Photo: Formula Motorsport Ltd

Emma Felbermayr has kept her F1 Academy seat with Rodin Motorsport for a second season, while Prema has added Payton Westcott to its line-up.

The buyout of the Sauber Formula 1 team by Audi means Felbermayr’s car will carry the branding of the latter through 2026 after sporting Sauber’s colours in 2025.

As a single-seater rookie, the 19-year-old Austrian competed in four series last year. In F1 Academy and both the main and winter Spanish Formula 4 championship she raced for Rodin, and a British F4 cameo was made with Virtuosi Racing.

The all-female F4-spec F1 Academy was her primary programme, and she came 10th in the standings. There were three top-five finishes, including victory in Montreal [pictured top].

Felbermayr missed a round in both of the Spanish F4 championships, and went points-free in both. She was 27th in the winter standings and two places lower in the main championship. A 15th place was the best result of her British F4 outing, and she is currently racing for PHM Racing in UAE4 where she sits a points-free 24th with one round to go.

“Continuing in F1 Academy and to now do so as an official Audi F1 Team driver is a huge honour,” said Felbermayr.

“To be associated with a brand that has such an incredible motorsport history, and one that supported icons like Michele Mouton and Rahel Frey, is truly inspiring.”

Westcott made her F1 Academy debut in the 2025 season finale on Las Vegas’s Strip circuit, driving the Hitech GP-run wildcard entry. She finished sixth in her first race, enough to put her 18th in the points table.

For her first full F1 Academy season she will race with the branding of the Mercedes-AMG F1 team and be coached by its development driver Doriane Pin.

She and McLaren junior Richard Verschoor have been signed by Duqueine Team to share driving duties in its LMP2 Pro-Am class entry this year in the European Le Mans Series, and Duqueine has just partnered with fellow French outfit R-ace GP for that programme.

R-ace currently competes in Formula Regional, F4 and lower level LMP3 prototype sportscars, and its expansion into the latter was facilitated by working with Duqueine Automotive.

Westcott mainly drove for Van Amersfoort Racing in F4 last year, starting her single-seater career off with a points-free Formula Winter Series campaign.

She also failed to score in E4 and Italian F4, but was more competitive in her second outing with Hitech which was in December’s Saudi Arabian F4 finale. After finishing 11th on debut, she came home eighth in the next race.

The Prema-run Mumbai Falcons squad was Westcott’s next destination for an incomplete attack at the United Arab Emirates-based Formula Trophy, and she won a race to end the year 10th in the standings. Since then she has been in Prema’s UAE4 line-up, and two points-scoring races means she is 18th in the championship at present.

The post Felbermayr keeps Rodin seat, Westcott joins Prema in F1 Academy appeared first on Formula Scout.

Photo: BMW Motorsport

Tim Tramnitz has been announced as a BMW works driver for 2026, but he will be in a single-seater car this week.

The 21-year-old German will drive for Hitech GP in this week’s FIA Formula 3 pre-season test at Barcelona, sitting in for Michael Shin who has signed to race for the team this year.

Shin, who is moving across from Euroformula, has been ruled out of action at present due to a shoulder injury.

For the last two years, Tramnitz has raced for MP Motorsport in the FIA F3 Championship. He came ninth in 2024 with a sprint race win and three other podiums, and was fourth in 2025.

Following a run of seven successive top-five finishes, including a sprint race win and a feature race podium, Tramnitz’s form went downhill and after his first runner-up finish in a feature race he only scored one point in the last seven races.

“I am super happy to now be part of the BMW M Motorsport family and look forward to the challenge,” he said of his next career move.

“For me, this is a big step, as I have dreamed of becoming a works driver for a major manufacturer since my time in karting. I would like to thank everyone involved for their trust and can’t wait to contest my first races at the wheel of the BMW M4 GT3 Evo.”

It has not been announced which championship Tramnitz will race the BMW M4 GT3 Evo in through this year, and his new contract with the German automobile manufacturer comes despite no prior GT sportscar racing experience.

Another junior single-seater star to be signed by a sportscar brand for 2026 is 20-year-old Joseph Loake, who has become a factory driver for McLaren in GT racing.

Back in 2023, Loake took four wins in GB3 to come third in the standings and put himself in contention for the Aston Martin Autosport BRDC Award. After impressing in the on-track tests as one of the four finalists, the Briton earned himself a prize Formula 1 test with Aston Martin which he completed at Silverstone a year later.

His main focus in 2024 was FIA F3, in which he came 26th in the standings with eight points. They were scored in the two Monaco races.

Last year he made a USF Pro 2000 cameo and finished fifth on debut, as well as racing in sportscars for McLaren customer team Garage 59 in GT World Challenge Europe. He and his team-mates came seventh in the Endurance Cup with one podium.

The post Tim Tramnitz becomes BMW works driver, gets F3 test call-up appeared first on Formula Scout.

This year Genesis, the luxury brand of the Hyundai Motor Company, will enter the World Endurance Championship’s top Hypercar class with its own team and car.

As part of the South Korean brand’s expansion into motorsport, it has scouted talents to sign as junior drivers and Jamie Chadwick, Lee and Shin will be the members of the Genesis Magma Racing Trajectory Programme in 2026.

Chadwick was a junior driver of the Williams Formula 1 team until the end of 2024, a year in which she claimed a landmark Indy Nxt victory, then became Genesis’s first junior as she switched to sportscar racing. She came third in the 2025 European Le Mans Series, and will Genesis’s reserve driver in WEC.

Lee’s arrival into the GMRTP was accompanied by the announcement that he would be racing in GB3 this season with Elite Motorsport. The 17-year-old steps up to the third-tier championship after a single year in Formula 4.

He started off with Pinnacle Motorsport in F4 Middle East, contesting two rounds and coming 20th in the standings. Spanish F4 was Lee’s next destination, and he raced for Rodin Motorsport. In the winter championship he was a points-free 31st, and was 22nd in the main championship after missing the final round. His year concluded on the streets of Macau in the FIA F4 World Cup, which he retired from.

“My goal this year is to show steady progress, score points regularly, step on the podium and win races but also build a strong foundation that prepares me for the next stage of my career,” Lee said of his GB3 move.

“I chose GB3 because it’s one of the most competitive and well-structured junior single-seater championships in Europe. It offers a very high technical level, featuring strong teams, excellent circuits and a clear pathway towards FIA Formula 3 and beyond. For a driver aiming to build a serious long-term motorsport career in Europe, GB3 is the ideal environment to develop racecraft, technical understanding and mental strength against top-level competition.”

Shin will race for Hitech GP in the FIA F3 Championship this year. He moves across from Euroformula, which he came third in last year with four victories and eight other podiums. The 21-year-old began 2025 in Formula Regional Oceania, making the podium twice and coming eighth in the standings down under.

It closely mirrored his 2024, in which he was fourth in FRegional Oceania with one win and four other podiums then sixth in Euroformula. His half-season featured two wins, a pole and four other podiums. He has three rounds of FIA F3 experience from 2023.

“I am delighted to be joining the Genesis Magma Racing family as part of the Trajectory Programme. To be part of a Korean team as one of the only Korean drivers racing abroad brings great pride to myself, my family and team,” said Shin.

The post Shin and GB3-bound Lee become Genesis Magma Racing juniors appeared first on Formula Scout.

Photo: Bruce Jenkins / TGR NZ

Zack Scoular will switch to sportscar racing after reaching a new high in his single-seater career, winning the New Zealand Grand Prix.

Last year the 18-year-old Kiwi was Formula Regional Oceania runner-up with MTEC Motorsport, then went points-free in Eurocup-3 and its winter series with Palou Motorsport.

He began 2026 by returning to home soil and MTEC’s line-up in FRegional Oceania, and while he was only seventh in the standings he did win three races including his landmark season-ending triumph.

“I can’t believe it. Oh my days,” was his reaction following victory after getting out of the cockpit. “We’ve had such a tough year. The pace we’ve showed all year was really good, just so many unlucky moments, but to top it off like that – probably the last race I’ll have in single-seaters for the time, for the future. I can’t thank the team at MTEC enough, my family, everyone else involved. It means so much.”

On the grand prix’s safety car finish, he added: “I didn’t really have that much words. Towards the end of the race we started pulling out a bit of a gap, starting getting my head down a bit after managing the tyre. But then as soon as I saw that safety car, I sort of knew, and I was like ‘we just have to get it around for one more lap’.”

For a second successive season, Scoular was backed by the Tony Quinn Foundation. He won its shootout in 2024, and “to be able to still carry the TQF on my racesuit means so much”.

Scoular’s comment on his career future relates to him swapping junior single-seaters for junior sportscars. He will join R-ace GP (best known for its junior single-seater exploits) in the Le Mans Cup later this year to drive an LMP3 prototype.

In the Asian and European Le Mans Series the team is runnning Hugo Schwarze, with fellow GB3 race-winner Lucas Fluxa, Eurocup-3 drivers Luciano Morano and Lenny Ried, and FIA Formula 3 podium-finisher Callum Voisin also on the ALMS grid in LMP3 cars.

USF2000 midfielder Lucas Fecury and Formula 4 graduate Alexander Jacoby will be in the Le Mans Cup’s LMP3 entry list.

Scoular won the New Zealand GP by passing Hitech GP’s Jin Nakamura through the race’s first corner then managing his pace at the front. Nakamura was visibly upset when speaking to media post-race, despite it being his fifth runner-up finish of the season and his birthday.

“I’m a bit disappointed for this [result]. I had a bad start again. Yep, that’s it,” he said. “I’m happy to be here [fourth in the points table].”

After claiming his and Hitech’s first FRegional Oceania win earlier in the day, Kanato Le finished third. He praised the two drivers ahead was “really happy”, calling it “a massive honour and a really nice end” to the season by finishing on the podium.

The post Zack Scoular set for sportscar switch after New Zealand GP win appeared first on Formula Scout.

Photo: Formula Motorsport Ltd

Victor Martins has secured two major contracts for his services as a driver this year, with Formula 1 rivals Alpine and Williams.

He will race in prototype sportscar racing’s top tier by joining Alpine’s team in the World Endurance Championship’s hypercar class, and Williams has promoted him from junior driver status to being an F1 test and development driver.

The 24-year-old Frenchman was an Alpine Academy member from 2018 to 2019, when it was the Renault Sport Academy, then was dropped for a year before earning his spot back by becoming 2020 Formula Renault Eurocup champion.

He spent four years as an Alpine F1 junior during his second spell in the driver development programme, and also co-launched the Victory Lane team to run drivers in karting and support their development in single-seaters.

Martins won the 2022 FIA Formula 3 Championship, and spent the next three years racing in Formula 2 with ART Grand Prix and testing in F1 and Formula E. His rookie F2 campaign was his best, coming fifth in the points with nine podiums.

In late 2024 he was called up by Alpine’s WEC team (which is operated by Signatech) to test its A424 hypercar, and in early 2025 left the brand’s F1 team as he was overlooked for a contracted role such as reserve driver.

By March he had joined Williams’ driver development programme, and went on to conduct several F1 tests and drive in free practice at the Spanish Grand Prix.

His Williams role is also occupied by British drivers Oliver Turvey and Harrison Scott. Turvey raced in FE for NIO from 2015 to 2022, then became reserve driver sporting advisor for the rival DS Penske team.

Scott, now 29, was 2017 Euroformula champion and eighth in USF Pro 2000 the year after as a part-timer before his racing career ended. Williams employed him as a simulator driver in 2022, and last October he made his F1 test debut at Bahrain.

Also graduating from junior single-seaters to racing hypercars in 2026 is Kaylen Frederick, who has joined JDC–Miller MotorSports to drive in its Porsche 963 for IMSA’s five Endurance Cup rounds. He debuts in next weekend’s Daytona 24 Hours.

The 23-year-old American was 2020 GB3 (nee BRDC British F3) champion, spent three years in FIA F3 then made a sideways move to Super Formula Lights. He took two wins, six other podiums and came fifth in the standings twice in Japan.

Ed Pearson will remain with Nielsen Racing this year as he switches from Euroformula to prototype sportscars’ second-tier LMP2 class in the European Le Mans Series.

Now 19, the Briton came 12th in British Formula 4 in 2022 as a single-seater rookie then 19th in GB3 with two podiums the following year. His sophomore campaign was worse, but when he stepped up to Euroformula last year he won on debut and came fifth in the third-tier championship with two victories and six podiums.

The post Victor Martins lands F1 test driver role and hypercar race seat for 2026 appeared first on Formula Scout.

Photo: Red Bull

Every year, some of junior single-seaters’ top drivers are handed professional opportunities. Some lead to long-term careers in sportscars, while others try out the more cut-throat world of F1 and IndyCar

In addition to annually ranking the top 50 drivers in junior single-seater racing since 2011, Formula Scout also recognises the achievements of the very best of those who ‘graduate’ into the world of professional racing each year.

After making his Formula 1 debut in last year’s season finale, Jack Doohan began 2025 with a full-time seat at Alpine but he only lasted six race weekends before being demoted back to the reserve driver role he had spent the previous two years in.

His replacement was Franco Colapinto, who had starred in his surprise step up to F1 in 2024 when he joined Williams for the final third of the season. He scored five points in nine races, while in 2025 he went points-free and had several costly crashes. Alpine was uncompetitive at most events, and Colapinto was thoroughly outshone by team-mate Pierre Gasly. He initially raced with a five-round deal, then held the seat race-by-race before Alpine committed at the end of the European leg of the season to keeping Colapinto in the car for the rest of 2025. By November, the seat was then retained for 2026 too.

In IndyCar, Jacob Abel realised his dream of being on the grid by leaving his family’s Abel Motorsports team after eight years with them. He joined Dale Coyne Racing, whose place in the pecking order was up and down during the season, but the 2024 Indy Nxt runner-up failed to make a mark at the top level. He was in the top 20 in just one qualifying session and two races.

Seita Nonaka somehow pieced together a near-complete rookie campaign in Super Formula. He started off with Team Impul at Suzuka, then raced for KCMG at Twin Ring Motegi where he finished eighth in race two to claim his only points.

After missing the next round, he returned to the grid in TGM Grand Prix’s line-up for the remaining events and set the fastest lap in the season’s third race at Fuji Speedway. Despite handling his team switches well, Nonaka didn’t turn his four seasons of Super Formula Lights experience into big results like other SF rookies have been capable of and was 17th in the standings.

Photo: KCMG

The driver he replaced at TGM GP was fellow Toyota junior Hibiki Taira, who did four races with Impul in 2024 and scored two points as well as racing a lot in sportscars. His 2025 SF campaign began so weak he was demoted to a reserve driver role.

After being a reserve driver for an F1 and a Formula E team in 2024, Zane Maloney didn’t continue with either in 2025 to pursue a race seat in FE with Lola Yamaha Abt. It resulted in coming a points-free last in the championship.

Roy Nissany became the most experienced driver in the history of second-tier single-seater racing in 2023, then was out of action last year. He returned to racing in 2025 in the European Le Mans Series, and came 15th in his first campaign racing prototype sportscars. His team-mate for the first three races was Francesco Simonazzi, with the 2024 Euroformula runner-up also doing three races in International GT Open which put him 27th in the standings.

Eligible for this list until June, when he returned to junior single-seaters, was Joseph Loake. As can often be the case, his career lost momentum when he stepped up from Britain’s racing scene to the FIA Formula 3 Championship last year and scored eight points to sit 26th in the table. Prior to that he had won a touring car title, starred in British Formula 4 and come third in GB3, and this year his main programme was with Garage 59 in GT World Challenge Europe’s Enduro rounds.

At what can be considered the top level of GT racing (a status several championships can put a claim on), Loake was Monza Three Hours runner-up, went second fastest in his qualifying session at the Spa 24 Hours before his team-mate Marvin Kirchhofer put their McLaren 720S GT3 Evo on pole, then finished that race in sixth. That crew, completed by Kirchhofer’s fellow McLaren factory driver Benjamin Goethe, ended the season an impressive seventh in the Endurance Cup standings.

Clearly with an eye still on an open-wheel dream, despite earning McLaren’s backing in sportscars, Loake made a USF Pro 2000 cameo at Road America and finished fifth on debut in North American single-seaters’ third tier.

As none of the names in bold made the cut, here is Formula Scout’s Class of 2024… Key Wins (W), poles (P), fastest laps (FL)

10. Levente Revesz HUNGARY 20y/o
Int. GT Open champion (4 W, 1 P, 1 FL), 9th in 24H Series Middle East Trophy – GT3 class   2024: 5th in Euroformula (1 W, 2 FL)   2023: 9th in Euroformula (1 W), 25th in FRegional Europe & FRegional Middle East

Photo: Fotospeedy

Some drivers become far more competitive with a switch of disciplines, as proven by Revesz in a canny career move this year.

He was a backmarker throughout his single-seater career, scoring 15 points across 92 races in five championships over three years, until he stepped up to the third-tier Euroformula championship for the last three rounds of its 2023 season.

By then the championship utterly lacked depth, and was ruled by German outfit Motopark which was propping up the entry list but also dominating with ease. Since Revesz joined the grid with Motopark, and he was in an eight-car field, he was able to take a win and two other podiums.

That prompted him to stick about for 2024 with the team, and against a similarly uninspiring opposition he claimed one win and seven other podiums before dropping off the grid with two rounds to go. By then Motopark had also become a top team in the International GT Open championship, which like Euroformula is promoted by GT Sport.

Revesz moved into its GT squad for 2025, and he unlocked far more performance than ever before as he won four races in the Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo he co-drove and was crowned champion.

9. Syun Koide JAPAN 26y/o
11th in Super GT, 16th in Super Formula   2024: Super Formula Lights champion

Photo: Super Formula

Photo: Super Formula Lights

By Honda’s reckoning, Koide has not done enough to earn a second season in SF but his rookie campaign with B-MAX Racing still had highlights. And while his team is certainly a heavyweight in junior single-seaters, as proven by Koide’s own march to the 2024 SF Lights title with them, it isn’t at the top level where it only runs one car.

Koide started his SF career by qualifying seventh for his first race at Suzuka, a track he has never been strong at historically. That impressive result was thrown away at the start as he limped off the line and dropped to last. After the first safety car period he was gapped by the rest of the field, but in the race’s second half he rose to 14th place.

The next day he qualified 12th, and had a far better race. Two places were lost at the start, but he gained those back and two more with a lengthy first stint. He utilised his fresher tyres to then pass Kamui Kobayashi, before a penalty lifted him to eighth.

Two 14th places at Twin Ring Motegi followed, then Koide was off the pace and got a penalty at Autopolis. He bounced back by qualifying 11th for race one at Fuji Speedway, but another slow start set up an opening lap in which he gained and lost places. By lap four he had been shuffled down to 18th, and after pitting early he only made it back up to 15th.

A very similar thing occurred the next day, consigning Koide to 17th. Sportsland Sugo was very different, as Koide set the pace in free practice one. But in qualifying a totally avoidable kerb-riding moment caused damage that meant he stopped a few moments later and triggered red flags. From last place, he climbed up to 13th in the race.

Koide had top-10 potential on the return to Fuji but qualified 13th, and despite heavy rain meaning the race ran entirely behind the safety car he was able to fall to last on lap two. Race two, which Koide qualified ninth for, was cancelled due to fog.

That meant the final round at Suzuka became a triple-header, and opening lap action proved to be Koide’s biggest weakness again until the last race. A great launch lifted him from 12th to ninth, he made two further places during the lap then after his pitstop dropped him to 10th he made two overtakes on a safety car restart before scoring points in ninth.

8. Gabriel Bortoleto BRAZIL 21y/o
19th in F1   2024: F2 champion (2 W, 2 P, 2 FL)   2023: FIA F3 champion (2 W, 1 P, 3 FL)

Photo: Sauber Group

Bortoleto’s career accelerated on F1’s support bill, winning the FIA F3 and Formula 2 titles back-to-back and being picked up by Sauber to race in F1 this year.

While the memorable moments of his rookie campaign were mostly crashes, including a 57G shunt on home soil, he still shone on the most competitive stage of all and was the lead Sauber driver at the chequered flag in 10 grands prix.

Bortoleto had spent 2023 and ’24 as a McLaren junior, so was familiar with F1 simulators and facilities, but since it was a different team he debuted with there was plenty of learning to do surrounding its working methods.

It was clear that chief technical officer Mattia Binotto [pictured above] had a lot of faith in Bortoleto’s abilities and when Sauber was at its strongest he was consistently progressing to Q2 and even making it to Q3 three times. This included outqualifying Fernando Alonso, who helms the A14 Management firm which oversees Bortoleto’s career.

The unfamiliar tracks after F1’s European leg unsurprisingly led to a dip in form, but he still scored a point in Mexico City.

Bortoleto raced without the pressure of fighting for his future, since he was signed on a two-year deal, but staying out of trouble when fighting for positions is still an area needing improvement so not to add to his crash count.

7. Zak O’Sullivan ENGLAND 20y/o
15th in SF, 3rd in Super GT – GT300 class (1 W, 1 FL)   2024: 16th in F2 (2 W, 1 FL)   2023: 2nd in FIA F3 Championship (4 W, 1 P, 3 FL)

Photo: Super Formula

In addition to being Envision Racing’s simulator driver in FE, O’Sullivan joined Toyota’s ranks to race in SF this year.

Despite being a Williams junior and having been called up to drive in an F1 practice session while still in F3, a funding issue cut O’Sullivan’s rookie F2 season short in 2024. He had won the feature race in Monaco and a shortened Spa-Francorchamps sprint race, but was actually one of the slowest in the field on race pace and lacked consistency.

SF was a totally different challenge, including a language barrier, on tracks he was totally new to. But O’Sullivan adapted instantly by qualifying 10th on debut and finishing that race in eighth.

He failed to finish in race two at Suzuka, but at Motegi he rose from 14th to 12th in race one, then from 13th to 11th in race two, and at Autopolis he qualified eighth. He saved his car from spinning as it squirreled while he went up the gears at the race’s start, which briefly dropped him to 11th, and was up to fourth when he crashed out before making his required pitstop.

Fuji was a low point for pace, qualifying no higher than 19th and therefore not being in contention for points, but in race one he was faster than Kondo Racing team-mate Kenta Yamashita as he rose to 14th. His potential was shown far better at Sugo, where he qualified eighth then finished seventh in the wet.

He applied what he had learned on the return to Fuji, and utilised his wet-weather prowess, to net an 11th place finish.

In the Suzuka finale there was a huge crash in race one, he could do little from from the back of race two’s grid, and it was a similar story in race three. Meanwhile in Super GT, which marked his first foray into sportscars and in a car shared with an inexperienced team-mate, O’Sullivan took a win and a second place en route to third in the GT300 class standings.

For a total newcomer to Japanese racing, and in SF’s pitstop era, it was a year to be proud of.

6. Jamie Chadwick ENGLAND 27y/o
3rd in European Le Mans Series (3 W), DNF in Le Mans 24H   2024: 7th in Indy Nxt (1 W, 1 P)   2023: 12th in Indy Nxt

Photo: Javier Jimenez

Chadwick’s victory in Indy Nxt last year showed how much she had developed since her rookie season in 2023, but she changed trajectory for 2025 by joining IDEC Sport in the European Le Mans Series. She was partnered with Mathys Jaubert and Dani Juncadella, both established GT racers but rookies in the LMP2 prototype class they were entering.

The trio started fifth for their debut at Barcelona (which like all races was four hours long), and were down to 11th at one point but made their way to the front and finished second. They then won at Paul Ricard, despite ending a wet opening lap in 14th. There was plenty of early drama, and Chadwick rose to fifth before handing over as the track became more treacherous.

It was an up-and-down race at Imola, where the crew spent time in the lead but then quickly ended up a lap down, returned to the lead lap then fell several laps behind. The trio lost a lot of time in traffic, but Chadwick did best at not losing places.

At Spa-Francorchamps, she ran fifth until two pitstops during a virtual safety car period. Prolonged interruptions meant no opportunities to recover places, and after her stint ended the crew’s race got harder and they finished 18th.

On home soil at Silverstone an early pitstop put Chadwick in 15th, and she recovered to 11th before the driver changes began and more places were gained. Her team-mates took the car further up the order to a win that revitalised their title hopes. At the Algarve finale. Chadwick lost second place on lap one, cannily reclaimed it a few laps later while lapping traffic then was shuffled down to fifth. Not long before being swapped out, she took fourth in a dramatic moment she triggered. While a fourth podium was claimed, with their title rivals ahead it meant IDEC’s trio came third in the standings.

Chadwick also drove the car at the Le Mans 24 Hours, and ran sixth in class during her double stint. IDEC competed in collaboration with Genesis Magma Racing, which has signed Chadwick as reserve driver for its Hypercar squad next year.

5. Louis Foster ENGLAND 22y/o
23rd in IndyCar (1 P)   2024: Indy Nxt champion (8 W, 7 P, 7 FL)   2023: 4th in Indy Nxt (2 W, 4 P, 2 FL), 12th in FRegional Oceania (1 W, 4 FL)

Photo: Chris Jones

Photo: RLLR

IndyCar’s Rookie of the Year may have only come 23rd in the standings, as one of only three full-time drivers without a top-10 finish, but he also claimed a pole, led three races and impressed Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing enough to land a multi-year contract extension.

The championship rivals F1 for its strength in depth, physical intensity, variety of circuits and onus on experience, and Foster had two full-time team-mates who already had 328 starts between them so had plenty of knowledge to lean on.

He qualified 16th for his debut, but retired in a lap one collision, so round two at The Thermal Club marked his first exposure to tyre durability in race conditions. Foster started 10th, way ahead of his team-mates, and ran in eighth early on before he lost pace and drifted down the order with each stint until he was a lapped 24th. It was an important day of learning.

Qualifying was Foster’s strength everywhere but ovals, as he started in the top 10 for six races on road and street courses but on average qualified 19th for oval races.

On Indianapolis Motor Speedway’s road course he qualified third and finished 11th, his joint-best race result which was repeated at Road America where he took pole and was almost a second quicker than team-mate Graham Rahal in sixth. At Mid-Ohio he finished 14th from sixth on the grid, and also made the top 10 in Toronto and at Laguna Seca.

Foster’s tally of 14 finishes from 17 races was a better record than seven drivers in the field, and he was the leading RLLR driver across the line in four races including the second one around the Iowa Speedway oval.

The 2024 Indy Nxt champion’s best oval race in IndyCar was his first: the Indianapolis 500. He qualified 20th, ran as high as sixth, and finished on the lead lap in 12th.

4. Igor Fraga BRAZIL/JAPAN 27y/o
6th in SF (1 W, 2 FL), 18th in Super GT – GT300 class   2024: NC in Super GT – GT300 class   2023: 4th in SF Lights (1 W, 1 P, 1 FL), 23rd in Super GT – GT300 class

Photo: Super Formula

Formerly an esports star, a Formula Regional champion and a Red Bull junior, Fraga returned to real-world racing two years ago and came fourth in SF Lights with one win and 23rd in Super GT’s GT300 class. He continued there in 2024, while waiting on the sidelines for a chance to race at single-seaters’ top level in SF.

That happened in 2025 as Nakajima Racing signed him, and he seized the opportunity with both hands.

He qualified eighth for his debut, but had to start from the pits and then got caught in an incident that put him a lap down. While he started 14th for race two the next day, Fraga was in the top 10 by the second corner. Having ended lap one in eighth, he then joined several other drivers in taking the risk of an early pitstop on lap two. It paid off, and he charged to sixth before a penalty moved him up another spot.

At Motegi he was 0.135s away from claiming pole for race one, and finished only 3.772s behind the winner in third. It wasn’t so simple for race two, as he started sixth, struggled for pace early on and dropped to 15th before recovering to ninth place.

Fraga said the set-up was very sensitive, and he was driving the car in an agressive style with possibly more time in races spent side-by-side with rivals than any other driver in the field. When there were clashes, he came out on top.

A fall from sixth to 20th in the first two laps at Autopolis prompted Fraga to pit on lap three, and from there he climbed back up to eighth. The Fuji double-header was productive too. He qualified in the top eight both times, finished eighth in race one then ran seventh in race two before making a second pitstop put him a lap down. Sixth and eighth places at Sugo and Fuji followed, and he was 0.076s off pole for the race that got rescheduled to run at Suzuka.

Fraga qualified third, finished second and set the fastest lap in race one, led every lap of race two to deliver Nakajima’s first win since 2022, then rose from sixth to fourth (with fastest lap) in the finale.

3. Andrea Kimi Antonelli ITALY 19y/o
7th in F1 (1 P, 3 FL)   2024: 6th in F2 (2 W, 4 FL)   2023: FREC champion (5 W, 4 P, 5 FL), FRME champion (3 W, 3 P, 5 FL)

Photo: Mercedes-AMG F1

Photo: Mercedes-AMG F1

The Mercedes-AMG F1 team’s long-time protege finally arrived at single-seaters’ top level this year, and immediately slotted into a seat with his backer as its seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton left for Ferrari.

Joining a race-winning team as a rookie rather than learning the challenges of F1 under a little less pressure with a team further down the grid meant Mercedes had to protect and support Antonelli rather than outsource that responsibility and it was slow to react at times to both external issues, such as social media abuse, and internal like drops in confidence.

In only his fifth year of single-seater racing, Antonelli became the highest-scoring F1 rookie of all time, the youngest driver to lead an F1 race and finished on the podium four times including sprint races.

However team-mate George Russell scored over twice as many points as him, an important metric for assessing any driver’s season, and only two drivers (one being Bortoleto) exceeded his tally of retiring from four grands prix.

Antonelli qualified 12 places lower than Russell on debut, but finished one place behind him in fourth and was only two places behind in qualifying next time out, which was for the Chinese Grand Prix’s sprint race. In his first eight races, the teenager only finished lower than seventh once but in the next nine rounds he had his four non-finishes and only scored twice. That was the European leg of the season, mostly on familiar tracks, but he couldn’t click with the soft (C6) tyre compound.

The exception was the Canadian Grand Prix, a track he had no reference for and therefore nothing to lose confidence against, and he qualified fourth on the C6 tyres then clinched his maiden podium in third place.

In the flyaway leg of the season, Antonelli’s confidence returned and he grabbed three more podiums. At Interlagos, he started and finished second in both the sprint race and grand prix, the latter after holding off Max Verstappen. The drive was touted as a sign of what’s to come from the young Italian.

2. Ollie Bearman ENGLAND 20y/o
13th in F1   2024: 18th in F1, 12th in F2 (3 W)   2023: 6th in F2 (4 W, 3 P, 2 FL)   2022: 3rd in FIA F3 Championship (1 W, 1 FL)

Photo: Haas F1

Photo: Haas F1

Outscoring his grand prix-winning team-mate Esteban Ocon in his rookie season was a stellar job by Bearman, who learned a lot from his three F1 races in 2024 (that catapulted him into his 2025 seat and a likely future berth at Ferrari).

The highlight was the Mexico City Grand Prix, where he took his and Haas’s (joint) best race result in F1 by finishing fourth.

That came in a run of four consecutive Q3 appearances, which translated into points finishes each time. Bearman also converted a strong start position into points at Suzuka, while at several events he showed an ability to charge up the order.

He rose from 17th to eighth in the Chinese GP, 20th to 10th at Bahrain (between Red Bull Racing’s Yuki Tsunoda and Antonelli), and from the pitlane to sixth at Zandvoort. That was down to a power unit change, which would’ve boosted his pace.

Like Antonelli, Bearman already has a colossal fanbase and he expertly handled the attention and pressure of the F1 paddock. In fact, he looked at ease most of the time.

At no point did Bearman cite his height, a constant disadvantage for reaching the car’s minimum weight, for lacking pace and his early run of points in Asia was a great bounceback from Haas’s unexpectedly tricky season opener.

1. Isack Hadjar FRANCE 24y/o
12th in F1    2024: 2nd in F2 (4 W, 1 P, 2 FL)   2023: 14th in F2 (1 FL), 7th in Macau GP

Photo: Red Bull

Photo: Red Bull

Unlike Antonelli and Bearman, there was an element of surprise surrounding Hadjar’s brilliance in his rookie F1 season. His superb sophomore F2 season in 2024 put him second in Formula Scout’s top 50 junior single-seater drivers of the year, and earned him an F1 seat at Racing Bulls over Red Bull’s Super Formula star Ayumu Iwasa.

As Formula Scout’s focus is on the series below F1 there is a limited understanding of just how ‘easy’ RB’s car was to drive compared to Red Bull Racing’s, and whether that contributed to the rotation of drivers between the two teams on the opposite side of the garage to Hadjar after just two rounds. But regardless of the team’s potential, Hadjar maximised his own.

He qualified 11th for his debut, while his first team-mate Tsunoda was fifth, but the next day he was holding back tears as he told media “it feels terrible” to crash out two corners into the formation lap and not even get to race.

Hadjar moved on from that embarassment quickly, qualifying seventh for the next two grands prix, the top Racing Bulls driver both times, and scored his first points. That trend continued, with 10 further points-scoring races, 17 more Q3 appearances, outqualifying his team-mate 22 times across the season and finishing ahead of them 18 times.

The highlights results-wise were Zandvoort, where Hadjar qualified fourth and claimed his team’s first podium since 2021 by finishing third, in Monaco where he started fifth and finished sixth, and Monza where he scored from 19th on the grid.

He moves to Red Bull for 2026, and F1’s technical overhaul should mean he avoids the struggles others had at the team.

NC. Taylor Barnard ENGLAND 21y/o
currently 13th in Formula E   2024-25: 4th in FE (2 P)   2024: 21st in F2 (1 W), 2nd in FRME (5 W, 4 P, 1 FL)   2023-24: 22nd in FE   2023: 10th in FIA F3 Championship (1 W), 2nd in FRME (2 W, 3 FL)

Photo: McLaren

There are a lot of reasons why Barnard deserves the number one spot on this list as the most exciting junior single-seater graduate of the last year, but arguably that graduation came in 2024.

The former protege of Nico Rosberg had a slow start to his single-seater career, and joining new team PHM Racing as a third-year Formula 4 driver in 2022 was a risk but it paid off superbly. He was runner-up to Antonelli in ADAC F4 and then FRegional Middle East at the start of 2023, before stepping up to the FIA F3 Championship with Jenzer Motorsport in the equivalent of a loan deal.

The end of that campaign featured starring drives that may have only left him 10th in the standings but put him firmly on the international map again. A McLaren test in FE set such an impression that he was then signed as reserve driver, while PHM’s pipeline also pushed him up to F2 for 2024 less than four weeks before the season began.

His first F2 points came when he won the Monaco sprint race, and he’d gained circuit experience a month prior by making his FE debut. Barnard was called up mid-event, and drove from 22nd to 14th on a track where overtaking is very difficult.

He raced for McLaren again in the Berlin double-header at the start of May, and scored in both races. In the second he charged from 18th to eighth, showing immense potential, and he qualified 14th for the first race.

By August, McLaren had decided to hand Barnard a full-time for the 2024-25 campaign. Once his future was determined, Barnard decided to end his F2 campaign four rounds early and his pre-season preparations for FE began.

The year ended with the season-opening Sao Paulo E-Prix, and despite qualifying 17th a starring drive meant Barnard broke the record for FE’s youngest ever podium finisher. The rest of the season occurred this year, and four further podiums and two poles put the 21-year-old a stellar fourth in the standings, outscoring his team-mate by over 80 points.

The post Formula Scout’s Class of 2024 appeared first on Formula Scout.

Photo: Formula Motorsport Ltd

Junior single-seater stars Maceo Capietto and Callum Voisin have secured their racing futures with the backing of two of Porsche’s national divisions.

The pair have earned Porsche Carrera Cup junior driver status in the French and British championships respectively, with Voisin signed by Porsche GB on a two-year deal.

Capietto, 19, came third in French Formula 4 as a car racing rookie in 2021 then has been primarily racing in the Formula Regional European Championship since then. He came 22nd in his rookie campaign, was eighth in 2023 with one podium then returned to the paddock for two rounds this season.

In 2024 and ’25 he also raced prototype sportscars in the European Le Mans Series’ LMP2 class, coming eighth and ninth in his two campaigns.

Earlier this month, he was one of eight drivers who Porsche Carrera Cup France invited to Paul Ricard to contest a shootout to earn junior driver backing for 2026. French F4 racer Malo Bolliet and Dylan Estre, a race-winner in the Ultimate Cup Series’ Formula Cup for FRegional cars, were also finalists and they were assessed on and off-track extensively.

“Becoming a Porsche Carrera Cup France junior driver is a fantastic opportunity,” said Capietto.

“Joining this championship in this role will definitely allow me to showcase my abilities and be at the forefront. The two days at Paul Ricard were very intense. I gave it my all. I know that winning this selection will be a great help for my future. Now it’s up to me to give my best and try to climb the Porsche pyramid with the support of Porsche France.”

Voisin heads to Porsche Carrera Cup GB after two years in the FIA Formula 3 Championship with Rodin Motorsport. The 19-year-old came 12th in 2024, winning a feature race from pole, taking another feature race podium but only scoring in three rounds. This year he slipped to 14th in the standings, and had one feature race podium to his name.

When he graduated from karting in 2021, Voisin competed in entry-level sportscar series Ginetta Junior and was sixth in the standings. The British-Swiss driver then spent two seasons in GB3 with Carlin, winning three races in 2022 and taking the title a year later.

There were four finalists in Porsche GB’s selection process, with drivers testing at Silverstone then doing off-track work including physical and feedback assessments. A prize fund of £85,000 per season accompanies the junior driver status.

The post Capietto and Voisin land Porsche Carrera Cup junior roles appeared first on Formula Scout.

Photo: Trident

Max Esterson has landed a seat in the IMSA sportscar series’ top GTP class, which is for hypercar prototypes, for Petit Le Mans this weekend.

The 10-hour race ends IMSA’s season, and Esterson will be driving JDC–Miller MotorSports’ Porsche 963 alongside the team’s regular driver Tijmen van der Helm and Neel Jani, a World Endurance and A1GP champion.

Indy Nxt racer Bryce Aron shared the car with van der Helm for the season-opening Daytona 24 Hours along with two other drivers, and Esterson has become available to race at Road Atlanta after ending his Formula 2 season early.

“This will be my first ever endurance race (and first ever race in a car with a roof!) and although I’m jumping in at the deep end with the 700hp plus 50kW of hybrid power Porsche LMDH car, I feel I’m well prepared having had a solid test with the team last month,” said the 23-year-old American in a written statement.

“I last raced at Road Atlanta five years ago in a Formula Ford with 110hp, but fortunately I’ve driven a few other cars since then, and the Porsche LMDH performance isn’t so different from my normal FIA F2 car.”

He added: “I enjoyed my test, and especially the ability to run multiple performance laps in succession – something I’ve not had in F2 or Formula 3 over the last several years as the tyre in LMDH is much more durable.”

Esterson’s single-seater career started with FFord races in the USA, then in Britain he won the Walter Hayes Trophy and FFord Festival and built more experience in winged cars with two seasons in GB3. He took one victory and three other podiums.

After two FIA F3 Championship outings in 2023, he stepped up full-time last year and came 21st in the standings with 11 points. He then joined Trident for the last two F2 rounds, and remained with the team this year. However after being points-free 21 races into the campaign, he and the team parted ways three rounds early.

James Roe Jr, who has been racing in Indy Nxt since 2022, will enter Petit Le Mans in the class for LMP2 prototypes with Pratt Miller Motorsports. He has already done three rounds, with ninth in class his best results.

The 26-year-old Irishman came sixth in Indy Nxt last year with two podiums and a pole, then dropped to 12th this season with seventh place his highest finishing position.

Australian-owned single-seater team Evans GP is also venturing into sportscars, by using Toyota 86 cars to train drivers who are being coached through its ‘Evans GP Academy’ programme. Team boss Joshua Evans co-owns the DW Evans GT team which has achieved success in Lamborghini Super Trofeo Asia, and is now partnering with Andrea Todisco’s AT Performance company to further integrate mileage in GT cars into Evans GP’s coaching of young drivers.

The post Esterson lands hypercar seat at Petit Le Mans after ending F2 campaign appeared first on Formula Scout.

Photos: GP3R

Ontario’s Toyo Tires Formula 1600 series headed to neighbouring Canadian province Quebec for the first ever time last weekend for a landmark race meeting on the streets of Trois-Rivieres for its grand prix

Reigning champion Connor Clubine, who won at GP3R last year when F1600 Canada was on the event bill, returned to the paddock and the street circuit to face off against Stewart Ross and Christian Menezes who are fighting over the title.

Clubine’s experience of the street circuit, which features the narrow Porte Pacifique-Duplessis drivers have to squeeze through [pictured above], showed in qualifying on Friday as he claimed pole by 0.302 seconds over Ross.

Menezes was 0.718s behind in third, with 0.003s splitting Parker Gill and Christophe Paquet in fourth and fifth. Marc Antoine Cardin and F1600 veteran Didier Schraenen were also within a second of pole. There was 6.497s between Clubine and the slowest driver in 24th place.

The 20-lap race one took place in the late afternoon, and the safety car led the field to a rolling start as the huge entry list meant the drivers at the back would not have been able to see the starting lights from their grid spots.

Gaps began opening up between the top three and the rest of the field on lap two as Menezes lost third to Paquet, who has also overtaken Cardin.

The safety car returned a few laps later as James Lindsay spun, hit a barrier and then collected Schraenen. During the lengthy safety car period, marshals helped Schraenen get his car going again and it crabbed back to the pits where his team used a metal rod and a hammer to bend the steering and rear suspension back into shape and send him back out.

Racing resumed on lap 10, and Clubine pulled away but on the next lap he had a lengthy lock-up with his front wheels turned approaching turn five. After releasing the brakes, going deep and making the corner he was fifth, and lost another two spots.

Clubine leads the pack

Soon Gill was having to defend fifth place from him, as Boss Patel and Menezes ran close together in third and fourth. The top five all then lost time lapping cars, but bunched up and Clubine took fourth on lap 14.

He was all over Patel on lap 17, and after diving past into turn five they encountered a lapped car at the exit and Clubine was almost squeezed into the barriers as he went past them.

Paquet made a mistake on the penultimate lap that helped Clubine close in, and he overtook him at turn five on the final lap as Ross took victory by 1.418s.

Race two kicked off Sunday morning’s action, and Clubine was on pole again. Gill attacked him at the start before losing out to Ross at turn five and then to Patel at the Ryan hairpin after a lock-up.

• Read more: The last time winged single-seaters took to Trois-Rivieres

Ross was overtaken by Patel into turn five on lap two, then ran wide at Depailler and dropped behind Gill too.

Patel went for the lead at turn six, and almost got it done around the outside at Depailler but ran off and rejoined side-by-side with Gill who had the inside line for Ryan and took second before cutting the final corner and conceding the place.

Paquet and Ross passed Gill through turn one on lap four, with Menezes next to get past at turn five on lap five.

The top three were very close, and a bump undid Patel’s attempted lap six attack on Clubine approaching turn five. He then got alongside through turn six, but locked up at Depailler, just avoided clouting the tyre barriers and rejoined in fourth as Paquet snuck by Clubine for the lead at Ryan.

Clubine tried coming back at Paquet through turn twon a lap later but ran out of room and was overtaken by Ross just before the safety car was summoned as Gill had crashed out at Depailler.

A delayed recovery meant racing did not resume until lap 12, and Paquet lost out to Ross and Clubine by brushing the barrier exiting turn five.

The top four then ran nose-to-tail until lap 14 when Patel went down the inside of Paquet at turn five and the latter went straight on into the wall.

After another safety car period, one lap remained and Patel almost nosed Clubine around into turn one. Clubine was then on the defensive through the rest of the lap, hugging the inside through turns four and five and having a train form behind him as Ross pulled away.

A squirm into Depailler almost cost Clubine, but he held on to finish 1.815s behind two-time winner Ross. Menezes was fourth, and Schreanen made a move at Ryan for sixth.

This time Patel claimed the fastest lap by 0.011s over Paquet so claimed race three pole, and Ross, Menezes and Clubine were all also within 0.09s of his best effort.

Yellow flags waved through lap one due to the grid not being properly formed, so there was a second formation lap. Clubine took third at turn seven, and Ross almost crashed at the final corner but managed to start lap two of racing in second behind Patel.

He attacked for the lead through turns four and five on lap, and was side-by-side into Depailler. Ross had the inside line and got ahead, but then went off and Patel reclaimed the lead before the next corner.

They swapped places again on lap three, with Ross going down the inside at turn one. Patel picked the outside at turn five in an attempted response but almost hit the wall and conceded second to Clubine.

The top three ran almost as one until lap seven, when Patel lost time running wide at turn five. It mattered little as the field was bunched up on lap eight due to a crash at Ryan in which Cardin flipped and lost his rear-left wheel and Menezes was also eliminated.

Drivers had go through the pits while the clear-up took place, and on one of those passages through Paquet’s car came to a halt and he could not get it restarted.

The restart took place on lap 15, leaving three laps to go racing. Gill, who started 12th, managed to successfully pass Henderson Knox down the inside of turn five for fifth despite getting loose, and a lap later Clubine snuck past Ross there.

Once again the top three were almost touching as they began the final lap. After navigating turn three safely, Clubine chose to cover the inside on the run to turn five and Ross passed him around the outside. But he had to reduce his exit speed to avoid the barriers and Clubine drew back alongside.

They were wheel-to-wheel all the way to Ryan where Clubine finally cemented himself ahead again and won by 0.359s. Patel was a further 0.179s back, and Jonathon Petrone finished fourth.

Results round-up
Race 1 (20 laps)
1 Stewart Ross Britain West Motorsport 29m22.892s
2 Connor Clubine Britain West Motorsport +1.418s
3 Christophe Paquet +2.075s
4 Boss Patel +4.304s
5 Parker Gill +7.911s
6 Christian Menezes +12.302s
7 Jonathon Petrone +12.931s
8 Marc Anctoine Cardin Cardin Racing +13.085s
9 Henderson Knox Henderson Racing +16.664s
10 Michael Dowden +21.374s
Pole: Clubine, 1m12.189s
Fastest lap: Clubine, 1m11.487s

Race 2 (18 laps)
1 Ross 30m19.151s
3 Clubine +1.815s
3 Patel +2.259s
4 Menezes +2.559s
5 Cardin +2.888s
6 Didier Schraenen Dynatech +3.602s
7 Knox +4.048s
8 Dowden +4.622s
9 James Lindsay +4.960s
10 Olivier Dulac +5.766s
FL: Patel, 1m11.773s

Race 3 (17 laps)
1 Clubine 30m25.556s
2 Ross +0.359s
3 Patel +0.538s
4 Petrone +1.436s
5 Gill +2.402s
6 Knox +3.674s
7 Dowden +4.548s
8 Schraenen +5.529s
9 Lindsay +5.736s
10 Dulac +7.975s
FL: Ross, 1m12.131s

The post Clubine finds gateway to victory at Grand Prix de Trois-Rivieres appeared first on Formula Scout.

Photo: Karl Zemlin

This month’s Daytona 24 Hours, the IMSA season opener, will feature several active junior single-seater stars.

In the top Grand Touring Prototype class for hypercar prototype sportscars, JDC–Miller MotorSports will run Indy Nxt podium-finisher Bryce Aron in its Porsche 963 alongside regular driver Tijmen van her Helm and reigning Formula E world champion Pascal Wehrlein.

Sportscar newcomer Aron was a race-winner in GB3 and Euroformula before stepping up to Indy Nxt last year with Andretti Global. He came ninth in the standings with two third places his best results, and switches to HMD Motorsports for the 2025 season.

In IMSA’s LMP2 class, Aron’s 2024 team-mate James Roe Jr will drive for Pratt Miller Motorsports. The Irishman won in Formula Regional Americas and USF Pro 2000 on his way up to Indy Nxt, and over three seasons has three podiums and a pole. Last year he was a personal-best sixth in the standings.

Roe will remain with Andretti for this year, but has also committed to a part-time but busy IMSA campaign. He will have to miss the rounds which clash with Indy Nxt, and his team-mates will be IndyCar racers Pietro Fittipaldi and Callum Ilott, and the bronze-rated Chris Cumming.

FIA Formula 3-bound Niko Lacorte will cameo with Cetilar Racing in the GTD class at Daytona, joining his team-owning father Robert, fellow second-generation talent Lorenzo Patrese and Ferrari’s reigning Le Mans 24 Hours winner Antonio Fuoco in a Ferrari 296 GT3.

The younger Lacorte won a race in FRegional Oceania and scored twice in FRegional Europe last year as a rookie with the backing of the Alpine Formula 1 team, and is stepping up to FIA F3 with DAMS.

The post Indy Nxt stars among junior single-seater drivers entering Daytona 24H appeared first on Formula Scout.