pole position, win, and fastest lap in the Silverstone feature race has shown that. What Martins has also shown this year, however, is a somewhat volatile, immature flip side. Too often he has been making borderline dangerous moves - Monaco possibly being the most egregious example, when he was perfectly happy attempting to put his team-mate in the wall, or recklessly ignoring waved yellow flags when marshals were on the track. He’s likely to get a second season in F2, and if the Dr. Jekyll half of Martins is the dominant half, he’ll more than likely be the man to beat.

Gabriele Minì, 18, Italian — 7th in FIA Formula 3 (Hitech)
A difficult season for Minì, one in which he showed great potential, but occasional hot-headedness. 7th in the championship was a disappointment, though some of the blame has to be shouldered by Hitech, who looked lost for a big part of the season. Monaco was easily the highlight, with Minì taking his first F3 win. However, he scored more than half of his points in the first half of the season, with a mediocre second half putting paid to any championship chances. 2024 will be a big year for Minì, and I think he’s ready to step up and deliver given the chance.

Nikola Tsolov, 16, Bulgarian — 22nd in FIA Formula 3 (ART)
A disappointing year, but Tsolov was (and will likely remain) the youngest driver on the F3 grid. This was always likely to be a learning year, after all, it is a big step up into FIA F3 straight from F4. His dominant performance in Spanish F4 in 2022 was a big reason he was pulled straight into F3; a double pole position and podium last weekend on début in Eurocup-3 shows his speed hasn’t gone anywhere. Will need to string together some consistency and speed next year, especially with a year of experience with it.

Sophia Flörsch, 22, German — 23rd in FIA Formula 3 (PHM/Charouz)
I did question Flörsch’s decision to come back to F3 this year. She had started to build a decent career in sports cars, and wasting a year driving a Charouz at the back of the F3 grid seemed like a waste of time and money. However, she was by far and away the best driver in her team, and managed to pick up points on both of the occasions luck presented them to her. Unfortunately, the first of these occasions ended in a disqualification for a technical infringement, but when another opportunity arose at Spa, she took it with both hands and scored a 7th place. Those six points were enough to ensure the team finished ahead of Carlin in the final standings, which is a big result for PHM/Charouz. If another F3 season beckons, I hope she’ll be able to find a better seat in the series; though I think despite her heroics this year, she has lost the title of best woman in single-seaters to Maya Weug.

Matheus Ferreira, 16, Brazilian — 16th in Italian Formula 4 (Van Amersfoort)
Ferreira’s first season in cars has been somewhat trying, and he has been a fair way off of his more experienced team-mates in Brando Badoer and Ivan Domingues. I expect he’ll return for a second season in Italian F4 to try and build on this year’s experience.

Abbi Pulling, 20, British — Currently 5th in F1 Academy (Carlin)
Considering she often looked one of the fastest drivers in W Series, I think this has been a poor year for Pulling. She’s had no wins this season and has been thoroughly outperformed by fellow W Series veteran Marta García. Some of this may be down to team performance, as Carlin are the only team without a win this season. In that sense, she has been well ahead of team-mates Jess Edgar and Megan Gilkes, but her good momentum from W Series has somewhat stalled. If she gets another year in the series, the pressure will be on.

The team also has Kean Nakamura Berta (15, British born Slovakian-Japanese) in karting.

AMF1 Driver Development Programme

Felipe Drugovich, 23, Brazilian — Currently 1st in twiddling his thumbs in the Aston garage
Er, not much to report here. The runaway F2 champion from last year has been polishing his trophy, and not much else. The closest Drugovich has been to racing this year was almost getting a go in the first race of the season after Lance Stroll broke his wrists, but since then hasn’t really had a look in. He’s turned down a test in IndyCar (why? Just do it for the fun of it!), though could now possibly be in the frame for a Williams drive next year if they dump Sargeant. If that doesn’t come to pass, it’ll be another year hanging around in the Aston garage waiting for Lance Stroll to give up or something.

Sauber Academy

Out for 2023 were: Zachary David (unknown reasons) and Roberto Faria (perhaps they knew he was going to have an utterly absymal F3 campaign?)

Théo Pourchaire, 20, French — Currently 1st in Formula 2 (ART)
This is Pourchaire’s third season in F2, and as everyone said at the start of the year, he really needed to ace it to stand a chance of graduating to Formula 1. Ace it, he hasn’t - but he’s still done enough to hold a decent championship lead with one round to go. When he’s on it, he’s unstoppable - for example, completely crushing the rest of the field in Qualifying at Bahrain, and taking the feature race victory - but other than that first weekend, he’s not had another win all year. What Pourchaire has been doing is keeping his head on fairly straight and collecting points when all his rivals have been having off weekends. Whereas Iwasa has the tendency to go missing, and Vesti has had a mix of bad luck and mistakes, Pourchaire has been quietly going about his business. Team-mate Martins probably has more outright pace, but right now he’s even less of a finished article than Pourchaire - and thus it seems likely that Théo will pull through and take the championship. Where this will land him, however, is another matter - Sauber have re-signed Bottas and Zhou for 2024 - so it is just as possible Pourchaire may end up finding a home in sports cars. I certainly think he deserves a tilt at Formula One, but fate may dictate that this isn’t Théo’s destiny.

Marcus Amand, 17, Finnish-French — Currently 24th in FRECA (ART)
Amand is a curious case. He finished well behind his US Racing team-mates Alex Dunne and Kacper Sztuka in the Italian F4 standings last year, but it was he and other team-mate Nikhil Bohra who got the promotion into FRECA, whilst Dunne was shipped off to GB3 and Sztuka another year in Italian F4. Yet, his qualifying pace was right up there with both Dunne and Sztuka. His somewhat premature promotion to FRECA has yielded only 6 points this season, though he has shown an occasional turn of speed - he topped his qualifying group for Race 1 at the most recent round in Monza, netting him a front-row start - which he promptly squandered. There’s speed there, but he needs to unlock it more consistently. Another season in FRECA expected.

Léna Bühler, 26, Swiss — Currently 2nd in F1 Academy (ART)
Bühler has been a surprise for me in F1 Academy this year, but on the same hand, she should be up there in terms of results as she has a good deal more experience than most of the grid. In previous years, Bühler has been somewhat hopeless in FRECA, which meant expectations were somewhat minimal. She raced in F4 UAE over the winter break and never troubled the points, so I didn’t expect much of her. However, she’s leveraged her experience and taken two wins in F1 Academy - against some much younger competition with more recent experience in F4 cars. She’s a fair way off Marta García in the championship, and will need García to have an awful weekend in Austin to dethrone her, but she has kept herself in the reckoning nonetheless. What this means for next year is unclear - but I wouldn’t be surprised to see her back in FRECA, maybe at a better team. The jury is still out whether she can show any better.

Sauber’s karting roster contains Taym Saleh (14, German) and Miguel Costa (14, Brazilian-American). Neither have any attention-grabbing results so far, but Saleh seems to have the better CV currently.

Williams Driver Academy

Out for 2023 were: Logan Sargeant (into the big boy car) and Roy Nissany (unfortunately not kicked out of range of racetracks in general)

Zak O’Sullivan, 18, British — 2nd in FIA Formula 3 (Prema)
I predicted at the start of the season that O’Sullivan would be the runaway winner in F3. He’d had a good rookie season in a fairly recalcitrant Carlin, so I thought with a year’s experience and a Prema, he’d be right at the front fighting for the title. Oddly, it felt like O’Sullivan took a while to bed in with his Prema team. Rather than dominating rookie team-mates Aron and Beganovic at the start of the season, with them coming back at him at the end of the season, it almost felt like this was reversed - O’Sullivan looked like he lacked pace against the two newcomers at the start of the season, before getting into his stride later on. Some of this could be down to being new in the Prema system, whereas Aron and Beganovic already had plenty of time with the team, but either way it was a somewhat underwhelming start to the season. It was the middle part of the season where O’Sullivan took his best results, and ultimately steered him towards his runner-up spot in the championship, though a long way behind Bortoleto. Zak will now look at moving to Formula 2, though I expect it will be with a lesser team, and not Prema.

Franco Colapinto, 20, Argentine — 4th in FIA Formula 3 (MP Motorsport)
A sophomore season in F3 for Colapinto yielded 4th position, and an improvement of 5 places on the previous season. The record books will show he took the same number of wins as he did in 2022, though he was disqualified from the sprint race victory he took in Melbourne this year. As it was, this result is what separated Colapinto from the runner-up place in the championship that stable-mate O’Sullivan snatched out from under him instead. However, Colapinto has probably looked the more assured driver this season, often with class and consistency, with points in all but three races (bar the disqualification). I’m sure he’d like to step up in F2 next season. Perhaps MP Motorsport will be able to accommodate him?

Luke Browning, 21, British — 15th in FIA Formula 3 (Hitech)
Last year’s runaway GB3 champion had a fairly middling Formula 3 season. It’s clear Hitech have lost something, but Browning was a little too wild on too many occasions, and had a fair share of silly incidents. Like a lot of other drivers on this list, he has plenty of speed when he hooks it all up, but those moments were all too fleeting this season. Another season in F3 beckons.

Oliver Gray, 18, British — 28th in FIA Formula 3 (Carlin)
…though I don’t think another season in F3 beckons for Gray. Granted, Carlin were either the second worst or outright worst team on pace this season, with only 2 points scored by Ido Cohen. But there were no highlights for Gray. Whereas Flörsch coaxed a couple of good results out of the PHM car, and Carlin team-mate Ido Cohen managed a fortuitous 9th at Silverstone despite spreading bits of Dallara in every possible corner of the world, Gray did absolutely nothing of note. Only three full-time drivers didn’t score this year - the out-of-his-depth Tommy Smith, the bizarrely off-the-pace Roberto Faria, and Gray. Why Williams picked him over any number of better British or Irish prospects – hello, Alex Dunne, Taylor Barnard - is beyond me. I assume it rhymes with “honey”.

Jamie Chadwick, 25 British — 12th in Indy NXT (Andretti)
A hugely disappointing season. Every driver below Chadwick in the standings missed one or more races. She was the second slowest full-timer in both one lap and race pace. She was nowhere near her team-mates - not even James Roe, who had a similarly poor rookie season last year. It looks likely Jamie will get a second season, but she needs to pick up her game - and fast.

The team also has Oleksandr Bondarev (14, Ukrainian) on their books in karting. Bondarev was having a good season last year, until he broke his leg in a nasty accident in May. This year, he has taken a European championship in his class, and will be able to progress into cars if possible once he turns 15 in April next year.

Haas Driver Academy

404 Error: Not found

Other Academies
Outside of the F1 Team-affiliated academies, there are a few names affiliated with F1 drivers.

Fernando Alonso’s A14 Management is the largest of these, and some of his drivers are already linked to other academies (Martí, Tsolov). Outside of those two he manages Clément Novalak (currently 17th in Formula 2), who has had an immensely underwhelming season and I would expect him to leave the F1 ladder. One man who hasn’t been underwhelming this season is Gabriel Bortoleto (1st in FIA F3) who took the F3 title with poise, speed, and maturity unmatched in the rest of the field. A step up to F2 is all but assured, and maybe a stronger tie-up with one of the F1 academies - perhaps Aston Martin? - is also on the cars. Alonso also manages Han Cenyu (35th in Formula Regional Middle East) and Carl Bennett (11th in US F4) who aren’t exactly the brightest prospects in junior formulae and I'm assuming have deep enough pockets to attract Fernando's attention.

Nico Rosberg also has a major talent on his books - Taylor Barnard (10th in FIA Formula 3). Barnard ran Antonelli close in Formula Regional Middle East this year, and finished a frankly astonishing 10th in the championship driving for Jenzer, who have generally been the worst team on the F3 grid. As William said in last years' update, I really think one of the bigger academies need to look at picking up Barnard.

The French motorsports body, the FFSA, run an academy system, too. The FFSA Academy runs French F4, and will lend support to some drivers who win and graduate from there, such as Théo Pourchaire, and last years’ French F4 champion Alessandro Giusti (Currently 6th in FRECA), who has been a revelation in the last few rounds of FRECA this year. Giusti has minimal backing outside of the FFSA, so hopefully his speed will help him find more backing (hello, Alpine).

Non-affiliated drivers

Here are some free agents to look out for:

FIA Ladder

• The highest non-Academy drivers in F2 are Richard Verschoor in 9th, who has taken Van Amersfoort Racing's maiden Formula 2 win this year, and Kush Maini in 11th. Despite coming in with low expectations, Kush has actually had a decent rookie season, and it’ll be interesting to see how he develops.
• The highest non-Academy driver in FIA F3 was 8th placed Oliver Goethe. Though it hasn’t been a stellar season, Goethe has a good turn of pace on occasion, and took a pole position and a win during the season. He has the backing of Gulf, so perhaps a Williams association isn’t out of the question.
• The surprise of the junior season so far for me has been Martinius Stenshorne in FRECA (currently 2nd). He came into the season with good, if not great, results in F4 (though it can be tough in F4 when you don’t have a Prema!). The young Norwegian has generally had the better of R-ace team-mate, the highly rated Tim Tramnitz, and arguably looked more at home as a rookie in FRECA at the start of the season than current championship leader Antonelli.
• Italian F4 has a raft of F1 juniors in Premas vying for the title, but amongst them is US Racing’s Kacper Sztuka (currently 2nd). The Pole is fighting valiantly against the might of Prema, and most recently took a maximum points haul away from Paul Ricard, winning all three races.
• French F4 is going down to the wire, with two drivers, Enzo Peugeot and Evan Giltaire, fighting for the title. Giltaire’s performance is arguably more impressive, as it is his début season compared to Peugeot’s second.
• British F4 also has two championship contenders, separated by just one point going into the final round this weekend. One is Kiwi Louis Sharp, driving for Carlin, the other Will Macintyre, for Hitech. Sharp has taken five wins to Macintyre’s two, but Macintyre also has eight runner-up positions to his name compared to Sharp’s one.
• The leader in Spanish F4 has been quietly putting together an outstanding season. Spanish F4 is all about two strong 6-car outfits hoovering up the majority of the points - and both are big names in junior formulae in MP Motorsport and Campos. Despite this, Théophile Naël is soaring ahead in the championship, driving for Saintéloc - only in their second season of single-seater competition. There are rumours Alpine are interested in the young Frenchman…
• Marta García looks dead-set to win F1 Academy. If only we could watch the races!
• Outside of the big F4 championships, Honda-backed Yusuke Mitsui leads in Japan; Macau’s Tiago Rodrigues leads the Chinese series; Pedro Moreno (no relation to Roberto) is dominating the Mexican series; Canadian Patrick Woods-Toth is at the head of the US championship; Mikkel Pedersen is the leader in Denmark; Vinícius Tessaro in Brazil; and Reno Francot leads the poorly-subscribed Central European championship. I wouldn’t expect any of these names to be on the European radar any time soon, though Honda tend to send their winners to Europe à la Tsunoda and Iwasa.

Outside of the FIA ladder

• In GB3 (ex-British F3) the top three in the championship have all been impressive at times. They are Callum Voisin, Joseph Loake, and Alex Dunne. Dunne has been a big miss for the academies in the past, but I’m not sure a year in GB3 has done much for his reach, sadly.
• Euroformula Open, or ex-Spanish F3, has been dying for the past couple of years, sadly. Ex-Red Bull man Noel León leads, but there will be little in the way of interest towards the series.
• Eurocup-3 is another Spanish F3-level series that came into existence this year. The points leader is Esteban Masson, a former French F4 champion, who, like León in EFO, flunked out of FRECA last year. He has returned to FRECA part-time this year, however, and has occasionally impressed, such as taking Saintéloc’s first podium in the series
• The Road to Indy ladder is a different beast, and likely has no interest from F1 teams. Still, just for posterity:
• Indy NXT was won by Christian Rasmussen, but it is not looking likely at this stage he’ll be getting into IndyCar.
• USF Pro 2000 went the way of the impressive Myles Rowe, who has backing from IndyCar’s Will Power, and he’ll be in NXT for HMD next year.
• Simon Sikes was the winner in USF2000.
• Nicolas Giaffone was the winner in USF Juniors.

Edited by Frood, 26 September 2023 - 15:14.

That was a great read! I believe Rasmussen is going to have a shoot out with Oliver Askew for the second Carpenter seat in IndyCar?

Great job Frood! I agree with most, from the series I (vaguely) follow.

Hats off for these posts!

Someone else I neglected to mention, and who is likely on the radar for the F1 Academies, is Freddie Slater. Like many drivers in the UK, he has progressed from karting into the Ginetta Junior championship - which he won at a canter. He made his single-seater début a couple of weeks ago in British F3, and was immediately challenging for podiums. Last weekend, he was plopped into a Prema for the Euro 4 round at Monza (a series which features most of the Italian F4 grid). In what was a big statement, he only went and stuck it on pole, ahead of the likes of Lindblad, Ugochukwu, and Taponen - all of whom have had the whole season with the team! In the first race, he was victim to some poor defending from Ugochukwu, which cost him his front wing. In Race 3, he made a silly mistake whilst defending his lead, and crashed out. He did win Race 2, but the results of this race are still under investigation.

What Slater did show is that he has bags of talent, and he also has a decent bit of money behind him (the Slaters run the Baylis & Harding soap company) so I would expect at the very least the likes of Ferrari and Mercedes showing some interest.

Great post, Frood  I agree with much of your analysis.

Hats off for these posts!

Yes Sir.
Great work Frood and Billy Hunt.
Jp

Verschoor is also a free agent, managing everything by himself. Quite a feat to get to F2 by doing this. 9th in F2 currently for a backmarker team.

Verschoor is also a free agent, managing everything by himself. Quite a feat to get to F2 by doing this. 9th in F2 currently for a backmarker team.

And you're right to point it out, as I was incorrect to state Maini is the highest placed non-affiliated driver!

thank you for that list!

Mercedes junior Alex Powell is making his first transition up from karts this weekend, driving for Prema in Italian F4. He qualified 11th for the first race of the weekend, but lost his front wing early on and lost a lap having it changed.

The aforementioned Freddie Slater also débuted in Italian F4 proper. He's driving for VAR instead of Prema, unlike in Euro 4, so he's not quite had the pace he showed at Monza a couple of weeks ago.

Edited by Frood, 01 October 2023 - 06:06.

thanks for helping me out on this thread Frood, haven't been online that much last couple of months since I've had that auto immune diagnosis last year + thymus operation. It was great fun reading your post, in particular because I didn't have to do the effort this time which makes it so much more sweet to me 

Really happy that you made the effort to revive this topic ;)

 

I've seen Freddie Slater and René Lammers drive an amazing race (in the same race actually) now 3 years ago when they were in OK Junior. It's often on a wet track that you get to instantly see who stands out in karting. Lammers (he's in the Ferrari Junior pre selection btw) drove that race from practically the back of the grid to 4th overall and Slater (Freddie that is, he also has a younger brother Alfie) well he simply was outstanding.

What was so amazing about Freddie Slater's performance that day is that he was hardly making any movements on his steering wheel on a soaking wet track whilst many other drivers where making wild movements. That reminded me of a Jackie Stewart. The smoothness. That day I knew for sure that Freddie Slater and René Lammers both have F1 potential. Believe it or not but if you know karting well and have seen quite a bit of races, you can pick the specials ones out of a large field of many talents (there is always more raw talent in karting as in car racing, because several don't have the money to progress to single seaters and drop off early + much larger field). In particular when the tracking is soaking wet. The smoothest drivers are the most likely to make it all the way.

 

This year young Belgian Thibaut Ramaekers has shown several stunning performances as well, in true Antonelli style which means: once he's at the front you won't see him back, just like Alberto Ascari in 1952-1953, Antonelli reminds me the most of Ascari actually..

Edited by William Hunt, 02 October 2023 - 04:59.

Thanks William, and I hope you're on the mend after your operation!

A quick catch-up for the juniors this weekend:

In Italian F4, it was a hat-trick of second-places for Ugo Ugochukwu, but still lost ground in the championship. Lindblad had a poor weekend, taking only a 5th place and a 10th for his troubles. This resulted in him losing the championship lead to Kacper Sztuka, who took all three poles, wins, and fastest laps. Remarkably, despite Prema's usual dominance, Sztuka has now won the last six races, which is almost unheard of in Italian F4 - Antonelli achieved 6 in a row last year, and only Ollie Bearman has won more races in a row (7), both driving for Prema. Sztuka would need to be picked up by one of the F1 Academies to progress any further, as he is apparently struggling for funding.

For the Ferrari juniors, James Wharton only picked up a solitary third place, with Tuukka Taponen's best result of the weekend a fourth. Aurélia Nobels, meanwhile, could only scrape together two 22nd places.

Alpine junior Matheus Ferreira scored a 9th place in the last race of the weekend; Mercedes junior Powell, in his first car racing weekend, had to make do with an 18th place as his best result. Freddie Slater scored 10 points on his first weekend with VAR.

In Spanish F4, Red Bull's Enzo Deligny had a good weekend, with a win and two second places. However, championship rival Théophile Naël racked up another two wins despite a retirement in race 3, minimising his losses to Deligny.

Edited by Frood, 02 October 2023 - 13:03.

Bortoleto signed by McLaren junior programme.

https://www.mclaren....ment-programme/

Edited by JvsKVB77, 05 October 2023 - 09:34.

Interesting. I'd heard rumours he'd been in talks with Aston Martin, but that was perhaps a little off the mark.

In the same press release they also have a one year option on Brando Badoer. Badoer currently sits 6th in Italian F4. He's had no wins this season, but that belies his form a little - he is the only driver in the Top 10 of the standings who doesn't drive for Prema or US Racing. Additionally, he is the only driver on the grid to have out qualified every team-mate for every race - which essentially totals a 48-0 record.

I really would like to see Badoer in Formula 1

And score a point in his first race

Supposedly, according to Rodin CEO David Dicker, both Carlin F2 drivers (Fittipaldi and Maloney) will be losing their Red Bull backing at the end of the year.

Not totally surprised about Fittipaldi, I think we've seen his ceiling in F2. This does seem to add credence to the fact that Helmut Marko apparently dislikes Maloney.

Source is a Mirror article/interview with Dicker, so take it with a pinch of salt, but it does seem to be in line with general chatter I've seen.

Edited by Frood, 11 October 2023 - 06:56.

I'm honestly surprised Dennis Hauger has still retained Red Bull backing for as long. He seems to struggle massively in his first year in a new category, and isn't even in the top five in F2 this year either...

I’d love to see Badoer or Charlie Wurz get to F1

I'm honestly surprised Dennis Hauger has still retained Red Bull backing for as long. He seems to struggle massively in his first year in a new category, and isn't even in the top five in F2 this year either...

The guy was very fast in F4 and in the second year of F3 (acceptable IMO) but yeah he's struggling to impress in F2, I'm not sure Red Bull gives him a third season

I suspect he's got his own funds though, not just riding on Red Bull. Driving for the champion team in his 1st season in F2 and then switching to the new champion team in his 2nd season? Hmmm...

Wurz isn't good enough. I've not seen anything particularly special from him. He did win Formula Regional Oceania (ex-Toyota racing series) this year, but both in Quali and race pace he was slightly behind team-mate Callum Hedge, who has a lot less open-wheel experience. When Van Hoepen joined mid-way through the season he comprehensively outperformed Charlie.

He was at Prema for his F4 career and was thoroughly beaten by Antonelli and Câmara, but I think most drivers would have been!

His FRECA season this year has been very poor. Admittedly ART have also looked pretty poor this season, but he hasn't outqualified either Van Hoepen or Amand at all when in the same Qualifying group (6-0 Van Hoepen, 2-0 Amand), and he's on average a good 0.5% behind Van Hoepen on average pace (roughly 4-5 tenths on an average length circuit).

Badoer might, it's difficult to shine at VAR in Italian F4. He's roughly at the level Martinius Stenshorne was last year, and he's shone in FRECA this year. The caveat for Badoer is that this is his second year in Italian F4 - last year he was thoroughly beaten by Stenshorne in the same team, and they were both rookies. Badoer was on par with their other team-mate, Emerson Fittipaldi Jr, who has shown very little in FRECA this year.

Tim Tramnitz signs with RedBull Junior. Don't think he is better, than Maloney. 

Edited by JvsKVB77, 12 October 2023 - 10:45.

Great choice by Bortoleto. If I was a junior driver starting my career my first option for an academy would be the McLaren's too. They are the only big team that have the guts to promote juniors from F2 to their F1 seats.

Tim Tramnitz signs with RedBull Junior. Don't think he is better, than Maloney. 

 

Interesting signing. I think Tramnitz has potential, but the fact Stenshorne has come into FRECA as a rookie and is beating him immediately is a warning sign. And yes, I'm not convinced he'd be better than Maloney. I really hope the rumours aren't true and Zane gets more time to prove himself.

McLaren have announced another signing to their junior programme. I'd seen the news about Taylor Barnard running the Formula E rookie test for them, and as somebody who gladly bangs the drum for him, I was excited to hear that he'd finally been picked up.

...except the actual junior team announcement is for Bianca Bustamante. I'm yet to be convinced by her - with a Prema at her disposal in F1 Academy, she has won a couple of races, but on the whole hasn't been near the pace of the frontrunners over there (Garcia, Hamda Al Qubaisi, Bühler). Granted, she doesn't have as much experience in open-wheelers as those three — so I'm sure there's room for improvement — but her cameos in Italian F4 and USF Juniors this year were pretty lacklustre.

Saying that, I'm glad F1 teams are taking more interest in developing women in motorsports, so I'm probably being a little harsh in my assessment.

Edited by Frood, 18 October 2023 - 13:06.

Bustamante did the last season of W Series too. Finished 15th overall.

I actually think you're being quite generous in your assessment, Frood. Signings like this, while drivers like Taylor Barnard don't have support, are hard to justify.

It's apparently part of an initiative to have each F1 team supporting at least one driver on the F1 Academy grid next year. Not sure how that's going to work for the likes of Haas, who don't even have a junior team at the moment (not counting Pietro Fittipaldi who is... kinda just there)

 

As I said, it's good to get some more visibility and support for women in motorsport. Bustamante has apparently self-funded her career through NFTs (which is, er, interesting, but I guess it's not that far removed from Justin Wilson selling shares in himself to get to F1) so it's good for her to get some extra funding, at least. I also imagine the possibility of getting some of the 100M+ Filipino/a eyes onto motorsport doesn't harm her case, either. Outside of the late Jovy Marcelo, and a GP3 win for Marlon Stöckinger, there's been very little in the way of Filipino/a representation in motorsport either.

 

I still have my reservations, but as I said, she's still fairly young compared to the rest of the F1 Academy grid.

I guess I'm just frustrated Flörsch didn't get this sort of support sooner (I know Alpine now have her on board). 2020 wasn't a strong season for her, but she had some dismal luck along the way, and has shown herself well this year in a backmarker team. If she'd had the support she needed to continue in a solid F3 team in 2021, I don't think she'd have been a frontrunner, but I think she'd have done a decent job. Without wishing to be unkind, Bianca Bustamante and Aurelia Nobels aren't the promising drivers these academies should be focussing on; Sophia Flörsch should have got the nod several years back, and Ferrari should have signed Maya Weug and Doriane Pin.

It's apparently part of an initiative to have each F1 team supporting at least one driver on the F1 Academy grid next year.

Which I think does a gross disservice to the worthy cause of encouraging female participation in motor sport. Do we take a young male from almost nowhere, and plonk him into an F1 team, to expose the fact that 99 times out of 100 he'll not be good enough?

 

It's enough that a female-only series exists. It's pitched correctly at F4, and it's more than enough that it's promoted to the public by being part of some F1 weekends.

Do we take a young male from almost nowhere, and plonk him into an F1 team, to expose the fact that 99 times out of 100 he'll not be good enough?

 

 

If their dad has enough money, yes.

Dennis Hauger has confirmed he'll be leaving Red Bull at the end of the year. This isn't a big surprise; it's looked inevitable for a while now.

There are rumours (from Polish TV I believe?) that Dr. Marko has said there'll only be two Red Bull juniors in F2 next year - Hadjar and Martí. Assuming this means Iwasa is off to Super Formula as it would be strange to dump him at this stage.

We've already discussed how this affects Fittipaldi and Maloney, but... this also seems unnecessarily harsh on Crawford, given that he's currently ahead of Hadjar in the standings.

Red Bull have announced that following Hadjar getting an FP1 outing, they've also handed one to Jake Dennis, so it's likely the others were never going to get a look in anyway.