Photo: Formula Motorsport Ltd

Oliver Oakes has ceased being a person with significant control at junior single-seater team Hitech GP as a new investor joins the team.

The British outfit was founded by Oakes a decade ago, and he remains a director and its team principal. He left the latter role in July 2024 when Alpine signed him to be its Formula 1 team principal, but returned this May after resigning from Alpine.

That came a few days after his brother and fellow Hitech director William Oakes was stopped by police near the team’s headquarters in Silverstone Park, charged with transferring criminal property, summoned to Northampton Magistrates’ Court then remanded in custody.

Hitech appointed Michael William Charles Sanwell-Lewis as finance director in the immediate aftermath, with William Oakes resigning as a director in June.

The next leadership change came on October 10, and was announced today. While Oliver Oakes relinquishes his powers, 61-year-old Singapore-based Chinese national Guocai Liu is now a person with significant control in the team.

Liu holds, directly or indirectly, 75% or more of Hitech’s shares and voting rights within the company, and the right to appoint or remove a majority of the team’s board of directors.

He has also become a shareholder in connected companies HiDAT and Hitech Global Holdings.

“I’m delighted to join forces with Oliver at this significant stage in Hitech’s growth and development and I look forward to working collaboratively in the years ahead,” said Liu, who has shares in companies active in the chemicals industry in China and South East Asia.

Oakes commented that “Mr Liu’s investment provides the resources and strategic support to realise our ambitions for the next decade, while maintaining the values, heritage, and culture that have defined us over the past 10 years”.

Hitech is currently second in Formula 2 and GB3, and earlier this year came second in the British Formula 4 and Formula Winter Series standings and was eighth in the FIA Formula 3 Championship.

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Photo: Alpine

Paul Aron has joined the Alpine Formula 1 team as its reserve driver for the 2025 season.

The deal comes a year after Aron parted ways with the Mercedes junior programme, which had supported him since karting.

While it’s understood that Mercedes was only prepared to support a second season of Formula 3 for Aron in 2024, he preferred to make the step up to Formula 2 alone and has a strong rookie campaign with Hitech GP.

He led the championship having scored seven podiums from as many rounds in the first half of the year, and while he has since slumped to fourth and remains without a win, he took his fourth pole of the season in Qatar on Friday.

That was the day before Alpine announced his new role, one that has been rumoured ever since Hitech boss Oliver Oakes was brought in its team principal in July by advisor Flavio Briatore.

“It’s incredibly special to be joining BWT Alpine Formula One Team,” he said. “It is clear that this is a great place to be for any young driver and I’m really pleased that Flavio and Oliver have given me this opportunity.

“Before 2025 and the hard work that will come with being the team’s Reserve Driver, I have a championship to focus on for the remainder of this year and I will be giving it my all to compete for the title. I’m looking forward to really beginning the work and continuing my career pathway in motorsport.”

Briatore added: “There is a generational shift in Formula 1 at the moment, as we see with many young drivers coming into the sport and making an impact. We believe Paul is one of the best talents and we look forward to developing him into an F1 driver.”

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Photo: Alpine

Hitech GP owner and team principal Oliver Oakes will switch from the world of junior single-seaters to Formula 1 next month as he becomes Alpine’s team principal.

“I’m extremely grateful to [Renault Group CEO] Luca de Meo and Flavio Briatore for this opportunity to lead Alpine F1 Team back to competitiveness,” said Oakes.

“The team has talented people and excellent resources at its core, and I am confident that we can accomplish a great deal together during the remainder of this season and the longer term. I look forward to getting started after the summer break.”

Hitech has not announced who will succeed Oakes as team principal, with 10 days until the team’s next races.

The 36-year-old is a former racing driver himself, racing primarily on the British single-seater scene. First he competed in Formula Renault 2.0 UK as a Red Bull junior (a status he earned from winning the World Karting Championship), then the equivalent Formula BMW championship in 2006 before joining Motopark the year after to go continental in the FR Eurocup. He came 12th in the 2007 standings with a best finish of fifth.

He stepped up to British Formula 3 part-time in 2008 with Carlin and came 19th in the championship, did two rounds of the 2009 season with the team then contested the inaugural season of GP3 (now known as the FIA F3 Championship) in 2010 and despite five top-10 finishes he failed to score and was 28th in the standings.

In 2015, the 27-year-old Oakes founded Hitech GP. He had known David Hayle, who co-founded Hitech Racing in 2002, from a young age and wanted to launch a team of his own after seeing some of the young drivers he helped have their potential unfulfilled elsewhere.

Two FIA European F3 appearances in 2015 preluded a full campaign the next year, where it finished second in the teams’ standings and third in the driver’s championship with George Russell. Since then the team has expanded into Formula 2, Regional and 4, winning races in each category it has competed in. Under Oakes’ watch, Hitech has won five FRegional Asia titles (including a Winter Series crown), two GB3 championships and ran Alex Dunne to the 2022 British F4 title.

Uralkali, chaired by former Hitech driver Nikita Mazepin’s father Dmitry, Fungosa Management Limited (which owns trademarks for Nikita Mazepin) and Bergton Management Limited were majority shareholders in Hitech before Oakes reclaimed full control of the team in 2022.

By June 2023 he had already relinquished that position as Hitech Global Holdings, the owning company of Hitech GP, announced a 25% sale of shares to Vladimir Kim, a billionaire who made his wealth in mining. His investment was to support Oakes’ bid to take Hitech into F1.

However those ambitions have not been realised, and on July 17 this year Oakes restructured Hitech, with ownership of both the junior single-seater team and Hitech 26 – the project group “responsible for advancing the team’s F1 ambitions” – being transferred to him directly rather than via a holding company. No reason has been given for the change.

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Photo: Formula Motorsport Ltd

Hitech GP team principal Oliver Oakes says that if his Formula 1 entry bid is accepted by the FIA it will not impact his team’s participation in the support series.

At present, Hitech races in Formula 2 and FIA Formula 3, having been on the grid in the former since 2020 and in the latter since 2019. The Silverstone-based team also competes in Formula Regional Middle East, GB3 and the British and Emriati Formula 4 championships.

Oakes’ intention to take Hitech into F1 has long been known, and the team confirmed an entry bid had been lodged to the FIA last month when it also announced a significant new investment update. The team’s owning company Hitech Global Holdings “agreed the sale of a 25% interest in the group” to Kazakh billionaire Vladimir Kim, who made his wealth in mining.

“Hitech will always be doing what it’s doing [in F2 and F3], that’s always been the vision,” Oakes said to media including Formula Scout during the most recent F2 and F3 round at Silverstone.

“We really like the junior formulae, and I think as [my fellow team bosses] will agree, there’s nothing more difficult as a series than those two categories. We’re limited on staff, it’s hugely competitive and as we see each year, the desire of the teams goes up, the competition goes up, that it definitely keeps us – I wouldn’t say young, because I’m losing my hair – but it definitely keeps us on our toes. And that’s definitely something we’ll always keep doing.”

Hitech has a long history in junior single-seaters predating Oakes’ ownership. The original team that used the Hitech name, the David Hayle-led Hitech Racing, was a mainstay in British F3 through the 2000s and won the 2007 title with Marko Asmer.

A Brazilian arm of Hitech was then set up with Rodrigo Contin at the helm, and it competed in F3 races across South America through the 2010s. Oakes launched Hitech GP in 2015, with FIA European F3 being the first series he tackled with the team.

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Photo: Red Bull Content Pool

Hitech GP team boss Oliver Oakes has said that “people understimate” how challenging being an FIA Formula 3 Championship rookie, particularly for drivers with one year of single-seater experience.

Alessio Deledda and then-Honda junior Teppei Natori made the jump in 2019, Matteo Nannini and Roman Stanek did it last year, then Rafael Villagomez moved up to F3 this season for his second year in car racing.

Stanek was the most experienced part of Hitech’s 2021 line-up, as he partnered Red Bull juniors Jak Crawford and Ayumu Iwasa who each had one year of experience on European circuits in Formula 4.

“I think people underestimate how tough it is for rookies coming in,” said Oakes.

“Helmut Marko’s eye for spotting [drivers] and dropping them in initially always seems crazy to people, but there is no doubt from our side that Jak and Ayumu are massively talented. It was very clear early on to see that they had the raw speed.

“Our job was to help them use that with the characteristics of FIA F3.”

French F4 champion Iwasa was Hitech’s highest placed driver, winning at the Hungaroring en route to 12th in the points. Crawford made the podium at Spa-Francorchamps and came 13th overall, while Stanek finished third at both circuits but was 16th in the standings as he then went on a seven-race pointless run.

Crawford and Iwasa meanwhile finished the season with a fifth and a ninth respectively in Sochi, which impressed Oakes.

“To see them end the year as strongly as they all did puts a smile on your face,” he said.

“You do look back and wonder what you could have done slightly differently to have sped that up, but I think that everybody realises that it’s a process you have to go through. You cannot look over your shoulder.

“They are coming through a lot younger now, getting into FIA F3 with just a year of racing experience. It is odd really, but when looking at the Red Bull drivers, on one side you look at Liam [Lawson] and Juri [Vips] and compare them to the two youngsters from this season, but it is completely different, and you can’t.”

Having run Lawson and Vips in the past when they reached FIA F3, to then work with less experienced drivers at the same Formula 1-supporting level has been a useful experience for Oakes.

“We have learned that how you work with the younger guys is slightly different to the more experienced guys, not for better or worse, it’s just about how you handle certain things.

“One of the frustrations this year is that we have fought for the title against Prema every year except this one, but because we were starting the year with quite a young line-up, we weren’t in the mix for that.

“We have ended the year there, right on their toes, so you do have a bit of confidence that what you did was right and that we were right to stick to our guns.”

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The case centered about a claim from Hitech over unpaid racing fees in relation to BRDC British F3 champion Ahmed and the Enaam Motor Sport Limited (EMSL) company that plays a role in financing his racing career and is controlled by his family.

A sum of £468,479.57 was asked for (plus interest) in accordance to two agreements from 2018 – when Hitech ran Ahmed in FIA European F3 – which the family were bound to. Hitech expected £367,148 direct from EMSL, and £101,331 from the family.

EMSL’s defence was that the claim was overstated, admitting it owed a lower sum to Hitech, but was not present at the trial. Ahmed said he had already paid off his racing debts.

The claim alleged Ahmed had incurred “expenses, and a liability for crash damage repair costs” under the season contract he had with Hitech. Ahmed also entered the Macau Grand Prix with the team that year under a different agreement, and crashed twice in qualifying before crashing out of 11th place in the main race.

The cost of the season was €750,000 – and €60,000 for Macau – and any damage to the car was agreed to be paid for by the defendants, as well as additional logistical costs from fielding the car. The crash damage was calculated to cost £58,221.25, and additional expenses at £101,331.44.

Of the £838,641.96 total, £513,141.26 was already confirmed to be paid. One payment of £150,000 was made by sports doctor Jerome Poupel, and that was brought to trial in Ahmed’s defence as the expenses he was solely liable for – but which had not been taken as the settlement of that debt and thus was still being claimed for.

An interest of “4% per annum above the base rate of Barclays Bank plc from time to time” was set on the late payments, although that was argued in the defence as not applicable as it was not “agreements for the provision of goods or services within the meaning of the Late Payment of Commercial Debts Act” used to regulate how interest is used in contracts.

However once the evidence was presented on this, the deputy judge made some interesting conclusions.

Firstly he determined, based off Hitech having never heard of an “expenses sponsor”, and that the team was to have “no idea whatsoever” that the £150,000 fee was intended to pay off a specific debt, therefore the way the Poupel payment was accounted was not “wrongful or inequitable on any basis”, although the crash damage debt was less than invoiced for.

The next thing the judge determined was that both team and driver were parties providing goods and services, which raises questions about how future cases in junior single-seaters could be interpreted by the law.

While Ahmed paid to drive, and therefore would be considered to have purchased a service from the team to run the car he’s driving, the deputy judge decided that the driving was in fact a service being provided to the team. Therefore he was paying to provide a service. However he also agreed that the team was also supplying a service to the driver.

The context here is that if a team wants to compete in a junior single-seater series, it therefore needs drivers to run to make that entry possible. And to compete at an F3 level (rather than say some club Formula Ford races), drivers will have agreed to make themselves available for all races and tests where the team would want to run the car, and worked to be fit enough to race in F3 and trained to have the driving skill suitable for the category to provide adequate driving services for the team.

Objectives of the team as a business would be to satisfy stakeholders, such as ensuring it’s providing positive welfare to its employees, being financially stable enough to remain in competition, but also of course to succeed in the market, i.e to win races and titles in the series it races in. Which is arguably the primary objective of most racing teams.

From these considerations, the deputy judge still determined it was the driver wanting to drive for the team, rather than a free market position where the team has picked a driver who could best provide its desired services of driving, and therefore it had been agreed that Ahmed’s services would be used by Hitech if he paid for the services the team would provide in return.

So Hitech’s costs for securing the services of driving was by running the car that would enable that driving to take place, and as a junior single-seater team it was also then the driver’s responsibility to pay (either through personal finance or that of a sponsor or backer) for the running of that car. That’s unlike Formula 1, where most teams take on the financial burden themselves.

The case conclusions were that Hitech was owed “the season fees, £244,727.14; the outstanding Macau fees of £64,199.74; and the crash damage claim being £52,864.58” by EMSL, and “as against the 2nd Def [Ahmed] and EMSL jointly, there will be judgment in the amount claimed of £101,331.44”.

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Photos: Red Bull Content Pool

Hitech GP’s Juri Vips took two confident and commanding victories on the streets of Baku. After missing out on pole in qualifying to team-mate Liam Lawson, and a poor first race, how did he emphatically rebound?

Such is the nature of contemporary Formula 2, with its new three-race a weekend format, it feels as if each weekend is starting to belong to a particular driver. Alpine junior Guanyu Zhou executed strategies in Bahrain to brilliant effect that, on paper at least, seemed absurd. In Monaco, it was the turn of teenage sensation Theo Pourchaire to tear the record books up.

There was a sense of some sort of title momentum starting to take shape between Zhou and fellow Alpine junior Oscar Piastri. Heading to Baku the expectation was chaos and for cool and collected heads to be the ones to come out on top.

Coming into this weekend, Hitech GP already had race-winning prowess in 2021. Lawson won the Bahrain season opener and should have won the second Monaco sprint race after a superb pass on Piastri if not for a throttle map violation. An area of weakness, however, was qualifying. It was something Lawson in particular highlighted as an area Hitech needed to sort out.

Formula Scout chatted with Hitech’s Juri Vips on the Thursday media roundtable ahead of Baku. When asked the standard “when will the results come?” question, Vips seemed totally confident it would be quickly.

“I mean, I’m not all that negative about the beginning of the year,” he said.

“We could have scored a lot, lot more points than we have, but there’s a lot a positives to take. The car has always been very good, and I’m sure if we just keep working hard and not do mistakes the results will be [there].

“We have made some small errors that have cost a lot of points, and obviously I’ve lost a victory as well due to technical issues in Bahrain. There’s been a few mistakes but I’m sure we will get rid of them and get going well.”

Vips duly kept to his word when F2 hit the track early on Friday morning. Not only was the Estonian quickest, but he also smashed the field by three-quarters of a second. That was not merely ‘bolt on supersoft tyres for a glory run in the final moments’ pace. That was legitimate, eye-opening speed from both him and Hitech.

Such was the pace, fellow Red Bull junior Liam Lawson made sure he studied what Vips was doing. It paid off for Lawson as he snatched pole from Vips, who made an error into the Turn 5/6 chicane on his quickest lap.

“I was just saying how we needed to sort out our qualifying because we couldn’t keep doing this all year,” said Lawson, whose strong sprint race results prior had been built on qualifying down the order.

“So, we’ve managed to sort it for the third round. Let’s try and keep this going.”

Vips joked that he wouldn’t allow it to happen again, but it shows a little of the dynamic between the pair. While Vips is the more experienced driver, and not a rookie officially, he still has very few races under his belt at this level. He feels like a relative newcomer to the championship still, perhaps a pseudo-rookie being the best fit to describe it.

Lawson, meanwhile, a true rookie, has been excellent in his F2 career to date. Bold, aggressive and not afraid to speak his mind, he’s been a welcome addition and makes for a very interesting character to have alongside Vips. Given how impressive his FIA Formula 3 Championship campaign last year was, and how well his 2020 rivals Piastri and Pourchaire are performing, should it be a surprise? Absolutely not.

The first race didn’t go Vips’ way. Starting ninth, he made very little impact and climbed one spot to finish eighth. While that in itself is unremarkable, the fact that Lawson, Piastri and Virtuosi Racing’s Felipe Drugovich were all wiped out at Turn 2 and would have had a strong pace potentially pushing Vips out of the top 10 was an important factor to his weekend.

“I definitely didn’t nail it this morning, it was a pretty poor race from my side, but we learned quite a lot and we expected the temperature drop and yeah, pretty much nailed it today [in race two],” he said.

He added on Sunday that “I had a lot to learn after race one, because basically I ruined my race already before it began. I ruined the tyres so I had just no pace, it was a very small thing but it had really, really big consequence and it definitely cost me a few positions there.

“I’m also not a full-on rookie, but I don’t have as much experience as the second-year guys. I’m not happy that I made this mistake, but I’ve learned from it and the last two races have been very strong.”

In the second sprint race, Vips worked his way through past Trident’s Bent Viscaal and Charouz Racing System’s David Beckmann to take the lead. He had to overcome real and virtual safety car restarts to secure a brilliant maiden victory.

Hitech’s team boss Oliver Oakes shared with Formula Scout the reaction to that win, in the 100th race of modern F2.

“Actually Bruno [Michel, F2 CEO] said that to me on the podium, that was pretty cool to have won the 100th F2 race,” Oakes said. “I think Baku was our 15th race weekend in the series… hopefully we can get a few more over the coming years!”

On the dirtier side of the grid for Sunday’s feature race, Vips vaulted past poleman Lawson to take the lead at the start. It all unravelled quickly for Lawson, who was penalised 10 seconds for forcing Pourchaire towards the inside wall after the first corner. From there, Vips was brilliantly able to control the race, while Lawson recovered from his penalty to finish sixth.

“We have talked about ‘executing a clean weekend’ in the build up to Baku and I think that is how I would pretty much sum it up,” Oakes told Formula Scout.

Photo: Formula Motorsport Limited

“With Bahrain and Monaco we clearly had pace but felt we under-delivered result wise due to various reasons (crashes, failures, slow stops, disqualified, missing third push lap in qualifying) all part of the ups and downs of an incredibly competitive series!”

It wasn’t just the drivers that were improving on round two and making progress as the Baku weekend went on.

“In Baku the drivers from the first lap in free practice were on it, pushing each other in various parts of the track,” added Oakes.

“The engineering group from the moment we dropped the car on the track, had everything dialled in – which is ever more difficult with the track evolution across the weekend now with three races.

“The mechanics have been training hard since Monaco to overcome an issue we had on the stops there too.

“It’s always the same – when you fly home after a good weekend reflecting, it’s always all the small details all coming together that point to why it was successful. That’s the challenge to try to do that each weekend.”

For Vips, it properly vaults him into the title battle. He’s 15 points off Zhou, who had a miserable feature race and a car issue in the second sprint, and that gap is very small in the grand scheme of things as the table has tightened up with the top eight all being split by 28 points down to Lawson. That’s less than the points earned with a feature win from pole.

Vips described it as “crazy” to think that’s the case already given his torrid Bahrain start, but he’s actually been more consistent in his results than any other driver.

Lawson’s pace, while not on Vips’ level, was also very strong in Baku. Crucial mistakes (and a bit of misfortune) from the likes of Piastri and Carlin’s Dan Ticktum allowed Hitech, and Vips in particular, to totally dominate the weekend.

Photo: Formula Motorsport Limited

While it does seem ominous form going forward, there is little to say convincingly that Hitech now is the team to beat. It clearly has two very strong drivers in Vips and Lawson, whose FIA F3 seasons with the team perhaps didn’t get the recognition they deserved, and the combination was wildly competitive in Baku.

But the way that this season is playing out likely won’t allow for this to be built on.

“As a group we are never under illusions how difficult it is to win at this level and it is why it’s a huge amount of effort goes into every weekend, from the drivers preparing, the engineers doing their homework, the mechanics building the cars, training for pit stops, getting everything turned over to fly air freight,” Oakes summarised from his perspective.

“I am just very proud of the group when it all comes together… it’s a credit to how everyone is working together across the team pushing to win, with both cars. It’s a long season and we know we are not getting carried away.”

F2 this year is so very competitive. The championship narrative after three rounds is that there simply isn’t one. Five teams realistically look like title contenders with at least one driver, and a few wildcards could well still surprise with late charges. Consistency, rather than a huge speed advantage, remains king in F2 in 2021.

Each round has had different stories and stars, and it is all likely going to have a wholly changed tale when F2 hits its first ‘normal’ circuit of the year at Silverstone. Hitech, like at Mugello last year (before both drivers took each other out), spoiled everybody else’s party at Baku. The next event, however, will likely produce a fourth standout star in as many events.

More 2021 F2 analysis
Opinion: Why F2’s stewards were right to let Deledda race in Monaco
The numbers telling MP Motorsport it needs to keep Verschoor in F2
What Bahrain told us about who’s fastest in F2

The post How Hitech GP stole the Formula 2 show in Baku appeared first on Formula Scout.

Photo: Formula Motorsport Limited

Hitech GP’s Liam Lawson has been excluded from victory in Saturday morning’s Monaco Formula 2 sprint race, handing victory to Carlin’s Dan Ticktum.

Lawson took victory on the road after an audacious move on Prema’s Oscar Piastri early in the race but was later under investigation for a technical irregularity. He was deemed to have used an illegal throttle mapping during the race start.

The result promotes Dan Ticktum to his second F2 victory. It also promotes Piastri into second and Hitech’s Juri Vips to his first podium of the season after a combative performance in the race.

The relevant FIA document read: “The stewards examined the data evidence. They summoned and heard the driver and team representative and the FIA technical delegate. A defined throttle pedal progressivity map programmed in position 1 of the steering wheel throttle map rotary knob must be used during all formation lap starts and race starts until the car speed reaches 50 km/h.

“Car 07 [Lawson] used a different throttle map at the race start. Having considered the matter extensively, the stewards determined that Car 07 was therefore in breach of the technical regulations and is therefore disqualified from the results of race two.”

Lawson and Hitech have a right to appeal the results. As Saturday afternoon’s feature race is determined from qualifying performance, he will start that race from 12th.

After taking victory, Lawson said in the post-race press conference that “I didn’t get off to a great start, I had too much wheelspin” and that “I think I just had too aggressive a clutch map, and just got [the] wheelspin from that”.

Prema’s Robert Shwartzman, who stopped for slick tyres towards the end of the race, is elevated into the top 10 and thus picks up the two points for fastest lap.

That brings him up to eighth in the standings, while Lawson drops to fourth behind Ticktum and Piastri. Virtuosi Racing’s Guanyu Zhou now leads Ticktum by 18 points.

Hitech team principal Oliver Oakes commented on the disqualification.

“It is unfortunately pretty simple really – there is a throttle map you must be in for starts as a rule,” Oakes explained to Formula Scout.

“Drivers pull away in it then use another map for normal driving. So on the formation lap and back to the race start he just didn’t go back to the correct toggle position fully.

“It happens – its an innocent mistake and more frustrating it is actually why he had a poor start off the line and hard to do the hard work to get back in the lead with a mega overtake. With it being a wet race and [Marus] Armstrong not lining up I think it was missed with lots going on.

“We all feel for him as he drove an amazing race, they were some tricky conditions, a stunning overtake and then kept enough life in the tyres to keep Ticktum comfortably at bay. So to have that taken away must hurt.”

The post Lawson exclusion hands Ticktum Monaco F2 victory appeared first on Formula Scout.

Photo: Jakob Ebrey Photography

Hitech GP boss Oliver Oakes has drawn comparisons with his team’s entry into other series after it challenged for the BRDC British Formula 3 title in its debut season.

The Silverstone-based outfit only announced its championship entry in late June, just over a month before the season-opening Oulton Park round, but was immediately fastest with Kush Maini in the first pre-event test of the year.

A first podium came in its second race, with Maini then delivering the modern iteration of Hitech its first British F3 win at Brands Hatch. With a quarter of the season to go Maini led the points, but he lost the title to Carllin’s Kaylen Frederick.

“The series itself was everything I expected, really,” Oakes said to Formula Scout post-season.

“It’s really well run, [series organiser] MotorSport Vision keep the costs under control, and the drivers get a lot of track time. You’ve got open testing, three races and one of those being reversed grid makes it really good.

“From our side as a team it was sort of a bit of deja vu really, because we join it and what’s meant to be [that time] you go in and you’re figuring it out – we hit the ground running.”

Hitech was quick to win in FIA European F3 in 2016, won on its first Asian F3 start in 2018, then claimed victories in its first FIA F3 Championship season in 2019 and when it moved into Formula 2 this year.

“I think what was more surprising for us as well was Reece Ushijima, who was straight from karting, he had a couple of proper podiums, which was quite nice,” added Oakes.

Ushijima made the podium twice in his first year-long single-seater campaign, having debuted in Formula Ford 1600 at Anglesey last November, and then competed in the MRF Challenge over winter.

“And then Kush was fighting with Kaylen for the championship, and to be fair to us and to Kush there were a couple of wet races where as a team we were figuring out the British racing scene, compared to only racing in Europe to date.

“Going into Silverstone [the season finale], we were all quite excited, because Kush and Kaylen were both on the front row for the two [non-reversed grid] races to fight it out. But it just wasn’t really meant to be.

“Not making excuses for Kush, but both races he was on the wet side of the grid so he dropped at the start, and Kaylen did the perfect job really. Credit to him and Carlin. It was a battle, they won it. As always it’s you’re fighting with either Carlin, ART Grand Prix or Prema. It’s deja vu!”

The Hitech moniker was first used by Hitech Racing in 2002 in the now-defunct (joint BARC/BRDC) British F3 series, and it won the 2007 title with Marko Asmer, now Red Bull F1 reserve driver Juri Vips’ manager.

Hitech GP plans to run three drivers in British F3 next year.

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Photo: Hitech GP

Hitech GP team principal Oliver Oakes has explained to Formula Scout what influenced the decision to enter his team into BRDC British Formula 3 this year.

Last week, the British team made the surprise announcement that it would add BRDC British F3 to its roster of programmes, that includes a Formula 2 effort that will debut this weekend alongside its successful FIA F3 Championship operation.

It also centrally runs the regional F3 cars for W Series and the halo-shod hybrid Formula 4 cars for the Motorsport Games F4 Cup, both of which are on hiatus due to the coronavirus pandemic, and has won multiple titles in Asian F3.

“We have looked at starting in BRDC British F3 a few times with drivers approaching us over the last few years, but it didn’t always come together as we had other programmes starting at the same time,” Oakes told Formula Scout.

“With the current travel implications we felt a British based programme ticked a lot of boxes, and particularly with Asian F3 now shifting to be a winter-based championship from December to February.”

• Feature: Why British F3 isn’t headed for a second (or third) oblivion

Hitech dominated the inaugural Asian F3 season in 2018, did the same in the Winter Series and the main championship in 2019, and was a frontrunner in the most recent 2019-20 campaign. The championship uses the same Tatuus car as W Series.

“We also see British F3 as a good fit to feed into our Asian F3 and FIA F3 programmes with younger drivers and personnel. Particularly now as Formula 4 is becoming more an academy, centrally-run level of motorsport, which we believe is the right thing.”

Oakes created the current iteration of Hitech in 2015, and it has expanded its roster of cars in each year of operation. It added three new programmes at once last year, although did lose one as the FIA European F3 championship it first competed in came to an end, and adds two new ventures this year.

“Despite the timing being a bit tight on the calendar and the season commencing in August, thanks to the help of MSV, we were able to get two cars quickly put together.”

The first round of the delayed BRDC British F3 season on August 1/2 at Oulton Park.

“The roster of drivers who have come through the current guise of British F3 is a testament to the way the series gives the opportunity for young drivers to develop and we felt it was therefore something we need to add to our offering. The combination of value, mileage and British-based were key things we felt made it worth doing.”

The original team that used the Hitech name, the David Hayle-led Hitech Racing, was a mainstay of the British F3 championship that ran from 1975 to 2014 and won the 2007 title with Marko Asmer, who now manages Red Bull junior Juri Vips.

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