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: Jaguar Racing

Formula E’s rookie practice session at next weekend’s Jeddah E-Prix has attracted more young drivers.

Already announced as getting call-ups were Mahindra’s reserve driver Kush Maini and Super Formula-bound Zak O’Sullivan at Envision Racing, and three more names have now been confirmed.

Jamie Chadwick will drive for Jaguar, Gabriele Mini will get in Nissan’s car and Theo Pourchaire will be at the wheel for Maserati.

It marks the continuation of a long partnership for Chadwick, since she drove for Jaguar in FE’s rookie test in 2020 and then again in pre-season testing last November.

The three-time W Series champion had aimed to race at single-seaters’ top level this year, but was unable to find a seat in IndyCar after a race-winning sophomore Indy Nxt campaign in 2024, left Formula 1 team Williams’ driver development programme after six years and is instead is switching to sportscars in the European Le Mans Series.

2023 Formula 2 champion Pourchaire did development work on FE’s Gen3 car back in 2022, and is now Peugeot’s test and development driver in the World Endurance Championship where it competes in the top Hypercar class.

He had previously been on Formula 1 team Sauber’s books for six years, first as a junior and then as reserve driver for two seasons. Although he never raced in F1, he did contest the 2024 Super Formula season opener and claimed a top-10 finish from six races with McLaren in IndyCar.

Alpine junior Mini drove for Nissan, a sister brand, in FE’s rookie test last year in the middle of an FIA Formula 3 Championship campaign in which he missed out on the title in the final race.

The Nicolas Todt protege will be stepping up to F2 this year with Prema, having already made his debut with the team in Baku last season. His cameo appearance began with him qualifying eighth, and he made the podium in the sprint race.

The post Chadwick, Mini and Pourchaire to drive in FE’s rookie practice session appeared first on Formula Scout.

Photo: F1 Academy

Nissan will run Alpine juniors Sophia Floersch and Abbi Pulling in Formula E pre-season testing next week.

The test takes place at Valencia’s Ricardo Tormo circuit on November 4-7, and FE has decided that in a session on the final day teams will be required to have a woman in one of their cars.

The majority of teams have chosen two, including Nissan which is part of the same automotive group as Alpine.

Floersch has been racing in Formula 3 since 2018, and her best result in that time has been a seventh place achieved in the FIA F3 Championship’s feature race at Spa-Francorchamps last year. She came 29th in the standings this season.

She has experience of more powerful machinery from time spent in sportscar racing, having come 18th in the DTM and 13th in the World Endurance Championship’s LMP2 class three years ago. Floersch also has two European Le Mans Series podiums, and on Monday she took part in her first Indy Nxt test with HMD Motorsports.

Pulling reached Formula Regional earlier in her single-seater career, making the podium three times in the all-female W Series across 2021 and ’22.

Either side of that she has raced in Formula 4, winning a race en route to seventh in the British championship this year as a part-time entrant and also leading the 2024 season of the all-female F1 Academy series with seven victories.

Indy Nxt race-winner Jamie Chadwick will test for Jaguar, as she previously did in a 2020 rookie test. The three-time W Series champion is looking towards IndyCar for 2024 having finished seventh in her second season in Indy Nxt this year with Andretti, and will partner Ferrari-contracted sportscar racer Lilou Wadoux at Jaguar.

DS Penske will run Pulling’s fellow F4 racer Jessica Edgar in FE testing along with former W Series frontrunner Beitske Visser. Edgar claimed a podium in GB4 two years ago, and came eighth in F1 Academy last year with one win. She is currently 10th in the 2024 standings.

Lola Yamaha Abt has called up Miki Koyama, who moved on from single-seater racing this year. She was a Honda junior when racing in Japanese F4, spent two seasons racing in W Series and also appeared in FRegional Asian Championship events before a breakthrough FRegional Japanese Championship campaign in 2022 with Toyota backing. She won the title against limited opposition, claiming seven race victories along the way, and moved into sportscars via Super GT’s GT300 class last year.

She did make one single-seater outing in 2023, contesting the F4 races that supported the Macau Grand Prix.

Lena Buhler, who finished second in F1 Academy last year, will test for Mahindra. She returned to Formula Regional Europe this year with ART Grand Prix but ended her campaign early with four rounds to go with a best finish of 22nd.

Reigning F1 Academy champion Marta Garcia and other drivers from the series were among those previously announced for the test.

Valencia Formula E women’s test line-up
Jaguar: Jamie Chadwick / Lilou Wadoux
Porsche: Marta Garcia / Gabriela Jilkova
DS Penske: Jessica Edgar / Beitske Visser
Nissan: Sophia Floersch / Abbi Pulling
Andretti: Chloe Chambers / Nerea Marti
Envision: Alisha Palmowski / Alice Powell
McLaren: Bianca Bustamante / Ella Lloyd
Maserati: Tatiana Calderon / Carrie Schreiner
Lola Yamaha Abt: Miki Koyama
Mahindra: Lena Buhler
Kiro Race Co: Simona de Silvestro

The post Nissan to utilise Alpine juniors Floersch and Pulling in FE test appeared first on Formula Scout.

Photo: W Series

W Series’ administrators Evelyn Partners have provided more details of the huge debts the championship racked up in its short existence.

According to information made public by Companies House, W Series Ltd owes its creditors more than £17 million. Those owed the most include Formula 1 (through multiple companies), the circuits that hosted races during the final season in 2022, various suppliers from the hotel, catering and motorsport industries and the drivers themselves who have not received their $1.5 million 2022 prize fund.

The fleet of 20 cars used in races, plus two non-working show cars, raised proceeds of just over £1 million, although after the initial buyer of “a significant number of the racing cars” failed to pay up, a second online auction was required to finally dispose of them. Trailers, spares and other assets raised a further £257,000 when they were sold.

In addition, as first reported by Formula Scout, the series’ intellectual property including social media, domain names, trademarks and branding was acquired by Formula E for £110,000.

After deducting the costs of £1 million and repaying DHL £512,000, to cover its rights over assets that had been loaded onto containers for transport to the cancelled race in Austin, a total of £688,515 remains to cover the amounts owed by the company.

However, as the latest report from the administrators sets out, the company’s debts amount to a whopping £17.2 million.

Since being set up in 2017, initially as She Championship Ltd, the shareholders, who include the likes of David Coulthard and Adrian Newey, contributed over £30 million in capital. As shareholders are at the back of the queue when a company is wound up, there is no chance of this ever being repaid.

In effect, W Series lost a total of £47 million, equivalent to over £2 million for each of the 21 races held across its three seasons.

It appears that none of the prize money due for the final season was paid to the drivers, leaving Jamie Chadwick owed £394,900 (the sterling equivalent of the $500,000 champion’s prize fund), with Beitske Visser and Alice Powell, second and third respectively, also out of pocket by more than £100,000 each. F1 Academy points leader Abbi Pulling is owed £81,624.

The largest single creditor is the company’s biggest shareholder and director Sean Wadsworth, who is owed a total of £6.5 million, primarily from a loan to the company. The other company director, Catherine Bond Muir, is owed £211,900.

Listed among the remaining largest creditors are: Formula One Marketing (£1,333,407), Coulthard’s brand management company Velocity Experience (£1,082,189), DO & CO International Catering (£503,067), HM Revenue and Customs (£264,925), insurance brokers Gallagher (£182,035) and Tatuus (£111,336).

The administrators are still pursuing debts owed to W Series, but they assess the probability of recovery of funds as “uncertain”.

If that is the case, while secured creditors such as HMRC and company employees are likely to be repaid, the remaining creditors will almost certainly never see more than a miniscule fraction of what they are owed.

The post Drivers among those to lose out as W Series reveals £17 million debts appeared first on Formula Scout.

Photo: Joe Skibinski

Andretti Global has announced that it will run its Indy Nxt driver Jamie Chadwick in an IndyCar test at Barber Motorsports Park on September 30.

The 26-year-old Briton is currently in her second season of racing in IndyCar’s primary feeder series, and she had a tricky start to the campaign with a maiden podium on Indianapolis Motor Speedway’s road course being her only top-10 result from the first five races.

She then claimed her first pole and converted it into a maiden victory at Road America, and since then has finished in the top 10 of every race to sit fifth in the standings with four races to go and just about remain in title contention.

“I’m incredibly excited to be testing in IndyCar for the first time with Andretti Global,” said Chadwick.

“I want to say a huge thank you to the team for this opportunity. It is for sure one I am going to relish. The IndyCar seres remains my goal, so I cannot wait to learn as much as possible on that day at one of the most demanding tracks on the calendar.”

Andretti Global’s CEO and chairman Michael Andretti commented: “It’s been a pleasure watching Jamie grow as a driver in our Indy Nxt programme. The work she put in during the winter after her rookie season is obvious, and we’ve been impressed with the progress she’s made.

“The Indy Nxt field is really competitive this year and what Jamie has been able to do is a testament to the level of skill and potential she has. We believe in rewarding hard work and results and are excited to give her this opportunity. We’re all looking forward to seeing what she can do in September.”

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Photo: Joe Skibinski / IMS Photo

Jamie Chadwick was not anticipating contending for victory at Road America last weekend, but found herself “a lot more comfortable out front than I’ve ever felt” before in Indy Nxt.

The series sophomore drew comparisons to her W Series career, in which she claimed 11 wins from 21 races, after a challenging time in Indy Nxt so far. A sixth place was her best rookie result, and a first podium came on her 17th start.

“Last year was a tough year, but now to kind of be fighting where I feel like we should be fighting, it’s a great feeling,” she said.

“I appreciate how tough this championship is as well, and I think just respecting the level and coming at it this year with the speed we’ve had, I’m just super happy.”

Chadwick had to hold off Andretti Global team-mate Louis Foster to win and “knew I had to be aggressive” to stay ahead of him and points leader Jacob Abel.

“This year we’ve definitely made a big step. It’s where I feel like we should be now. Normally, before this weekend, I felt like there was a bit of a gap to these two [Abel and Foster] especially. But now we’re closing that gap and after today, I think we can try and always be up with these two as much as we can.”

She added that it was her plan to make Abel and Foster fight each other in certain areas of the track so she could then break the tow on the straights where she would be more susceptible to being passed.

When asked how she handled the pressure of leading at the end of the race, Chadwick replied: “I know the level and everything’s very different, but because I come from winning in W Series, I felt a lot more comfortable out front than I’ve ever felt all year. It’s kind of what I’m almost used to. I know it’s a different level, but I felt pretty comfortable and happy.”

Chadwick said she “would have taken [an] arm for a win” but coming into the weekend “wouldn’t have expected that” would be her result. It has left her “excited for the rest of the year”, adding “there’s no reason we can’t just keep improving”.

There was naturally a lot of attention on the fact that Chadwick became Indy Nxt’s first female race winner since 2010. It was a statistic she had mixed feelings on.

“I find the stats scary because there is no reason [why women cannot win more often]. It’s tough, it’s physical, but there’s no reason why women can’t be competing at the highest level of motorsport. So it shouldn’t be that, and it’s not something I think we should be proud of to celebrate, in a way. I really want more women [racing single-seaters].”

She added: “I think we should have more and more young girls starting in the Indy feeder series and ultimately getting through to Indy Nxt.”

The post Chadwick found new level of comfort in Indy Nxt on way to win appeared first on Formula Scout.

Photo: Chris Owens

Andretti Global’s Jamie Chadwick secured her maiden Indy Nxt victory in a stop-start race at Road Americas.

Chadwick led lights-to-flag, controlling the race through multiple caution periods and a late red flag stoppage which set up a two-lap dash to the finish.

She finished 0.8 seconds ahead of team-mate Louis Foster, who secured second in a photo finish against Abel Motorsports’ points leader Jacob Abel.

Despite the multiple incidents further down the order it was a simple race for Chadwick who could concentrate on her own race as Abel and Foster battled. Abel snatched second before an early caution period caused by a multi-car incident.

Salvador de Alba and James Roe Jr had made slight contact before Roe was sent into a spin and struck the car of Kiko Porto. De Alba was able to continue but Roe and Porto needed retrieval to get back to the pits.

The track turned green a few laps later and Abel was able pressure Chadwick at the restart. He could not find a way through, however, and Chadwick was still leading when the pace car was brought out again due to de Alba stopping on track.

The second restart went better for Chadwick, who was able to escape up the road as Foster and Abel battled again. Foster found a way past Abel, and defended second place when Abel came back at him.

It was not long before Foster then closed in on Chadwick, but attempting a move for the lead put him on the back foot and back into a fight against Abel who was briefly able to take second place back.

With four laps to go the race was interrupted again as Myles Rowe and Jordan Missig went into the gravel and did not come back out. Rowe had been battling with Michael d’Orlando when he spun and bounced over the kerbs, collecting Missig in the aftermath. The race was red flagged so the incident could be cleared, and after it restarted there was two laps of green flag action.

Foster had no answer to Chadwick, and again had to contend with Abel. But by holding him off he reduced Abel’s championship lead to 20 points.

Caio Collet had made a strong restart after the final caution period, but fell back behind Reece Gold after the race stoppage and finished fifth, ahead of Callum Hedge and Josh Pierson.

Race result (20 laps)

The post Chadwick converts historic pole into breakthrough first Indy Nxt victory appeared first on Formula Scout.

Photo: Joe Skibinski

Jamie Chadwick became the first woman to take a pole in Indy Nxt since 2010 when she topped qualifying at Road America on Saturday.

The Andretti Global driver, who is in her sophomore season, was fastest in the second qualifying group by 0.1288 seconds and beat the benchmark laptime from the first qualifying group set by team-mate Louis Foster by just 0.0208s.

The last woman to start on pole position in Indy Nxt was Pippa Mann, who did so three times in 2010. Her qualifying success came entirely on ovals, meaning Chadwick is the first female in championship history to take pole at a road or street course, and the first in the second tier of single-seater racing since Simona de Silvestro did so in Atlantics in 2009.

“I’m so happy. We struggled a little bit this weekend chasing balance, but yeah, when Louis did the lap he did I knew obviously we were going to have a good car,” said Chadwick after getting out of her car to celebrate.

“And then [with] track conditions improving, this was our shot. And our group as well, I felt we can really make the most of this opportunity. So yeah, that we did. I’m just really happy. It’s going to be a tough day tomorrow, but I’m confident in what we can do tomorrow, so I’m happy.”

There had been a lot of rain at Road America earlier in the day, and the second qualifying group faced a slightly drier track surface than the first group, which played to Chadwick’s advantage. She admitted she “didn’t even think about” if she had a pole-capable car while driving but “knew we were in a good place” with the other factors at play.

“I was in a good spot after the restart with the tow and stuff, and [with] track conditions improving. I think our group as well, I felt like we had an opportunity today and I think we took that. And focus is going to be on tomorrow. It’s not going to be easy, but I’m excited.”

She added: “I like being out front, I like to have the opportunity to now be racing at the front, and we’ve been up there this year. So to get a pole is beyond [expectations], but I’m looking forward to it.”

Chadwick claimed her first podium earlier in the season on Indianapolis Motor Speedway’s road course, but either side of that result has had three finishes outside of the top 10 and a retirement.

She sits 13th in the standings, one position lower than where she came in her rookie season where her finish was a sixth place and her best qualifying results were a ninth and a 10th.

Women on pole in single-seater racing’s second tier

The post Chadwick “confident” about race potential after claiming Indy Nxt pole appeared first on Formula Scout.

Photo: Joe Skibinski

Jamie Chadwick claimed her maiden Indy Nxt pole position in a delayed qualifying session at Road America.

The Andretti Global driver pipped Josh Pierson to the top of the times with her final lap in qualifying. 

A red flag period during which the session clock continued to count down meant Chadwick’s group had just two attempts at setting laps at a representative pace, and Chadwick went quickest on both occasions. Her second effort beat team-mate Louis Foster’s benchmark from the first group and so earned her pole.

Group one was a relatively simple affair. Foster topped the times early on and continued to improve his pace.

He ended qualifying with a 1m51.0541s as his best laptime, over two tenths of a second clear of Abel Motorsports’ Jacob Abel.

HMD Motorsports’ Caio Collet had a few wide moments during the session, but there were no major incidents in group one.

Collet ended the session third quickest, ahead of team-mates Callum Hedge and Myles Rowe.

In group two, it was Michael d’Orlando who set the pace in the opening laps before Lindsay Brewer spun into the gravel at turn one with nine minutes left on the clock.

As the entire field had managed to set a lap by this point, the clock continued to tick down. There was less than four minutes left when green flags waved again.

Most of the field were able to complete two additional flying laps. Yuven Sundaramoorthy crossed the timing line first and briefly went to the top, only to be demoted down to third by Reece Gold and Chadwick.

Gold and Josh Pierson both then improved on their final laps to provisionally be fastest in the group, until Chadwick crossed the line with a 1m51.0333s to beat them and Foster for her maiden pole.

Pierson was second fastest in the group, ahead of Gold, Bryce Aron and d’Orlando, who only got one flying lap in rather than two after the restart.

Qualifying results

The post Chadwick claims maiden Indy Nxt pole position appeared first on Formula Scout.

Photo: James Black

Jamie Chadwick claimed a breakthrough first Indy Nxt podium this month on Indianapolis Motor Speedway’s road course.

As a rookie Chadwick only twice finished higher than 10th, with sixth her best result en route to 12th in the standings. Four races into this season she sits 13th in the points table, her third place accompanied by a 16th, a 20th and a retirement.

While those results combined may not make it obvious, Chadwick has definitely improved. Her average qualifying pace at the first three circuits in 2023 was 101.307% of the pole time, and this year it has been 100.453%. Similarly, her fastest race laps at those tracks has gone from an average of 101.664% of the absolute pace to 100.963%.

“It’s often actually very hard to actually make such a big step. So honestly I’m so happy with this step we’ve made,” she said. “At the end of last year we started to make the improvements, and then it just took the off-season to really make the progress that we needed.”

There’s “validation” that hard work has led to a podium, but “there’s still a step” to be made to contend for wins.

“I haven’t had a result at all this year, and I needed to keep my nose clean in that race and we did and we were rewarded for that,” she said of her podium. “Going into the rest of the season I want to be fighting at the front, and I think we’ve made a solid foundation [for that].”

So what was the work Chadwick did to become more competitive?

“The physicality of it was a big one, to be honest. These are physical cars, and coming from W Series which is probably closer to a Formula 4 car, I knew it was going to be a challenge. But until you’re really in the thick of it and in the season you don’t really know. And for that reason I was underprepared last year.

“Hopefully beefed up quite a bit in the off-season, which has definitely helped and paid off this year. Also I think knowing what’s coming. Last year, going to tracks for the first time, spending a lot of energy on learning so much, it makes me take my hat off to the rookies that come in and do an incredible job. Because it isn’t as easy as it looks.”

Chadwick said claiming an Indy Nxt podium meant “a lot more” than success in the all-female, Formula Regional-spec W Series, where she won three titles.

“Especially coming off the back of last year, which was a tough year and tough transition into the series. To then find what I felt was good form and pace this year, but struggling to kind of convert that into results. To then get up on the podium here definitely means a lot.”

Seeking to convert pace into podiums means Chadwick has “not looked at so much the consistency”, instead appoaching 2024 “just wanting to get results” and going “maximum attack”.

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