Photo: Meritus GP

There was plenty of F4 racing in 2024, with career-launching campaigns accompanied by winter warm-ups

Middle East

The go-to winter series for several years now has been Formula 4 United Arab Emirates, which races at Yas Marina Circuit and Dubai Autodrome. Prema’s Mumbai Falcons-branded cars were the ones to beat, and Italian F4 dominator Freddie Slater needed just two wins and four other podiums from 15 races to pip team-mate Kean Nakamura-Berta to the title.

Nakamura won the season opener in Abu Dhabi, which Yas Heat Academy’s Keanu Al Azhari started from pole, and Formula 3-bound Nikita Bedrin won for PHM Racing in the reversed-grid race. Slater won race three, and passed team-mate Alex Powell to make it two in a row in the opening race of round two. Al Azhari won the next two races, but Slater was on the podium in both to hold the points lead.

Bedrin turned pole into victory twice at Dubai, with Powell getting his sole win in the reversed-grid contest, and a double podium put Al Azhari on Slater’s tail in the title fight. A return to Abu Dhabi spiced up the season narrative in round four.

Prema’s Doriane Pin won race one from pole after on-the-road victor Nakamura was penalised for jumping the start, and Al Azhari and Slater collided on lap one. Although he was demoted to fifth, Nakamura still boosted his title chances.

Hitech GP’s Gabriel Stilp came through from sixth on the grid to dominate a wet race two, and all three title contenders failed to score. The weather was unpredictable for race three, and led to a mix of strategies. Al Azhari took the points lead by finishing third, as Prema’s Rashid Al Dhaheri won and neither Slater or Nakamura finished.

Nakamura took a double pole in the final round at Dubai, and after winning a dusty race one ahead of Al Dhaheri there was now a five-way title fight as his two main rivals could only finish fifth and ninth. R-ace GP’s Enzo Deligny won the reversed-grid race, Slater pipped Al Azhari to fourth to become his main rival and Nakamura stayed in contention by scoring two points.

Photo: F4 UAE

Al Dhaheri immediately passed Nakamura for the lead in the title-deciding race three and all but ended his hopes since Slater was sat behind him in third. Focus then switched to Al Azhari, who lost the title to Slater by finishing eighth.

Running concurrently to F4 UAE was the inaugural Saudi Arabian F4 season, where all cars were run by Meritus GP. Federico Al Rifai won twice in the first round at Kuwait Motor Town (in Kuwait), while in round two at the circuit, Saqer Almaosherji, Al Rifai, Andrej Petrovic and Suleiman Zanfari shared the wins. Retrospectively it was made a non-championship event, so Qatar’s Losail circuit instead hosted round two in March and Al Rifai took another double.

Eventually races actually took place in Saudi Arabia, and three rounds were held in Jeddah over the course of 11 days. Petrovic took the points lead by winning twice in the first of the triple-header events, with Al Rifai’s title ambitions hurt by missing a race. However he moved back ahead with his own double in the next round, and when the results of race one in the final round was taken back by a lap [without explanation] it handed Al Rifai another win at the expense of Petrovic.

Although Petrovic won the final race, it was too late as Al Rifai wrapped up the title the day before in a race won by Zanfari.

Over the last month there has been further F4 action in the UAE with the Formula Trophy. Al Dhaheri was the star of round one at Dubai, remained unbeaten in qualifying for round two in Abu Dhabi but for the second time lost a win to a penalty, and then skipped round three. A double podium earned Evans GP’s Kai Daryanani the crown, but Prema’s Sebastian Wheldon stole the headlines with his race one win.

Spain

Formula Winter Series featured a combination of drivers warming up for Italian F4 and Spanish F4, and MP Motorsport’s Griffin Peebles was champion of the four-round tour of Spain. Jerez was more wet and wild than warm-up, and the wins went to Andres Cardenas (Campos Racing), Peebles and Juan Cota (Drivex School).

Photo: Gedlich Racing/Daniel Burgin

Cardenas left with the points lead, but further chaos at Valencia’s Ricardo Tormo circuit put Peebles ahead. Cardenas won a red-flagged race one, Peebles was victorious in a delayed and safety car-filled race two and US Racing’s Matheus Ferreira led home Peebles in race three. James Egozi appeared on the grid with Campos at Motorland Aragon, and was announced as joining the Red Bull Junior Team. He proved worthy of his Formula 1 backing by taking pole and a win, while Al Azhari came over from the UAE to do the same with MP. Rodin Motorsport’s single-seater rookie Thomas Strauven won race two.

Storms at Barcelona limited track action until race two, which Peebles won from pole. He was victorious again in race three to seal the title. MP’s Maciej Gladysz was third in the points, and would be the most competitive of FWinter Series’ full-timers in Spanish F4.

His team-mate Lucas Fluxa won twice in the opening round at Jarama, but actually crashed out of the second race he won, then never had another competitive showing over the season. Al Azhari came to the fore at Algarve in Portugal, then team-mate Mattia Colnaghi was dominant in the first two races at Paul Ricard in France. Gladysz won the third, and took another two at Aragon before Al Azhari returned to the top step of the podium to hold a sizeable points lead.

Cota went unbeaten at Valencia, and while Al Azhari and Gladysz both made the podium they also retired in race one due to colliding and each had another non-score. Colnaghi’s two podiums made him a more likely title contender, and he stepped up to that status by being the form driver thereon.

He won twice at Jerez to become points leader in theory, but Al Azhari also claimed a victory and went into the final round 13 points ahead after winning an appeal against a penalty at Aragon. In race one at Barcelona, Colnaghi soaked up a lot of pressure from his rival for another win, then moved ahead on victory countback by winning race two, before a track limits penalty for Al Azhari cost him a podium and handed Colnaghi a big advantage going into the decider.

Cota cruised to victory, not quite enough to deny Gladysz third in the points. Al Azhari had another off-track moment and this time went penalty-free despite moving ahead of Colnaghi, who became champion in fifth as Al Azhari came home third.

Photo: Jakob Ebrey Photography

Two weeks prior, Valencia specialist Cota had claimed the Motorsport Games F4 gold medal at the track. He was pipped to pole by 0.007s in a damp qualifying session, but then won the qualification and main race.

North America

Starting, or rather ending the F4 action on this continent is NACAM F4 since the first three rounds of its 2024-25 season have already taken place. The Mexico-based series had issues with its switch from first to second-generation F4 chassis, delaying its season start by over four months and making it a multi-year schedule, and Jose Carlos Hernandez leads the way so far.

He won from pole in both races of the F1-supporting first round, team-mate Helio Meza bettered him twice at Autodromo Miguel E. Abed, and Alessandros Racing’s partnership with Campos Racing contributed to former W Series racer Nerea Marti joining their garage in round three this month. Hernandez took two more wins in Mexico City, but Marti pushed hard and took the second F4 win of her career.

United States F4 has also had an uneasy switch to Gen2 machinery, cancelling its first round and averaging just seven cars this season. The Australian drivers, Atlantic Racing Team’s Daniel Quimby and Crosslink/Kiwi Motorsport’s Nicolas Stati, and the latter’s New Zealander team-mate Alex Crosbie, were usually fighting each other for victories and Quimby (who went unbeaten at Mosport in Canada) took the crown by just 4.5 points over Stati.

The older cars continued to run in the Ligier JS F4 Series (previously known as Formula Development), which had bigger grids and far more entertaining action. Scuderia Buell’s Teddy Musella won a third of the races and the title, and Crosslink/Kiwi’s Kekai Hauanio denied him pole twice and took four victories and four second places to be runner-up in the standings.

Fifth in the standings was Brad Majman, another of Crosslink/Kiwi’s Australians, and he went unbeaten at New Jersey Motorsports Park.

Photo: Gavin Baker Photography

The same car is used by Formula Pro USA for its F4 Western championship, which cancelled its one-round winter series and also did not go ahead with its planned ‘Women Racing Series’ classification for female entrants. Majman and World Speed Motorsports’ Valentino Garbarino shared the wins in the first two rounds at Thunderhill Raceway Park. Kiwi’s Drew Szuch was the only other driver in round one, and World Speed’s Alexander Cornfeld their sole rival in round two.

Laguna Seca held the next two rounds, the first of which only featured Cornfeld and Garbarino. They took a win each, then Garbarino went unbeaten on the return visit as the grid grew to five cars. Jensen Global Advisors’ Athan Sterling finished second twice, and did the same at Sonoma Raceway where he finished last to newly crowned champion Garbarino.

Four drivers turned up to the Buttonwillow Raceway finale, and Garbarino led home Sterling twice more. Cornfeld finished third in race one, enough to earn him second place in the standings over the absent Majman.

The Skip Barber Formula Race Series ran using Mygale’s Gen1 car, and the title went to Andretti Global junior Oliver Wheldon. After a stellar karting career in the USA, the single-seater rookie wone nine races out of 14 but only very narrowly became champion since third-year driver Dean Lambros was just as consistent. He won four races and took four poles, and was only off the podium once while Wheldon went trophy-free twice. USF Juniors-bound Ryan Giannetta was the other winner.

Asia

The Honda versus Toyota battle occurs in Japanese F4 each year, and in 2024 it was a Honda one-two as Yuto Nomura was near unbeatable in the season’s second half and fellow junior Ryota Horachi consistently saw the podium to be title runner-up.

Despite the rivalry, it is the Toyota-linked TOM’S that is the spec engine supplier and its units were the big talking point of round one as 10 drivers were ruled out of race two at Fuji Speedway due to engine issues. After Toyota junior Yuki Sano won race one, Helm Motorsports’ Tosei Moriyama got the chance to turn his pole into victory with far more ease due to the absence of many of the drivers who would become the usual frontrunners.

Photo: Japanese F4

Nomura won both races from pole at Suzuka, Horachi and Drago Corse’s Hironobu Shimizu came out on top of a 37-car field on the return to Fuji, with Horachi taking the points lead, then Sano doubled up at a soaking wet Sportsland SUGO but only got points for one of those victories as he won a one-lap race.

The championship belonged to Nomura following that, going unbeaten at Autopolis (where rain caused a race to be cancelled) and Twin Ring Motegi then taking a fifth win in a row in the postponed Suzuka round that ended the season. That secured him the title, and Kageyama Racing’s Kotaro Shimbara rose to third in the standings by winning race two.

Chinese F4 was as entertaining as ever, while also mostly going overlooked outside of China. However it was a teenager from Sweden who beat all the locals to become champion. An F1 support slot at Shanghai attracted 27 cars to the season opener, and Blackjack Racing’s Alex Sawer and Fukang Jiang took the wins.

Venom Motorsport’s Oscar Pedersen won twice at Tianfu International Circuit, then had seven consecutive podium finishes at Ningbo and Shanghai to remain atop the standings while wins went to title rival Kaishun Liu (Black Blade Racing), Jiang, the returning Sawer and cameoing Mercedes-AMG F1 junior Yuanpu Cui.

The title fight went down to the final race at Zhuhai, with Pedersen and Liu each taking a win and a second place in the preceding two races. Black Blade’s Yuhao Fu dominated, his weekend lifting him from 10th to fourth in the points, Liu finished second with a diving penultimate lap pass and Pedersen became champion by finishing not far behind in fourth.

MP ran all cars in Indian F4, and ex-F3 racer Hugh Barter crushed the opposition at Chennai in round one.

The new Chennai Formula Racing Circuit, a temporary venue that had been a long-term ambition for the series and was designed to be raced on at night, hosted round two and Barter dominated from pole again in race one. That was held in the early evening, but race two was a proper night-time contest and Aqil Alibhai was victorious after forcing long-time leader Divy Nandan into a mistake on the last lap.

Photo: Indian F4

Barter did no more races, and on the return to the other Chennai track the points lead went to Alibhai as four different drivers won. Triple-headers at Kari Motor Speedway concluded the season in the final version of the calendar, with Alibhai going unbeaten in the first one then being crowned champion in a wet second visit to the track as Ruhaan Alva concluded a nine-race podium streak with two wins and a comfortable championship runner-up spot since Jaden Pariat was absent.

Australia

Currently in limbo is whether the opening FTrophy round also doubled up as the Australian F4 season finale. Originally ran from 2015 to ’19 by Motorsport Australia, the national championship was revived by new promoter Top Speed this year with second-generation Tatuus cars. The Bend Motorsport Park hosted rounds one and two, Sydney Motorsport Park had round three as the cancelled Queensland Raceway event went unreplaced, then the season was due to conclude with races at Malaysia’s Sepang circuit and at Dubai. The latter was down to Top Speed also promoting FTrophy.

But two weeks before the planned finale, the reveal of the all-Australian 2025 calendar was accompanied by the announcement that the AGI Sport team would take over as promoter and older cars would be reintroduced. Since then, Formula Scout has been unable to get a response from either promoter on the Dubai round’s championship status.

Regardless, the title was already settled by then as AGI’s James Piszyck had won the first nine races on home soil then did the minimum required to wrap it up at Sepang as Tiago Rodrigues, Cooper Webster and Daryanani won.

The older cars (both the Mygales previously used in Australian F4 and Tatuus chassis from abroad) were kept in use through 2024 in the AF04 class of the Formula Libre-style Australian Formula Open series. Car racing rookie Isaac McNeill (Volante Rosso) and Jayden Hamilton (Tim Macrow Racing) each contested five rounds out of seven, and McNeill went unbeaten in class until the final race at Phillip Island where Lachlan Evennett won. Evennett had taken a triple win at The Bend when he was the only entrant, with Hamilton doing the same at Sydney. McNeill took the title with ease thanks to his 13 wins.

Photo: Australian F4

Europe

F4 Central European Zone grew in popularity for its third season, and there was a big on-track rivalry between Jenzer Motorsport and Maffi Racing. Both titles went to the former, as Oscar Wurz became champion with a campaign built on consistency. He only won twice, both victories coming at the Slovakiaring, but 12 other podiums were enough for him to beat Maffi’s Kirill Kutskov who won at Balaton Park, Autodrom Most, Brno and then went unbeaten in the Salzburgring finale.

There were five other race winners, but Jenzer’s title outsider Max Karhan was the only full-timer amongst those. He took three victories on home soil in the Czech Republic, and compatriot Miroslav Mikes won at Most. The JMT Racing driver came fourth in the standings despite withdrawing from the final round, meaning AS Motorsport’s Michalina Sabaj was the only other driver to start all the races. Her best result en route to fifth in the points table was a fourth place.

The F2000 Italian Trophy had an F4 class this year, and Sergio Conti won it eight times.

F1 Academy

Supporting F1 at seven grands prix was the all-female F1 Academy, which was dominated by Rodin’s Abbi Pulling. The Alpine junior, a podium-finisher in Formula Regional when racing in the all-female W Series two years ago, was never off the podium and took nine wins, four second places and a third.

Mercedes junior Pin was best-of-the-rest in her first full year of single-seater racing after previously being a sportscar star, starting the season on top in Jeddah and winning two further times to be way ahead of Prema team-mate Maya Weug.

The battle in qualifying was slightly closer, with Pin taking five poles to Pulling’s 10, and she took four fastest laps in races while Pulling took six despite spending most of her time in clean air at the front.

Photo: Formula Motorsport Ltd

Marti took four podiums to edge MP’s Hamda Al Qubaisi to fourth in the points table, her team-mate Chloe Chambers won race two at Barcelona after Pulling had an airborne moment and Williams F1 junior Lia Block – an established rallying and rallycross driver in the USA who is the daughter of late off-road motorsport star Ken – came eighth in her first full single-seater campaign.

To find out more about the 2024 seasons of Brazilian F4, French F4 and Nordic 4, keep an eye on the Formula Scout website during the off-season!

The post 2024 International Formula 4 season review appeared first on Formula Scout.

Photo: F2000 Italian Trophy

BVM Racing’s Francesco Simonazzi warmed up for his Euroformula campaign with two wins in the Austrian Formula 3 Cup and F2000 Italian Trophy’s joint opening round at Mugello.

Simonazzi topped qualifying by 1.059 seconds, but due to his experience was a guest driver and so second-fastest driver Juju Noda was officially awarded pole ahead of Paolo Brajnik.

The trio were among seven drivers in the Dallara 320 cars used in Euroformula, although Simonazzi is the only one confirmed to race there.

Noda’s father Hideki, who runs the Noda Racing team Juju drives for, has talked with Euroformula organiser GT Sport, indicated interest in racing there and entered pre-season testing, but is undecided on joining. Euroformula remains a consideration “depending on the results” in Italy.

Last year Noda raced a FRegional car in the centrally-run W Series and part-time in the Austrian F3 Cup, and for 2023 will do the seven-round F2000 Italian Trophy season and the Austrian F3 Cup’s Hockenheim round.

Brajnik failed to start race one at Mugello, with his grid spot left empty, so Marco Falci was in third when the cars lined up to race.

Simonazzi made a great start and sprinted away, while Noda bogged down. She dropped to fourth, lost another place at turn one, then was passed by Alessandro Bracalente later around the lap to end it in seventh place.

A gap of 2.269s had already been opened up between Simonazzi and second-placed Benjamin Berta by lap three, while Noda applied pressure to Bracalente but could not find a way past.

She finally gained a place on lap eight when Francesco Galli spun out of third, potentially after some light contact from Falci as they lapped cars from the lower classes, but there were no further gains as the safety car then appeared.

Simonazzi’s huge lead was reduced to nothing and he sat behind the safety car until the end of lap 12 as Edoardo Bonanomi came to a stop on track after Galli’s car had been retrieved.

The safety car returned to the pits after the race clock hit zero, with the ‘plus one lap’ board being shown as drivers reached the start/finish line. In the one lap of green flag action, Simonazzi pulled away again and Noda passed Bracalente for fifth. Falci held on to third by 0.011s ahead of Sandro Zeller.

Noda made a far better start to race two, keeping second place but having no answer to poleman Simonazzi. He was 3.923s ahead after three laps, with the gap then stabilising until lap seven when Noda closed in by 1.988s. The gap decreased by another 1.583s on the lap after as Simonazzi tackled lapped traffic.

Noda was just 0.121s behind when Simonazzi was handed a three-second penalty for track limits abuse, after which he started to pull away and managed to create enough of a lead to negate his penalty and win.

Falci spent many laps being attacked by Bracalente for third until the race’s second half when they came across lapped traffic. Bernardo Pellegrini profited from Bracalente’s struggles in traffic to pass him for fourth, then the latter had a crash with Savatore Marinaro that earned him a 10s penalty and dropped him from fifth to eighth.

Results round-up
Race 1 (13 laps)
1 Francesco Simonazzi BVM Racing 28m10.411s
2 Benjamin Berta Franz Woss Racing +2.677s
3 Marco Falci Nannini Racing +4.183s
4 Sandro Zeller Jo Zeller Racing +4.194s
5 Juju Noda Noda Racing +4.699s
6 Alessandro Bracalente One Sport Performance +5.491s
7 Riccardo Perego Team Perego +14.301s
8 Dino Rasero Puresport +15.147s
9 Andrea Benalli Puresport +16.796s
10 Enzo Stentella Tvs Motorsport +16.953s
Pole: Simonazzi, 1m39.192s
Fastest lap: Simonazzi

Race 2 (16 laps)
1 Simonazzi 27m15.968s
2 Noda +0.443s
3 Falci +20.461s
4 Bernardo Pellegrini Ht Powertrain +28.668s
5 Zeller +33.974s
6 Francesco Galli G Motorsport +34.253s
7 Berta +40.036s
8 Bracalente +40.977s
9 Rasero +51.937s
10 Perego +1m19.148s
FL: Simonazzi, 1m39.254s

The post Simonazzi wins and Noda makes podium at Mugello in Austrian F3 Cup appeared first on Formula Scout.

The Regional Formula 3 concept continued its global expansion this year, as the prevalence of the traditional series decreased. Josh Suttill and Elliot Wood review the 2019 season in F3, from America to Italy

W Series

When pre-season title favourite Jamie Chadwick sealed the first-ever W Series title, you’d be forgiven for thinking the inaugural season stuck to the script. However, the all-female series’ debut wasn’t short of surprise and drama both on and off track.

The Hockenheim season opener went pretty much to plan for Chadwick. She topped every session and only blotted her copybook once with an opening lap mistake at the hairpin which handed the lead to Sarah Moore. She wasted little time in reclaiming the lead, and never looked back.

Round two at Zolder saw a masterclass from former Formula V8 3.5 racer Beitske Visser, who beat polesitter Chadwick on the run down to Turn 1 and took victory by 8.451 seconds.

Chadwick and Visser were once again the class of the field at Misano. Fabienne Wohlwend ended Chadwick’s pole streak, but fell to third on lap one. Visser hounded Chadwick all race, but eventually finished half a second adrift.

The Norisring race belonged to ex-Renault junior Marta Garcia. The 18-year-old dominated all-weekend long, while Visser beat Chadwick to second place to slightly reduce the latter’s points lead.

Emma Kimilainen may well have been among that title fight had she not been sidelined by a nasty collision with Canadian Megan Gilkes in the season opener. She made her return at the Norisring with a solid fifth place. Two weeks later, she upstaged home hero Visser to take a remarkable win from pole at Assen.

Alice Powell proved to be Kimilainen’s closest rival in that race, taking the lead on the opening lap but then being pressured into a mistake at the first turn later on and conceding the position.

Powell would have her moment in the sun in the season finale at Brands Hatch. She started second but overtook the title-chasing Chadwick. Kimilainen followed her through at Paddock Hill Bend to round off her stellar return.

Chadwick then slipped to fourth to a brilliant overtake by Visser, but being off the podium was enough to become champion.

Garcia was unable to use her Norisring victory as a springboard to a late-season title challenge. She rounded off her season with ninth and eighth place finishes. Powell’s title chances evaporated with successive DNFs through no fault of her own at Misano and Norisring. Without her injury, Kimilainen would no doubt have also been in the mix, and all three should be a consistent threat to Chadwick and Visser next year.

Wohlwend showed flashes of brilliance, but her lack of experience at this level was demonstrated on multiple occasions. Still, for someone used to racing a Ferrari 488, she can be very proud with sixth in the points and the third-best qualifying record.

Miki Koyama quickly became a fan favourite with her charge from 17th on the grid to sixth at Hockenheim. This soon became her party trick. She had the 11th-best qualifying record but was seventh in the standings, despite a clumsy and pointless second half to the season.

Moore took eighth in the championship. Unfortunately, Hockenheim proved to be her peak, but she was a consistent top-10 qualifier and finisher. Vicky Piria, who was 10th in Euroformula Open in 2013, ended up ninth, with fifth on home soil at Misano her best finish of the year. Rounding out the top 10 was South African Tasmin Pepper.

The 29-year-old has had a lengthy absence from single-seaters, but starting the season with four points finishes was enough to secure her spot on the 2020 grid. In contrast, Jessica Hawkins had to wait until the penultimate round of the season to score her first points. Fortunately, it was the first of two seventh-place finishes and was enough to seal her 2020 drive. She tied on points with American?Sabre Cook,?whose ninth-place at Brands Hatch guaranteed her championship return.

This left Caitlin Wood and Gosia Rdest out in 13th and 14th. They starred at Assen, finishing in fifth and sixth, and deserve, at the very least, reserve driver roles next year.

Arguably the biggest underperformer of the season was Esmee Hawkey. Though new to single-seaters, she qualified in the top 10 on four occasions, including a stunning third on home soil at Brands Hatch. However, she stalled on the grid at Brands, meaning ninth at the Norisring was her only points finish of the year.

Naomi Schiff also registered just two points. Vivien Keszthelyi got to start four of the six races and did score, but fellow reserve Sarah Bovy failed to score and only made two appearances as a mechanical error stopped her from starting at Zolder.

Shea Holbrook had a miserable year. She had the worst qualifying record and finished no better than 12th, only ahead of Bovy and third reserve Megan Gilkes. The Canadian was benched at the Norisring and unintentionally caused Kimilainen’s sidelining, but did win the non-championship reversed-grid race at Assen in remarkable circumstances.

With at least six new drivers, more races and Formula 1 superlicence points now available, Chadwick will have an even-tougher fight on her hands for the 2020 title.

Asia

After a first season which attracted high-key drivers and a Winter Series that attracted even more high-profile headlines, Asian F3 had a quiet second season which was once again dominated by Hitech.

Ukyo Sasahara, once a star of Formula Renault in Europe, continued his career rebirth by beating Red Bull-backed team-mate Jack Doohan. Between them they won 13 of the 15 races, eight of which were claimed by Sasahara.

It was actually a late call-up that resulted in Sasahara driving Hitech’s #1 car, and both he and Doohan were beaten to the first pole of the season by Absolute Racing’s Daniel Cao. The Asian FR champion was less race-sharp than his opposition though and Sasahara took two wins on the trot before Doohan responded with one of his own.

Doohan was the presumed championship leader given Sasahara, who was focusing on a Porsche Carrera Cup Japan title campaign, was down for no further rounds. He did turn up for the next round at Thailand’s Buriram track though and took another two wins.

Hitech expanded to encompass Jackson Walls at Suzuka, where Doohan surprisingly looked more of a match for Sasahara. Doohan would have taken a triple win were it not for a mechanical failure, but he still closed the points gap after Sasahara followed his inherited race two win with ninth place in race three after being penalised for spinning poleman Petr Ptacek.

Sasahara was back on top of his game in the first visit to Shanghai, winning all three races. Doohan skipped on his Euroformula Open commitments to compete but had his weakest weekend yet. The season finale was also at Shanghai, and local driver Cao showed the progress he’d made across the season by making two stunning starts and wins, while third and fourth was enough for Sasahara to wrap up the title early.

Usually behind Sasahara, Doohan and Cao was BlackArts Racing’s Brendon Leitch, who took five podiums. Cao’s team-mate Eshan Pieris was a lonely fifth in the standings, ahead of part-timers Walls and Jordan Dempsey (Pinnacle Motorsport).

Americas

Global Racing Group’s Dakota Dickerson’s sought to replicate his United States F4 champion predecessor Kyle Kirkwood by following up with F3 Americas success, and while he succeeded in doing so, it was in a far less dominant way.

Benjamin Pedersen finished on the podium in all but one of the races in his part-time campaign last year, and he returned in 2019 aiming for the title. Deciding to race in BRDC British F3 meant he once again entered less than two-thirds of the American season, but still won seven races to team-mate Dickerson’s five and left the season opener as the points leader.

The absence of the Dane afterwards didn’t actually lend itself to Dickerson, as Abel Motorsports’ Jacob Abel made the most of tricky conditions at Road Atlanta to take his first two wins and the points lead. Dickerson finally took control at Pittsburgh with a triple win, as 2018 runner-up Baltazar Leguizamon ended his season early after five second places in eight races.

Pederson returned with rigour at Virginia and won six of the eight remaining races, as Abel also chose to skip rounds. This meant Dickerson wrapped up the title a round early at Road America, despite not winning a race since Pittsburgh.

Pedersen, with his higher scoring average, was a comfortable second in the standings, way ahead of one-time winner Mathias Soler-Obel (Velocity Racing Developments), Abel and James Roe Jr (GRG).

Australia

It took 10 years for John Magro to win the Australian F3 title, and he did it in style by going undefeated for R-Tek Motorsport.

He won all 18 races of the six-round season in his HWA-powered Dallara F311, the newest car on the grid. He kicked off the season with, beyond the obvious three wins, a new lap record at Winton and the end of a long losing streak. After making a poor start from pole in race one and having to fight back to take the lead, Magro took his first win since 2017.

At Morgan Park Raceway he had an easier time, then took another lap record on the championship’s visit to The Bend Motorsport Park. Magro equalled the consecutive win record at Sydney Motorsport Park, then sailed to success at Wakefield Park and Queensland Raceway.

Josh Buchan, winner of the Mount Panorama Formula Ford 50th Anniversary event at the start of the year, took one pole for Gilmour Racing and was second in the standings.

The rest

Former F3 Euro Series driver Sandro Zeller took his fourth Austrian F3 Cup title for his father’s team Jo Zeller Racing.

The 27-year-old dominated much of the season, only being beaten three times in the first 12 races. His grip on qualifying was weaker, especially when the F2000 Italian Trophy series shared the grid, and Regional F3 racers Alessio Deledda and Tom Beckhauser were two of the career-minded drivers who beat Zeller to pole or victory.

The Hungaroring season finale held on the same weekend as the Euroformula season closer acted as a ‘passing of the baton’ for the biggest championship using the Dallara F312/F317 car. Andrea Cola – runner-up to Zeller in the Austrian standings – claimed the Italian title, while Beckhauser succeeded Cola as the FIA Central European Zone champion.

Some in the?MSVR F3 Cup this year got distracted by the prospect of competing in Euroformula, leaving Chris Dittmann Racing’s Cian Carey to take a second successive title.

CF Racing’s Stefano Leaney won four of the first six races as an invitational entry in his Dallara F317, before switching to an older car to be eligible for points. He continued his winning streak after making the switch, with his time on the top step finally being ended at Silverstone by team-mate George Line and Carey.

Leaney returned to victory at the poorly contested Brands Hatch Grand Prix round in August, where Team Fox Racing’s Darragh Daly also won. Three more wins for Leaney in the remaining six races only put him fifth in the standings, with Carey taking a comfortable title win over University of Wolverhampton driver Shane Kelly.

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Two new FIA-backed continental Formula 3 championships appeared on the scene in 2018, joining the list of series across the globe at that level, from Australia to Italy.

Asia

As soon as leading European F3 team Hitech GP put its name down on the entry list, it was pretty clear that one of its drivers would be winning the inaugural FIA Asian F3 title. Its pick of drivers included GP3 winners Raoul Hyman and Jake Hughes, and Macanese teenager Charles Leong. With Hughes simultaneously competing in GP3 though, it meant the team would need a replacement for two rounds.

Ben Hingeley took that spot for the second round of the season, with Euroformula Open champion Harrison Scott taking his place in the season finale. When Hughes was on track, he was literally unbeatable, taking an uninterrupted run of wins and poles, and only being beaten to one fastest lap by Super License’s Tomoki Takahashi.

This meant the season became a story of how the main title contenders did in Hughes’s absence, but their form when he was present meant only one went into the Sepang title decider in a position to beat his points tally.

The driver in question was Hyman, who missed the podium on three occasions, but only managed one win while Hughes was gone. This occurred at the first Ningbo round, where Hingeley won on his debut but then retired from race two with gearbox issues. Mechanical problems for Takahashi also made Hyman’s life a little easier in that race, where his main rival was Absolute Racing’s Jaden Conwright.

Photo: F3 Asian

Conwright was the breakout star of the season, taking two poles and then a win in the third of the Ningbo races. The 19-year-old spent last year working with Carlin, and prior to that had finished 30th in Italian Formula 4. He was almost always the top non-Hitech driver, and went into the final round in a position where he would’ve lost the title only on wins countback.

In the final round of the season both he and Hyman were off the pace though, finishing fifth and sixth in the first race. In the second race an aggressive pass on Louis Prette got Hyman third, but a lap one incident left Conwright 14th. They, and highly rated F3 driver Scott, were utterly outclassed by Pinnacle Motorsport (in partnership with B-MAX Racing) driver Liam Lawson and Absolute’s Yifei Ye. Both were new to F3, the Sepang circuit and racing in Asia, but were the pair to beat.

ADAC F4 runner-up Lawson won all three races, by a combined 35.582 seconds, while Formula Renault Eurocup star Ye managed third, second and eighth. Fifth place for Hyman was just enough to secure him the title, with Conwright consolidating third in the standings with with a podium, albeit 52 points behind Hughes.

Americas

With a total of seven drivers making an appearance throughout the season, there was not much to cheer about in F3 Americas bar the performances of runaway champion Kyle Kirkwood.

The 20-year-old, also the champion in USF2000 this year, won 15 of the 17 races and stood on the top step twice on the undercard at the United States Grand Prix, an experience he described as “surreal”. Kirkwood drove for Abel Motorsports, a team set up in 2016 for team founder Bill Abel’s son Jacob to compete in US F4.

The team’s F3 move worked wonders for Kirkwood, and also gave Abel Jr a chance to shine, taking four podiums in his 11 starts. Admittedly three of those came in a grid consisting of four cars, and the other in a season-best six.

Global Racing Group duo Baltzar Leguizamon and Benjamin Pedersen were the only two drivers that could hold a light to Kirkwood, and Leguizamon was a two-time winner. The first win came thanks to a Kirkwood grid penalty at New Jersey, and the second after Kirkwood pitted from the lead at NOLA.

Pedersen attempted to challenge at Road Atlanta, but for every time he tried staying with Kirkwood, the leader took his pace to an extra level. Doubling up in US F4 helped Pedersen in the season ending Circuit of the Americas round, and the long back straight meant the Dane was able to go wheel-to-wheel with Kirkwood several times. He finished the final race of the season just a quarter of a second behind, and ultimately that was the closest anyone truly got to the champion without him suffering misfortune.

Australia

Bathurst 12 Hours class winner Harri Jones marked his first season in F3 with a title for Jones Racing. The Australian made his F3 debut in the final round last year, winning a race, and built up experience in the MRF Challenge over the winter.

Challenging Jones the whole year was Cameron Shields, a former National class champion and a Formula 4 frontrunner. Shields narrowly beat Jones to pole and the first won of the year at Winton, he looked to repeat the feat in race two before slipping on oil, but a win in the third race meant he left with the championship lead.

Shields took pole again at Queensland, but was jumped by Jones at the start of the first race, which decided the winner. A startline incident involving Shields’ Gilmour Racing team-mate Chris Gilmour and Jones granted Shields victory, and in the final race a near-miss lapping traffic didn’t stop Jones from pushing Shields right to the chequered flag.

Photo: Australian F3

Jones took his first pole at Morgan Park, and he took an easy win after Shields stalled. He fought back to third behind National class driver Richard Peasey, setting the lap record on the way. Shields was the victim of traffic next time round, handing Jones victory in the damp. Wetter conditions in the final race played back into Shields favour.

At Sydney Motorsport Park, Jones took pole again, and moved into the championship lead with a triple victory. It wasn’t easy though, with an extra threat coming from R-Tek Motorsport’s John Magro, a two-time runner-up in the championship.

Wakefield Park’s qualifying session was the closest of the season, with just a tenth separating Jones and Shields. The races were completely different, with Jones dominating. His points lead heading to The Bend, a new addition to the calendar, was only marginal though.

Shields made history by taking pole there, but couldn’t hold on in the first race after being bettered by Jones at the start. He set the circuit’s outright lap record, but couldn’t match Jones’s start again in race two, leaving him 10 points down for the finale. A seventh win of the season wasn’t enough to steal the title, and Jones became the 20th Australian F3 champion. Roman Krumis, aged 62, took his second consecutive National class title.

The rest

Sandro Zeller took his fourth consecutive Remus F3 Cup title for his father Jo’s team,? and also took his third Swiss F3 title as the top driver from the country. The seven round Remus calendar was dominated by Zeller, and he was only beaten once over 14 races. That honour went to Monolite Racing driver Andrea Cola, who took four other podiums on the way to second in the standings. In similar style to the Swiss championship, Italian driver Cola also won the?FIA Central European Zone F3 title as the top CEZ registered driver.

Photo: Remus F3 Cup

Sharing grids with Remus on four occasions was the Italian F2000 Trophy, which was won by Alessandro Bracalente, who also contested the Euroformula Open season finale and finished 12th twice. His Dallara F312 was ran by Pave Motorsport.

BOSS Ireland champion Cian Carey carried over the momentum from his race-winning 2017?MSV F3 Cup?campaign with Chris Dittmann Racing into this year, and was rewarded with a BRDC British F3 cameo. The 24-year-old Irishman won seven out of 16 races, but two retirements at the Donington Park opener meant it was University of Wolverhampton Racing’s Shane Kelly, runner-up for two years running, who initially led the standings.

It took a while for Carey to make it to the top, by which point CF Racing’s Stuart Wiltshire had marked himself out as his greatest threat. Towards the end of the season Carey made his British F3 debut with CDR, finishing in the top 10, and was supporting the British F3 races at Silverstone for both championships’ title deciders when torrential rain stopped the meeting. The extra points for pole meant Carey was crowned by 29 over Wiltshire, with Kelly a further three behind.

After winning the first race of the season, reigning champion Jacopo Sebastianini intermittently appeared, while British F3 and F3 Cup team boss Chris Dittmann replaced one of hiss ill drivers at Rockingham to win two of the three races.

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