Photo: Formula Motorsport Ltd

Some champions win lots of races, others consistently finish in lower positions and that is what enables them to outscore rivals over the length of a campaign. Are there impressive examples of the latter?

Many think this year’s Formula 2 champion Theo Pourchaire deserves a place on the 2024 Formula 1 grid, while others believe the way in which he won the title in his third season means he didn’t show enough to merit a step up.

In the end, Pourchaire has earned his place at the top level of single-seaters, in Super Formula with Team Impul, but the fact that he became F2 champion after winning just one race in 2023 cannot be ignored.

Winning a title in open-wheel racing’s second tier, which currently consists of F2 and Indy Nxt, is historically the most effective way to earn a seat in the top tier. A scholarship system for Indy Nxt’s champions has ensured most have been in IndyCar the year after, while the F2 title contenders tend to be F1 juniors so their readiness for a seat is already known by the team that supports them. Therefore if they get overlooked, like in Pourchaire’s case with Sauber, it can make others in the paddock think they’re not ready for F1 either.

Alpine even overlooked its junior Oscar Piastri after he won six races and the title as an F2 rookie in 2021, but McLaren poached him to prove Alpine wrong. Piastri couldn’t have done much more in F2 to show he was F1-ready, whereas it could be argued that had Pourchaire won more races he would have not only been champion by some margin but also be F1-bound.

In fact, Pourchaire had the second lowest winning rate for a champion in the entire history of second-tier single-seaters.

Formula Scout has omitted the Soviet F2 series of the 1970s and Formula Libre-spec championships (such as fellow Eastern Bloc competition Formula Easter), and Australian F2 was sometimes comparable to its European counterpart but ran for many years using the category name even when its cars were more comparable to ones from single-seaters’ third tier.

A FEaster car being driven at Goodwood

It did have multiple champions though who only won one race, primarily because of short seasons. Richard Davison turned up halfway through the four-round 1980 season, won at Calder Park, finished second at Sandown Park and that was enough to win the title. Graeme Crawford was also the champion of a four-race campaign, and contested all four rounds, in 1976.

A much more recent example of a second-tier series only featuring four races is GP2 Asia in 2011, which marked the debut of the Dallara GP2/11 car. There was supposed to be three rounds of two races each, but two of them in Bahrain got cancelled due to anti-government protests and there was only time for one replacement event: at Imola in Italy.

Romain Grosjean took pole and finished second in the feature race of round one at Yas Marina Circuit, then won from pole in the Imola feature race. He failed to score in the other two races but was still champion by five points. He went on to win the main GP2 series that year too in far more dominant fashion with five race victories, earning himself a Lotus F1 seat.

A series that has stuck to using second-tier single-seaters through its 50-year history, but doesn’t attract rising stars anymore, is Atlantics. Drivers used to choose between competing in that or Indy Nxt as their final step before IndyCar (or Champ Car prior to the two merging in 2008), and Bill Brack won the first two seasons in 1974 and ’75. He claimed his second title by winning just one of the six races, while entry lists had depleted so much by last year that Keith Grant became champion by contesting six of the season’s 10 races and winning one. No Formula Atlantic cars even entered the final round.

In 1982 there were eight different winners in the first eight races, and most of them went into the ninth and final race at Mosport in title contention. Whitney Ganz claimed his second win of the season there, but the 38-year-old Dave McMillan – who had mised a race – was crowned champion.

Although SF is now a top-tier series, before 1996 the pinnacle of Japan’s single-seater scene was for second-tier machinery. From 1978 to 1986 it ran for F2 cars, then switched to Formula 3000 for the next nine seasons.

Ogawa during his title defence

Satoru Nakajima won five Japanese F2 titles before finally getting the chance to race in F1 in 1987, and his final domestic crown in ’86 was actually his least convincing. He claimed pole for five of the eight races, but only converted one into victory. Similarly, Hitoshi Ogawa took pole for the last three races of the 1989 Japanese F3000 season, had a bad conversion rate with only one win but still claimed the championship crown.

Those are the many honourable mentions, and here are the 10 champions in second-tier single-seater racing with the worst winning rate (based on only winning one race) in their title-winning seasons:

10. Tom Gloy 1979 Atlantics 1 win out of 10 (10%)

This campaign was impressive enough for Gloy to be signed by Team Penske for his rookie CART season in 1980, even though it featured only one win.

Having a brand new Ralt RT1 chassis helped, while some rivals had the same model but their chassis had already been raced for a year or more, and that helped make the difference when reliability came into play.

Two of his rivals – Kevin Cogan and Howdy Holmes – managed to win three races each yet they ended up trailing Gloy in the standings by 45 and 72 points respectively. It was a big margin given Gloy scored 208 points, but the campaign’s five race-winners were the only drivers to score more than 60.

The season began with a Long Beach Grand Prix support race, and Gloy was 0.94 seconds off poleman Cogan’s qualifying pace. But he overcame him in the 51-lap race to win by five seconds. That would be the high point of Gloy’s year in results.

Thereon he relied on consistency to maintain a points lead, finishing second, third and second in the next three races (only missing out on victory by 0.26s in Quebec City) then following it up with his only finish outside of the top four: a seventh place.

At Road America he finally got close to taking a pole and was second in the 25-lap race, albeit 17s behind the winner, then he finished fourth from 15th on the grid at Mosport and was second, second and fourth in the remaining races.

9. Mauro Martini 1992 Japanese F3000 1 win out of 11 (9.09%)

Photo: Martini [9] chasing Irvine and Apicella

So many attempted overtakes that season ended in offs or collisions, and some drivers clocked up as many retirements as they did finishes. That helped Martini take the title, and it’s rather telling that his closest rival was a driver who had four retirements and one points-free finish from the first five races then took two wins and two second places in the next six.

Martini took until round seven of 11 at Fuji Speedway to qualify on the front row, having failed to even start the previous race, and he maximised his position at the front to win while poleman Ross Cheever finished 17th.

A few weeks later Martini could only qualify ninth and finish 10th at the same track, but two podiums in the next two rounds gave him a four-point championship lead with one race to go. He retired from the finale, but only one driver who heading into the race was in the top seven in the standings scored, which sums up the season perfectly.

=7. Simon Pagenaud 2006 Atlantics 1 win out of 12 (8.33%)

Photo: Team Australia

Pagenaud reached single-seaters’ second tier in 2005, coming 16th in Formula Renault 3.5 and failing to make the podium. That meant expectations were not high when the 2004 FR2.0 Eurocup champion moved his career across to the USA for 2006 and joined Team Australia in Atlantics.

Fourth place on his debut suggested he had made the right move, and he finished second in the next two races. At Portland he was already a lap down by lap two and retired from 23rd place a few laps from the end, but he bounced back at the Cleveland double-header with another second place and then his first pole position.

Two weeks later he finished fourth on the streets of Toronto, but with his two title rivals retiring he moved into the points lead. He stayed at the top of the standings for the rest of the campaign, and immediately extended his lead after Toronto in the second Canadian round in Edmonton as he qualified second – 0.013s off pole – and then claimed his first and only win.

In San Jose he finished ninth after getting a one-place penalty for blocking yet extended his points lead, and although he finished third and second in the next two races his main title rival Graham Rahal won both and cut the gap to 12 points.

The season finale took place at Road America, and was a disaster for both title contenders. Rahal was out after five laps, and Pagenaud retired a lap later after contact. It was that moment he was crowned champion, and earned a $2 million scholarship to spend on stepping up to Champ Car. His career in American single-seater racing looks like it has now come to an end.

=7. Robbie Buhl 1992 Indy Nxt 1 win out of 12 (8.33%)

Photo: Richard Spiegelman

The really interesting thing about Buhl’s season was not his low winning rate, but the sports science investigation he and his Leading Edge Motorsport team was part of that tracked how his body reacted to the highs and lows of the title fight.

There wasn’t really any lows though, because Buhl was insanely consistent. He was on the podium in every race until the season finale, taking four second places and six second places to accompany his only win at Nazareth Speedway.

It was Buhl’s third season in Indy Nxt, all with the same team, and he finished second five times in his rookie campaign then claimed one win and three other podiums as a series sophomore but dropped from fourth to sixth in the standings. Only two of the drivers ahead of him in the 1991 season remained in Indy Nxt for 1992 though, so he became one to watch.

He first topped the points after round four, having finished third twice then second twice, and returned to the top in Toronto (round seven) with his next second place finish. With two rounds to go, and before he had won a race, he already had a points lead big enough to be able to skip a race and still be ahead. Therefore, his victory in the penultimate round at Nazareth also delivered him the title.

Had there still been something to fight for at the Laguna Seca finale, he probably would have qualified higher than seventh and finished higher than fourth.

Buhl was not quite as consistent in qualifying as he was in races, and in a field that varied in size from 11 to 20 cars he never qualified lower than seventh and had an average starting position of 3.25 thanks to three poles.

=5. Kevin Ceccon 2011 Auto GP 1 win out of 14 (7.14%)

Photo: Auto GP

A teenaged Ceccon burst onto the scene by winning the Auto GP title by three points as a rookie, a success which led directly to GP2 appearances and an F1 test call-up with Toro Rosso in the same year.

But he lacked the budget to build momentum, instead stepping down to GP3 for 2012. He returned to GP2 in 2013 for six rounds, then was back in GP3 for two more years. After trying out sportscars, he found a home in touring car racing in 2018.

Anyway, back to Auto GP. It began in 1999 as Italian F3000, became a European contest in 2001, returned to being Italian F3000 in 2005, then was Euroseries F3000 again before adopting the Auto GP name and old A1GP cars in 2010. A few tweaks to the chassis, while maintaining the huge 550bhp engines, turned them into junior single-seater cars.

Ceccon had spent his first two years in cars racing in Euroformula (then known as European F3 Open), winning one race and coming fourth in the 2010 standings. When he stepped up to Auto GP his opposition included established GP2 stars.

It’s no surprise that the young and skinny Italian didn’t set the pace against experienced and older opposition, but he displayed great maturity and consistency and the series-organising Coloni family handed him several outings with their GP2 team. He became Auto GP champion thanks to 100% attendance, as his four closest title rivals missed races before the eight-way title showdown at Mugello. It was still a four-driver fight in the final race, but none of them made the podium and Ceccon became champion in seventh.

He took five podiums, with his sole win coming in his third start at the Hungaroring, and made the front row once with an average qualifying position of 4.14 and average deficit to pole of 0.425s.

=5. Wade Cunningham 2005 Indy Nxt 1 win out of 14 (7.14%)

Photo: IndyCar

Cunningham did make it to single-seaters’ top level, but over five-and-a-half years after winning the 2005 Indy Nxt title.

He got the job done as a rookie, but contested the next five seasons since the rules at the time did not forbid champions from remaining in the series.

The New Zealander was another example of consistency rules, since he only once finished outside of the top five in his title-winning campaign. Winning the season-ending California 100 oval race was what clinched him the title, and before that he had already come home second seven times – including a run of four runner-up results in a row – and picked up two third places.

He set the fastest lap on his race debut, and the fact his maiden pole (and front-row start) didn’t come until the penultimate round showed that his strength lied in the races. Cunningham qualified seventh and ninth for his first two races, but converted that into fourth and third places, From an average starting position of 4.64 he had an average race position of 3.14.

In his title defence he improved to three wins and four poles, but missing the St. Petersburg races due to having his appendix removed at the start of the race weekend left him 11 points off being a double champion. There was one win and two poles as he came third in the standings again in 2007, in 2009 he became the only multiple-time winner of the Indianapolis 500-supporting Freedom 100 and then he won it again in 2010. He made five IndyCar starts in 2011 and ’12.

=3. David Empringham 1993 Atlantics 1 win out of 15 (6.67%)

Photo: Marshall Pruett

This was an all-out battle of the Canadians. In one corner was Canaska Racing’s Empringham, and in the other was Forsythe-Green Racing duo Claude Bourbonnais and Jacques Villeneuve.

All three had series experience. Empringham had picked up two wins and three second places from a part-time campaign in 1992, Bourbonnais had a best finish of fourth and a pole from six races, and Villeneuve had made the podium in a cameo.

The trio were overshadowed in round one, but then became the drivers to beat through the rest of 1993. Villeneuve took pole but Bourbounnais won in Long Beach, then converted first on the grid into first at the finish at Road America. Bourbounnais won again at the Milwaukee Mile, then Villeneuve won in Montreal before Bourbounnais struck back at Mosport.

All the while Empringham was racking up podiums, with one second place accompanied by four thirds and the points lead. He also got pole in Halifax, but Trevor Seibert beat him to being the third Canadian of 1993 to win as Bourbounnais non-started.

Bourbounnais won the next two, taking the points lead at New Hampshire Motor Speedway where Empringham didn’t start. He won Grand Prix de Trois-Rivieres (which he did again in 1994 and ’95) to move back ahead, but his form then dipped with two podiums in the last five races. Bourbounnais led again with two races to go, but lost the title when his engine failed 13 laps into the season finale. Empringham finished fourth to take the crown by four points, with Villeneuve a further six behind.

=3. Nicolas Prost 2008 Euroseries 30000 1 win out of 15 (6.67%)

Photo: Euroseries 3000

Prost had to wait almost six years between winning the Auto GP title and debuting in single-seaters’ top tier, and what an impact he made in the inaugural Formula E event as he claimed pole and infamously lost the win at the very last corner.

He started his car racing career with a year in FR2.0, then two in Spanish F3 where he came third in 2007 with two wins. Euroseries 3000 beckoned after that for the son of four-time F1 world champion Alain, and he only had three full-time rivals to contend with. None of whom were expected to set the grid alight with their talents.

Yet Prost only won the title by two points, and five drivers had more race victories than him. He wasn’t even a model of consistency, with his haul of six podiums being matched by his two closest title rivals – one of whom missed two rounds. The season finale at Umbria had four title contenders, and points leader Prost qualified fourth, retired on the opening lap of race one then finished a points-free seventh – 45s behind the winner – in race two to make himself champion.

Prost did the start the season with pole, by just 0.014s, and turned that into a third place finish in his debut. It was a result he would not beat until his maiden win in round six at Jerez – where he also took pole – and catapulted him into a 10-point championship lead. In the remaining five races, which eight drivers saw out, he was outscored by five drivers and one scored almost three times as many points as him in that time despite a second-place finish at Barcelona.

2. Theo Pourchaire 2023 F2 1 win out of 26 (3.85%)

Photo: Sauber Group

The modern trend of expanded calendars in F1 and F2 is why Pourchaire’s title success looks so underwhelming. He had 26 chances to win, and only converted once. His main title rival Frederik Vesti won six times, and rookie Ollie Bearman four times.

Pourchaire got his victory out of the way early, winning the first feature race of the season at Bahrain from pole, then had three points-free races before finishing second in the Melbourne feature race. He followed that up with another non-score, dropping one place to third in the standings, but third in the next race put him back in the points lead.

The championship lead was lost in Monaco despite claiming a fourth feature race podium out of five, and he didn’t top the table again until 20 races into the campaign. Two weekends in which he made the podium in both races led up to that point.

After the summer break, there were three more rounds and a lead of 12 points to protect. The Zandvoort sprint race was so short it didn’t award points, then none of the top four in the standings scored in the feature race – three of them retired early on.

Pourchaire grew his gap with a fourth and a third at Monza, and pole position showed his title-winning pace. At Yas Marina Circuit he put tiredness and a water leak down to his worst qualifying result of the year – 14th place – but rising to seventh and fifth in the two races was enough to be crowned and become the 23rd driver in GP2/F2 history to score 200 points in a season but the first in the 57-year history of F1’s primary feeder series to become champion with just one race win.

1. Oriol Servia 1999 Indy Nxt 0 wins out of 12 (0.00%)

Photo: Oriol Servia

It was crazy enough that Servia won the 1999 Indy Nxt title without ever standing on the top step of the podium, but the fact his title rival and Dorricott Racing team-mate Casey Mears didn’t either makes this a huge statistical anomaly.

There were two drivers who took two wins each, but ended up third and seventh in the standings, while Servia’s title charge was built on five second places and Mears split his four podium results into two seconds and two thirds. Two drivers outside of the top 10 in the standings won races, and for both their victory contributed to around a third of their total points.

Servia came seventh in the 1998 season as a rookie, getting two podiums, and of the drivers ahead of him in the standings all but the champion returned for 1999. Mears meanwhile had two seasons of experience and in ’98 was 17th in the points.

The year began with Mario Dominguez laying down his title credentials with victory at Homestead-Miami, with Mears and Servia a very distant fifth and sixth. Domingues came nowhere near close to replicating that result thereon, but still led the points after round two in Long Beach which Philipp Peter won. The Dorricott drivers finally looked competitive at Nazareth, with Servia taking pole and finishing second, just ahead of Mears. But an 18-year-old Scott Dixon now led the points.

Mears made the podium at Milwaukee to move to the head of the championship, then Servia went on a run of second places at Portland, Cleveland and Toronto to build a big points lead over his team-mate. Servia’s next second place in Detroit put him 20 points clear (equivalent to a win) of Mears and Peter, while 1998 title runner-up Didier Andre was 12th in the standings.

Servia finished fourth, seventh and 14th in the last three races, with Mears doing slightly better with a third, a fifth and a 13th, and that comfortably secured them the top two places in the championship. Peter petered out after his third win, while Jonny Kane, Dixon and Andre suddenly became the form drivers. Kane won the finale (by just 0.049s over the Stig) from pole and rose from ninth to fourth in the standings, Dixon took a win and a second to climb from eighth to fifth, and Andre almost doubled his points tally with first and third in the final two races to lift himself from 12th to eighth in the points table.

The post The second-tier champions Pourchaire emulated with a one-win season appeared first on Formula Scout.

Photo: Sacha Tisserand / Panda Studio

Alain Prost and his son Nico have now won single-seater titles as drivers in five different decades. The family’s latest success wasn’t in F1 or FE, but in one of the few remaining Renault-powered junior series

If Formula E’s sixth most successful driver ever, who is also a Le Mans 24 Hours class winner and champion of Auto GP and the Andros Trophy’s former electric class, announced he would make a full-time return to single-seater racing and in a junior series no less, you would expect quite a bit of fuss.

But Nico Prost’s surprise comeback to open-wheelers in the Ultimate Cup Series Single-Seater Challenge didn’t make headlines outside of France, and was actually only brought into the spotlight once young Dutch karter Laurens van Hoepen (who is supported by reigning FE champion Nyck de Vries) started doing Formula Regional European Championship testing and it was noted that he had raced in UCS already and against none other than Prost.

Prost’s comeback began at the end of last April, as the UCS season kicked off at Paul Ricard. He was driving a Renault-powered Tatuus T-318, just like the ones used in FREC, and there was also a class for old Formula Renault 2.0 cars.

“Just so happy to be back in a single-seater, loving every second,” Prost said after free practice, in a car that was delivered to his CMR (Classic & Modern Racing) team just a few days prior. “Solid first day topping every session. Focus, keep pushing.”

Prost was fastest by 1.868 seconds, and that pace advantage continued into qualifying and first race. He took pole for race one by 2.394s, and on second-fastest laps claimed race two pole by 3.239s.

The first one was converted into a 10.272s win in the wet on his first race in a single-seater since 2018, with conditions then getting so treacherous with fog and rain that race two had to be put back by a day.

Again he won, by a massive 35.340s in race two and 20.440s in race three ahead of Graff Racing’s gentleman driver and sportscar regular Eric Trouillet. For Prost it was a big pleasure to be back in a formula car.

There was proper opposition in round two at Dijon, as French Formula 4 race-winner and two-time Alpine Europa Cup champion Jean-Baptiste Mela joined the grid with the same Autosport GP team that runs his Alpine car.

Mela was within half a second of Prost in qualifying, and finished only 1.757s behind in race one. The next day he was able to end Prost’s run of success, passing him on lap one of race two and then holding him off to win while in race three Prost passed him for the lead on lap two but a last-lap engine misfire allowed Mela to slip back past.

UCS returned to Paul Ricard for race three, with rounds abroad cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and Mela pipped Prost to pole by 0.095s. On second-best laps for race two, he was ahead by the tiniest margin: 0.001s.

In third for Graff was Dylan Young, who spent eight years in the MRF Challenge series before finally winning there in 2019.

Mela held off Prost to win race one at Paul Ricard, with Prost admitting his pace was “not fantastic” as later in the day he was then beaten again by 5.547s. Mela did the triple in race three on Sunday, and Young beat Prost to second place.

After some testing through summer to get more used to the car, Prost went into round four at Le Mans in September knowing he had a big job on his hands. Mela and Young were on the grid again, but it also marked the debut of van Hoepen with Graff and he had other commitments during the weekend.

Van Hoepen has risen up the karting ranks over the last few years, being a European champion on Mini karts in 2017, then spending a year-and-a-half in junior and then senior karting. He came eighth in the CIK-FIA World Karting Championship for OK-Junior karts in 2019, and matched that position in the equivalent European championship for OK karts in 2020.

Last year he progressed into shifter karting and came seventh in the WSK Open Cup for KZ2 karts, and also made a big impression in his UCS appearances.

Photo: Davy Delien / Pro-photos-sport.com

He took pole on debut by a quarter of a second, then fought with Mela through race one. Mela managed to win, but van Hoepen did attempt a last-lap move to reclaim his lead as he finished second while Prost shadowed them in third.

Prost denied van Hoepen in race two, the latter doing an impressive job to finish second after spinning in a collision at the Dunlop chicane with Mela, and then took to his other commitments. Post-race he got on a private jet and flew to Ledenon to share an Alpine A110 with Rudy Servol in French GT4. The CMR pair won the Pro-Am class and finished second overall in race one, but didn’t meet the chequered flag in race two. It was still two wins at two circuits in one day.

In Prost’s absence at Le Mans, van Hoepen earned his first win in race three ahead of Young and Theo Vaucher.

While there was no Mela at Magny-Cours, Prost had a new team-mate in Carmen Jorda. The Spaniard is best known for her three seasons in GP3 in which she scored no points and a 50-race stint in Euroformula that peaked with two ninth places. She has been linked to a return to that series with a team that currently competes far further down the single-seater ladder.

Jorda was a 8.704s off the pace in qualifying, behind four FR2.0 runners, while van Hoepen beat Prost to pole by 0.014s in a red flag-interrupted session. Van Hoepen headed him in the first two races too, while Jorda’s tricky racing return continued, then Prost just beat van Hoepen in race three to earn his long-awaited first Magny-Cours win 16 years after first racing there.

The season finale was the one round abroad not called off, and ran at former Portuguese Grand Prix venue Estoril. It started well for van Hoepen and Jorda, as the teenager took pole by 1.211s and the latter halved her pace defecit to him.

Van Hoepen then turned his qualifying pace into three fine victories, while four-time Formula 1 world champion Alain Prost told his son to “take it easy and just bring back the crown” over the weekend and so a more risk-averse strategy led to two thirds and a second for Prost but enough for him to be crowned champion by 103 points over Vaucher.

A half-season full of podiums brought van Hoepen up to third ahead of gentleman driver Luis Sanjuan, while Mela ended up down in 10th in the standings. Race Motorsport’s Franck Seeman won the FR2.0 class title.

Season round-up

The post What Prost did next: FE stalwart to junior single-seater champion again appeared first on Formula Scout.

Photo: McLaren F1

The new Dallara 320, the successor design to Dallara’s traditional Formula 3 lineage, will make its race debut virtually in an all-star Esports event this month that will feature Carlos Sainz Jr.

Available as an update kit to the Dallara F317 F3 car or as an all-new car, the lightweight 320 is set to be used by Euroformula and Super Formula Lights for the first time this year.

Its competition debut will now come in a Euroformula-organised Esports event on rFactor 2 called ‘Superstars Open’, which will include 20-minute races at Barcelona, Monza and Silverstone open to graduates of the series.

Drivers who have signed up to race include McLaren Formula 1 driver Sainz, DTM-bound 2013 Euroformula champion Ed Jones, former DTM racer Dani Juncadella, Formula E race-winner Nico Prost, IndyCar rookie Alex Palou and Alfa Romeo Racing’s test driver Tatiana Calderon.

• Feature: What Sainz’s Ferrari move means to Spanish motorsport

At least nine of Euroformula’s 19 champions, stretching back to the days when it ran solely as Spanish F3, will also race. The event, taking place on June 19, will raise money for the Red Cross’s coronavirus response relief.

“I’m extremely proud of what we have achieved over the past 20 years and I’ve enjoyed watching our Euroformula Open drivers go on to huge success,” said Jesus Pareja, CEO of Euroformula promoter GT Sport.

“The thought of having them all back for one race event is extremely exciting and I can’t wait to see who comes out on top.

“We hoped, of course, to celebrate our simulator racing debut in happier times but our focus must be on supporting people who are facing the impact of this virus.

“We often feel helpless but even by just donating a small amount of money or time can make a huge difference. We are proud to be supporting the Red Cross and hope that this event can not only be a fantastic display of the incredible talent that has passed through our Euroformula series but can also help to raise money for the most vulnerable in our society.”

The gaming partner for the event is SIRIO eSports, which is fronted by former Euroformula racer Emilio de Villota Jr.

After his driving career ended, he took up a management role in his father’s De Villota Motorsport team and its successor Teo Martin Motorsport, which both primarily raced in Euroformula. His family was also influential in Sainz’s first years in single-seaters.

The post Sainz joins Euroformula all-star Esports race for Dallara 320 debut appeared first on Formula Scout.

Sebastian Vettel topped the final day of the Silverstone test for Red Bull Racing whilst it was Carlos Sainz, Jr. who placed highest on the timing screens out of the youngsters in the same car, settling into fourth.

Vettel had the car to himself in the afternoon and set the early benchmark of 1:32.894, which remained unbeaten for the remainder of the final day of testing.

Another regular driver, Force India’s Adrian Sutil, was second, three tenths down on Vettel. Nicolas Prost was just 0.014 off of Sutil, taking third for Lotus.

Sainz ended another day as the top driver from junior single-seaters, taking fourth. The two Ferrari drivers followed suit, with Davide Rigon bumping Felipe Massa down to sixth with 20 minutes to go.

Toro Rosso’s regular driver Jean-Eric Vergne placed seventh, while McLaren’s development driver Gary Paffett rounded out the list of people who went quicker than 1 minute 34 seconds.

Williams test driver Susie Wolff beat Caterham’s Giedo van der Garde to ninth by 0.5 seconds. Daniil Kvyat got his first run in an F1 car with Toro Rosso, taking 11th with a short evening run. Other Caterham regular Charles Pic took 12th, with Kimiya Sato 13th for Sauber and Marussia tester Rodolfo Gonzalez in 14th, having brought out a red flag with a spin in the morning.

James Calado, who got a short six-lap stint in the very final stages of the test, was 15th for Force India, with Jules Bianchi rounding out the timesheets, also having brought out a red flag, stopping on-track.

Session results

The post Sainz quickest youngster as Vettel tops final day of young driver test appeared first on Formula Scout.

Photo: McLaren/LAT

Kevin Magnussen posted the fastest time for McLaren late on the first day of the young driver test at Silverstone.

It was GP2 ace James Calado who went fastest during the morning in his proper F1 test. Driving for Force India, the Briton achieved a time of 1m33.986s, putting him nearly half a second clear at the midway point of the day. He handed over to Force India’s race driver Paul Di Resta for the afternoon and slipped to fourth, two spots behind the Scot, who was focussed on tyre testing as per the regulations.

Magnussen languished ninth of the ten runners during the middle of the day, but brought himself up the order during the afternoon before going quickest in the final 20 minutes, 0.172s faster than Di Resta. McLaren’s regular testers Oliver Turvey and Gary Paffett will now do the two remaining days of the test as Magnussen heads out to the FR3.5 round in Spielberg.

Third was?Antonio Felix da Costa for Red Bull, who were forced into a change of plan that saw the Portuguese driver spend the entire day behind the wheel of the RB9. He had only been scheduled to do the morning on the first day before handing over to Daniel Ricciardo, but the team tweaked their plans so that they only used race drivers for two half-days as per the rules, rather than the three which they had originally announced. Ricciardo will now run on Thursday afternoon instead of Mark Webber, the man he is trying to replace at Red Bull. Felix da Costa will still do Thursday morning and Carlos Sainz do the Friday morning as planned.

Only one tenth behind Calado was Daniel Juncadella for Williams. In his first appearance at an official F1 test, the DTM driver and F3 champion had a quiet start to the day before moving up to fifth. Johnny Cecotto was a further tenth back in sixth for Toro Rosso, just ahead of Sauber’s Robin Frijns.

Nicolas Prost and Davide Rigon were eighth and ninth respectively for Lotus and Ferrari. Alexander Rossi had been fifth quickest at the halfway point for Caterham, but a hydraulics issue late on stopped him improving and left him tenth, two seconds away from Magnussen. Marussia had their GP3 star Tio Ellinas and race driver Max Chilton sharing the car, finishing 11th and 12th.

The post Magnussen tops first day of young driver test appeared first on Formula Scout.

The recent Pirelli tyre debacle prompted the FIA to permit teams to run their race drivers for a maximum of one day at the test, so long as they are working on tyre development only.

Despite both that and the financial difficulties encountered by many of the teams on the F1 grid, a number of highly-rated drivers are getting an opportunity – many experiencing their first F1 mileage. Here’s the lowdown on each of the ‘young drivers’ involved.

Antonio Felix da Costa

Photo: Mark Thompson/Getty Images

Felix da Costa gets his second testing chance with the Red Bull team, but this one is restricted just to Wednesday and Thursday morning thanks to a combination of the rule break for race drivers and the scheduling of a Formula Renault 3.5 round this weekend. After his incredible form in late 2012 he began the FR3.5 season as the title favourite, but he only sits third in the current standings with one win to his name.

Nonetheless, he is banging on the door of a Toro Rosso seat and the test provides a good opportunity to show what he can do, particularly with the team evaluating Daniel Ricciardo on Wednesday afternoon. Mark Webber does Thursday afternoon and Sebastian Vettel Friday afternoon.

Carlos Sainz

Photo: Marcello Di Benedetto/Toro Rosso

Sainz will make his F1 testing bow with Toro Rosso on Thursday morning before driving the Red Bull on Friday morning. The son of the world rally champion, Sainz has shown promise on Red Bull’s junior programme, fourth in Formula BMW in 2010 in his rookie car season, then runner-up to Robin Frijns in the Formula Renault Eurocup.

He was wildly inconsistent during a year of F3 last season, with dominant wins in the wet mixed with some frequent collisions. Still only 18, his form in GP3 this year has been similarly erratic, but again showed well when he finished sixth on his Formula Renault 3.5 debut in Monaco. He is backed not only by Red Bull, but also by Toro Rosso sponsor Cepsa.

Davide Rigon

Photo: V-IMAGES.com/Fabre

After making his Ferrari debut at Magny-Cours last year, the 26-year-old gets to do two and a half days this week, making way only for race driver Felipe Massa on Friday morning. After winning Superleague Formula titles in 2008 and 2010, he entered GP2 in 2011 only to sustain an injury in the first weekend that kept him out for the rest of the year.

He’s since focussed on GT racing with Ferrari, currently leading the Blancpain Endurance Series standings. While giving regular simulator driver Rigon time for car development makes sense, it’s a crying shame Ferrari didn’t give their European F3 star Raffaele Marciello a go as well.

Kevin Magnussen

Photo: McLaren/LAT

Magnussen makes his second testing appearance for McLaren on Wednesday, after impressing the team on his debut in Abu Dhabi last November. The 20-year-old Dane has been a star in Formula Renault 3.5 so far this year, currently sitting just three points off the lead with two race victories to his name.

He has followed in the footsteps of his father Jan by driving for the Woking squad, and like Jan he’s had a successful career in the junior categories. After winning the Formula Ford title in Denmark in 2008, he finished runner-up in the Formula Renault NEC, third in German F3 and then second in British F3 before stepping up to FR3.5 last year.

Oliver Turvey

Photo: McLaren/LAT

Taking over from Magnussen for Thursday is 26-year-old Turvey, who last raced a single-seater in a one-off GP2 appearance in 2011 but has since become a valuable member of McLaren’s team of development drivers. This year he’s also started racing prototype sportscars, and was one of the quickest drivers in the LMP2 category at Le Mans on his debut.

After winning the McLaren Autosport BRDC Award in 2006, he rose up the ranks as the first driver supported by the Racing Steps Foundation. He was runner-up in British F3 in 2008, fourth in Formula Renault 3.5 in 2009 and then sixth in his rookie season of GP2 in 2010 before funding ran dry. He’d make a great F1 driver if he ever got the chance, but his chances are very slim.

Gary Paffett

Photo: Daimler AG

Now 32, Paffett is understandably lambasted every time the young driver test comes along, but he’s been unfortunate to never get an F1 race chance. After winning the title in German F3 (which then became the Euro Series) in 2002, he switched to the DTM with Mercedes after an F3000 ride collapsed. Champion there in 2005, he has been with McLaren ever since.

He was overlooked for a race seat when Lewis Hamilton came along, and might have driven for Prodrive had they got on the grid in 2008. Still eligible for these tests having yet to do a Grand Prix, McLaren would be foolish not to use his experience alongside their younger talent.

Nicolas Prost

Photo: Lotus/LAT

Rivalling Paffett in pushing the boundaries of a ‘young driver’, 31-year-old Prost was a bit average in his single-seater career. Third in Spanish F3 in 2007, the following year he won the title in the not-particularly-competitive Euroseries 3000. Sensibly, he switched to sportscars and has found his niche with the Rebellion LMP1 team, partnering Neel Jani and Nick Heidfeld.

Without the testing experience of Paffett, it is for another reason that Lotus will run him on Wednesday. He is of course the son of Alain Prost, and as he’s managed by the Gravity firm of Genii and Eric Boullier, the test provides the chance for them to get his famous name out there. That’s a bit of a shame when there are some talented young names on Gravity’s books.

Davide Valsecchi

Photo: Lotus F1 Team/LAT

Valsecchi made his debut with Lotus at last year’s young driver test in Abu Dhabi after winning the GP2 title, and impressed with his speed (but then he would – he always goes well at Middle Eastern circuits) and bagged a reserve deal for 2013. Unfortunately for the 26-year-old, other than a morning filling in for an ill Kimi Raikkonen in pre-season, Thursday might be the only running he gets this year, as Raikkonen will steal his place for Friday if he can be bothered to turn up.

A GP2 title is usually the mark of a special driver, but it did take Valsecchi five years to do it, and even then he was pretty unconvincing, winning only once outside of Bahrain. Even though he could afford all that time in GP2, he hasn’t yet been able to secure an F1 race seat.

Robin Frijns

Photo: Alastair Staley/GP2 Series Media Service

Formula Renault 3.5 champion at the first attempt last year, Frijns was made to make do with a reserve role with Sauber rather than a race seat. The 21-year-old will do the first day and a half of the test, and although that’s the only F1 action he’s likely to get this year, he should be grateful for it given Sauber’s financial situation and his lack of sponsorship. Nico Hulkenberg takes over for tyre work on the Thursday afternoon.

Frijns agreed a GP2 ride with new team Hilmer for round two, but since a win and a second at Barcelona, he’s managed to score points in just one race out of six. Without more repeats of those Barcelona results, it’s hard to see that his F1 chance will come next year.

Kimiya Sato

Photo: Auto GP

Sato has reportedly paid a quarter of a million euros for the chance to make his F1 debut with Sauber on Friday, helping to relieve the Swiss team’s financial difficulties. The 23-year-old’s career is overseen by 1990s F1 pay driver Taki Inoue, but he does come with some recent on-track form as well as a big wallet.

He’s tied for the lead of the Auto GP standings after three early wins. Those results have been something of a surprise, as four years of F3 in Japan and Europe didn’t bring anything outstanding. He had a reverse-grid win in a thinly-supported Euro Series in 2011, and then four wins after a step back to German F3.

James Calado

Photo: Alastair Staley/GP2 Series Media Service

Calado gets his first proper F1 test thanks to Force India, long overdue after his impressive rookie season in GP2 last year. The chance has come after joining Nicolas Todt’s management stable, with Todt having placed Jules Bianchi at Force India as reserve last year. The 24-year-old has already quietly conducted at least a couple of straightline tests for the team, and is being evaluated for the vacant reserve role in the squad, which could provide him with some Friday practice running later in the year.

His second GP2 season hasn’t quite gone to plan, sitting only fifth in the points, but he reminded us of his ability with two fine drives to second place at the Nurburgring. Shares the car this week with race drivers Paul Di Resta and Adrian Sutil.

Daniel Juncadella

Photo: Malcolm Griffiths/GP2 Series Media Service

Juncadella won last year’s European F3 title, and is now racing in the DTM for Mercedes-Benz, who backed him in F3. He scored a maiden podium in the highly-competitive tin-top series at the Norisring last weekend. He was the other casualty, along with Sam Bird, of Mercedes being banned from this test.

A chance with Williams was always on the cards though, after his personal backer Astana – the capital of Kazakhstan – signed a deal with the team. Then there’s the links to Mercedes through Toto Wolff. The 22-year-old Spaniard will open the test for Williams on Wednesday, but it won’t be his first time in an F1 car, as he tested a 2009 Ferrari late last year as a prize for his FIA F3 success.

Susie Wolff

Photo: Daimler AG

Wolff is another to arrive at Williams from Mercedes’ DTM team, but while Juncadella’s managed a podium in just his fifth race, Wolff achieved just two seventh places in seven years before quitting at the end of last year. Her marriage to team shareholder Toto Wolff and high profile as a female racing driver have helped secure her a development role.

After a filming day run last year and some straightline aero tests this year, Friday will be her first proper test. Pastor Maldonado is on tyre duty on Thursday.

Johnny Cecotto

Photo: Marcello Di Benedetto/Toro Rosso

Cecotto is a controversial choice for the young driver test after a string of highly-criticised incidents in GP2 this year. The reality is that this test could well be part of his contract with Arden for 2013, since drivers for the Christian Horner-owned squad tend to get access to facilities at Milton Keynes and a test with the satellite Toro Rosso team could be an extension of that.

Cecotto did last year’s young driver test with Toro Rosso, and 2011’s with Force India. While he can occasionally show great speed – like getting on pole in Monaco – the other side to him is likely to make F1 teams think twice before accepting any Venezuelan dollars he can bring to the table in exchange for a race seat. He gets a full day of running on Wednesday.

Daniil Kvyat

Photo: Alastair Staley/GP3 Series Media Service

Kvyat makes his F1 debut with Toro Rosso on Friday afternoon, once Sainz, Ricciardo and Jean-Eric Vergne have succeeded Cecotto behind the wheel. The 19-year-old Russian is another from Red Bull’s young driver programme, and is team-mate to Sainz in GP3 this season, sitting eighth in the standings with two more points than the Spaniard.

He is also contesting a European F3 campaign, where he’s claimed five podium finishes and three pole positions from four weekends. He was runner-up to Stoffel Vandoorne in last year’s Formula Renault Eurocup, after finishing third behind Frijns and Sainz the year before.

Alexander Rossi

Photo: Caterham F1 Team

Rossi is taking part in his fourth young driver test and his third consecutive with Caterham (the first was with BMW Sauber in 2009). He has already driven this year’s car in free practice at the Canadian Grand Prix, and will get another go on Wednesday.

He started the year without a race seat for the season ahead, but was given a ride with Caterham’s GP2 seat from the second round. He promptly scored a podium in Bahrain but has since slipped to 13th in the standings. He previously spent two years in Formula Renault 3.5, finishing third in 2011 before a difficult season second with the new Arden Caterham team.

Will Stevens

Photo: Caterham F1 Team

Stevens is a recent recruit to Caterham’s young driver academy, and gets a quick first taste of F1 machinery on Thursday. He currently sits fourth in the Formula Renault 3.5 standings behind superstars Vandoorne, Magnussen and Felix da Costa. He has been at the sharp end in every series he’s contested, even though he only has four race wins to his name from four and a half seasons.

He was signed up by Honda’s F1 team in 2008 after a strong karting career, later going on to finish fourth in Formula Renault UK in 2010, fourth in the Eurocup in 2011 and 12th in his rookie FR3.5 campaign last year. Race drivers Giedo van der Garde and Charles Pic share the Caterham on the final day.

Tio Ellinas

Photo: Alastair Staley/GP3 Series Media Service

Ellinas is the latest driver to get an F1 test with Marussia as a prize for finishing as the top driver in the GP3 squad. After an impressive rookie season last year, the Cypriot is now leading this year’s championship after following up a victory in the season opener with an unbroken run of points finishes.

He’s had his test reduced to just Wednesday morning after Marussia realised it would be sensible to take advantage of the rule change and give their rookie race drivers some mileage, but credit should go to them for sticking with their commitment of a test for an underfunded driver. They’ve already given him a straightline aero test too.

Rodolfo Gonzalez

Photo: Alastair Staley/GP2 Media Service

At the other end of the scale we have Gonzalez. He’s already taken in the young driver tests with Caterham in 2010 and 2011 and with Force India last year. Then, after a GP2 record of three points finishes in 64 races over three seasons, he signed to be Marussia’s reserve driver for this year, and has already taken in Friday practice runs in Bahrain, Barcelona and the Nurburgring.

He might have the backing of PDVSA, but this Venzuelan has none of the talent that Maldonado has. As a disclaimer, he has tended to look a bit better in his F1 tests than in GP2, but that’s not the point. He will do the whole of Thursday and then Friday morning. Max Chilton does Wednesday afternoon, Jules Bianchi Friday afternoon.

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Photo: Renault Sport/DPPI

Danish youngster tops timesheets on his F1 debut, edging out Red Bull’s Antonio Felix da Costa even though he only contested the morning session…

Kevin Magnussen posted the fastest time on the first day of the Young Driver Test in Abu Dhabi. Driving an F1 car in an official test for the first time with McLaren, he was just 0.066s faster than Red Bull’s Antonio Felix da Costa in the morning session.

The top two times went unchallenged in the afternoon, with Gary Paffett going third fastest after taking over from Magnussen, 0.7s away from the Dane’s time.

Robin Frijns was fourth fastest in his one and only day with Sauber, who are rumoured to be giving the Formula Renault 3.5 champion a reserve role in 2013. He was 1.1s away from Magnussen’s time, and ahead of Nicolas Prost in the Lotus that won the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix last weekend.

GP2 runner-up Luiz Razia was two seconds off the pace for Toro Rosso, with Giedo van der Garde 3.2s away for Caterham.

 1.  Kevin Magnussen         McLaren     1m42.651s            40 laps
 2.  Antonio Felix da Costa  Red Bull    1m42.717s  + 0.066s  79
 3.  Gary Paffett            McLaren     1m43.407s  + 0.756s  44
 4.  Robin Frijns            Sauber      1m43.775s  + 1.124s  78
 5.  Nicolas Prost           Lotus       1m44.194s  + 1.543s  55
 6.  Luiz Razia              Toro Rosso  1m44.691s  + 2.040s  67
 7.  Giedo van der Garde     Caterham    1m45.936s  + 3.285s  57

Paffett continues at McLaren on Wednesday morning before handing over to former GP2 ace Oliver Turvey, who will go through until Thursday lunchtime when Magnussen will be back in the car. Felix da Costa gets another day in the Red Bull tomorrow before Frijns takes over for his FR3.5 prize drive on the final day. Esteban Gutierrez will drive the Sauber in Frijn’s absence for the remaining two days, ahead of his anticipated promotion to a race seat at the squad next year. DTM star and former F3 Euro Series champion Edoardo Mortara will drive the Lotus tomorrow, with fellow Italian and GP2 champion Davide Valsecchi behind the wheel on Thursday. Razia hands the controls of the Toro Rosso over to Johnny Cecotto on Wednesday before jumping back in on Thursday, while van der Garde has another day in the Caterham before making way for Alexander Rossi.

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