Photo: Formula Motorsport

Formula 2 race-winner Roman Stanek has made a surprise step up to single-seaters’ top tier by landing a seat in Super Formula.

The 22-year-old Czech has joined Kondo Racing, which will expand to three cars but with Stanek’s entered under the name ‘MK Racing’. MK are the initials of the team’s founder Masahiko Kondo, who is still in search of a primary sponsor for the entry.

Stanek’s deal was announced a few days before pre-season testing began this week at Suzuka. One of his team-mates and fellow rookies is former F2 rival Luke Browning, who has emerged unharmed from a huge crash in wet conditions at the Suzuka test.

“Really thrilled to continue my career in the top level single-seater category,” said Stanek. “I am very much looking forward to a new start with MK Racing in Japan, and I am very grateful to the team for this opportunity.”

Across his three seasons in F2, Stanek won both a feature race and a sprint race. Last year he claimed two pole positions, each converted into a runner-up finish, and was third in two sprint races en route to 10th in the standings.

Prior to that, Stanek had spent three years in the FIA Formula 3 Championship with similar levels of success. He made the podium twice in his sophomore campaign, and was fifth in the points table the year after as he picked up a feature race victory, converted his maiden pole into a second place finish and was runner-up in both races at Spa-Francorchamps.

The post Roman Stanek makes surprise step up to Super Formula appeared first on Formula Scout.

Photo: Williams Racing

Luke Browning will graduate from Formula 2 to a race seat in Super Formula and reserve driver role in Formula 1 this year.

The 23-year-old Englishman will make his debut at single-seaters’ top level with Kondo Racing, and be Williams’ go-to driver in F1 should either of its full-time drivers be unable to race.

He will also be involved in the team’s car development through simulator work, but Browning’s 12-race SF campaign in Japan means he will not be able to fulfil his reserve driver duties in at least four grands prix.

The Williams Driver Academy has featured Browning in its ranks since April 2023, and under its tutelage he has won the Macau Grand Prix, come third in the FIA Formula 3 Championship and fourth in F2.

His first F1 test mileage came with rival team Aston Martin in October 2023 after he won the Aston Martin Autosport BRDC Award the preceding year, then he sampled contemporary F1 machinery for the first time at Yas Marina Circuit in December 2024 when he drove for Williams in the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix’s first practice session then in the post-season young driver test.

Last year Williams handed him further free practice outings at the Bahrain, Mexico City and Abu Dhabi grands prix, and he featured in the young driver test again.

“I’m incredibly excited to be stepping up as reserve driver with Williams this year,” said Browning. “The Academy has been instrumental in my growth, supporting me through both F3 and F2 while giving me the chance to get up to speed with modern F1 machinery through testing and FP1 sessions.”

He added: “[SF] will be a completely new challenge, and I’m looking forward to getting stuck in! As my next step up towards a full-time F1 seat, this gives me another chance to show how I’ve developed on track and continue to build my skills in a new environment and culture.”

Williams’ team principal James Vowles applauded how Browning has already “supported the team’s journey back to the front of the grid through his involvement in simulator and FP1 work, which has been invaluable as we enter this new era of regulations”.

Accompanying the announcement of Browning’s 2026 programme was the list of Williams’ current academy members, which revealed the departures of Japanese karter Sara Matsui.

Dean Hoogendoorn, who has been a Williams junior since August 2024, is still only 13 years old and has been signed by kart manufacturer Parolin as one of its factory drivers for 2026.

Last year the Dutchman raced for Prema, better known for its junior single-seater success, and he was ranked as one of Formula Scout’s top karting stars of 2025. He won the CIK-FIA European Championship, the WSK Super Master Series, came third in the CIK-FIA World Championship and fifth in Champions of the Future on OK Junior karts, won SuperKarts USA’s SuperNationals on X30 Junior karts and came third in the equivalent race for KA100 Junior karts.

The post Luke Browning lands F1 reserve driver role and Super Formula seat 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: B-MAX Racing

Super Formula Lights champion Yuto Nomura will graduate to Super Formula with B-MAX Racing next year.

The 20-year-old Japanese racer will be going into his fifth year of car racing, and has been a Honda junior since making his single-seater debut in French Formula 4 back in 2022.

That year he was also a Red Bull junior, and he won two races en route to seventh in the standings. He then spent two seasons in Japanese F4, coming fourth in his rookie campaign and winning the title as a sophomore. Over the two years, the second of which was with B-MAX, he won eight races, took 10 other podiums and six poles.

Nomura remained with B-MAX for this year’s step up to Japan’s third-tier SF Lights championship, and he had a stellar season. After finishing second in all three races of the season opener, then failing to score at Autopolis, he won 12 of the remaining 13 races over the next four rounds and his title-winning margin was equivalent to almost five wins’ worth of points.

Earlier this month he drove for B-MAX in SF’s post-season test, and was 24th in the overall classification. For 2026 he takes over the seat of Syun Koide, his predecessor as SF Lights champion with B-MAX, after he came 16th in his rookie campaign.

“As mentioned in the announcement, at this time, there is no information that we can share with the fans,” Koide said in a statement after Nomura’s graduation was confirmed. “While there is some anxiety, we will continue to challenge ourselves in order to definitely return again [to SF].”

Nomura will also join Real Racing in Super GT’s top GT500 class next year. He debuted in the sportscar series’ secondary GT300 class this season, and came 11th in the standings with one win and one pole.

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Photo: Super Formula

Toyota Gazoo Racing has announced its motorsport programmes for 2026, including which drivers it will be backing and powering in single-seaters.

At the top of the pyramid in Japan’s Super Formula championship, three Toyota-powered teams have signed rookies.

World Rally champion Kalle Rovanpera will join KCMG, Rikuto Kobayashi will race for TGM Grand Prix after contesting an event with Team Impul this year, and Charlie Wurz will drive the sole car of the returning Team Goh.

Kobayashi finished 16th on his SF debut at Twin Ring Motegi in April, with his main programme this year having been the third-tier Super Formula Lights championship where he was third in the standings after being runner-up in 2024.

He also raced in sportscar series Super GT’s GT300 class in 2025, coming third in the standings, and will be promoted to the top GT500 class next year with Cerumo.

Wurz, son of ex-Formula 1 driver Alexander, was Formula Regional Oceania champion in 2023 then was a race-winner in Euroformula before spending two seasons in the FIA Formula 3 Championship and coming 13th this year with two podiums.

He has some sportscar experience too, and will join the Super GT grid with the Toyota-powered Apr team in the GT300 class. Kazuhisa Urabe, who was 10th in SF Lights and third in the FRegional Japanese Championship this year, will joining Inging in Super GT300.

Wurz and his younger brother Oscar, who was 2024 Formula 4 Central European Zone champion and 18th in Eurocup-3 this year, will become Toyota juniors for 2026.

Their father was a World Endurance Championship race-winner with Toyota, and Oscar will race for TOM’S in SF Lights next year as team-mate to fellow Toyota juniors Kiyoshi Umegaki and Tokiya Suzuki. The pair came one-two in this year’s FRegional Japanese Championship, while in Japanese F4 the title was won by Suzuki and Umegaki was seventh in the standings.

Vacating his SF Lights at TOM’S is Yuki Sano, who was 2025 championship runner-up and finished ninth in the FIA FRegional World Cup-awarding Macau Grand Prix.

Next year the Toyota junior will step back down to FRegional, having won all four of the FRJC races he contested in 2024, full-time as he joins R-ace GP in the European and Middle East championships.

Toyota’s racing school runs a team in Japanese F4, and its line-up next year will consist of Masaki Hamabe, Buntaro Igarashi, Yuzuki Miura, Masana Muto, Ryo Sakai and Tomoki Terashima.

Of those six, only Miura and Muto will be Toyota juniors. They came 12th and 15th in the standings this year, each with one podium, and will have double programmes as they will also race for TOM’S in FRJC.

2026 TGR Driver Challenge Programme members (single-seaters)

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Photo: Formula Motorsport Ltd

Ugo Ugochuckwu will race in Formula Regional Oceania at the start of 2026 with the M2 Competition team.

The 18-year-old American will head down under before he embarks on his sophomore FIA Formula 3 Championship campaign with Campos Racing, after coming 16th in the standings with two podiums this year as one of Prema’s drivers.

When Ugochukwu starts his FRegional Oceania season, it will be his first time racing without the support of the McLaren Formula 1 team in almost five years as he leaves the McLaren Driver Development Programme at the end of 2025.

“I am thrilled to be able to compete in the 2026 FRegional Oceania Trophy,” said Ugochukwu.

“I’ve been following the championship for many seasons now and I always wanted to be part of it. For that to be 2026, which looks like it is going to be one of the best ever, is even more exciting.”

in FRegional, Ugochukwu has won the FIA World Cup, come third in the Middle East championship and 11th in the European championship.

“I am sure it’s going to be a lot of fun learning the local tracks and in general to compete outside of Europe is always something that brings new challenges as well as new experiences.”

Ugochukwu got experience of another series outside of Europe last week as he tasted top-tier single-seaters in Super Formula’s post-season test at Suzuka.

He went fastest overall, setting the pace by 0.296 seconds and being 0.473s faster than the next driver who was a ‘rookie test’ entrant.

Japanese Formula 4 champion and FRegional Japanese Championship runner-up Tokiya Suzuki and the SF-experienced 2024 Super Formula Lights runner-up Rikuto Kobayashi completed the top three in the ‘rookie test’ classification.

FRegional Europe champion Freddie Slater was fourth in that group and 11th overall, being a total newcomer to the track like Ugochukwu was, and Williams junior Luke Browning was 13th fastest after heading over to the test from the Formula 2 finale as he eyes a step up to SF for 2026.

Super Formula test results [young drivers only]

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Photo: Formula Motorsport Ltd

Super Formula post-season testing at Suzuka next week will feature a large group of junior single-seater stars.

The December 10-12 group test doubles up as the Japanese championship’s official rookie test, and is a key opportunity to impress for drivers aiming to race there.

Luke Browning is the highest profile junior single-seater star entered into the test, and will do days two and three with the Toyota-powered Kondo Racing team. The 23-year-old Englishman is a race-winner in Formula 2 this year and is aiming to end his rookie season this weekend as championship runner-up.

As a Williams junior, he has been called up to drive in four Formula 1 practice sessions, the latest being at Yas Marina Circuit this weekend in between F2 action. He will also do F1’s young driver test there on December 9 before flying to Japan.

Ex-F2 star Jack Doohan, who did six F1 races with Alpine this year before being demoted, is reportedly eyeing an SF switch.

Also coming from overseas to test is Charlie Wurz, who will join for day one’s afternoon session then also drive in the next two days with Team Goh, which was last seen on the grid under that name in 2022. The 20-year-old has spent the last two years in the FIA Formula 3 Championship, and came 13th this season with two podiums.

Planning to be on the SF grid in 2026 after making his single-seater racing debut next month in Formula Regional Oceania is Kalle Rovanpera, and Toyota’s two-time World Rally champion from Finland will do the full test with KCMG.

Gaining test mileage at the top level after racing in Japan’s third-tier Super Formula Lights championship in 2025 are six drivers.

Honda-powered B-MAX Racing has called up three of its SF Lights drivers: champion Yuto Nomura (days one and two), podium-finisher Zachary David (day three) and backmarker Yasuhiro Shimizu (day three).

Toyota junior Rikuto Kobayashi, who came third in the standings with one win and also made his SF debut in the double-header Twin Ring Motegi round, will do the full test with the TGM Grand Prix squad that replaced Goh in SF in 2023.

INGING will put Kazuhisa Urabe, who was 10th in SF Lights and third in the FRegional Japanese Championship this year, in one of its Toyota-powered cars for the final day, and former Honda junior Souta Arao will hope to impress the manufacturer again by testing on days two and three with ThreeBond Racing. Arao was only able to contest one SF Lights round this year.

Kiyoshi Umegaki and Tokiya Suzuka did double programmes as Toyota juniors in 2025. They came first and second in FRJC, while in Japanese F4 the title was won by Suzuki and Umegaki came seventh in the standings.

The pair will join SF’s test for the final day, with Umegaki at Rookie Racing and Suzuki driving for KCMG.

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Calling themselves a “human resource development motorsports team” and seeking to bring team personnel up the ladder as well as drivers, Delightworks will enter SF with one car in 2026 and it will be driven by Nobuharu Matsushita.

The 31-year-old SF and Super GT race-winner, who won in Formula 2 as a Honda protege, will also take on a two-fold management role. It will combine technical leadership with fronting the team’s driver development in junior single-seaters.

Established by gaming company Delightworks, the team’s first racing venture was the 2024 Formula Regional Japanese Championship season finale. It entered one car, with its development driver Yugo Iwasawa at the wheel, and made the podium on debut.

It was due to continue racing in FRJC for 2025, but instead moved up to the third-tier SF Lights series as a two-car operation. Yusuke Mitsui currently sits eighth in the standings, with a best finish of fourth, while Souta Arao and Iwasawa have shared the second car but neither have scored in the first three rounds.

Delightworks’ cars have received technical support from Toda Racing, which will also be heavily involved in vehicle operations for the SF programme due to its extensive experience as an engine-builder as well as a racing team.

Toda has a race-winning history in SF Lights, but dropped off the grid this year as it aligned itself with Delightworks’ entry.

Another junior single-seater outfit looking to move up the ladder is TC Racing, founded by Belgium and Real Madrid goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois. His career CV includes four La Liga titles and third place in the 2018 FIFA World Cup.

He launched his team with the help of Spanish former Formula 1 driver Roberto Merhi in late 2023 and it has been racing in Spanish Formula 4 since then. Its best finish so far is a fourth place, and the team now has an Esports spin-off.

Eurocup-3 announced that TC Racing will join its grid next year as it goes from being a FRegional-based series to a third-tier entity by upgrading to machinery and technical regulations very similar to SF Lights.

Courtois has attended several F1 races this year, and in trackside interviews with broadcasters has mentioned that he seeks to take TC Racing into F2 and FIA Formula 3 on F1’s support bill. For that to be possible, during the current cycle of technical regulations, Courtois would need to wait for another team to sell their entry and assets in either championship.

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Photo: KCMG

TGM Grand Prix has signed rookie Seita Nonaka, a Toyota junior, to a race seat for the remainder of the Super Formula season.

Nonaka will replace fellow 24-year-old and Toyota protege Hibiki Taira in TMG GP’s line-up, after Taira underperformed in the first five races.

Taira was the 2023 Super Formula Lights runner-up and did four SF races last year with Team Impul. He had a best result of ninth, enough to earn a full-time seat elsewhere on the grid for 2025. But this season he has qualified no higher than 18th, and finished no higher than 13th, so has been demoted by TGM GP to being its reserve driver for the four rounds left.

Nonaka was 2021 Japanese Formula 4 champion, then spent close to four seasons in the third-tier SF Lights series with TOM’S. He won six races, and was third in the 2024 standings.

He made his SF debut earlier this year by substituting for the injured Oliver Rasmussen at Impul in the season-opening Suzuka double-header. In the following double-header at Twing Ring Motegi, he stood in for Kamui Kobayashi at KCMG due to a World Endurance Championship date clash making Kobayashi unavailable.

Nonaka started 19th and finished 17th in his first race after amassing 1m15s in penalties, and the next day he came 19th. His Motegi weekend was far better, finishing 11th in race one and scoring a point by finishing eighth in race two.

Ahead of the next races in July at Fuji Speedway, Nonaka will get to settle into his TGM GP seat when SF tests at the track on June 6/7.

The Le Mans 24 Hours’ test day is on June 8, and Kobayashi will be attending as he is Toyota’s team principal and one of its drivers in WEC. KCMG will therefore be calling up Rikuto Kobayashi to test at Fuji.

The Toyota junior’s primary programme this year is in SF Lights, where he is racing for TOM’S. The 19-year-old won three races with the team in 2024 en route to second in the points as a rookie, and sits fourth in the 2025 standings after the first two race weekends.

Between those two rounds he made his debut at the top level of single-seaters by standing in for Rasmussen in Impul’s SF line-up at Motegi. He qualified 15th and finished 16th on debut, then retired from 16th on the grid the next day.

Since he is only in his fourth year of car racing, Kobayashi is also building experience by sharing a Ferrari 296 GT3 sportscar with fellow SF racer and Formula 2 race-winner Zak O’Sullivan in Super GT’s GT300 class. They are 10th in the standings after the first two races.

At the Fuji test, Kobayashi will share driving duties with former SF racer Yuhi Sekiguchi due to his inexperience. But should he be called up to race again, Kobayashi will be free as none of SF Lights and Super GT’s remaining rounds clash with SF.

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Photo: Super Formula Lights

Toyota junior Rikuto Kobayashi will make his Super Formula debut with Team Impul next weekend at Twin Ring Motegi.

The 19-year-old Japanese driver will take the place of Oliver Rasmussen for the double-header event, with the Dane having not actually raced for the team yet after getting injured in a crash during practice for the opening round at Suzuka.

Kobayashi is only in his fourth year of car racing, and his main programme for 2025 is with TOM’S in Japan’s Formula 3-level Super Formula Lights championship. Following round one, he sits third in the standings with two podiums. He is also due to race in Super GT’s GT300 class this year.

For his first two years in single-seaters, Kobayashi raced for Toyota’s own junior team in the Japanese Formula 4 championship. He was sixth in the standings as a rookie, taking a pole and then a podium mid-season before hitting the front in the final round at Motegi where he claimed his first victory from pole and took the fastest lap too.

His sophomore campaign kicked off at Fuji Speedway with a double pole position, which were converted into a win and a third place, then on the return to the track he claimed two more victories. In the final two rounds he had strong form again, with three poles and then two wins, a second and a third in the races.

That earned him the title, and a graduation up to SF Lights and Super GT for 2024. In the former he was championship runner-up, with three wins and eight other podiums, and he then stepped down to Formula Regional to contest the Macau Grand Prix with TOM’S. After qualifying 23rd and finishing 21st in the qualification race, he climbed to 12th in the main race.

While Rasmussen remains contracted to Impul, the former World Endurance Championship regular remains out of the cockpit as a precaution. Following Motegi, there is another month before the next SF races for which he will aim to be fit for.

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