Photo: Nissan

Formula E’s annual rookie-only practice session takes place at this weekend’s Miami E-Prix, and a group of junior single-seater stars will be taking part.

The most high-profile of that group is 22-year-old Dennis Hauger, the IndyCar-bound reigning Indy Nxt champion. He will drive for Andretti Global, the team he joined last year and dominated Indy Nxt with.

In 2024, the Norwegian drove for Porsche in FE’s rookie test which took place in Berlin.

Lola Yamaha Abt is calling on the services of Hugh Barter again. He drove for Maserati in FE’s rookie test in 2023, then for the Abt-operated Lola Yamaha team in 2025. Barter was 19th in the 2023 FIA Formula 3 Championship, fifth in Indian Formula 4’s 2024 season then won nine races in the Ultimate Cup Series’ Formula Cup for FRegional cars last year but came fourth in the standings after missing two rounds.

Having joined Barter in Abt’s garage at the 2025 rookie test, Alessandro Giusti joins Jaguar for the 2026 rookie practice session. The Williams junior was 10th in the 2025 FIA F3 Championship as rookie with MP Motorsport, and will stay with the team for a sophomore campaign.

DS Penske is one of the few FE teams with their own driver development programme, and its protege Nikita Bedrin gets another call-up after contesting the 2025 rookie test. He primarily competed in FRegional from 2023 to ’25, but made an F3 cameo and will race in GB3 this year.

Nissan will run two familiar faces in Miami, Gabriele Mini and Abbi Pulling, who joined Nissan thanks to the Japanese manufacturer Renault–Nissan–Mitsubishi Alliance.

Two years ago, when both were juniors of the Renault-owned Alpine Formula 1 team, they got their first FE mileage with Nissan. Mini did the rookie test, while Pulling drove in the women’s test which was a day of FE’s pre-season testing.

Last June she became Nissan’s rookie test and simulator driver since June 2025 in a multi-year deal, and therefore drove in the rookie and women’s tests. Mini was fastest in the 2025 rookie test, and did the rookie practice session in Jeddah.

Mini is still an Alpine junior and will race for MP in Formula 2 in 2026, having come 13th in the championship as a rookie with Prema last year. Pulling is embarking on a second season in GB3 with Rodin Motorsport, hoping to improve on 10th in the 2025 standings. She was fourth in the FRegional-spec and all-female W Series back in 2022.

FE’s junior single-seater contingent in Miami is completed by Chloe Chambers at Mahindra. She has contested the past two women’s tests, driving for Andretti in 2024 and then Mahindra in 2025, and has spent the last two years as a Campos Racing driver in the all-female and F4-spec F1 Academy series.

The post Junior single-seater stars to contest FE rookie practice session in Miami 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

F1 Academy held an in-season test this week, before several of its drivers headed to Valencia’s Ricardo Tormo circuit to gain Formula E mileage.

The all-female Formula 4 championship tested at Bahrain on October 28-30, with a morning and afternoon session each day.

Hitech GP was without Aiva Anagnostiadis, who recently had left foot surgery, and Rachel Robertson took her place after debuting in single-seaters with Hitech in Saudi Arabian F4.

Absent from the test’s third day were frontrunners Chloe Chambers (Campos Racing) and McLaren junior Ella Lloyd (Rodin Motorsport), as both will drive in FE’s women’s test tomorrow.

They will be with Envision Racing and Mahindra respectively, and are not the only junior single-seater talents taking part.

Nissan will run its simulator driver Abbi Pulling, the 2024 F1 Academy champion, who came 10th in GB3 this year.

Jamie Chadwick was third in the 2025 European Le Mans Series after her race-winning 2024 Indy Nxt campaign did not take her to IndyCar, and she will reunite with Jaguar who she has tested with since 2020.

The Cupra-partnered Kiro Race Co. team will provide running to its development driver Bianca Bustamante. She was 22nd in GB3 this season.

Maya Weug (MP Motorsport) topped every session of F1 Academy’s test. On the first morning her benchmark laptime was a 2m04.930s, set on just her second flying lap, and she posted a 2m04.773s in the afternoon to lead title rival Doriane Pin (Prema) by 0.167 seconds.

There were spells of inactivity in the morning, with several drivers without a laptime halfway through the three-hour session.

Chambers, Lloyd, Pin and Weug all spent time on top in the afternoon before representative laps were set, with Alisha Palmowski (Campos) first to do so. Weug outpaced her by 0.001s with 11 minutes to go, then Pin went fastest. But Weug broke into the 2m04s and beat her morning benchmark. Palmowski was over half a second behind in third, with Alba Hurup Larsen (MP) fourth.

Nina Gademan (Prema) led the way early on Wednesday morning, then Pin was fastest. Weug moved to the top with a 2m05.191s shortly before Larsen stopping on track caused red flags.

Pin reclaimed top spot after the restart, then Palmowski and Weug lapped sub-2m05s. Joanna Ciconte (MP) was next to be quickest, but Weug bettered her by 0.098s with a 2m04.567s. Chambers and Palmowski were also close to the pace, while Lloyd caused further red flags with an off.

More drivers made it into first place during the afternoon session, and Larsen laid down a 2m04.613s which looked unbeatable until Weug went quickest by 0.056s in the final hour.

Weug punched in a 2m04.873s early on Thursday morning, improved to 2m04.171s then found another 0.021s. Larsen was second in the session, 0.63s behind.

It was Weug on top almost all the way in the afternoon. She posted a 2m04.993s on her second flying lap, which she improved upon by 0.001s far later to have a 0.214s gap over Larsen.

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Photo: Alpine

The Alpine Formula 1 team will use its reserve driver Paul Aron in a practice session for a second time this year at this weekend’s Mexico City Grand Prix.

Aron will replace Pierre Gasly in FP1, and is contending to become the Frenchman’s team-mate in 2026.

His Mexico outing is the second of four scheduled practice appearances with Alpine, having already made two with Sauber.

“I’m looking forward to getting back behind the wheel of the A525 for my latest free practice one session with the team,” said Aron, whose first call-up with Alpine was at the Italian Grand Prix where he replaced Franco Colapinto.

“I enjoyed the experience in Monza a lot and found it incredibly useful for my own personal development as a driver and my understanding of the car. I’m ready to build on that this weekend in Mexico City in Pierre’s car.

“The Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez is a very different track to any I have driven. It is high altitude which will make the handling of the car and the setup we choose very different to most other circuits and I’m looking forward to that challenge. I’m very grateful to the team for granting me this further opportunity and will do whatever is needed to help them set up a competitive weekend.”

When Aron drove at Monza, having already done six says of private testing in Alpine’s 2023 car during the first half of the year, it was yet to be confirmed that Colapinto would see out the season.

He had started 2025 in the four-strong reserve driver roster, before swapping places with the team’s rookie Jack Doohan after six rounds. That was a five-round arrangement, then Colapinto stayed in the seat on a race-by-race basis until after Monza when Alpine handed it to him through to the end of the season.

Colapinto already has an Alpine contract for 2026, but with no role specified, and he is up against Aron and Doohan to race for the team again. Doohan had a best finish of 13th during his time racing for Alpine, and Aron has experience competing in top-tier single-seaters after contesting Formula E’s Berlin E-Prix double-header with Envision Racing last year.

Formula 2 race-winner and Alpine junior Kush Maini left his role as FE team Mahindra’s reserve driver to take up the same position with Alpine for 2025, but having failed to secure an FIA superlicence in his third F2 campaign he is not in contention for an F1 promotion and will instead return to his former role at Mahindra next year.

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Photo: Red Bull

Formula 2 race-winner will graduate to single-seaters’ top level later this year, having landed a Formula E seat for the 2025-26 season.

The 20-year-old Spaniard has been signed by the Cupra-partnered Kiro Race Co. team (formerly known as ERT) to partner Dan Ticktum.

Marti is a protege of Red Bull’s Formula 1 teams and Aston Martin F1 driver Fernando Alonso through his A14 Management company, and is a total newcomer to FE. He will make his debut at the Sao Paulo E-Prix in December.

“I’m very excited to join Cupra Kiro for the 2025-26 FE season. Obviously, it will be my first time racing in the category, and I’ll be a rookie, but nonetheless, I’m looking forward to it,” said Marti.

“The team is coming into season 12 off the back of a win in Jakarta, and I feel very motivated to get this new chapter started. With Dan as my team-mate, I’ll have a lot to learn and catch up on at the beginning of the season, but my goal is to get up to speed, improve quickly and score points and hopefully get a couple of good results.”

Marti is currently contesting his sophomore season in Formula 2, and is in his fifth year of single-seaters.

He came third as a rookie in Spanish Formula 4 with Campos Racing in 2021, and was Formula Regional Asian Championship runner-up at the start of 2022. For the step up to FIA Formula 3 later in the year he reunited with Campos, and has raced with the team every since since.

In his maiden FIA F3 campaign, Marti only scored two points and came 26th in the standings, but improved to sixth as a sophomore with three wins. During 2023 he also came fifth in the Macau Grand Prix, and won two races in FRegional Middle East as a part-timer.

Marti’s time in F2 started on a high with two podiums on his debut weekend, but only scored in seven of the next 26 races. That included two sprint race podiums, the latter of which was a win in the season finale, and left him 14th in the standings.

This year it took two races for Marti to taste victory again, but he has had several points-free weekends again. With two rounds to go he remains in title contention, sitting sixth in the points table after taking two more sprint race wins.

“Despite being just 20 years old, Pepe has shown exceptional levels of maturity, composure, and intelligence, which, when combined with his natural speed, makes him stand out as a top talent in modern motorsport,” said Cupra Kiro’s chief operating officer Russell O’Hagan.

“His decision to step away from F2 and commit fully to our FE project is a real statement of intent, and not only validates our vision as a team, but shows belief in the future of the championship. His track record and drive align perfectly with our own goals, and together, we’re building something with long-term potential.”

The post Pepe Marti lands 2026 Formula E seat with Cupra Kiro appeared first on Formula Scout.

Photo: Andretti Global

Felipe Drugovich, the 2022 Formula 2 champion, has finally secured a full-time graduation to single-seaters’ top level by joining Andretti Global’s Formula E line-up next season.

The 25-year-old Brazilian already has some FE experience. He first worked with the Monaco-based Maserati team (which previously raced as Venturi and will now compete as Citroen), doing too two rookie tests and a rookie practice session.

He topped his maiden test in 2023 and was working closely with Maserati, but missed out on a seat for the 2024-25 season. As a free agent he was therefore able to join Mahindra when it needed a stand-in driver for the Berlin E-Prix double-header.

Drugovich qualified 14th for his debut, but a gearbox change meant he started 20th and finished a lapped 17th. The next day he qualified 19th, but charged up to seventh.

• Follow Drugovich’s journey to single-seaters’ top tier here

“I’m so happy to announce that I’ll be joining Andretti FE, and I’m really excited about what’s ahead,” said Drugovich.

“My team and I have been in touch with Andretti ever since I won the F2 title, so it’s great that we’ve managed to stay connected all this time and finally have the opportunity to work together.

“It’s been far too long for me without racing, so I’m incredibly motivated to get back on a racetrack. It means a lot to know I’ll be competing in every session and not just serving as a reserve, as I have done the past few years.

“I’m very thankful to the entire Andretti Global organization for believing in my potential and for being so supportive. A special thanks also to Roger [Griffiths] for reaching out and making this happen.”

Drugovich dominated F2 as a third-year driver in 2022, becoming champion with three races spare. Two days later the Aston Martin Formula 1 team made him its first junior and a reserve driver.

Since then he has driven in seven practice sessions and collated test mileage in Aston Martin’s old cars, and in 2023 was also a McLaren F1 reserve driver for the first 15 rounds.

“I am personally very excited to welcome Felipe,” said Andretti FE team principal Roger Griffiths.

“Felipe is a driver who has been on our radar for some time, and we have watched his progress throughout various FE test sessions with a great deal of interest. He’s a fast and intelligent driver who has already demonstrated he can quickly adapt to the demands of the championship, as we saw during his debut in Berlin.

“As we look at the re-development of the team under our new ownership structure, we see Felipe working alongside Jake as a hugely important part of both our present and our future in the series. We would also like to thank Aston Martin F1 team for their support in allowing Felipe to fully commit to this.”

Drugovich talked to top IndyCar team Chip Ganassi Racing in 2022 about a race seat, forewent a test chance with Ed Carpenter Racing in 2023 then tested privately with Ganassi in 2024.

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Photo: Jaguar Racing

Jaguar has announced that reigning FIA Formula 3 champion Leonardo Fornaroli will drive one of its cars in next week’s Formula E rookie test in Berlin.

The 20-year-old Italian ended a winless streak in single-seaters of over four years last weekend by finishing first in Formula 2’s sprint race at Silverstone, and with a sixth place the next day he left the track fourth in the standings.

Fornaroli’s rookie F2 season has featured four other podium finishes and two pole positions already, while his title-winning FIA F3 campaign was built upon seven podium finishes and he claimed three podiums in the championship as a rookie in 2023.

The FE test will mark Fornaroli’s first time working with a team at single-seaters’ top level, since he is yet to be picked up by a driver development programme.

European Le Mans Series racer Jamie Chadwick, a race-winner in Indy Nxt last year, will drive Jaguar’s other car in Berlin. She drove for Jaguar in FE’s rookie test in 2020, in pre-season testing last year and then in the Jeddah E-Prix’s rookie practice session this February.

The entry list for the July 14 is completed by Hugh Barter and Alessandro Giusti at Lola Yamaha Abt.

Barter, 19, was runner-up in the French and Spanish Formula 4 championships in 2022, then leapt up to FIA F3 and came 19th in the 2023 standings.

For 2024 he stepped back down to F4, winning three of five races he entered in the Indian championship and coming fifth in the standings, and now he is racing Formula Regional cars in Ultimate Cup Series’ Formula Cup. At the halfway point of the season he has won seven out of nine races and is the points leader.

Giusti beat Barter to the 2022 French F4 title, then won five races across two FRegional European Championship campaigns. This year he stepped up to FIA F3, and sits eighth in the standings with two podiums.

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Photo: Mahindra

Felipe Drugovich will make his long-awaited race debut at single-seaters’ top level next weekend as he joins Mahindra’s Formula E line-up for the Berlin E-Prix.

Since winning the 2022 Formula 2 title, the 25-year-old Brazilian has contested six Formula 1 practice sessions with Aston Martin and acted as reserve driver, done an IndyCar test with Chip Ganassi Racing and has been called up  by Maserati for two rookie tests and a rookie-only practice session in FE.

He has raced in prototype sportscars over the last two years to stay race-sharp, and the opportunity to compete in FE has come due to Mahindra’s regular driver Nyck de Vries having a clashing World Endurance Championship commitment.

The two races in Berlin on July 12/13 will be Drugovich’s first in single-seaters since concluding his title-winning F2 campaign in November 2022.

“I’m very happy to confirm I will be making my FE debut with Mahindra in Berlin,” said Drugovich. “FE is a championship I’ve been around for a while now; having tested on several occasions, I’m excited to now get the opportunity to race.

“Mahindra is a fantastic team, one of the championship’s standout names, and it’s clear from their recent results that the new car is a significant step forward. I’m looking forward to working closely with them to prepare for Berlin, and I’m sure we can have a good weekend together.”

He has already worked with the outfit, having recently done a private test at the Guadix circuit in Spain.

“It’s very exciting to be able to welcome Felipe to the team for the Berlin E-Prix,” Mahindra’s team principal Frederic Bertrand said. “It’s been on our radar for a while now that we would need to find a solution for Berlin to substitute for Nyck.

“Felipe quickly emerged as the standout candidate, his achievements speak for themselves, and he’s been very impressive when he’s tested a FE car in the past. The benefit of having this confirmed so far in advance is that we have had plenty of time to get him fully integrated with the team, to prepare him properly for the race weekend and give him the best opportunity to go out and showcase what he can do.”

Theo Pourchaire, who succeeded Drugovich as F2 champion, will also be driving in Berlin but after the race weekend. The 21-year-old Frenchman will join Maserati for the rookie test on July 14.

After doing development work on FE’s Gen3 car back in 2022 (with the Gen3 Evo car currently in use), Pourchaire picked up more FE mileage earlier this year when he drove for Maserati in the rookie practice session at the Jeddah E-Prix.

Following his F2 title, Pourchaire made three F1 practice outings outings with long-term back Sauber before leaving the team at the end of 2024, and raced top-tier single-seaters last year. He began the year with one race in Super Formula, then joined McLaren for six IndyCar races. He is now Peugeot’s test and development driver in the WEC.

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Photo: Mahindra

Four more junior single-seater stars have been chosen by Formula E teams for the championship’s rookie test in Berlin on July 14.

Mahindra will utilise Formula 2 racers Dino Beganovic and Kush Maini [pictured above]. The latter was the team’s reserve driver and contested the rookie test with them last season.

The 24-year-old Indian has already been in action with Mahindra in 2025, having driven in the rookie-only practice session at the Jeddah E-Prix.

“I was really impressed with the Mahindra M11Electro in Jeddah, it’s a great car to drive and I can’t wait to experience it again in Berlin,” said Maini. “Mahindra is a manufacturer I’ve worked with first-hand a lot over the last 18 months, and I’ve seen the hard work and development that has gone into improving the team’s results on-track.”

Maini is currently a reserve driver for Alpine’s Formula 1 team alongside his third F2 season. He sits 12th in the standings, and two positions ahead is Ferrari junior Beganovic. The 21-year-old has two podiums and a pole from his rookie campaign so far, and has done two F1 practice sessions with Ferrari.

“I’m looking forward to the opportunity to drive for Mahindra at the Berlin rookie test, and to try a FE car for the first time,” Beganovic said.

One place behind Maini in F2’s points table is Gabriele Mini. He claimed a podium in a 2024 cameo, and started his rookie season by topping the year’s first qualifying session. Since then he has made the podium once and had several non-finishes.

The 20-year-old Italian is an Alpine junior, and that team’s collaboration with Nissan led to him driving for them in the 2024 rookie test, rookie-only practice session and now the 2025 rookie test.

“It’s great to be back, I’ve enjoyed my two previous outings with the team, so I’m delighted to work with them again,” said Mini.

“It’s a track I know well,” he added. “I also had the chance to drive the Gen3 Evo in the FP0 session in Jeddah, with the 350kW power mode, new tyres, and all-wheel drive, so I will be aiming to put these two experiences together. My main goal is to keep learning and to help the team complete its programme for the day, like we did in Jeddah, while also showing my pace.”

The Cupra-partnered Kiro Race Co. team (formerly known as Team China Racing, NIO and then ERT) has completed its rookie test line-up by calling up Callum Voisin.

“I’m thrilled to be joining Cupra Kiro for the Berlin rookie test and to get my first experience of FE,” said the 19-year-old.

“I’ve been following FE for a long time, and I’m really looking forward to learning everything I can, both in the car, and from Dan [Ticktum] and David [Beckmann].”

Voisin was 2023 GB3 champion and a race winner in FIA Formula 3. He is currently in his sophomore year in the championship.

Click here for more on FE’s rookie test entry list.

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Photo: Andretti Global

Formula 2 racer Jak Crawford leads the latest batch of junior single-seater stars being called up to drive in Formula E’s rookie test in Berlin next month.

Crawford will be in action with Andretti Global, who signed him as its FE reserve driver last November. The 20-year-old American is currently fourth in the F2 standings with two wins, and is also a junior driver for the Aston Martin Formula 1 team.

“I’m looking forward to getting back the car for another outing,” said Crawford. “It feels like it hasn’t been that long ago that I was driving in free practice zero in Jeddah, so I’m excited to get back out and put in some good work for the team.

“I really enjoyed driving the track in Berlin at last year’s rookie test and felt I performed well, so very much looking forward to getting some more laps under my belt.”

In Andretti’s other car will be Frederik Vesti, who was 2023 F2 runner-up and has been Mercedes-AMG’s F1 reserve driver since then. He drove for Mahindra in FE’s 2024 rookie test, and currently races hypercar class prototype sportscars in IMSA.

Porsche has made the surprise decision to hand car racing rookie Elia Weiss the chance to drive in Berlin.

The German, who only just turned 16 and therefore became eligible for the race license required to participate in the test, is backed by his national federation and won its championship for X30 Senior karts last year.

Weiss also came ninth in the IAME Euro Series in 2024, and was 16th in the WSK Euro Series for X30 Junior karts in 2023.

His car racing career began this March as he joined Cram Motorsport for the final two rounds of the Formula 4-spec Formula Winter Series. He had a best finish of 13th, and then embarked on a full Italian F4 campaign with Cram. Three rounds in, his best race result is a 16th place and he sits 34th in the standings.

“I’m incredibly proud – no doubt everyone dreams of being able to drive for Porsche!” Weiss said of his FE call-up.

“The fact that I get to do this is insane. It’s a huge step for me, which is why I have a lot of respect for it. But I’ve already practiced in the simulator in Weissach. It was all really positive: I was able to get to know the systems, felt right at home there, and got on really well with the engineers. Other than that, I’m preparing myself as best I can.

“In a FE car, you need a lot of strength and fitness, so I’m training particularly hard in those areas at the moment.”

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