Here's an update for the start of the 2024 season.
Red Bull Junior Team
Out for 2024 are: Dennis Hauger (two years of mediocrity, one angry Marko), Zane Maloney (...for… reasons?), Jak Crawford (...for… beating Hadjar? u ok helmut?), Enzo Fittipaldi (...for being second best Red Bull driver in F2? I don’t know, Helmut has made some weird decisions) Sebastián Montoya (racing talent inherited from wrong parent), Souta Arao (utterly terrible year in GB3).
Liam Lawson, 22, New Zealander — Formula 1, Reserve Driver (Red Bull Racing, Visa etc. etc. RB)
Lawson eventually missed out on the Super Formula title in 2023, which was snatched out of the grasp of both him and team-mate Tomoki Nojiri by the now Formula 2-bound Ritomo Miyata. He did well to beat his experienced, two-time champion team-mate Nojiri, though it has to be pointed out that Lawson only beat Nojiri by half a point, with Nojiri having to miss a race through a collapsed lung. However, though he was beaten 6-2 in Qualifying by Nojiri, it was his race pace where his talent shone through. Of course, he cameo’d in F1 whilst Daniel Ricciardo was out with a broken hand, and acquitted himself splendidly, scoring a point in Singapore. This didn’t net him a race drive for this year, so a year of waiting for Yuki Tsunoda to finally spontaneously combust with anger beckons.
Ayumu Iwasa, 22, Japanese — Super Formula (Team Mugen)
After a strong start to his sophomore season in Formula 2, Iwasa’s championship challenge tailed off as both mistakes and the waning form of his DAMS team put paid to his title tilt. With little else to do with him, Red Bull have decided to take the Lawson route, and have shipped him in a crate back home to plop him into a plum Mugen seat in Super Formula, alongside the aforementioned Tomoki Nojiri. Interestingly, Iwasa’s career parallels with Lawson don’t stop there, with both having raced for two seasons in Formula 2, and both winning five races in that time. Ayumu-san will have to again perform similar feats as Lawson did in 2023 to keep his slim hopes of an F1 seat alive.
Isack Hadjar, 19, French-Algerian — Formula 2 (Campos Racing)
Red Bull had 5 drivers in Formula 2 last year. Hadjar, who finished 15th in the championship, was the lowest-placed of the five. Logically, then, his tenure in the junior team ended oh wait, he was the only one who wasn’t let go. Purportedly Helmut Marko’s favourite, this seems to have warranted a stay of execution for 2024, but you have to think it’s last chance saloon for the Frenchman. His 2022 F3 season showed that he has bundles of pace on tap, but needs to find the consistency – and possibly lose a little of the hot-headedness – to mount a charge on the F2 championship. Being nerfed out of the opening feature race by Gabriel Bortoleto hasn’t helped his start, but it’s a long season ahead.
Pepe Martí, 18, Spanish — Formula 2 (Campos Racing)
Martí showed good speed in his second year in F3, right up to the point at which he signed for Red Bull, which is hopefully not a portent of results to come… however, the Fernando Alonso protégé has had a scintillating start to his F2 career, taking two podiums in his first two F2 races. If he can keep up this turn of pace, he’ll start to give the Red Bull higher-ups a headache. From a fairly anonymous début season in F3 in 2022, to two podiums to start his F2 career in 2024, it’s been a remarkable 18-month turnaround for Martí.
Arvid Lindblad, 16, British-Swedish — Formula 3 (Prema Racing)
After my previous update – at which point he was comfortably leading the Italian F4 standings – it seemed almost certain that Linblad was destined for the title, with a seemingly unassailable lead. Fate had other plans for the young Brit. Having taken 6 wins and 4 further podiums up until the end of the Monza weekend, the last nine races of the season were very poor indeed. Whilst he scored minor points, he never once troubled the podium again, let alone fought for a race win. As it was, the title went elsewhere (more on that briefly), and Lindblad even lost the runner-up spot to team-mate Ugo Ugochukwu. He picked up the pieces of his broken luck admirably in Macau, winning the Formula 4 race there, before having an underwhelming half-season in Formula Regional Middle East at the start of this year. This left a lot of people wondering whether it was too early to promote him into F3 - critics which he somewhat silenced by winning first time out (albeit in a sprint race) and taking Théo Pourchaire’s record of youngest winner in FIA F3. He still seems to be missing ultimate pace to team-mates Minì and Beganovic, but you have to think that a win on début will recharge his confidence going into the main part of the season.
Kacper Sztuka, 18, Polish — Formula 3 (MP Motorsport)
…and Lindblad’s loss was Sztuka’s gain. Having already spent two years previously in Italian F4, taking two wins and finishing 6th in 2022, Sztuka knew that 2023 was his last chance saloon. He left the Monza round lying in 4th place in the standings, behind the Prema trio of Lindblad, Ugochukwu and Wharton. The season to that point had been more of the same for the Pole: there, or thereabouts, picking up a win and two further podiums. Sitting on 108 points - not even half of Lindblad’s 221.5 - it seemed like US Racing’s top man’s best bet was to aim for runner-up. What actually happened was one of the most incredible upturns of form ever seen in a junior single-seater category. In the remaining nine races, Sztuka took seven pole positions, seven fastest laps, and eight wins, with his only miss being a 3rd place. He ended up 35 points ahead of Ugochukwu - and a further 16.5 points ahead of Lindblad. This incredible turnaround had netted him the most prestigious Formula 4 championship, and a berth in the Red Bull Junior Team. He’ll need to get up to speed quickly and show the same form in Formula 3 to prove his mettle.
Tim Tramnitz, 19, German — Formula 3 (MP Motorsport)
Another new addition to the Red Bull stable this year is Hamburger Tim Tramnitz, who will relish the chance to prove himself in Formula 3. He had found himself in a bit of a pickle after last year’s FRECA series, having lost out in the standings to rookie team-mate Martinius Stenshorne. Lettuce not forget, however, that that 3rd place still included 3 wins, 10 podiums and 4 pole positions. It’s apparent that there’s speed there, and he has a bit of cheese to his name, namely backing from the ADAC, so there’s no reason to think he won’t ketchup to the pack quickly in F3. Indeed, he has already scored a podium there, so it’s looking like an inspired move to bun-dle him into F3. And no, I can’t see where I can fit onions into this. Sorry.
Oliver Goethe, 19, Germano-Danish — Formula 3 (Campos Racing)
Red Bull’s last addition to the F3 grid this year is the British-born, Monaco-based, Danish-speaking German, Oliver Goethe. Son of sportscar racer Roald Goethe, he made his F3 début part-way through 2022, whilst simultaneously racing his way to the Euroformula Open title. Whilst he made an immediate impact in his part-time role, his first full-time season with Trident was underwhelming, to say the least. Goethe obviously has the pace, but unlocking that pace consistently has been a problem. 8th place in the championship when fellow rookie Gabriel Bortoleto went on to win the title was not a particularly good showing, with a nine-race barren spell at the start of the season seriously impacting his championship standings. In a year when Helmut Marko said he was “thinning out” the Red Bull Junior Academy, Goethe has been a slightly confusing addition. He’ll need to really break out this year to stand a chance of moving further up the ladder.
Enzo Deligny, 15, French-Chinese — Formula Regional European Championship (R-ace GP)
Though he didn’t win an F4 title last year, at times Deligny’s pace was absolutely electric. He scored points in a part-time campaign in Italy for the lowly AKM team, when their full-time drivers couldn’t. His main focus was the Spanish championship, in which he entered the last round with a good shot at taking the runner-up spot. Indeed, Deligny’s driving that weekend thrust him into the headlines… but for all the wrong reasons. Having made a poor start to the final race, Deligny rather abruptly squeezed his points rival Valerio Rinicella to the edge of the track, and then onto the grass beyond. Not content with that move, he then darted back across the track, with Noah Lisle having to take avoiding action, to then attempt to push championship winner Théophile Naël off track as well. The stewards weren’t impressed, and punished the young Frenchman with a drive-through penalty. Which, to the consternation of his Campos team, he didn’t take. This earned him a disqualification, which he also promptly ignored. You’d have to think that his place in the Red Bull Junior team may be hanging by a thread, and he’ll need to perform well in FRECA to assure he stays there. He’ll be at R-ace GP, one of the series’ best teams (taking 2nd and 3rd with Stenshorne and Tramnitz last year), so he’ll have the equipment at his disposal to show he deserves his stay of execution.
James Egozi, 16, American — Spanish Formula 4 (Campos Racing)
Another recent addition to the Red Bull stable, Egozi won the WSK Super Master Series in the OK class last year, whilst simultaneously launching his career in cars. He had a quietly impressive first season in cars in 2023; whilst 14th place in Italian F4 may not seem like a headline result at first, he often got the better of more experienced team-mate Valentin Kluss and was the top-scoring PHM driver in the series. Everyone else ahead of him, bar Alfio Spina, drove for the same three teams (Prema, US Racing, VAR) which tend to dominate the points positions, so 37 points for PHM was likely the best he could have hoped for. A sideways move to the Spanish series, with a strong team in Campos, is likely to show what Egozi is made of.
Enzo Tarnvanichkul, 15, Thai — Spanish Formula 4 (Campos Racing)
The Spanish-born Thai racer took 4th in the OK class in last year’s FIA World Karting Championship, and comes into his maiden season of car racing with high expectations. He’s already made a low-key début in Formula Winter Series, but struggled with car issues. Campos will provide him a very good platform on which to make an assault on the title, and time will tell if he’ll rise to the occasion.
Affiliated drivers: Sebastián Montoya continues as a Red Bull athlete in Formula 3, but is no longer part of the main Academy. Red Bull will also support sisters Hamda and Amna al Qubaisi in F1 Academy, with the former running in Red Bull colours, and the latter the colours of Windows Vista Crash Apple blah blah blah. Hamda is the better of the two. Red Bull will also lend some support to the Al Qubaisis’ team-mate, Emely de Heus.
Mercedes Junior Team
Out for 2024 are: Frederik Vesti (not called Andrea Kimi Antonelli) and Paul Aron (also not called Andrea Kimi Antonelli)
Uncertain status: Supposedly, there is a Mercedes Junior driver currently in Formula One, with Esteban Ocon apparently saying he’s a Mercedes Junior as recently as February this year. Dude, you’re a Grand Prix winner. Have some self-respect!
Andrea Kimi Antonelli, 17, Italian — Formula 2 (Prema Racing)
Sorry, who?
Alex Powell, 16, American-Jamaican — Italian Formula 4 (Prema Racing)
Nephew of the former 100 meter record-holding sprinter, Asafa Powell, young Alex embarks on his first full season in cars. Big things are expected, as always when driving for Prema, but he’ll need to make a step up from the pace he showed in F4 UAE this year, where he was overshadowed somewhat by team-mates Freddie Slater and Kean Nakamura Berta. Perhaps a reset before the European season will do him some good.
Cui Yuanpu, 15, Chinese — British Formula 4 (Argenti Motorsport)
Cui ran at a similar level to Powell in karting in 2022, but didn’t quite show the same results as his more accomplished team-mate. He made his car début in F4 UAE this year, with the unfancied Xcel team, scoring a couple of points. Not much to go off so far, then; however, he did show good pace when compared to his team-mates Alvise Rodella (already with a season of F4 to his name) and Tiago Rodrigues (an F4 champion in China).
Doriane Pin, 20, French — F1 Academy (Prema Racing)
The newest addition to Mercedes’ junior squad, Pin brings with her a wealth of sportscar experience into her first season in open-wheelers. Already, she’s shown that she belongs, having taken a win in a partial season of F4 South East Asia (on her way to runner-up in the points), and a win in F4 UAE earlier this year. This win was probably the biggest result for a while for a woman in open-wheelers, and will establish her as likely the woman to beat in F1 Academy. No further plans for her have been announced as of yet, but I’d like to see her in Italian F4 as well.
In karting, Mercedes are supporting Luna Fluxá (13, British-Spanish), who has been running in OK Junior at a European level, with some decent results. The Fluxá family aren’t short on cash, so she’ll likely have the means to climb the ladder. Additionally, they support Kenzo Craigie (13, British) expanded his horizons beyond the UK in 2023, and finished as a runner-up in the Rotax Max Euro Trophy.
Ferrari Driver Academy
Out for 2024 are: Arthur Leclerc (Ferrari only have the resources to continue making one brother’s life a misery) and James Wharton (continually crashing into team-mates will eventually have an effect)
Oliver Bearman, 18, British — Formula 2 (Prema Racing)
2023 was a year of boom and bust for Bearman, showing he was definitely a raw talent. And a talent he is - not many people can take a double win in F2 in their rookie season, like he did in Baku - but he is raw too, with a few too many mistakes and silly moments costing him a better place in the final standings. The pressure is on now; a second season with Prema should automatically place him as one of the favourites, but with possibly one of the highest rated junior drivers of all time in the garage next to him, it really is time to perform, and perform consistently. That is, of course, if Prema can perform. Bahrain wasn’t exactly where they wanted to be…
Dino Beganovic, 20, Bosnian-Swedish — Formula 3 (Prema Racing)
The write-up for Bearman can be applied to Beganovic, too. The Swede has latent speed, but he spent 2023 struggling to string a good set of results together, through mistakes, mechanical issues, and a fair slice of bad luck. Now he has the highly-rated Gabriele Minì alongside him, as well as Red Bull’s Arvid Lindblad, it’s time for Dino to find that extra gear to take him to the championship. Prema should be able to provide the car, it’s up to him to provide the talent. Sadly, the opening round in Bahrain was more of the same - pole position for the feature race, a silly mistake in the sprint to get a penalty, and mechanical issues in the feature demoting him to the back, before showing the best race pace of anyone to almost get back into the points. Hopefully a weekend of “what could have been” doesn’t turn into another season of it.
Rafael Câmara, 18, Brazilian — Formula Regional European Championship (Prema Racing)
For the first time in three years, Câmara is away from his nemesis and biggest problem, Andrea Kimi Antonelli. I thought it was a surprising move for the Brazilian to stay in FRECA, but Ferrari and Prema have obviously made the decision that he needs more preparation for the step up into F3. As it is, he’ll go into the 2024 FRECA season as a firm favourite, and anything other than a championship trophy will likely be seen as a disappointment. 2024 hasn’t started ideally for Câmara, with his stint in Formula Regional Middle East only netting a third place, a long way behind Tuukka Taponen and Taylor Barnard, so a step up in form is needed from both him and Prema for the main series.
Tuukka Taponen, 17, Finnish — Formula Regional European Championship (R-ace GP)
I have to admit, Taponen has surprised me already in 2024. I said in my previous update that a second season in F4 was likely after a somewhat quiet and disappointing 2023, yet he’s made the step up to the Formula Regional level. And oh boy, has he made the step up. His 5 weeks in the Middle East this year have thrown him straight into title contention - from the word go, he’s clicked with the somewhat fickle Tatuus Formula Regional car and his new R-ace GP team. In 15 FRMEC races, he never finished below 7th, taking 5 wins and the title with more points than Andrea Kimi Antonelli scored last year. Here’s hoping he takes this stunning form and ability into the full season.
Maya Weug, 19, Belgian-Spanish-Dutch — F1 Academy (Prema Racing)
I hope Maya is also doing a dual F1 Academy-FRECA campaign this year, otherwise a year of doing F1 Academy only seems like a waste. She showed she belonged in FRECA last year, with multiple points finishes in one of the series’ weakest teams. F1 Academy should be a breeze for her, with only one driver - a team-mate we’ll talk about soon - seemingly proving any semblance of opposition. Fingers crossed.
Aurélia Nobels, 17, (American born) Belgian-Brazilian — F1 Academy (ART Grand Prix)
Shouldn’t be in the Ferrari Academy, frankly. She was a complete waste of a seat at Prema in Italian F4 this year, and fared little better for Saintéloc in F4 UAE this year. She’ll be a bit-player at best in F1 Academy.
McLaren Driver Development Programme
Pato O’Ward, 24, Mexican — IndyCar (Arrow McLaren), Formula 1, Reserve Driver (McLaren)
Still there, still a fan favourite, still hasn’t challenged for a championship. O’Ward really needs to push for the IndyCar title this year, or he risks falling off of the Formula One radar for good. McLaren have faith in him, and this is reflected in his F1 Reserve Driver status, which he shares with the next driver on this list. He’ll also be out to avenge his loss in the Indy 500 last year, in which he looked fast but mentally fragile. He’ll need to steal a march early doors, lest Álex Palou comes charging out of the gate again on his way to a third title. And Zak Brown clearly doesn’t want that to happen, given their history…
Ryo Hirakawa, 29, Japanese — World Endurance Championship (Toyota Gazoo Racing), Formula 1, Reserve Driver (McLaren)
The oldest “junior” on this entire list has resigned his berth in Japan’s Super Formula season to focus his commitments on both WEC and his role as McLaren’s other reserve driver in F1. It looks like he has some work to do on the Toyota in sportscars, so I expect that’s where his main work for this year will be. I highly doubt he’ll ever start a Grand Prix, but stranger things have happened.
Gabriel Bortoleto, 19, Brazilian — Formula 2 (Invicta Racing)
A new signing for this year, last year’s F3 champion goes into the F2 season with big things expected of him. He mounted his assault on the F3 championship last year from a platform of being a model of consistency, maturity and intelligence, rather than on outright speed. These are attributes that usually work very well at Formula 2 level, so great things are expected of Bortoleto this year; as one of the few bright Brazilian prospects currently in junior formulae, he’ll also have an entire nation backing him. No pressure, then.
Ugo Ugochukwu, 16, Italian-American — Formula Regional European Championship (Prema Racing)
Ugochukwu showed heart and fight on his way to third in Italian F4, and the title in its sister series, Euro 4. What he did lack was consistency, something which he appeared to have gained in Formula Regional Middle East this year, though Prema also appeared to have lost the speed that takes them to the forefront of most of the series they compete in. If he can carry on showing he’s dropped the at times wild driving he’s shown previously, whilst maintaining his new-found maturity and confidence, there’s no reason why Ugochukwu can’t challenge the likes of Câmara and Taponen for the FRECA title.
Bianca Bustamante, 19, (American-born) Filipina – F1 Academy (ART Grand Prix)
Bustamante had a decent first season in F1 Academy, finishing solidly mid-table and showing top-6 pace in both Qualifying and Race trim, though this was perhaps below expectations given that she had a Prema car at her disposal. She was thoroughly beaten by team-mate Marta García, though this is also not a surprise given García’s comparative wealth of experience. A campaign in the UAE, also with Prema, was rather less stellar; as was a partial campaign in USF Juniors and an appearance at the Macau Formula 4 race. A move to ART, along with McLaren backing, may give her an extra push to up her game this season. Mind you, off-season hijinks, such as getting herself in a little bit of hot water via social media interactions, will likely not help her preparations for the upcoming season.
AMF1 Driver Development Programme
Felipe Drugovich, 23, Brazilian — Formula 1, Reserve Driver (Aston Martin)
What’s that blowing across the track? Is it tumbleweed? I think I also hear some crickets.
Jak Crawford, 18, American — Formula 2 (DAMS Lucas Oil)
Hey, Aston Martin have actually expanded their programme this year! First up, they’ve taken Red Bull refugee Jak Crawford. Crawford went into 2023 with low expectations, but performed fairly well in what was a difficult season and a Hitech team that didn’t look like it had the pace of the front-runners. Whilst it can be said that he profited off of sprint races more than any other driver (he only scored twice in feature races), Crawford’s consistent scoring in them took him to a better placing in the championship than his more vaunted team-mate Hadjar. It came as a surprise to see him dropped from the Academy - especially as he’s still very young - but Red Bull’s loss is Aston Martin’s gain. He moves to DAMS this year and will be looking to beat his former stable-mates to prove a point to Helmut Marko.
Tina Hausmann, 17, Swiss — F1 Academy (Prema Racing)
Hausmann has spent a year driving in F4 already, with a dual Italian F4 + Euro 4 campaign with Marco Antonelli’s (Kimi’s dad) AKM Motorsport. There was little in the way of headline results, but of the 7 drivers AKM campaigned in the two series, only one scored points - and we’ve already talked about him (Enzo Deligny). Digging a little deeper, 16th was her best result in Italian F4, with 11th being her best result of the season in Euro 4. The latter result ensured she was the best of the drivers who didn’t score, finishing 20th in the standings, in a field of 34. To be honest, that’s not a bad result; she also took home trophies in both series for the best woman. Her competition was admittedly scarce on this front, as the only other full-time entries were Victoria Blokhina and Aurélia Nobels; though considering Nobels had a Prema at her disposal, Hausmann did a solid job to beat her. Prema themselves have picked her up for F1 Academy, so she might spring a surprise.
Alpine Academy
Out for 2024 is: actually, no-one. So far. I’m sure Otmar will mis-manage something soon enough, though.
Jack Doohan, 21, Australian — F1 Reserve Driver (Alpine)
Taking a leaf out of the books of predecessor Oscar Piastri (as well as 2022 F2 Champ Felipe Drugovich), Doohan now has a year on the sidelines. His 2023 ended very strongly, having looked the class of the F2 field for the latter half of the year, but it was too late to overcome the abysmal start to the season he had. This year, he’ll be focusing on his reserve and test driver duties for the F1 team, though judging by their performance in Bahrain, he’ll be as fast as the race drivers are on track when he’s sitting still in the garage…
Victor Martins, 22, French-Portuguese — Formula 2 (ART Grand Prix)
If Martins can channel his positive traits seen in his rookie F2 season, he’ll arguably be the man to beat. At many points in 2023, he looked to be the fastest man in the championship, oftentimes getting the better of his eventual champion team-mate, Théo Pourchaire. Hopefully the off-season has given him time to work on his maturity, as the Martins’ negative traits cost him further ground in the championship – chiefly his hot-headedness, which landed him in hot water one too many times in 2023. If he can get all his ducks in a row, though, he’ll be the man to beat. 2024 hasn’t started in the perfect way, with a mechanical failure robbing him of a decent result in the Bahrain feature race, but the speed he showed in 2023 was also nowhere to be seen, with rookie team-mate O’Sullivan both out-qualifying and out-racing him. An improvement is needed, and fast.
Kush Maini, 23, Indian — Formula 2 (Invicta Racing)
A new addition to the program for 2024, Mika Häkkinen’s protégé has already impressed in his time in Formula 2. Beginning 2023 with an unfancied Campos team, after a difficult season in Formula 3, expectations for Maini were low. He soon established himself as a consistent points scorer, however, eventually ending up with a respectable points haul and 11th in the standings. He’s moved across to rivals Invicta (formerly Virtuosi) for 2024, a team which should provide him with a car to challenge for victories. He started 2024 tremendously with a pole position – though that elation only lasted a couple of hours before his disqualification. Admirable comebacks in both races still take points from the feature race, and Maini should have the pace to challenge for wins this year.
Gabriele Minì, 18, Italian — Formula 3 (Prema Racing)
Minì has great potential, but 2023’s F3 campaign didn’t see the Italian at his best. A torrid second half of the year left him languishing in 7th in the standings, well below what was expected of someone with great expectations. He moved to Prema prior to the Macau Grand Prix, and was right on pace there, qualifying the car on the front row and finishing the main race on the podium, albeit never really challenging eventual winner Luke Browning. Someone with Minì’s talent and a Prema car is automatically going into the F3 season as one of the favourites, so he’ll need to deliver on the promise this year.
Nikola Tsolov, 17, Bulgarian — Formula 3 (ART Grand Prix)
2023 was a trying year for Bulgaria’s only open-wheel star, but going into F3 straight into F4 was always going to be a baptism of fire. Coupled with an ART team that was missing something, opportunities for Tsolov to show his mettle were few and far between. He’s still very young, however, and he should be able to build on his first season to become first a regular points scorer, and hopefully fighting for wins in the second half of the season. His form has already looked much better in the first race weekend of 2024, with a fine battle for the sprint race lead with his team-mate Laurens van Hoepen, so there are some good building blocks to make the step up.
Sophia Flörsch, 23, German — Formula 3 (Van Amersfoort Racing)
Sophia looked very good at times in 2023, in what was a recalcitrant-at-best PHM car, scoring points on a couple of occasions (albeit later being disqualified from one of those). A move up the grid to Van Amersfoort will hopefully better show what talent Flörsch might have; she’ll need to start troubling the points consistently to prove that she has a place in the Alpine programme.
Nicola Lacorte, 16, Italian — Formula Regional European Championship (Trident)
Son of pharmaceutical company owner and sports car racer Roberto, Lacorte has had a fairly quiet start to his open-wheeler career. He’s now had one full season of Italian F4, in which he did score a win - but 9th in the championship when Prema team-mates were 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th was not the most accomplished showing. Made the move down under earlier this year for FROC (the former Toyota Racing Series) and looked a little better, but was never consistently challenging for victories. Lacorte will need to have a decent season in FRECA to prove he’s not just in the Academy because he bought his way in.
Matheus Ferreira, 17, Brazilian — Italian Formula 4 (US Racing)
Another driver who needs to have a good season this year. Ferreira wasn’t particularly bad in Italian F4 last year, but never stood out, eventually finishing a long way behind his team-mates Brando Badoer and Ivan Domingues, and even behind temporary team-mate Freddie Slater, who only raced in the last two rounds. He moves across to US Racing, who took Kacper Sztuka to the title last year, and he’ll need to be in the hunt with the Premas to show he has what it takes to move up the ladder.
Kean Nakamura Berta, 16, Japanese-Slovak — Italian Formula 4 (Prema Racing)
…and in one of the Premas that Ferreira needs to beat will be Kean Nakamura Berta. He graduated into cars at the back end of last year, taking two pole positions and a podium in his partial F4 SEA campaign. Prema retained him for their assault on the F4 UAE title this year, and KNB performed admirably, only losing out on the title by 4 points to the talented (and slightly more experienced) Freddie Slater. A really good foundation to build on for the full Italian F4 season, and Nakamura Berta should be in with a shout of winning the whole thing.
Abbi Pulling, 20, British — F1 Academy, British F4 (Rodin Motorsport)
2023 was a poor year in F1 Academy for the driver many people had tipped to win it. Whether that was down to Pulling herself not being on the pace, or her Carlin team not being competitive (she was still top dog at Carlin), is up for debate. Both she and the team need to show better results this year or risk any momentum she’d built up from a decent 2022 eroding away completely. She’ll also be making a return to the British F4 championship, having last competed there in 2021; with it being her fourth season at F4 level, she’ll really need to make an impact now or risk being left behind.
Through the Rac(H)er Programme, Alpine are supporting a raft of youngsters in karting in 2024. Angélina Proenca (13, French) is already racing at a European level; Aiva Anagnostiadis (15, Australian), Lisa Billard (13, French), Chiara Battig (12, Swiss), Maria-Chiara Nardelli (12, Italian) and Sukhmani Kaur Khera (10, British) are currently racing at their respective national (or Italian, for Battig) levels.
Williams Driver Academy
Out for 2024 is: Ollie Gray (a year spent crashing an F3 car around the world very slowly will get you fired, surprisingly)
Zak O’Sullivan, 19, British-Irish — Formula 2 (ART Grand Prix)
After an odd 2023, in which he seemed to be stronger against his rookie team-mates in F3 in the later stages of the season rather than earlier on, a promotion to F2 still seemed to be on the cards as the F3 runner-up. As luck would have it, that’s what he got, and with one of the best teams in the series in ART. He’s a solid, if not spectacular driver, who should go well in F2. All the signs are good so far: he’s been very solid in winter testing, and during the first race weekend of the season, acquitted himself well with the car and team, but more surprisingly seemed to have the measure of his supposed championship-challenging team-mate Victor Martins. A great start to the season that he now needs to capitalise on. He’s already had a taste of F1 machinery, too, and will look to build on that this year.
Franco Colapinto, 20, Argentine — Formula 2 (MP Motorsport)
A classy and consistent second season in F3 netted him 4th place, and a promotion to F2 alongside Williams stable-mate O’Sullivan. Having a little bit of experience at the back end of last year (he competed in the F2 round at Yas Marina) has set him up nicely for his first season of F2, and I expect he’ll be challenging for wins before too long. Seems to have the most rabid fans on feeder series social media, though Twitter might become even more unusable if he ever has a coming together with Gabriel Bortoleto. Also, he looks oddly like Ayrton Senna. Seriously, look it up.
Luke Browning, 22, British — Formula 3 (Hitech Pulse-Eight)
2023 was a year full of occasional speed, but also far too many wild moments for Browning, especially for the man who is now the second oldest driver on the F3 grid after Sophia Flörsch. However, something seems to have clicked in the off-season. Firstly, when the F3 teams decamped at the end of the year to Macau, Browning was straight on it, and was essentially never headed. The Hitech driver duly took the Macau Grand Prix victory, and went into the winter break with a huge confidence boost. Since then, he’s looked rapid in every post-season and pre-season test, and as soon as F3 hit their first race weekend at Bahrain, he hit the ground running. A win in the first feature race of the season currently sees him at the top of the standings, and it’s not very far-fetched at all to imagine him there at the end of the season as well.
Jamie Chadwick, 25, British — Indy NXT (Andretti Global)
The only driver on this list to currently sit outside the FIA ladder, and a driver who really needs to deliver on her promise. 2023 was not a good year for Chadwick, and she needs to make a big step up to challenge for wins in 2024, or risk all career momentum disappearing down the drain. There were sparks, particularly towards the end of last year, that she was starting to overcome the pace deficit seen at the end of 2023, and pre-season testing recently has shown encouraging pace.
Alessandro Giusti, 17, French — Formula Regional European Championship (ART Grand Prix)
The 2022 French F4 champion stepped up to FRECA with the struggling G4 Racing team last year. Expectations were low for a rookie in an underfunded team, but a couple of points finishes early in the season were welcome, and the young Frenchman had some confidence to build on. Then, suddenly, things came together mid-season, and in a big way - three wins and a second place, in the space of three weekends; this meant he scored the most wins of anyone not called Andrea Kimi Antonelli or Martinius Stenshorne. 6th place in the championship for G4 is certainly nothing to be sniffed at, and a move to ART and a place on Williams’ books will likely catapult him into title contention this year.
Lia Block, 17, American — F1 Academy (ART Grand Prix)
The daughter of the late Hoonigan himself, Ken Block, Lia embarks on her open-wheel journey in 2024 after proving to be a very useful rally driver in her native US of A. She’s already made her track début in the off-season F4 Formula Winter Series. Results have so far been hard to come by for her, especially with a GRS team that is far from the series’ strongest, but her pace relative to more experienced team-mate Bianca Bustamante has been somewhat encouraging, especially in race trim.
The team also has a couple of karters on their books. Oleksandr Bondarev (14, Ukrainian) took a European championship last year in OKJ; a switch to Prema has already seen him take the WSK Champions Cup title and the runner-up spot in the WSK Super Master Series in OK. He turns 15 in April and will be able to make a start in open-wheelers soon after. Sara Matsui (13, Japanese) has also been showing good results in Japanese karting circles. She’ll be running with Kart Republic in OKJ this year.
Sauber Academy
Out for 2024 is: Marcus Amand (FRECA results just not good enough)
Théo Pourchaire, 20, French — Super Formula (Team Impul)
Last year’s Formula 2 champion, it has to be said, felt like he stumbled across the line to win the title. He never shone as brightly as he had previously - taking only one win - but it was enough to net him the big trophy at the end of the day. Neither he nor runner-up Frederik Vesti could find an F1 seat, so whilst Vesti takes his chance in sportscars, Pourchaire has gone on many an F1 hopeful’s well-trodden path, and made his way to Japan. He slots into the Toyota-powered Impul team; though a relatively strong outfit, they haven’t won a title since the Formula Nippon days in 2010. He’ll be teamed up with 2016 champion Yuji Kunimoto, a veteran on the domestic Japanese scene, who’ll be able to show him the ropes. The pressure is likely not as great as that on Iwasa’s shoulders, but he’ll still need a good season to ensure he stays on Sauber’s radar. In that respect though, he does have a new, looming problem, called…
Zane Maloney, 20, Barbadian — Formula 2 (Rodin Motorsport)
Another Red Bull reject to find a new home in the F1 paddock. Maloney won Red Bull’s backing after a stonking second half to his 2022 F3 campaign, and hopes were high for his first season in F2. It wasn’t a massive success, but he still squeaked into the Top 10, ahead of two of other Red Bull juniors in Crawford and Hadjar. There were also rumours that he didn’t get along particularly well with Dr. Helmut Marko, and that bore out in rather dramatic fashion as he (and most of the other Red Bull juniors) were dropped for 2024. He’s now sought refuge at Sauber, and perhaps the move away from Red Bull has rejuvenated him. He took his first F2 win last weekend in the Sakhir sprint race, and then doubled up to take the feature race win as well, an imperious display when other championship favourites faltered. If he can keep this form up, Sauber are going to have a headache at the end of the year.
Léna Bühler, 26, Swiss — Formula Regional European Championship (ART Grand Prix)
The experienced Bühler finished runner-up to Marta García in F1 Academy last year. She put together an impressively consistent campaign to get there, though it has to be said, she already has a great deal of open-wheel experience to her name. The rules permit any team in FRECA to run an extra car if they pick up the winner or runner-up from F1 Academy; Prema have done so with García, and so ART have done the same for Bühler. This will be her second full-time season in FRECA, having already done one full season in 2021 and a partial campaign in 2022, both for R-ace GP. That full season in 2021 was an unmitigated disaster, though. Team-mates Hadrien David, Zane Maloney and Isack Hadjar finished the championship in 2nd, 4th and 5th respectively, with 5 wins between them; Bühler only finished in the top 20 once, and was 38th (and last of the full-time drivers) in the championship. She’ll need to find much, much better form than that to have a future in motorsport.
Carrie Schreiner, 25, German — F1 Academy (Campos Racing)
Schreiner put together a decent season to take 1 win and 11th in F1 Academy last year, but having made her F4 début the best part of a decade ago, it does feel like it’s a little late to find success in F1 Academy now. Still, she has shown enough to win Sauber’s backing, but this will be her absolute last chance to shine before a career back in sportscars likely beckons.
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.
Haas Driver Academy
Well, there isn’t really one. However, since every team is asked to support a driver in F1 Academy, Haas have lent their support to Chloe Chambers (19, Chinese-American), who will drive for Campos. Chambers only raced in Formula Regional Oceania in 2023, but did take a win at Taupo at the end of the season, making her one of only three drivers on the F1 Academy grid to have taken open-wheeler wins against mixed-gender opposition (the others being Hamda al Qubaisi and Doriane Pin). She’s also been a points scorer in F4 USA, and in the last season of W Series, so she should easily be in the top half of the grid on pace.
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 most prominent, and many of his drivers are already linked to other academies (Tsolov, Martí, Bortoleto; he also manages Chloe Chambers). Outside of those drivers already with other academies, he supports drivers in Formula E (Maxi Günther) and sportscars (Clément Novalak, Carl Bennett). The only unattached open-wheel driver on Alonso’s books currently is Michael Costello, who finished 5th in F4 USA last year, and makes the step up to USF2000 this year.
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 the aforementioned Théo Pourchaire, Victor Martins, Isack Hadjar, and Alessandro Giusti. They’ll be supporting three drivers in FRECA this year, with French F4 champion and runner-up Evan Giltaire and Enzo Peugeot, and Spanish F4 champion Théophile Naël.
The Telmex Academy, run by funding from billionaire Carlos Slim, also works with a number of Central and South American drivers, including Formula 2 drivers Enzo Fittipaldi, Juan Manuel Correa and Rafael Villagómez; and Formula 3 driver Santiago Ramos.
Non-affiliated drivers
Here are some free agents to look out for:
FIA Ladder
The highest-ranked unaffiliated F2 driver from last year, having been ejected from Red Bull, is Dennis Hauger. It feels unlikely at this stage that Dennis will be picked up by another academy, and needs to have a good year in 2024 to prove he has what it takes. Similarly, Richard Verschoor is another ex-Red Bull man, and with both embarking on their third and fourth seasons respectively, it’s looking more than likely that both would start to look towards sportscars. The two biggest unaffiliated talents in F2 now, in my estimation, would be Paul Aron, recently dropped by Mercedes but showing fantastic pace in the season opener, and Taylor Barnard, a long-time nemesis of Kimi Antonelli who has rarely had the same funding or opportunities as his rival.
Meanwhile, in Formula 3, a couple of names to keep an eye on would be the rapid Alex Dunne, who took a starring role in Macau at the end of 2023, and Nyck de Vries’ protégé Laurens van Hoepen. At the Formula Regional level, a further couple of unaffiliated drivers may be worth watching: ex-Sauber man Zachary David came on strong at the end of the FRMEC season, and will continue with R-ace GP; Italian talent Valerio Rinicella has also looked very quick since he stepped up into Formula Regional machinery.
Formula 4 can be a bit harder to read, but I think far and away the most exciting talent not already snapped up at this level is Freddie Slater. He’ll be competing in Italian F4 for Prema this year; another of his team-mates in Latvia’s Tomass Štolcermanis may also be one to watch. British F4 is usually another strong series, perhaps Deagan Fairclough here will be rapid. Spanish F4 is also on the up, with plenty of strong drivers; amongst them will be Keanu Al Azhari, who was very fast in F4 UAE this year. Maciej Gładysz could be an interesting débutant, too.
Outside of the FIA ladder
GB3 (ex-British F3) often brings good racing and unearths some good talents - the top three in the series last year have all graduated to FIA F3 (Callum Voisin, Alex Dunne, Joseph Loake). Louis Sharp and Will Macintyre will resume their battle from British F4 last year; another talent to keep an eye on is American Nikita Johnson, who looked rapid on the IndyCar ladder in 2023.
Eurocup-3 is a Formula Regional-level series that came into existence last year as a lower cost alternative to FRECA. The lineup looks fairly weak so far this year, but Christian Ho is the first good talent to come out of Singapore in a very long time and will be in serious contention for the title.
The Road to Indy ladder is a different beast, and likely has no interest from F1 teams. Still, just for posterity:
Indy NXT will probably be a good battle between Louis Foster and Nolan Siegel. Myles Rowe is a highly rated talent making his début this year.
The aforementioned Nikita Johnson is also likely a force to be reckoned with in USF Pro 2000, though I think Canadian Mac Clark will also be a strong contender.
The two series below that (USF2000 and USF Juniors) are too hard to read at this stage, though I’d like to see Sebastian Wheldon show his class in the latter.
