Photo: Francois Flamand / DPPI

The double win by David Vidales in his first Formula Renault Eurocup weekend at Imola is arguably the most impressive single-seater racing debut in recent history.

Three times a runner-up in CIK-FIA international karting events, the 18-year-old Spaniard has had to wait for his car racing break, having first tried out for the Ferrari Driver Academy in Formula 4 machinery four years ago.

Following a late switch to Formula Renault from the Formula Regional European Championship and missing the first round at Monza, Vidales grasped his opportunity at Imola, making the most of the quick package provided by JD Motorsport. Just as impressive as his speed was how he handled race starts, restarts and pace management under the pressure of a race weekend.

It got Formula Scout thinking about the best single-seater debut weekends this century, and we’ve picked out 10 of them below.

It’s difficult to find anybody besides Vidales who’s won in a proper Formula Renault championship (at the main two-litre level) in Europe on their first weekend in a single-seater: Ben Barnicoat won an Autumn Cup at Rockingham in 2013 in a field of of six cars, while Antonio Fuoco’s debut Formula Renault Alps win earlier that year was preceded by outings in the PanamGP Winter Series, just as Max Verstappen and Lance Stroll made their debuts in the Florida Winter Series a year later.

That proves how difficult Formula Renault has been for direct graduates of karting to get to grips with, and we begin our list with a driver that did at least come close to a debut win.

Jules Bianchi
French Formula Renault 2007 (Nogaro)

Photo: DPPI / Renault Sport

Spotted in karting by Nicolas Todt, a 17-year-old Bianchi was placed in Formula Renault 2.0 in his native France for his first season of single-seaters with the SG Formula team. In the first round at Nogaro, he couldn’t pick up a win, with both races going instead to the more experienced Matthieu Arzeno. But Bianchi missed pole for the first race by less than a tenth of a second, then finished just over a second adrift of Arzeno in race one, and seven seconds clear of third-placed Tristan Vautier. In race two he finished third and set the fastest lap. Bianchi then dominated the following round at Ledenon to take a championship lead he wouldn’t surrender.

Incidentally, his second and third places on debut were a repeat of what Edoardo Mortara had achieved in the possibly more-competitive Italian championship at Mugello a year earlier. When Bianchi stepped up to the F3 Euro Series for 2008, Mortara edged Bianchi by by 2.5 points to be championship runner-up behind Nico Hulkenberg.

Nico Hulkenberg
Formula BMW ADAC 2005 (Hockenheim)

Photo: BMW AG

He’s stepped away from Formula 1 with the unwanted record of the most starts without a podium finish, but Hulkenberg still possesses one of the most impressive junior single-seater records of the 21st century. His reputation was one built not only through his A1 Grand Prix, Euro F3 and GP2 titles, but also by winning the Formula BMW series in Germany as a rookie.

Over the season, Josef Kaufmann Racing’s Hulkenberg was pushed closely by Mucke Motorsport’s second-year Red Bull junior Sebastien Buemi – with just five points between them at season’s end. But Hulkenberg had made the better start as a single-seater novice in round one at Hockenheim. He won the first race from pole position ahead of Buemi, then claimed race two from second on the grid, setting the fastest lap as he finished four seconds clear of his future F1 team-mate Sergio Perez.

Marcus Ericsson
Formula BMW UK 2007 (Brands Hatch)

Photo: ChristianB_7

Ericsson might have got some stick as an F1 driver, but he had begun his single-seater debut as a very serious prospect indeed. As a karter in his native Sweden, he picked up backing from Indianapolis 500 winner Kenny Brack, who secured Ericsson a drive in Formula BMW UK with Fortec Motorsports for 2007. Ericsson’s aim was to try to win by the end of the season, but after finishing third in the first race at Brands Hatch, he qualified on pole for race two and won it by some five seconds despite losing the lead to Henry Surtees at the start.

Brack might have been a little biased, but he described Ericsson as “the best young talent” he had ever seen. Over the rest of the year, his protege lived up to that, defeating Josef Kral to win the championship with a spate of late victories. The two rivals would be reunited as GP2 team-mates just a couple of years later.

Richard Bradley
Formula BMW Pacific 2010 (Sepang)

Photo: BMW AG

Asia’s Formula BMW equivalent might not have been as prestigious as its European counterparts, and Bradley never even got close to F1, but two of the drivers he beat convincingly on his single-seater debut certainly did. After Red Bull signed Carlos Sainz Jr and Daniil Kvyat to its junior team for an assault on FBMW Europe with Eurointernational in 2010, it took them along to the Malaysian Grand Prix in April for a bit of early practice.

The two young bulls must have fancied their chances of a win on their car racing debuts, but so clearly did British karter Bradley, who had headed east and picked up a racing licence from Singapore for his step into single-seaters with Eurasia Motorsport. The 18-year-old beat Sainz to pole position by nearly half a second and then opened up a four-second advantage during the 10-lap race, setting the fastest lap in the process. It was a similar story in race two, with Sainz actually slipping to fourth place at the end and finishing just ahead of Kvyat.

Sainz and Kvyat returned to Sepang for revenge a month later, splitting the wins between them in a quadruple-header, but Bradley also went on to defeat Sainz once more for a win on his adopted streets of Singapore. He also claimed the championship – ahead of 14-year-old Oscar Tunjo – and later raced in Super Formula in 2013 before forging a successful sportscar career.

Raffaele Marciello
Italian Formula Abarth 2010 (Misano)

Where Sainz and Kvyat had failed, their former karting rival Marciello succeeded later the same month in his native Italy with the support of the newly-expanded Ferrari Driver Academy. Just like Vidales, Marciello started his car racing career with JD Motorsport, in this case in the new Formula Abarth series.

In a wet qualifying session at Misano, 15-year-old Marciello had been beaten to pole position by Kevin Gilardoni by over two seconds, but in the race, he reeled in his rival and stole the win away on the very last lap. The pair were 25 seconds clear of the driver in third. Third in race two, Marciello would win just once more all season and finished third in the standings, while fellow FDA recruit Brandon Maisano – two years older – took the title.

Marciello’s single win was bettered by Alessio Rovera’s debut double in 2013 en route to the title, but the series was by then a shadow of its former self with Formula 4 on the horizon.

Matheo Tuscher
Formula Pilota China 2011 (Guangdong)

A year after its introduction in Italy, a Formula Abarth series was created for Asia and Swiss driver Tuscher dominated it aged just 14. His competition over the season wasn’t the strongest – runner-up Luis Sa Silva had plenty of prior experience in Asian Formula Renault, but would struggle when he later headed to Europe.

But on his debut weekend in a single-seater at Guandong in July, Tuscher had to see off some serious opposition to win both races: Future DTM ace Lucas Auer had already made a winning start in the rival FBMW-based JK Racing Asia Series, and Jenzer Motorsport team-mate Robert Visoiu was already a race-winner in the Italian Abarth series.

But Tuscher won both races, leading home Visoiu in race one and Auer in race two. He won six of the subsequent 10 races on his way to the title, and then turned up in Jonathan Palmer’s Formula Two in 2012 and claimed pole on his Silverstone debut, eventually finishing second in the standings. After stints in GP3 with Jenzer and Rebellion’s LMP1 squad, he hasn’t raced since celebrating his 20th birthday at the end of 2016.

Anthoine Hubert
French Formula 4 2013 (Le Mans)

Debut winners are more common in French F4 than in rival series within Europe, with the FFSA Academy welcoming a largely new crop of drivers each season. Last year, Hadrien David won twice at the first round – though not before he’d taken three wins from four races on his actual single-seater debut in the South East Asia F4 series. Six years earlier, Hubert had similarly lived up to his billing as pre-season favourite after the karting career in which he’d been a close rival of Charles Leclerc.

With the first round taking place at the championship’s home circuit Le Mans, and most drivers therefore knowing the track relatively well, Hubert was actually beaten in qualifying by Russian driver Kirill Karpov. On second-fastest times he still lined up on pole for the first race and finished seven seconds up the road from Karpov. He went from 10th to fifth in the reversed-grid race two, then triumphed again in race three ahead of Jules Gounon – who would become his closest rival. But Hubert followed Le Mans with another double win in Pau and a stunning hat-trick at Spa-Francorchamps and won the title convincingly.

Giuliano Alesi
French Formula 4 2015 (Ledenon)

Photo: KSP – Guillaume Veuve

With only a modest karting record to his name, Alesi’s double win on debut in French F4 was rather more surprising than Hubert’s – and it still is looking back on it today. But the statistics were even more impressive, beginning with Alesi topping qualifying before winning the first race by a margin of five seconds ahead of eventual champion and talented second-year driver Valentin Moineault. As well as father Jean, Alesi was congratulated afterwards by Alain Prost, who handed him his winning trophy on the podium. Contact at the start forced him to retire from race two, but he won from the front again in race three, this time in a red-flagged wet race.

The wins would prove a false dawn for Alesi, who scored just one further victory all year and finished fourth in the standings – results that didn’t exactly justify the leap up he made to GP3 for 2016. The season’s stand-out rookie would instead be the driver who won that second race at Ledenon, a relatively unknown Sacha Fenestraz.

Lando Norris
MSA Formula 2015 (Brands Hatch)

Photo: Jakob Ebrey Photography

As the world karting champion, Norris’s single-seater debut in the first ever MSA Formula (later British F4) event was highly anticipated. With the benefit of a comprehensive testing programme in both Formula Renaults and Carlin’s new Mygale F4 car, the 15-year-old lived up to expectation with two victories at Brands Hatch. In qualifying though, he was upstaged by relatively unheralded JTR driver Dan Baybutt, who was a whole three tenths of a second quicker around the short Indy layout in damp conditions.

Normal order was restored in the race, with Norris grabbing the lead at the start and then resisting mid-race pressure from Matheus Leist, who ultimately lost second to another single-seater debutant Dan Ticktum. While Ticktum charged from seventh to second in race two, Norris actually slipped from eighth to ninth – quiet reversed-grid encounters would become a feature of his run to the title as he saved new tyres for the other races. In race three, he lost the lead at the start to James Pull, but regained it to take his second win.

Thereafter, Norris’s run to the title was almost a little underwhelming relative to the hype – and factoring in his circuit knowledge from Ginetta Juniors – but it didn’t him take long to disprove any doubts.

Francesco Pizzi
Formula 4 UAE 2020 (Dubai)

Over the years, ‘winter’ series have been a popular place for drivers to make their first race starts in single-seaters, whether it’s a cold and wet November day at Snetterton or in warmer climes. Today, series like F4 UAE give drivers the chance to get a proper championship title under their belt – a chance taken in full by Pizzi at the start of this year. The grid for the opening round in Dubai in January might not have included many star names, but some drivers did have prior F4 experience and so Pizzi’s hat-trick with Xcel Motorsport was impressive.

None of his wins actually come from pole position, as he was beaten by Hamda Al Qubaisi in qualifying, and he twice inherited leads after mistakes or contact for others. But even the unforseen cancellation of race four due to rain didn’t wipe the shine off his debut, and he continued to prove himself on the way to the title.

Pizzi’s performances convinced Van Amersfoort Racing to sign him for Italian F4, and he will start among the favourites when the season finally begins at Misano this weekend. But look out for another young Italian potentially winning on his single-seater debut, with karting hotshot Gabriele Mini one of four car racing newcomers fielded by Prema.

Legends who won first time out

By Elliot Wood

Single-seaters wasn’t most drivers’ entry into car racing until the creation of Formula Ford, a deliberately affordable formula that could be repeated across the globe, which meant a lot of drivers before 1968 had experience in sports or touring cars before trying out open-wheel racing.

There were some pretty high-profile examples, with 1961 Formula 1 world champion Phill Hill counting a lapped seventh place in the 1958 French Grand Prix as his single-seater debut. Two years prior, Innes Ireland had got the call up from Team Lotus to race in the Dutch GP and the sportscar star finished fourth.

It was a similar story in America, where the drag and midget racing scene was highly competitive and the very best of those drivers would then move straight into IndyCar. Pat Flaherty and Rodger Ward, who both won the Indianapolis 500 when it was part of the F1 calendar, claimed top 10 finishes on their single-seater debuts in IndyCar.

There were some exceptions to this trend, most notably British racing knights Stirling Moss and Jackie Stewart. Moss (pictured above) entered two hillclimbs in 1948 before winning his heat and the final in the 500cc Formula 3 round at the Brough airfield circuit. Stewart matched that feat in a BARC British F3 race at Snetterton in 1964.

Perhaps more impressive than them was Emerson Fittipaldi, who won his first Formula Vee race in Brazil in one of his family’s Fittipaldi chassis. The Fittipaldi clan’s feats inspired later generations of talent in the country, and Rubens Barrichello became a star to watch after winning the 1989 Brazilian FFord season opener.

In Canada there were similar parallels, with Gilles Villeneuve wiping the floor in his rookie Quebec FFord season in 1973 and then Paul Tracy doing the same in the national championship in 1985.

The final year of the 20th century provided two drivers who were almost immediately courted by F1.

Spanish karting star Fernando Alonso, who like Vidales now was 18 at the time, chose the Euro Open by Nissan series for his debut season in single-seaters. The series would later be known as FR3.5 and Formula V8 3.5, and Alonso’s arrival in the then-Nissan-powered category certainly raised its profile.

The first round of the season was at Albacete in Spain, the location of the test that earned Alonso a seat with Campos Racing (which has a watchful eye on Vidales now). He was beaten to pole for his first ever race by just 0.046 seconds, and while he didn’t complete that race, he responded later that day with a dominant 10.556s success from fourth on the grid. Five more wins that season earned him the title, and he was racing in F1 by 2001.

Anthony Davidson had a longer route to the pinnacle of single-seaters, but was just as impactful. The Briton started his career off in FFord and won his first six races from pole. Class victory in his first FFord Festival appearance was followed by overall victory in his second, and he was soon signed by British American Racing.

He was placed in various F1 test and development roles with the team – as well as being loaned to Minardi for two F1 races in 2002 – through to its Honda take-over in 2006. The next year, he was finally given a full-time race seat in Honda’s B team Super Aguri, but after 21 races and no points, the operation folded and Davidson returned to test and simulator duties as well as embarking on a successful sportscar career. His first F1 chance came at the expense of Justin Wilson, who also won on his single-seater debut in the Formula Vauxhall Junior Winter Series in 1994.

The post Ten of the best junior single-seater racing debuts appeared first on Formula Scout.

Photo: F2 Media Service / LAT Images

The idea that Formula 1 contains the 20 greatest drivers in the world is an unrealistic unfair assumption, especially when you consider the strength and breadth of talent outside of the supposed ‘pinnacle of motorsport’.

We all know various factors, such as finances, injury and just sheer bad timing can prevent an extremely promising driver from reaching single-seaters’ pinnacle, meaning that many great drivers have to display their talent in other top-tier series.

GP2 was created in 2005 to be the final step for drivers before they raced in F1, replacing the International Formula 3000 championship that was deemed to not be doing its job anymore in F1’s support paddock.

In its 13 years of running, before transitioning into the current Formula 2 championship, it and its Asian spin-off produced 37 drivers who raced in F1. The quality of the grid each year was as strong as you’d expect for F1’s direct support series, especially after rival Formula Renault 3.5 (latterly known as Formula V8 3.5) stopped.

It’s not just the GP2 drivers that have reached F1 that prove the series’ pedigree, with race winners in IndyCar, Super Formula, Formula E, DTM, GT World Challenge and the World Endurance Championship all using GP2 as a platform to becoming professionals.

Here are 10 of the best GP2 drivers (who raced between 2005-’17) to never make it to F1.

Adam Carroll NORTHERN IRELAND 37y/o
2019 Ferrari Challenge World Final winner, 2008-09 A1GP champion, 6th in 2007-08 A1GP – 5th in 2005 GP2, 7th in ’07 GP2

Adam Carroll missed out on the privilege of winning the first-ever GP2 race, but he did claim the second at Imola and won again three races later in Monaco. He was second in the points until his home Silverstone round, which ended his title hopes. One more win at Spa-Francorchamps helped him to fifth in the points, but it was a season that could have provided far more.

Carroll moved from Super Nova to Racing Engineering for 2006, without the Honda F1 support he previously had, and his year was dotted with driver errors and car issues. But he was competitive at Silverstone this time, taking two podiums and pole.

A move to the DTM for 2007 lasted only until Carroll found a way back to GP2 with the Giancarlo Fisichella-branded Scuderia Coloni team. He won at Silverstone, then started a four-race podium run with a win at the Hungaroring. His part-season resulted in seventh place, scoring more and finishing in a higher position than he had the year before.

Carroll juggled his 2007 and two-round 2008 GP2 cameo with A1GP duties for Status Grand Prix-ran Team Ireland, and it was the latter that revived his F1 hopes by winning the 2008-09 title. He was then in talks to join one of F1’s new teams for 2010, but was unable to raise the budget and ended up making cameos in IndyCar, Auto GP, Formula V8 3.5 and GP2 once more.

Sporadic sportscar appearances kept him in a car until his long-term partnership with Gulf Racing resulted in a full-time race-winning international gig in 2014. The Gulf link almost brought him into FE on several occasions too.

It wasn’t until he ended his Gulf association that he actually made it back into single-seaters, being hired by Jaguar for its FE debut in late 2016 and promptly being dropped after one season and five points. He’s since revived his career again via Ferrari’s own GT championships, he was linked to the Scuderia after his A1GP title, and won last year’s World Final.

Oliver Turvey ENGLAND 33y/o
currently 21st in 2019-20 FE, 10th in 2017-18 FE, 5th in 2014 Le Mans 24H – 6th in 2010 GP2 & 2009-10 GP2 Asia

Turvey’s FE record does him a total injustice considering how potent he is in the series, all while remaining a useful part of McLaren’s F1 simulator programme as he has done since 2012.

It never quite happened for Turvey in GP2 either, but his stock was high when he joined iSport for the 2009-10 Asian season after impressing in FV8 3.5 and winning the Aston Martin Autosport BRDC Award. The British team was the one to beat, and one win in the eight-race series put Turvey sixth in the standings.

iSport was the logical place to be for the rest of 2010, and Turvey was sixth again after a lengthy pointless spell in the first half of the season. On the plus side, he claimed four podiums and a pole. He joined Super Nova and Arden for post-season testing, but went for minnow team Ocean Racing Technology for the next Asian season which marked the debut of Dallara’s GP2/11.

Predictably results didn’t come easy and Turvey failed to score, and the Racing Steps Foundation-backed driver then found he was didn’t have the budget for the main 2011 season. He stood in for Mikhail Aleshin at Carlin for pre-season testing, and also made a race return in Monaco where he bagged an eighth place finish.

It was almost two years until he raced again, this time in the European Le Mans Series. He won on his debut, and added LMP2 class success at the Le Mans 24 Hours in 2014. A side-step to Super GT occurred before in the summer of 2015, Turvey made a stand-in appearance at Team China Racing in FE.

Scoring immediately grabbed the paddock’s attention, and he’s been at Team China/NIO ever since. His sole podium is not why his peers rate him among the most underrated in the series, rather it’s been the lower points finishes he’s taken as NIO has slid down the order. In the 2017-18 season he was 10th in the points, despite missing two races through injury.

Sam Bird ENGLAND 33y/o
currently 10th in 2019-20 FE, 3rd in 2017-18 FE, 2nd in 2016 WEC GTE, 10th in 2015 WEC – 2nd in 2013 GP2, 5th in 2010 GP2

Sam Bird’s first year in GP2, with ART Grand Prix in 2010, was plagued with technical issues and bad luck, but he was known as a ferocious overtaker from the off and he finally got to stand on the top step of the podium at Monza after 24 starts.

He switched to iSport for 2011 and bounced back from a tricky Asian campaign with three consecutive podiums in the main series. No more podiums came after and while he was 10 points away from being runner-up, he ended up sixth in the points.

Bird continued his Mercedes-Benz F1 test duties, as he went for a change of scenery in 2012 by racing in FV8 3.5. He just missed out on the title there, prompting a return to GP2 the next year with new Motopark-ran team Russian Time.

This produced Bird’s best campaign, with five wins and consistent scoring making him a title contender until the final race.

Similarly impressive performances in sportscars in 2014 made it look like Bird would be lost to single-seaters, until Virgin Racing signed him for the then-new FE. He won on his second start in a memorable display in Putrajaya, and to date is the only driver to win a race in each of the series’ six seasons.

Third place in 2017-18 stands as his best run of form, and scene of the most dominant performances in FE history when he won by over 11 seconds despite a drive-through penalty in Hong Kong.

As well as FE, Bird has notched up a FIA Endurance Trophy title, podiums at the Le Mans 24 Hours and Sebring 12 Hours, and had a factory Ferrari contract through three WEC seasons.

Raffaele Marciello ITALY 25y/o
currently 5th in 2020 Intercontinental GT Challenge, 2018 GTWC Europe champion – 4th in 2016 GP2, 7th in 2015 GP2

If Ferrari had been willing to put in a little more cash for Raffaele Marciello’s GP2 exploits, then the Italian may well have ended up being a title-winning driver in a title-winning team, and an F1 driver as a result.

At first, he was placed at Racing Engineering as reigning FIA European Formula 3 champion, and he claimed a win, a pole and three other podiums in his rookie season. In the process, he became one of only eight teenagers to win in the main series.

Rather than remain with the team, which had a title-capable car, Marciello moved to Trident for his second season and while he did score more points with the decidedly midfield team he failed to win a race and ended up splitting with Ferrari.

Being free of the Scuderia’s politics and pressures seemed to help his continued improvements in pace, although again he didn’t win a race in his third and final season with Russian Time – a team in its second season of being run by Virtuosi Racing.

However, he was still a title contender, and against the dominant Prema at that, taking six podium finishes and remaining in title contention until the penultimate race. He was promptly signed up by Mercedes, albeit for GT racing rather than F1.

The highlight of his first year as a pro driver was fifth in the GTWC Europe Endurance series, and he won the overall title (combining Endurance and Sprint) a year later and the FIA GT World Cup in 2019.

His status as one of the top GT racers of the moment is more than assured, but what is more tantalising about the 25-year-old is what he could achieve in a single-seater return. He’s tested for HWA Racelab in FE, and a race seat in the series with Mercedes or its customer squad Venturi would probably be the final bit of proof needed to show what F1 missed out on.

Read more: The European F3 champion making the most of a Mercedes seat

Oliver Rowland ENGLAND 27y/o
currently 9th in 2019-20 FE, 10th in 2018-19 FE, 2015 FV8 3.5 champion, 4th in 2014 FV8 3.5 – 3rd in 2017 F2, 9th in 2016 GP2

Competing in F2 as recently as 2017 and racing in single-seaters for a squad with a technical link to a current F1 team means Oliver Rowland could actually race in F1 in the near future – just as Antonio Giovinazzi had to be patient for his chance.

Unlike Giovinazzi, Rowland never truly looked like he was going to win a GP2/F2 title, and the only time he actually led the standings was in his first full season with midfield team MP Motorsport in 2016 as a Renault F1 junior.

Rowland gained mileage across four rounds in 2015 during his FV8 3.5 title year, and he picked up his first podium in Monaco a year later. Two more at Silverstone elevated him into his surprise points lead, but he ended the year in ninth.

As Rowland’s team-mate’s struggles proved, the lack of wins was down to the machinery more than the driver, and for 2017 the Briton was rewarded with a Renault development role and a top DAMS seat. A long-awaited first win came in Monaco, but by then it was already fairly clear that the title was headed in the direction of Prema’s Charles Leclerc.

All Rowland had to do was hold on to second in the points, but a steady run of podiums and a second win at the Hungaroring wasn’t enough. Renault didn’t think he was ready for F1, and he joined Williams as a ‘young driver’ as a result for 2018.

Beyond some scarce sportscar appearances, it looked very unlikely Rowland would be racing full-time again any time soon until Alex Albon’s surprise call up to F1. This opened up a seat at Nissan e.dams in FE, where Rowland had made one start in 2016, and DAMS picked Rowland after having already lauded him as a reserve, and of course having worked with him in F2.

His pace was blindingly evident as a rookie, taking three pole positions and two podiums. The errors that meant he didn’t convert them into wins were more than evident, but the 27-year-old is still improving and should be seen as F1 standard.

Mitch Evans NEW ZEALAND 25y/o
currently 2nd in 2019-20 FE, 5th in 2018-19 FE, 7th in 2017-18 FE, 10th in 2015 Le Mans 24H – 4th in 2014 GP2, 5th in ’15 GP2

After winning the GP3 title and completing his European racing adaption in 2012, big things beckoned for Mitch Evans.

The Mark Webber protege remained with his GP3 team Arden for his debut year in GP2, but he was only able to score on seven occasions – although that did include four podiums and third-place finishes in both Monaco races.

For the following year, he took over from Bird at Russian Time, now run by iSport, and continued the team’s strong form.

Despite a tricky start to the year Evans scored a podium at Monaco and achieved his maiden win at Silverstone. He repeated the feat two weeks later at Hockenheim, and three more podiums followed to take him to fourth in the standings.

Evans remained with the team for 2015 but could not find form until late in the year where he claimed sprint race wins at Monza and Bahrain. He qualified in second place in Italy before being excluded and sent to the back of the feature race grid but recovered to finish a remarkable third which set up his win a day later.

Campos Racing gained from Sean Gelael’s considerable financial support for 2016, and this enabled the Spanish team to sign Evans despite the Kiwi having already conceded his F1 dream was over and he would be better to focus on other racing.

His one win of the year came in mixed conditions at the Red Bull Ring in a one-two for the team, and before the year was up he had been signed by debuting FE team Jaguar for the 2016-17 season.

Evans has flourished in the series since, taking his first pole at Zurich in his sophomore season (and the first where Jaguar had a competitive package), winning in Rome last year and launching a title challenge this year with victory in Mexico City.

Luca Filippi ITALY 34y/o
16th in 2019 TCR Europe, 21st in 2017-18 FE, 21st in 2015 IndyCar – 2nd in 2011 GP2 & 2009-10 GP2 Asia, 4th in 2007 GP2

After winning the 2005 Auto GP title, and completing an F1 test with Minardi, an enthusiastic 20-year-old Luca Filippi headed to GP2 with Coloni for 2006. A string of poor results with the team, despite the chemistry between them, meant a mid-season switch to BCN Competicion and no upturn in form.

He spent 2007 with David Sears’ Super Nova team, another he would build a strong repertoire with, and took victory from pole in the Bahrain season opener. More podiums would follow, but a string of retirements stopped his title chances and despite three podiums in a row at Monza and Spa he missed out on fourth in the points on win countback.

In 2008 Filippi drove for Meritus, ART and Arden with poor form but did become Honda’s F1 test driver. Honda’s demise at the end of the year killed Filippi’s F1 ambitions, but a return to Super Nova provided a lifeline and more inconsistent GP2 form. Of his seven points finishes, four were podiums and one was a win. Somehow he ended up fifth in the points.

A return to Meritus resulted in runner-up in the 2009-10 Asia season, but Filippi only made it onto the main series grid after Sears picked him as a substitute for the injured Josef Kral.

Filippi joined Coloni for GP2 Asia in 2011, but went for Super Nova in the main series and claimed one podium in the first 10 races. The team was faster than the results suggested, but Filippi’s return to Coloni resulted in three wins in eight races and the title runner-up spot. He also came just short of a second Auto GP title with Super Nova, and signed off the Coloni team in 2012 with another pole and win in a two-round cameo.

After that Filippi instead went to IndyCar part-time, then landed a NIO FE seat before switching to touring cars and continuing his highly rated development work for various parties – including F2.

Read more: Luca Filippi: The GP2 throwback guiding the future of F2

Alex Lynn ENGLAND 26y/o
currently 4th in 2019-20 WEC GTE, 16th in ’19 GTWC Europe, 16th in 2017-18 FE, 29th in ’17 IMSA – 6th in 2015 & ’16 GP2

After winning the GP3 title as a rookie in 2014, Red Bull junior Alex Lynn looked to be the next British driver to make it to F1. At the end of the year, he tested for Lotus though, then ended his Red Bull association to join Williams as a development driver.

For 2015 he stepped up to GP2 as expected, and joined reigning champion team DAMS alongside Pierre Gasly. He won at Barcelona and the Hungaroring but too many non-scores left him sixth in the points and as second best rookie.

His win tally that year was nothing to be sniffed at, but his three 2016 wins – bettered only by Prema’s dominant duo – in his second season with DAMS was of little improvement due to a barren run in the middle of the year.

Prototype sportscars beckoned for Lynn rather than F1, with his highly-rated work at Williams eventually turning into F3 simulator preparation for the team’s future race driver Lance Stroll.

After two high profile endurance racing wins, Lynn made it back into single-seaters in a cameo FE appearance with Virgin. Taking pole on his debut in New York more than guaranteed a return to the championship.

He was rewarded with a full-time drive for the 2017-18 season, but was outscored by 127 points by team-mate Bird and dropped come season’s end. The sportscar world hadn’t forgotten his rapid pace, and Aston Martin signed him up.

Despite being a sportscar rival, Lynn was then free to concurrently make a FE return with Jaguar in 2019 as a mid-season replacement to champion Nelson Piquet Jr, and narrowly missed out on retaining the seat for the current campaign.

It’s an opportunity Lynn shouldn’t be worried about losing, as his current employer Aston Martin is entering F1 next year…

Robin Frijns NETHERLANDS 28y/o
currently 15th in 2019-20 FE, 4th in 2018-19 FE, 5th in ’19 DTM, 2015 GTWC Europe champion – 15th in 2013 GP2

Frijns has a GP2 record that doesn’t really do him much justice. He has just 12 starts to his name in the category and those came as part of a rotated driver line-up with Hilmer Motorsport in 2013. At that point he was hot property – he had beaten Bird and Jules Bianchi to win the previous year’s FV8 3.5 title and was also Sauber’s F1 test driver.

It took three races for Frijns to show what he was capable of: winning the Barcelona feature race and storming to second in the sprint after struggling with the Pirelli tyres in Bahrain. He never reached those heights again and then lost his drive.

Frijns had planned to start the year with Trident but didn’t have the budget, hence missing the season opener, and the same financial shortfall cost him his seat for the Hungaroring round. At Spa a few weeks later he made an unexpected return after one of his team-mates also ran out of money, but that was it for Frijns’ time in GP2.

Fortunately for him, his career didn’t end entirely and he remained in the F1 paddock in 2014 as Caterham’s reserve.

Audi team WRT handed him a sportscar drive for 2015, and despite a year on the sidelines, he eased to the GTWC Europe title, more than proving what F1 had missed out on and securing a long-term future with the team. At the end of the year, he also got signed by Andretti Autosport for FE and took an unbelievable podium in Putrajaya on his second start despite serious car damage. After two seasons with the American outfit, which included an IndyCar test, Frijns lost his drive as a result of landing a factory Audi contract.

This was a loss for FE and a benefit for the DTM, where Frijns took seven podiums before returning to FE with Audi customer team Virgin. Following on from another GTWC title with WRT, Frijns took two wins on his single-seater return.

Alexandre Premat FRANCE 38y/o
2008 LMS champion, 4th in 2008 Le Mans 24H, 10th in ’08 DTM, 2005-06 A1GP champion – 3rd in 2006 GP2, 4th in 2005 GP2

Premat has the distinction of being team-mate to GP2’s first and F1’s most recent champions Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg. They both achieved the feat as rookies with ART, and Premat was second-best each time. It was probably the double defeat that did for his F1 hopes, but Premat hardly disgraced himself against two top talents in some of GP2’s strongest grids.

Premat was something of a protege of ART co-founder Frederic Vasseur, winning the French Formula Renault title in 2002 as well as F3’s prestigious Zandvoort Masters and Macau Grand Prix event in 2004 when he also came second in the F3 Euro Series to team-mate Jamie Green.

In GP2, Premat was bettered by fellow F3 graduate Rosberg, but did beat him to sprint race victory in Hungary and inherited a win at Istanbul Park. Rosberg comfortably won the title ahead of FV8 3.5 champion Heikki Kovalainen, with Premat on little over half of his points in fourth, half a point behind FR Eurocup champion Scott Speed.

The top three moved on, and Premat entered 2006 with a target on his back. He’d beaten Hamilton as F3 team-mates and was confident he could do it again. In reality, it would be a repeat of 2005. Premat did beat Hamilton to a win at Barcelona after spinning him on the last lap, but only four other times did he finish ahead, and ended up third with one point less than 2005.

Alongside his GP2 exploits, Premat was also proving himself as a top-line single-seater racer in the inaugural A1GP season, with he and fellow GP2 driver Nicolas Lapierre – another of the GP2’s under-appreciated aces – helping the DAMS-run French team to dominate. Premat won seven of the 10 races he started.

But the closest he got to F1 was a practice outing for Spyker. After talks with Champ Car teams, he joined Audi in the DTM for 2007, taking three podiums for the manufacturer as well as the 2008 Le Mans Series title. He then moved to Australian Supercars, where he struggled at first but won last year’s Bathurst 1000 for DJR Team Penske alongside Scott McLaughlin.

Honourable mentions

British F3 champion and Macau Grand Prix winner Mike Conway is the definition of a driver who gets better with age, and after a couple of tricky campaigns in GP2, he became one of the world’s top prototype sportscar and Indycar racers.

Conway joined GP2 full-time in 2007 as a Honda test driver but struggled to just a single podium at Silverstone while team-mate to frontrunner Filippi. A switch to Trident for 2008 netted a win in Monaco, but that was as good as it got.

He landed a full-time IndyCar drive without issue, claimed a podium as a rookie but had his progress curtailed by a heavy crash in the Indianapolis 500 that put him out of action for months. On his return he earned a reputation as a street course specialist, winning the famed Long Beach Grand Prix twice and adding wins at Detroit and Toronto to his resume.

During this time he also entered the sportscar arena, quickly rising into the Toyota LMP1 team and becoming a star of endurance racing. He’s currently leading the 2019-20 WEC season. One chapter of his career that could have been even larger too was FE, where he impressed at Venturi and was supposed to front Dragon Racing’s entry into the series.

Richie Stanaway is almost the opposite of Conway, being rapidly quick in his youth but failing to match that potential in professional competition. He won back-to-back-to-back titles in Formula Ford, Formel Masters [a predecessor of Formula 4] and F3 before stepping up to FV8 3.5. That was cut short by a crash at Spa that left injuries which have plagued the rest of his career, and he returned to racing in 2013 with DAMS in the Porsche Supercup and as a factory Aston Martin driver in WEC.

His career was still being supported by DAMS boss Eric Boullier’s Gravity Sport Management, and he coordinated a return to single-seaters while maintaining the Aston role. It was worth the commitment, as Stanaway took two GP3 wins and a podium in FV8 3.5.

Status moved into GP2 for 2015, and its GP3 driver Stanaway followed. Clashing WEC commitments meant he missed two rounds, but before then he claimed two wins and came home 10th in the standings in a car that wasn’t truly up to it. That he didn’t return in 2016 was a travesty, especially as a focus on WEC and then Australian Supercars has yielded limited success.

Written by Peter Allen, Rachel Hillmann, Craig Woollard and Elliot Wood

The post Top 10 GP2 drivers that F1 missed out on appeared first on Formula Scout.

Photos: GP2 Media Service / LAT Images

Giacomo Ricci has been a presence in GP2 since 2008, and he racked up two wins in 46 starts across four years of racing. He’s been behind the pitwall in the seasons since, and added wins in GP3 and FIA F3 too

Just over a decade ago, there was an air of confidence in Italy about its Formula 1 prospects. Ferrari had signed Fernando Alonso, Toro Rosso was on the up as a constructor team, Vitantonio Liuzzi was at an improving Force India and Jarno Trulli had joined returning legendary name of Lotus and was sure to score.

A few of those hopes were debunked in the season opening Bahrain Grand Prix, but there was encouragement in the support paddock as an Italian trio completed their domination of the GP2 Asia season.

Davide Valsecchi won a comfortable title ahead of compatriots Luca Filippi and Giacomo Ricci. It proved a false dawn as none of them made it to F1, but instead became three of the biggest names in GP2 and its successor F2 over the next decade.

Valsecchi won the main series title in 2012 and went on to become the series’ television commentator, Filippi was 2011 runner-up and then became its development driver through Pirelli (tasked most recently with the new 18-inch wheels), while Ricci won one race before also working with the Pirelli and being hired as Trident’s team manager.

Ricci started karting in Italy in the 1990s, and his name first cropped up when he was beaten by Lewis Hamilton to the historic Torneo Industrie title in 1999. Ricci, now 35, remembers being ‘inconsistent’ in karts.

In 2001 he turned 16 and immediately moved to single-seaters, having an underwhelming year in Formula BMW ADAC until a late-season change to a frontrunning team propelled him to podiums and then wins.

There was no follow-up season, as Ricci’s 2002 budget only covered the first three rounds before he switched his efforts to disappointing part-time Formula Renault 2.0 Eurocup and Germany campaigns without testing. The next year was even further under the radar, as he stepped down to FR1.6 Spain. Surprisingly, this ultimately saved his career.

“Because I was winning in FR1.6 Spain, I also did some races in the French series,” Ricci recalls to Formula Scout.

“The person behind it was Andre Herck. He was the boss of the [Becker] team his son Michael was racing for. I was hired by him in order to set up the car and in order to help Michael perform. It was a great opportunity because I got a free drive.”

This money-saving opportunity enabled Ricci to then race part-time in FR3.5 (while it was still backed by Nissan) in 2004 without testing and start a long association with Auto GP.

“My only chance was to arrive on track and drive and show my best, and that was what I was trying to do. I joined Vergani Racing and I felt immediately comfortable within the team and the [FR3.5] car, and I was able to do quite a good job.”

Ricci entered four rounds and took a best finish of seventh, with identical form in his four Auto GP races with Power Tech. At season’s end, Ricci almost quit racing before a sponsor arrived that funded him in Auto GP for the next two seasons. With International Formula 3000 being replaced by GP2 for 2005, the 470bhp Lola B02/50 was inherited by the Italy-based series and Ricci joined Astromega.

Four podiums in eight races put him third in the points, and enabled him to then move to Giancarlo Fisichella-branded top team Scuderia Coloni for the pan-European 2006 season.

“2006 was a fantastic season. I have many nice memories. Of course first of all being with a top team, that helped me massively because they had a very good understanding about the car. Plus I had a very strong team-mate in Marco Bonanonomi, we?re still very good friends today. It was a great fight between me and him.

“He was faster in qualifying, but then during the races – especially with the reversed grid – I was able most of the time to recover positions. And I?ve always been really strong in the races, especially in the wet. This meant I won the title in the last round at Misano, where I remember it was super tricky because we started with the slick tyres and it was a damp track.

“I?d been very aggressive with the set-up and the tyre pressure, which allowed me to make a massive advantage at the start of the race. But then the track dried up and in the last seven laps I was panicking because I was losing six tenths per lap. The car was going everywhere, but I was able to manage it and win that race.”

In the years after, Ricci’s services were called upon again and again in Auto GP due to his experience. Two wins in six races he was paid to do by ELK Motorsport in 2007 puts him fifth in the points, and he also cameoed in 2010, ’12 and ’13.

“The car was extremely heavy to drive [sans power steering]. It?s not like today where we have paddle shift, we had a sequential lever to use on the bottom of the monocoque. It was very tricky to drive.

“After I won the 2006 title the budget to step up to GP2 was crazy high, and even F1 opportunities were limited. So I gambled on moving to the USA in Atlantics. With the help of Max Papis, I did a shootout with Team Forsythe, one of the best teams.

“There was eight drivers for four seats. I did a good job so got the fourth seat for 2007. But at the last moment the team became Red Bull, and they kept only the two Red Bull juniors. The team had sent me a draft contract, and I was very excited to drive for Forsythe but unfortunately there was no place. [Afterwards] we chose to go to Conquest Racing.

“I was very disappointed I lost the opportunity to compete in one of the best teams. I took an opportunity that for me was not the greatest [instead]. I was able to finish the championship in sixth and third in the rookie standings so it was still a positive season, but I didn?t score any podiums. On a couple of occasions I was on the podium but then for a mechanical failure I was not able to reach this kind of result. The best I got was two fourth places.

“America was a great experience for me. Generally speaking, the level of driver there was very high. They were used to the street circuits and the airport circuits, whereas a driver coming over from Europe is not – so it was not easy.

“I remember the emotion, the experience, the drivers parade before every race which was fantastic. The contact you have with the fans, sponsors, with everyone was great. There was still Champ Car and the Indy Racing League at the time. At the end of the year Champ Car went bankrupt, and my goal was to move there. I had already signed [a deal], but unfortunately due to this problem the only chance was to start from zero again in Indy Lights and then try to move to IndyCar. The budget was not there any more for me, so that was my last chance in single-seaters basically with budget.

“In 2008 I returned to Europe and raced almost everywhere. I did some sportscar races, and then I was also driving in single-seaters in [Italian Formula 3, International Formula Master and] Auto GP with ELK. It was not the greatest way to spend a year, but for me it was important to keep racing in order to keep myself at a good level. And I was able to – even in the sportscars – show my potential and ability.”

Ricci’s first encounter with GP2 came at the start of the year with David Price Racing, a title-winning outfit in British F3 but a struggler in GP2, the team principal of which was the same Andre Herck who had helped him half a decade prior.

“Thanks to this relationship that started in 2002, Mr Herck again gave me this chance to do some races, two in 2008, then the [2008-09] Asia series, and then some 2009 races in the main series. At the time the team wasn?t great. We were struggling to go forward with the car, and it was difficult to understand the situation because there was already a bit of a fight inside the team. Even for me it was tough, and most of the time were at the back of the field.”

In both years, Ricci’s services were halted once Michael Herck was up to speed and DPR had found a paying driver. For the GP2 Asia season opener at Shanghai he actually drove for Trident, and he seemingly remained long in the team’s memory.

“At the end of 2009, DPR moved from England to Italy. It kept its name but the organisation was completely different. The car then became a rocket. It started being extremely competitive, and this enabled me to finish third in GP2 Asia. Unbelievable considering I did not compete in the first races because of mechanical issues. In total I did nine laps over the weekend. But in all the other races I was always able to finish top five in race one, and on the podium in race two. I have great memories because all of the top drivers were there: Sergio Perez, Sam Bird, Jules Bianchi, Valsecchi and so on. For me, with such a small team, it was unbelievable to reach that kind of result.?

“Then I was hired by the team at the last moment for 2010, and every race I didn?t know if I was competing in the next one, as nothing was related to my performance. The goal for me was to provide the best result, and at the same time respect team orders and the agreement I had with the team boss.

“I was also the test driver of the team, that?s why results were up and down, because I was testing different things in order to discover some positive things about the set-up. As you can imagine, most of the time when you try something it doesn?t work.”

The results really were up and down, as Ricci’s 14-race stint was bookended by a second place and win.

“I started 2010 very well, again I didn?t have the chance to do any private testing. But at the same time I’m grateful forever to Mr Herck because he was the only one who gave me a chance to prove myself. I have nothing to regret and I’m very happy about what I achieved in those two seasons, because when I had the opportunity I used it in the best way possible.”

Ricci was 12th on the grid for the Barcelona season opener, and a crash at the start enabled him to leap up the order.

“I saw everybody get a little bit confused, so I took the opportunity. I was in third after the first corner, and I thought: this is my one opportunity, it?s now or never. I did all the race behind Charles Pic, and I was able to get close to him in the last sector, but never really had the chance to overtake him so I finished second.”

At the Hungaroring he finished eighth in race one, his next points finish, and from reversed grid pole in race two he took DPR’s first main series win since 2005. That result made his car attractive to paying drivers, and his drive ended there.

By this point Ricci had been working as a development driver, driver coach or instructor for eight years, and any cost of racing beyond the running of the car itself at DPR had been covered by these jobs. These financial skills were put to further use when he joined MLR71 in Auto GP at the end of 2012 as a test driver and coach to team owner/team-mate Michele la Rosa.

Ricci wanted to revive his single-seater career, but by the time of the 2013 season opener he was already organising and hiring mechanics and he only raced for two rounds before becoming manager and searching for a driver to replace himself.

After a season of that, continuing work as a coach and with Pirelli in its two-seater F1 car, and a Nurburgring 24 Hours win as a factory Peugeot driver, Ricci received a surprise call from Trident founder Maurizio Salvadori in early 2014.

“It was a very very last-minute call. I remembered that when I signed the contract, the day after they sent me to Abu Dhabi [pre-season testing] to manage the GP2 team, with not so much experience.”

Ricci was now managing former on-track rival Johnny Cecotto Jr, and his experience was also useful for the struggling team.

“The GP3 team was absolutely not performing, and the GP2 team had better potential in comparison. So if you look at 2014 with Cecotto in GP2, and also with Sergio Canamasas, we were able to get some very good results immediately. Johnny had been fighting most of the season to finish top three in the points and ended up fifth.

“One of the best results as a team manager was the first race that I won, with Cecotto at Barcelona. We gambled a little bit with the strategy and we did a mega job with a great pitstop. It was a great drive for him, he started 16th and finished P1.

“I was lucky in that position, having the opportunity to work with Cecotto who was a super experienced driver. It was making my job easier because he knew exactly how to drive the car. After that we made some changes in the team, especially in GP3, and the year after with Luca Ghiotto we almost won the title. From that moment, we are the Trident of today. We are considered one of the best teams in the FIA F3 Championship.”

The biggest change in Ricci’s mind was his driver recruitment strategy, which he describes as a compromise between what a driver brings in performance versus what they bring in budget that then allows the team to improve the package it provides.

“Sometimes it?s difficult to find the best compromise, because sometimes for a team you have to lead on the budget,” concedes Ricci, whose F2 hires have yet to win races.

The first example of his preferred strategy was Ghiotto, who Ricci “pushed like crazy” to sign for the GP3 in 2015 and then GP2 in 2016. The Italian took pole on his GP3 debut at Spa-Francorchamps in 2014, but a team strategy error undid his race.

An engineer with previous working experience with Ghiotto was hired to convince him to join for 2015, and the team went from last in the standings with one points finish to six wins and second in both classifications. From then on, Trident was the only team other than ART Grand Prix able to fill all four of its GP3 cars.

“One of the best satisfactions in GP3 was when David Beckmann swapped from Jenzer Motorsport to Trident in 2018 [and won three races]. From that moment on we?ve been able to prove that our car package was as strong as ART too.”

Ricci also worked with the Ferrari Driver Academy to sign Raffaele Marciello to its GP2 team for ’15, and Trident’s relationship with the F1 manufacturer continued all the way through to last year.

Tyre degradation issues hampered Marciello’s year with the team, and he was dropped by Ferrari at the end of it. Ghiotto took the team’s next, and most recent, GP2/F2 win in 2016.

After its rebrand, F2 introduced a new car in 2018, which Ricci considers a “huge technological jump” from its predecessor. Its increased weight made the issue of tyre degradation even greater, and there’s even more to learn in 2020 with the larger 18-inch wheels being brought in. It’s a challenge for Ricci, but is increasing his love of the series as it gets “more interesting” and the standard of competition gets “higher and higher” as F2 adds complexities and drivers come ever more prepared with “personal trainers, mental coaches, driver coaches, their own karting sessions and sim sessions with the team”. Ricci says it bares no relation to the GP2 of just a decade ago.

He also says this is necessary, given one of his hardest tasks is educating drivers – especially stand-ins – about the Pirelli tyres’ unique characteristics that allow for one push lap and can drop off a cliff many laps before a scheduled pitstop when a driver pushes too hard early on. “The driver needs to adapt their driving style in each moment of the race,” he summarises.

The other big headache Ricci has had as team manager was in 2018, when a fall-out between his F2 drivers Santino Ferrucci and Arjun Maini resulted in Ferrucci deliberately colliding into his team-mate and having a public spact, then receiving a two-round ban, being dropped by Trident and getting taken to court by the team for ?502,000.

“It was a very difficult situation to manage inside the team. Two different drivers with two completely different characters were the result and the whinging about what happened at Silverstone was brought on by himself. When Santino Ferrucci left and Alessio Lorandi replaced him, the ambience changed completely in the team and it was more relaxed. There was more collaboration between both team-mates – as it should be.”

The post Giacomo Ricci: The GP2 underdog leading F2’s dark horse appeared first on Formula Scout.

2010

Photo: Jakob Ebrey Photography

The year that kicked off the 2010s was the last in the junior tiers for many drivers, with 15 departing for professional drives in Formula 1, IndyCar and Super Formula, and another two picked up by DTM teams.

Pastor Maldonado broke records on the way to the GP2 title for Rapax, while rival series Formula Renault 3.5 recorded its closest ever title conclusion – just two points separated Carlin’s Mikhail Aleshin and Tech 1 Racing’s Daniel Ricciardo.

It was another FRenault series that provided the best title battle of the year though.

FR2.0 UK, which would end the following year, had 10 race winners and four drivers spread across three teams with a title shot at the Brands Hatch Indy season finale.

Fortec Motorsports’ Tom Blomqvist led the points, and got lucky after crashing in the first qualifying session. Manor’s Ollie Millroy, team-mate of Blomqvist’s main title rival Lewis Williamson, then had his own off and the resulting red flag enabled Blomqvist to get his car repaired and outqualify his rival. Williamson beat Blomqvist in race one to put them equal on points (with dropped scores) going into the title decider. Blomqvist qualified ahead once again, and by staying there won the title.

He went on to race for BMW in DTM and Formula E, while Williamson has led Strakka Racing’s exploits in various categories. Tamas Pal Kiss – the early title leader – became a rallycross star, and Will Stevens raced for Manor in Formula 1 and the World Endurance Championship after missing out on the FR2.0 title with the team. Other top talents in the 2010 field include BMW’s Nick Yelloly, Aston Martin’s Alex Lynn and Le Mans 24 Hours class winner Andre Negrao.

Another British series provided the best junior single-seater driver, with F3 champion and Red Bull junior Jean-Eric Vergne being awarded the #1 slot after winning 13 races as a category and circuit rookie with Carlin. He then made several appearances in FR3.5 with Tech 1, winning in his third race and having a better scoring average than champion Aleshin.

He beat fellow FR3.5 drivers Esteban Guerrieri, who missed four races and was disqualified from another but was in title contention until the penultimate race, and Ricciardo. F3 Euro Series dominator Edoardo Mortara was fourth.

The?best race of the year was awarded to GP3’s first trip to Spa-Francorchamps, where rain led to split strategies and Status Grand Prix’s Robert Wickens taking a canny win despite crashing into the pitwall in the wet. He stuck with slick tyres in conditions ill-suited for them, then deliberately ran down the race timer after a safety car period to avoid being overtaken.

Victory in the 2009 Macau Grand Prix prompted Mortara to return to F3 full-time after a tricky time in GP2, and he ended his story with Signature-Volkswagen by becoming the first two-time Macau winner since 1980.

FIA F3 Championship predecessor GP3’s debut season, won by Sauber junior Esteban Gutierrez, squeezed F3 Euro Series’ grids, as did MotorSport Vision’s FIA Formula Two series. F2 champion Dean Stoneman only joined the series after founder Jonathan Palmer pitched successfully on the phone to him, although the Brit’s year sadly ended with a cancer diagnosis.

Stoneman got to be part of the second ever F1 young driver test for Williams, which included some forgotten entrants such as Superleague Formula driver Yelmer Buurman at Force India and Bulgarian GP2 backmarker Vladimir Arabadzhiev at Lotus.

2011

Photo: GEPA pictures/Mario Kneisl

Full-time returns to FR3.5 for Vergne and Wickens the next year resulted in a stunning intra-team title battle that pushed the pair to new heights at Carlin – winning 10 races and taking 11 poles of the 17 available.

After a near-double win for Fortec’s rookie Alexander Rossi at Motorland Aragon, the season became a two-horse race. At Spa, Carlin’s duo took a first and a second each; Vergne?s win earned after he closed down on Wickens and passed him at Les Combes in a move that required Wickens to lock up to avoid contact. There was no bad blood afterwards.

Both had issues at Monza, but Vergne still left with a win and the points lead after a thrilling battle with Ricciardo that left him with a semi-detached front wing for much of the race. Wickens had built up a 34-point lead by the penultimate round at Paul Ricard through a double win at Silverstone, and a win at the Nurburgring. That was down to two points when he left France.

He finished second to Vergne in race one, but the restless Canadian qualified seventh for race two and finished 19th after getting a puncture from contact. The Barcelona finale was full of drama, but the title fell safely into Wickens?s hands.

Vergne qualified ninth for race one using the mandated low drag setup. He finished second, but 21 seconds behind Wickens.

A fast-starting Anton Nebylitskiy led to a cautious Wickens braking early into turn one on the first lap of the title decider, which helped Vergne slip down the inside. Vergne?s front-left wheel slammed into Wicken?s sidepod, but more damage was inflicted on his own trackrod. A second impact did the same to Wickens, and his out-of-control car knocked another car into a roll. Both Carlin drivers retired, although Vergne made it further into the race before spinning out, and Wickens was champion.

Roberto Merhi ended a lengthy F3 career by dominating the Euro Series and winning the FIA International Trophy.

For the third year in a row he had changed teams, and few predicted pre-season he’d beat Signature’s Marco Wittmann and Laurens Vanthoor. He won 11 races in Europe, as well as two non-scoring but dominant successes in British F3’s visit to Spa, and had several sublime drives in the reversed grid second races that included wins at the Red Bull Ring and Nurburgring.

Considering he screwed up at the start of the two biggest races of the year ? the Masters of F3 at Zandvoort and the Macau GP ? it was a sign of his dominance that he was still Formula Scout’s best driver, and won the International Trophy.

The one-off championship was the story of the year. It combined the Masters and Macau with the Pau Grand Prix, the Euro Series’ first Hockenheim round and British F3’s Spa trip, and planned to revive the Korea Superprix. Merhi won the Int. Trophy title two races early at the Masters, despite a first lap clash with Prema team-mate Daniel Juncadella getting him disqualified.

Merhi’s next move was the DTM with Mercedes-Benz, and after two seasons he returned to junior single-seaters in FR3.5. His three wins with underdog team Zeta Corse propelled him to F1 and then WEC with Manor, before leaving for Formula 2.

F2 predecessor GP2 provided the most thrilling race of the year, as Ferrari junior Jules Bianchi and DTM driver Christian Vietoris battled for victory in the Silverstone feature race. After the pitstops, Vietoris eradicated Bianchi’s 7s lead, and passed him at the exit of Luffield. Bianchi got back past at Copse, so Vietoris went around the outside of Stowe to reclaim the lead. The fourth pass of the lap was a late braking move by Bianchi at Stowe. Bianchi eventually got the upper hand to win.

2012

Photo: GEPA pictures/Dutch Photo Agency

Antonio Felix da Costa only joined the Red Bull Junior Team midway through 2012, but that was the motivational boost needed for him to become the best driver of the year. After being signed, he was thrown into the fired Williamson‘s Arden FR3.5 seat, while continuing his GP3 campaign with Carlin. Like magic, he instantly became a winner in the latter series.

At the Hungaroring he took his first FR3.5 win, and became the only ever driver in GP3 to win both races in a weekend. Two second places at Spa kept him in the GP3 title race until the penultimate race, while he won three of the final four FR3.5 races. To make sure he could race in Macau, da Costa entered a round of MotorSport Vision’s F3 Cup with Carlin and won both races, then successfully turned his third Macau appearance into an assured victory. It was the kind of year that drivers dream of.

While the title battles?in FR3.5 (Robin Frijns/Bianchi/Sam Bird) and GP3 (Mitch Evans/Daniel Abt/da Costa/Aaro Vainio) were tense and concluded in memorable style, it was Stoffel Vandoorne and Daniil Kvyat’s FR2.0 Eurocup fight that stood out. Bar one race, they exclusively traded wins from the season opener to the dramatic Barcelona finale.

Vandoorne extended his points lead in race one at Barcelona, but qualified 16th for the title decider as Kvyat took pole. A slick tyre gamble in the wet resulted in a 10-place gain on lap one, but Vandoorne then crashed and retired. Watching from the pits, he won the title when Kvyat was penalised for picking his race tyres too late and was overtaken by the slick tyre runners.

FR3.5’s title fight and dramatic conclusion was a highlight of the introduction of the Dallara T12 car, which provided great racing and set up the story of FR3.5 becoming F1’s primary feeder series over GP2 for the next few years. GP2 did have 2012’s best race: James Calado and Rio Haryanto fought for Valencia sprint victory until clashing, which damaged Calado and ended Haryanto’s race. A slowed Calado led until the last lap, when he clashed with Fabio Leimer just as Luiz Razia passed both to win.

2013

The trend of switching from gaming to racing professionally – or combining both – has changed a lot in the last seven years, and arguably what lit the public’s imagination on the topic was the story of Nissan’s GT Academy and Jann Mardenborough.

Mardenborough was the third winner of the GT Academy, and in his first ever season of racing he lost the British GT title in a final race showdown. His potential was so big that Nissan decided to switch him to single-seaters in F3 for year two.

He made his single-seater debut in the Toyota Racing Series with ETEC Motorsport, and was immediately the best of the team’s five drivers that included future F2 racer Tatiana Calderon and 2014 TRS champion Andrew Tang. Mardenborough came close to taking pole in round four at Hampton Downs, and four sixth place finishes put him 10th in the standings.

Carlin signed Mardenborough for British and FIA European F3, and he didn’t look out of place in the class field of the latter. He did only make the points four times, but 21st in the standings wasn’t awful compared to his team-mates Nicholas Latifi (15th) and Antonio Giovinazzi (17th), both also in their second year of cars and now with drives in F1.

The opposition was far easier in Britain, where he had the same team-mates, and Mardenborough was sixth in the points with a first podium at Spa. During his ‘free’ weekends, Mardenborough took podiums in the Le Mans and Spa 24 Hours.

Mardenborough started 2014 with a TRS return, almost winning the title and earning the backing of Red Bull Racing. He went on to become a GP3 race-winner and reached GP2 before moving to Japan and continuing his career with Nissan there.

Photo: Francois Flamand / Dutch Photo Agency

The best F1 junior of 2013, and Formula Scout’s pick for best junior single-seater driver?was FR3.5 dominator Kevin Magnussen. Son of Corvette sportscar icon Jan, the 21-year-old Dane took five wins (or six if you include the Paul Ricard victory taken away by a technical DSQ) with DAMS, and earned himself promotion to a McLaren race seat for 2014.

He was demoted after one season despite finishing second on his debut, and being kept on contract denied him a 2015 IndyCar seat. His F1 return with Renault was a disappointment, and his three years with Haas since has been a mixed bag.

While Magnussen dominated in FR3.5, the FR2.0 grid had a far closer title battle?between Pierre Gasly and Oliver Rowland. Each won three races at three different circuits, and headed to the Barcelona finale 11 points apart after 12 races. The gap closed in race one, then they got too close in the title decider as they crashed on the opening lap, guaranteeing Gasly the title.

The action stayed mostly on the right side of too close in ADAC Formel Master’s second Slovakia Ring race, which was voted best race of the year. Ralph Boschung was the early leader, with Marvin Dienst jumping from eighth to second within two laps. After a short safety car period, Boschung led a four-way battle including Dienst, Alessio Picariello and Jason Kremer.

With ten minutes to go, Dienst braked lead into the first corner to pass Boschung for the lead, but both were almost immediately passed by Picariello. The top two swapped places multiple times over the next laps, with Boschung and Kremer doing the same over third place. With five minutes to go, Dienst made a move stick on Picariello and pulled away, with the latter coming under late pressure from Kremer and Boschung. Beitske Visser won a thrilling duel with Nicolas Beer for fifth.

2014

Without a doubt, Max Verstappen was the biggest?story, most exciting driver and cause of one of the best title battles in junior single-seaters in 2014. But there wasn’t a follow-up, as the Dutch 17-year-old went to F1 after his one season in F3.

He began his car racing in the Ferrari Driver Academy-organised Florida Winter Series, which included racing on a roval and against two European F3 champions and several journalists (sadly none of Formula Scout’s), and he won four of the 12 races.

FIA European F3 with Van Amersfoort Racing was Verstappen’s next stop, and he was on pole by his fifth race – adding to the three he took in America. The first of many engine issues prevented him from even starting that race, but he was on the top step for the first time later that weekend at Hockenheim. Two crashes in Pau were his fault, but his next race was ended by another engine failure. He finally got his winning run started at Spa, going unbeaten there, at the Norisring and Masters of F3 (signing for Red Bull shortly after) to mark himself out as closest rival to Prema’s five-time winner Esteban Ocon.

This required Ocon to up his game, which is exactly what he did by taking a triple win at Moscow Raceway next time out. The pair then clashed at the Red Bull Ring, and Ocon’s pointless weekend allowed Jagonya Ayam with Carlin’s Tom Blomqvist to close in. Further success by he and Verstappen wasn’t enough to deny Ocon the title, and status as best?driver of the year.

Beating even that?title battle was the one for the British Formula Ford crown between Jayde Kruger and Harrison Scott, which was decided in the national court after a penultimate race clash led to a penalty, an appeal and a counter appeal.

GP2 once again supplied the best?race, with Raffaele Marciello tracking down, duelling with, then beating Stoffel Vandoorne in greasy conditions to win the Spa feature race. Felipe Nasr qualified 11th, but made several bold overtakes to finish fourth.

Part Two of Formula Scout’s Review of the 2010s will cover every season from 2015 to present
Additional reporting by Peter Allen

The post Formula Scout Review of the 2010s Part 1: 2010 – 2014 appeared first on Formula Scout.

Photo: Ferrari

While McLaren, Red Bull, and arguably Mercedes have used their junior programmes and support to bring drivers from the fringes of karting into top Formula 1 seats, it’s Ferrari’s recent decision to put its junior Charles Leclerc into a seat with the factory team that has made its driver development programme look the one in the strongest shape at present.

This coincides with the Ferrari Driver Academy’s 10th anniversary, celebrated last week, and so Formula Scout has looked through the 17 drivers that have officially been through its doors since May 2009.

The Academy was supposedly inspired in romantic terms by the words of Ferrari founder Enzo Ferrari:??I?d like to think that Ferrari can create drivers as well as cars”.

It was really brought about by the success story of Felipe Massa, who had been contracted to Ferrari since the start of his F1 career, and after a spell at Sauber joined the factory team and went on to finish a close runner-up to Lewis Hamilton in the 2008 standings.

Driving achievements while as a Ferrari Driver Academy member are listed in italics.

10. Gianluca Petecof BRAZIL
Currently 1st in 2019 Italian F4, currently 7th in ’19 ADAC F4, 4th in 2018 Italian F4, 10th in ’18 Italian F4

Having become a star on the Brazilian and world stage in karting, and earned the backing of Ferrari partner Shell during that time, it wasn?t a surprise when Gianluca Petecof was signed to the Ferrari Driver Academy.

Last year, the youngster was placed with trusted ally Prema for ADAC and Italian Formula 4, arguably the best team in the two Tatuus-using series, and finished 10th and fourth respectively. He was mostly under the radar, but there was a change in form at the end of the year where he was on the podium in four of the final six Italian races and took his first win.

Over winter the FDA must have worked its magic, for Petecof looks a different driver. His elbows out style has won him races, although not necessarily plaudits, and he leads Italian F4 with three wins from the first five races. A manic season opener in Germany has left him seventh in the standings, but he started in style with victory from pole by a staggering 14 seconds.

It?s a rate of progression that shows what kind of effect a F1 junior team can have, although ultimately the true test of how will it?s preparing the 16-year-old will come in the higher formulas.

9. Callum Ilott?BRITAIN

Currently 14th in 2019 F2, 3rd in 2018 GP3 – 4th in 2017 European F3, 4th in 2016 Masters of F3, 5th in ’16 Macau GP

Photo: FIA Formula 2

Photo: FIA Formula 2

When a driver is blindingly quick, in any piece of kit they sit in, they can face huge expectation, and therefore any results that sit below that diminish the ?bank? of praise they sit on.

Callum Ilott is one of the obvious drivers such a reputation can be attributed to, but the 20-year-old Briton has actually weathered those high expectations, which is partly thanks to the FDA.

Red Bull took Ilott straight from karts to FIA European Formula 3, attempting to repeat the success it had with Max Verstappen, but dropped him from after one season where was 12th in the points and only graced the podium once.

Ilott stuck at it in F3 for two more years, putting in some remarkable displays of driver ability along the way. Having previously not taken risks on drivers who could considered to be losing career momentum, Ferrari refreshingly played its cards on Ilott in October 2017, and it?s been well rewarded.

He wasn?t at his best in the very different GP3 car last year, but when Ilott returned to F3 for the Macau Grand Prix he was immediately one to watch, and this year?s promotion to Formula 2 with additional backing from Sauber has already resulted in a podium.

At the most recent Monaco round there was every reminder of why Ilott is so highly-rated when he qualified on the front row, and a pre-race car problem likely denied him a shot at a momentous first win.

8. Antionio Fuoco?ITALY
7th in 2018 F2, 8th in 2017 F2, 3rd in 2016 GP3, 6th in 2015 GP3, 5th in 2014 European F3, 2013 FR2.0 Alps champion

Photo: Ferrari

Photo: FIA Formula 2

Italian Antonio Fuoco has been rewarded for his longstanding commitment to Ferrari since joining its junior programme by working his way to the main team as a simulator driver.

Fuoco did not need much time to impress as part of the FDA, doing so in 2013 with a stellar maiden single-seater campaign where he beat more experienced countryman Luca Ghiotto to the Formula Renault 2.0 Alps title.

From there he raced in European F3, where he had to contend with the likes of Esteban Ocon, Tom Blomqvist and Max Verstappen. He finished a solid fifth in the standings, before moving on to GP3. He was the top Carlin driver in 2015, before troubling ART Grand Prix?s Charles Leclerc and Alexander Albon in 2016 with Trident. His reward for that was a move to F2 for 2017.

In an all-FDA line-up at Prema, Fuoco struggled against Leclerc, which ultimately has become his undoing. Once his season got going, Fuoco was incredibly solid and took victory at home but he had no answer for his team-mate.

With new team Charouz in 2018, the results were rarely better even if the performances were seriously improved considering the new team factor. He would win his final race in the series, before graduating from the FDA, where he now has a consultant role to the younger drivers alongside sim and test duties with the F1 team.

7. Marcus Armstrong?NEW ZEALAND
Currently 4th in 2019 FIA F3, 2nd in ’19 TRS, 5th in ’18 European F3, 2017 Italian F4 champion, 2nd in 2017 ADAC F4

Photo: FIA Formula 3

Photo: Bruce Jenkins

Marcus Armstrong keeps on getting better, but you can?t help but think that he?s still driving far from his best.

A prime example would be this year?s Toyota Racing Series, where he drove superbly but simultaneously struggled in some part and lost the much coveted New Zealand Grand Prix and TRS title to fellow Kiwi Liam Lawson.

In 2018, he finished fifth with one win in European F3, but led the standings early on as a rookie. It was a result that seemed slightly disappointing, as Armstrong?s maturity belied the fact that he was still only in his second full season of single-seaters and Europe.

The year before, Armstrong had won the Italian F4 championship as a rookie and come very close to winning the ADAC title too, his first year benefitting from Ferrari support.

He?s now racing in GP3-succeeding FIA F3 Championship, and sits fourth after two races. He could well win the title, the only problem being there?s another Ferrari junior ahead of him in the standings….

6. Robert Shwartzman?RUSSIA
Currently 1st in 2019 FIA F3, 2018 TRS champion, 3rd in ’18 European F3 – 3rd in 2017 FR Eurocup, 6th in 2016 FR NEC

Photo: FIA F3 Championship

Photo: FIA F3 Championship

Robert Shwartzman is quietly making a very strong name for himself as a Ferrari junior, and is methodically working his way up the ladder towards F1 as part of the stable.

The Russian was added to the FDA shortly before the final round of the 2017 Formula Renault Eurocup. The weekend after he took two wins and a second to secure third in the championship in his sophomore season.

However, 2018 was the year Shwartzman really started to impress. He kicked off the year by winning the Toyota Racing Series title as a rookie, and also joined European F3 as a slightly overlooked rookie prospect.

His season started somewhat slowly, but he took two wins in his run of eighth podiums in the last nine races, and was the winner of the last ever European F3 race.

This led Shwartzman to beating fellow rookie and FDA member Armstrong to the rookie title, and third overall in the standings. His rise in form coincided with that of Mick Schumacher?s. Of Schumacher?s five successive wins, Shwartzman followed him home in four of them.

It almost seems fitting in that case that Shwartzman would also win the first ever FIA Formula 3 Championship race at the start of 2019, where he has asserted himself as a favourite for the title right from the off.

5. Lance Stroll?CANADA
Currently 16th in 2019 F1, 12th in 2017 F1, 2016 European F3 champion – 2015 TRS champion, 2014 Italian F4 champion

Photo: Racing Point F1 Team

Lance Stroll was signed by Ferrari as a karter, and although his career was propelled by money he more than made up for it applying what the FDA taught him when he entered cars.

He won the first ever Italian F4 title in 2014, and followed up that with a equally as convincing title win in the difficult Toyota Racing Series. In just his second season of car racing he was already expected to be a title challenger in European F3, and although he fell short of that objective he did win a race in a classic season.

Stroll certainly wasn?t the cleanest driver in the field, which was a criticism many used as his pace was unquestionable, but his father Lawrence took the family money to Williams for the second season in F3, in which he took a stunning 14 wins out of 30.

That 2016 season was enough to convince Williams to make him an F1 driver a year later, and the Canadian rewarded that faith in his rookie season. Since then he?s been a little underwhelming, bar his noticeably strong first laps, but is still scoring points with the revived Racing Point team, a operation saved by the investment of his father.

He may not be a top talent within the F1 grid, but he?s stood on the podium and started on the front row before, something many more highly rated drivers are yet to achieve.

4. Raffaele Marciello?ITALY
Currently 1st in 2019 IGTC, 2018 BGTS champion, 4th in 2016 GP2 – 2013 European F3 champion, 2nd in 2012 European F3

Photo: FIA Formula 2

Photo: Blancpain GT Series

When karting graduate Raffaele Marciello was signed to the FDA, at the age of 15, he was seen as the next great Italian hope for F1 and the Scuderia.

In his first two years in single-seaters, in Formula Abarth and Italian F3, he won little though and finished third in the standings twice.

In 2012 he moved up to European F3, and became a breakout star as he took runner-up spot. He would remain the in series for another year, adding a title and 13 wins to his existing seven wins and Pau Grand Prix victory from his rookie season.

Despite a test in Formula Renault 3.5, Ferrari chose to place Marciello in GP2 for 2014. After one win and a further three podiums, he ended the year in eighth overall. In Abu Dhabi, Marciello got his first F1 test with Ferrari, and was made Sauber?s reserve driver for 2015.

After improving in his second year in GP2, with more consistent results, Sauber chose not to renew his contract despite running him in four free practice sessions. 2015 also spelled the end of his time with Ferrari, which Marciello put down to the incoming management.

Since then his stock has only risen though, starring in his final GP2 and becoming one of the best GT racers in the world as a factory Mercedes driver. He was the Blancpain GT Series champion in 2018, and is favourite for this year’s intercontinental title.

3. Jules Bianchi?FRANCE
17th in 2014 F1, 2nd in 2012 FR3.5, 3rd in ’10 GP2 – 2009 F3 Euro Series champion, 2008 Masters of F3 winner

Photo: FIA Formula 2

Photo: FIA Formula 2

Jules Bianchi was the perfect example of a Ferrari junior driver and was destined to drive for the Scuderia. While cruelly denied that opportunity, he showcased serious ability behind the wheel of a grand prix car in his career.

Managed by Nicolas Todt from a young age, Bianchi became the first driver signed to the FDA in 2009 after a strong F3 Euro Series campaign with ART. He won the title, beating future F1 drivers Valtteri Bottas, Esteban Gutierrez and Brendon Hartley.

A leap to GP2 produced solid-but-unspectacular results despite some scintillating qualifying pace. A second season did not result in the title, but Bianchi produced a memorable win at Silverstone on his way to third in the standings for the second consecutive year.

Bianchi moved to Formula Renault 3.5 for 2012, where he featured in the epic title bout with Robin Frijns and Sam Bird. After a collision in the final round, Bianchi finished the season second by four points with three wins. During the year, he also participated in numerous tests on loan with Force India.

After impressing with F1 minnow Marussia, it seemed likely that Bianchi would one day graduate to Ferrari to replace Kimi Raikkonen. Sadly, he lost his life to injuries sustained in the 2014 Japanese Grand Prix.

2. Sergio Perez?MEXICO
Currently 9th in 2019 F1, 7th in 2016 & ’17 F1, 2nd in 2010 GP2, 4th in 2008 British F3 ?- 10th in 2012 F1, 16th in 2011 F1

Photo: FIA Formula 2

Photo: Racing Point F1 Team

After finishing runner-up to Pastor Maldonado in GP2 in 2010, Ferrari signed up Sergio Perez days after he was announced as Sauber’s driver for the 2011 season.

His debut season was mixed, with his best result being seventh place at the British Grand Prix, and he suffered concussion following his crash exiting the tunnel during Monaco GP qualifying. Ultimately he was unable to beat team-mate Kamui Kobayashi in the championship standings.

In September 2011, Perez undertook his first test for Ferrari at Fiorano, in its 2009 car. Despite being highly rated by Stefano Domenicali, speculation about the future after the test was downplayed by Sauber.

The world?s attention would be caught at the 2012 Malaysian GP, when Perez battled with Fernando Alonso for the win in the rain. He would follow this up with third place in Canada and second in Italy, where he was the best placed driver with a Ferrari engine.

Luca di Montezemolo effectively ruled Perez out of replacing Massa for 2013, due to a lack of experience, and he instead signed for McLaren. But with signing for McLaren, Perez was forced to relinquish his place at the FDA.

Being pushed out of McLaren after one season also proved to be a career blessing for Perez, as he’s become one of F1’s most respected and trusted drivers with the team that is now called Racing Point.

1. Charles Leclerc MONACO
Currently 5th in 2019 F1, 13th in 2018 F1, 4th in 2015 European F3 – 2017 F2 champion, 2016 GP3 champion

Photo: FIA Formula 2

Photo: FIA Formula 2

Charles Leclerc is the single biggest star to have emerged from the Ferrari Driver Academy, and is now pushing four-time world champion team-mate Sebastian Vettel at Scuderia Ferrari. And he’s only in his second season of F1.

He joined the academy in 2016, and won the GP3 and F2 titles one after the other despite going through a time of personal turmoil.

During this time, he earned?himself tests with both Haas and Ferrari in 2017, and after showing considerable promise he was signed by Alfa Romeo Sauber for the 2018 F1 season.

Ever self-critical, Leclerc admitted that the juggling of his increasing F1 test commitments and junior racing career was a difficult task to handle.

Leclerc made a reasonable start to his rookie F1 season, and once he found his confidence he produced a number of point finishes. His 13th place in the standings was earned with 10 points finishes and sixth place in the Azerbaijan GP.

Those standout results secured him a Ferrari drive for this year, becoming the first member of the Ferrari Driver Academy to race for the Maranello team.

Leclerc has once again shown his potential as a future world champion, narrowly missing out on his first victory in Bahrain after suffering engine issues, and he has proven he is not afraid to go wheel-to-wheel with his Vettel.

It is only the start of his Ferrari career, but he could just be the kind of driver the Scuderia has been looking for since the departure of Michael Schumacher.

Written by Rachel Hillman, Rob Hansford, Elliot Wood and Craig Woollard.

The post 10 years of the Ferrari Driver Academy: The top 10 talents appeared first on Formula Scout.

The idea that Formula 1 contains the 20 greatest drivers in the world is an unrealistic unfair assumption, especially when you consider the strength and breadth of talent outside of the supposed ‘pinnacle of motorsport’.

We all know various factors, such as finances, injury and just sheer bad timing can prevent an extremely promising driver from reaching F1, meaning that many great drivers have to display their talent in other top-tier series.

The FIA Formula 3 European Championship built a reputation as the greatest proving ground for young drivers since its revamp in 2012, having previously run as the F3 Euro Series between 2003-’11. Confusingly, the two coexisted for the ’12 season.

In its seven years of FIA blessing, it produced 12 F1 graduates, compared to the six that third tier rival and F1 support GP3 was able to supply.

The quality of the grids each year was maintained at a high level not only in terms of drivers but also chassis-optimisation and engine competition, something lacking in the new FIA F3 championship that it makes way for.

It’s not just the European F3 drivers that have reached F1 that prove the series’ pedigree, with champions and race winners in Super Formula, Formula E, DTM, Blancpain GT and Super GT all honing their craft in Dallara’s much-loved F3 chassis.

Here are 10 of the best European F3 drivers (who raced between 2012-’18) to never make it to F1.

As they were ran to the same regulations and majority filled with European F3 drivers, we have considered the editions of the Macau Grand Prix and Masters of F3 during this period an extension of the drivers’ achievements for the sake of this article.

Raffaele Marciello?ITALY?24y/o
currently 2nd in 2019 Intercontinental GT Challenge, 2018 Blancpain GT Series champion -?2013 European F3 champion

Marciello was the breakout star of the first re-branded European F3 season. He announced himself on an international level by winning the Pau Grand Prix as a rookie, and then won twice on his first visit to Brands Hatch to take an early championship lead.

He was eventually overtaken by his more experienced Prema team-mate Daniel Jundacella, but it was Jundacella who looked more like the rookie, earning two disqualifications in successive weekends, the first of which had resulted in Jundacella robbing Marciello of victory.

Marciello’s charge effectively ended at Zandvoort, where team-mate Sven Muller’s over-cautious safety car restart caused the Ferrari junior to run into the back of him, capping off a miserable weekend for Marciello.

Marciello battled back in his second F3 season in 2013, taking 12 poles and 13 wins to triumph in a thrilling title duel with Mucke Motorsport’s Felix Rosenqvist, with the killer blow delivered at Marciello’s home round at Vallelunga – winning two of the three races as Rosenqvist’s title challenge crumbled amid a number of mistakes and technical issues.

Although he was never quite able to deliver on his full potential in GP2, he was Sauber’s F1 reserve driver and has since demonstrated his class in the Blancpain GT Series with Mercedes-Benz by winning the overall and Sprint titles in 2018, with many calling him the top GT driver of 2018.

Alexander Sims?ENGLAND?25y/o
currently 10th in 2018-19 FE, 2nd in 2015 British GT – 2nd in 2010 Masters of F3,?4th in 2009 & ’10 F3 Euro Series

Alexander Sims’ junior career was patchy. Not in terms of results like most drivers, but in terms of appearances. He spent two years racing in the F3 Euro Series, finishing fourth in the points both years, before moving to GP3 in 2011, where he finished sixth with one win.

When his backing from the Gravity management firm was then pulled, he initially looked to sportscars, but he did return to F3 during ’12, making a one-off appearance with underdog T-Sport (running a ThreeBond engine) at the Nurburgring. Two of the three races counted for FIA points, with Sims winning the one that didn’t, beating regular frontrunners Marciello, Juncadella and Pascal Wehrlein.

In ’13 he increased his track time with T-Sport to four rounds, taking five podiums for a team on a shoestring budget and with minimal experience of the championship.

He spent 2014 racing in British GT, but Hitech GP snapped him up for a development role the following year and he drove in two of the final three F3 rounds – finishing in the top five twice before returning to the Macau Grand Prix with Double R Racing and finishing third.

In 2016, Sims made his final F3 appearance, joining Hitech for the Hockenheim season finale and getting a top five result.

As Sims scaled back his single-seater commitments, his reputation increased internationally as a BMW factory driver in GTs. Ge came close to the British GT and IMSA GTLM titles while doing development work on BMW’s FE programme, and was rewarded for his work with a single-seater return alongside old GP3 team-mate Antonio Felix da Costa as part of the BMW Andretti line-up in FE for the 2018-19 season.

Off-track Sims is one of the most unassuming racing drivers, whose politeness masks his ruthless talent behind the wheel. This is already evident in FE, where he was denied an first win after clashing with da Costa in Marrakesh, and arguably should’ve been on the podium in each of the first three races. Watch this space.

Alex Lynn?ENGLAND?25y/o
6th in 2015 & ’16 GP2, 2014 GP3 champion – 2013 Macau GP winner, 2nd in 2013 Masters of F3,?3rd in 2013 European F3

After impressing in a part-season with Fortec in ’12, Lynn was snapped up by Prema to partner eventual champion Raffaele Marciello for the following season. While he was unable to match Marciello’s consistency over the season, he still shone, taking a triple-pole on home turf at Brands Hatch, three wins across the season and third in the standings.

His most impressive achievement was saved for his final race of the year – Macau. Lynn excelled around the twisty street circuit, showing raw bravery and speed and unsurprisingly winning the grand prix. The year previous, he had taken pole in his first visit and ended as top rookie in third.

Lynn moved to GP3 in 2014 with Red Bull backing, winning the title with Carlin. He became Williams’ development driver the following season, and dovetailed his duties with a solid rookie year in GP2. He failed to make a significant step in his second year, and with Lance Stroll’s arrival at Williams, Lynn’s F1 chances faded.

It didn’t take long for the wider motorsport world to take notice of Lynn. He won the Sebring 12 hour and Spa 6 hour races in 2017, and took pole position on his FE debut in New York. This earned him a full-time seat for the 2017-’18 season with DS Virgin, where he was plagued with bad luck.

Aston Martin now has Lynn’s signature, and he races in the World Endurance Championship’s GTE Pro class.

Lucas Auer?AUSTRIA?24y/o
2nd in 2012 German F3, 3rd in 2013 & ’19 TRS, 6th in 2017 DTM – 2nd in 2014 Macau GP, 4th in 2013 & ’14 European F3

The nephew of F1 race-winner Gerhard Berger has returned to junior single-seaters this year for the Toyota Racing Series and Super Formula as a Red Bull junior, but has spent the last five years in the DTM with Mercedes.

Auer’s previous single-seater stint ended in victory as he won the final race of the ’14 European F3 season – considered one of the greatest F3 seasons of all time – with Mucke. One year prior he’d finished fourth in the championship with Prema, but behind two of his team-mates.

His year with Mucke was far more impressive, taking 13 podiums from 30 races, and beating the likes of Antonio Giovinazzi, team-mate Felix Rosenqvist, Jordan King and Jake Dennis. He was narrowly beaten by Rosenqvist in Macau.

In four years in the DTM he picked him up four wins, and his single-seater return has been prompted by previous employer Mercedes’s DTM departure. Auer’s comeback showing in TRS was troublesome, with tyres proving particularly challenging, but the pace was still there. He won once, and took pole for the coveted New Zealand GP.

Felix Rosenqvist?SWEDEN?27y/o
3rd in 2017 Super Formula, 3rd in 2016-17 FE, 6th in 2017-18 FE, 11th in 2016 Blancpain GT Series, 12th in 2016 Indy Lights – 2015 European F3 champion, 2014 & ’15 Macau GP winner, 2011 & ’13 Masters of F3 winner, 2nd in 2013 European F3

Rosenqvist has won in FE, Super Formula, Indy Lights and Blancpain as a rookie, has been poached by legendary IndyCar team Chip Ganassi Racing for the upcoming season, yet has never driven an F1 car.

After success in Formula Renault 2.0 and an indifferent German F3 campaign,?Rosenqvist burst onto the international scene in 2011 with fifth in the F3 Euro Series and Masters of F3 victory with Mucke.

He spent the next two seasons with the team, while Mercedes assisted in making sure he had the budget to compete, and was third in the ’12 European F3 standings – the best non-Prema driver.

That was followed by a stellar ’13, where his 10 wins wasn’t enough to beat Marciello to the title, and he got another Masters win. Budget limitations meant F3 was where Rosenqvist stayed in ’14, his fourth season proving to be his worst despite Pau GP victory, slumping to eighth in the standings.

He’d been fighting against the might of Prema his entire F3 career up to that point, but he joined them for 2015, ending his association with Mucke after four years together. Facilitated by the Stroll family, this decision paid off with a supreme season, where he beat Antonio Giovinazzi, Jake Dennis and Charles Leclerc to the crown, as well as picking up a second successive Macau win.

Since he left the series at the end of 2015, he’s driven in most other top tiers of motorsport, with success in Formula E, Super Formula and Super GT. This has accumulated in him securing a full-time IndyCar ride with Chip Ganassi Racing for 2019.

All-time FIA European Formula 3 statistics

Blomqvist is often forgotten when people talk about the legendary 2014 F3 season, which saw plenty of thrilling duels between Esteban Ocon and Max Verstappen. Although not in spectacular style, Blomqvist finished the year as runner-up to Ocon, beating Verstappen thanks to a stellar final weekend at Hockenheim.

After a season each with the small Ma-con and Eurointernational teams, Blomqvist got the opportunity to drive for the Jagonya Ayam-backed Carlin squad in ’14, the latter actually lacking in pedigree in European F3 at this point, having never taken a driver to the top three in the standings since joining the Euro Series in 2008.

It was also the strongest opposition yet for Blomqvist, but the 2010 FR2.0 UK champion was unfazed and demonstrated his talent with wins at six of the 11 rounds.

BMW swiftly snapped him up for DTM, where he won in his rookie season then was sixth in the standings the year after. A part season in FE with BMW’s backing wasn’t entirely successful, but he is now one of the manufacturer’s?leading GT assets.

Jake Dennis ENGLAND?23y/o
2nd in 2019 Bathurst 12 Hours, 4th in 2016 GP3? – 3rd in 2015 European F3, 9th in 2014 European F3, 9th in 2015 Macau GP

2014 was far from the easiest year for Jake Dennis to make his F3 debut, but he placed third in the rookies’ championship with Carlin, only behind Ocon and Verstappen.

His debut efforts earned him a seat with Prema for ’15, and he improved to third in the standings, ahead of four 2019 F1 drivers. Pau highlighted his excellence, as he took a triple pole and two race victories to propel him into a title fight with the more experienced Rosenqvist and Giovinazzi.

His challenge faded amid inconsistencies and a nightmare weekend at the Norisring, but he’d firmly put himself among the best British racing drivers around, and secured himself a GP3 seat with Arden for the following year. The Racing Steps Foundation-backed driver finished fourth but returned to Euro F3 for 2017, competing in the opening three rounds for Carlin, helping its rookies and regularly sacrificing?his own race results for the benefit of his team-mates – a testament to his willingness and ability to play the team game.

He’s now carved a career in GT racing for himself, with a stunning pole lap for the Bathurst 12 Hours his most recent achievement (even if a small technical breach stripped him of it). Driving F1 cars is part of his job now too, having become a valuable part of Red Bull Racing’s test and simulator programme.

Nick Cassidy?NEW ZEALAND?24y/o
2017 Super GT champion, 2nd in 2018 Super Formula – 3rd in 2014 Macau GP,?4th in 2016 European F3

Two-time TRS champion Nick Cassidy made sporadic appearances in European F3 from 2013-’15, before finally racing there full-time with Prema in 2016.

His season started with three second places, but a combination of misfortune, playing second fiddle to team-mate Lance Stroll and a failure to deliver the goods meant Cassidy was not a title threat. Commuting from Japan -? where he was undertaking his debut season in Super GT after winning the national F3 title the previous season – may also have played its part.

At the Hungaroring, the wear on his tyres was so extreme that his rubber was shot on the formation lap of one race, and he had engine and gearbox issues at the Red Bull Ring and Norisring.

Fourth in the standings was a disappointment by all standards, especially as Cassidy’s name had been on people’s lips since his stunning third place as a rookie with T-Sport in the ’14 Macau GP.

The New Zealander’s achievements since have made up for it, winning the 2017 Super GT title in his first full season and finishing a close second last year, then coming achingly close to the 2018 Super Formula title as a rookie.

Cassidy is a good example of a driver who didn’t waste years of his career scrambling for an unlikely F1 seat by racing in F2/GP3 for several years, but instead one who is among the best racing in Japan right now.

Maximilian Gunther?GERMANY?21y/o
currently 18th in 2018-19 FE, 14th in 2018 F2 – 2nd in 2016 European F3, 3rd in 2017 European F3, 5th in 2017 Macau GP

The disbelief at the recent news that Dragon has dropped Maximilian Gunther just three rounds into his debut FE season should tell you all you need to know about the quality of the 21-year-old’s career so far.

He made his F3 debut in 2015 with Mucke, impressing immediately by qualifying third for six successive races early in the season. He struggled to convert these into race results, with only one podium at Pau to show for it.

However, he produced the goods at the Norisring with a stunning win from 12th on the grid. Team-mate tensions boiled over leading to his premature departure from Mucke, but he found a new home with Prema, and impressed in his one-off outing with them in the ’15 season finale.

Unsurprisingly this led to a full-time drive for ’16, in which he finished runner-up to champion Stroll. Considering the extra testing miles and backing behind his team-mate, Gunther could be pleased with his efforts.

For ’17 he chose a third season in F3, as he still had much to improve in his driving. He dropped a spot in the standings, but had a much better, more rounded year. He didn’t quite have the outright pace to match the might of Lando Norris, but he could regularly wrestle himself in front of the Englishman in races.

He moved up to Formula 2 with Arden last year, but the partnership was never an easy one, with his focus moving on to securing a FE drive having become Dragon’s reserve driver. One win and five other points finishes was enough to convince Dragon to promote him to a race seat, and he missed the final F2 round in preparation.

His FE debut was a chastening experience, but in the Santiago E-Prix he starred in qualifying, and was doing even better in the race before a technical failure intervened.

Gunther is still Dragon’s reserve driver and may be recalled later in the year. Regardless, it’s a shame that the German has ended up on the sidelines.

Joel Eriksson?SWEDEN?20y/o
14th in 2018 DTM – 2016 Masters of F3 winner,?2nd in 2017 European F3, 2nd in 2018 Macau GP, 5th in 2016 European F3

Younger brother to former GP2 driver Jimmy, Joel Eriksson has reaped the rewards of sticking with one team in his single-seater career.

Two years in entry-level German categories helped forge a strong relationship with Motopark, with whom he graduated to F3 in style with in ’16

That season he was paired up with Red Bull juniors Niko Kari and Sergio Sette Camara, beating them both and soon finding himself being courted by BMW. Having one victory to his name (aside from his excellent Masters of F3 win at Zandvoort) did no justice to what Eriksson was achieving that year.

People were taking Eriksson and Motopark seriously for 2017, and he pushed now-McLaren F1 driver Norris for the title. He won in each of the first four rounds but a mid-season qualifying dip meant his three wins in the last five races were too late to deny Norris.

The 19-year-old then switched to the DTM with BMW, and faired well against his more-experienced team-mates. Everything fell into place at the Misano round for him to take a rather fortunate maiden victory, helping him to 14th in the standings.

Late last year he returned to F3 with Motopark to tackle the Macau GP. He made the most of a bruising weekend to finish second, and his street circuit nous may come useful were he to race in FE in the future.

Honourable mentions?

The most obvious absentee from this list is 2012 champion Daniel Juncadella. His title victory was marred with controversy, with two disqualifications for his driving. It was still an impressive year, but his results since have been unremarkable. Five DTM campaigns with Mercedes yielded just one win, but he’s still a part of the manufacturer’s motorsport plans.

Harry Tincknell has established himself as one of Ford’s leading GT lights, while Pipo Derani is arguably the most exciting young driver in prototypes. Jordan King may have lost his full-time IndyCar drive for 2019, but that was down to a lack of finances rather than talent after a solid debut season. Ed Jones?meanwhile has solidified himself as a staple of the IndyCar grid, heading into his third season and chasing a first win.

The classic entries

Between 1975 and ‘1984, the FIA ran a championship that was also named European F3. It too produced many an F1 driver, including the likes of Alain Prost, but also had its fair share of overlooked talents.

Anders Olofsson?(1952-2008) was one of many Swedes who flourished in European F3 when Scandinavia had its own F3 championships to supply talent from.

Two titles at home nearly translated into success on the continent, as he finished second in both the 1977 and ’78 standings. In total, he picked up 18 wins across six years.

Like contemporary Rosenqvist, he was fast in whatever he sat in, and won titles in prototypes and touring cars in Japan. His crowning achievement was overall victory at the 1997 Le Mans 24 Hours, achieved in a GT car.

John Nielsen, from neighbouring Denmark, also appeared across six seasons, and was runner-up in 1983. He made up for that loss by triumphing at Macau a year later. After that he topped he podium in F3000, won Le Mans in 1990 for Jaguar, the ’95 Global GT and ’97 Super GT titles in McLarens, and was winning in prototypes as late as 2008.

The post Top 10 European Formula 3 drivers that F1 missed out on appeared first on Formula Scout.

Raffaele Marciello returned to a single-seater cockpit on Sunday with Mercedes ally HWA in FE testing. He tells Josh Sutill why F1 wasn’t his final destination.

While one Mercedes junior is arriving on the Formula 1 scene in 2019, another looks set to depart it. Neither are guaranteed a future race seat with the manufacturer and are unlikely to taste the kind of success that Mercedes-contracted Raffaele Marciello enjoyed in 2018. His talent is certainly deserving of an F1 seat, and not too long ago he was Ferrari’s next big thing. Instead, he’s sweeping the floor in GT racing with its F1 rival.

Last year, the Swiss-born Italian became the first driver to win all three Blancpain GT Series titles in the same calendar year before a penalty appeal by a sister Mercedes trio post-season cost him his Endurance Cup. He also finished third in the Intercontinental series, which included dominating the inaugural Suzuka 10 hours. In just his second year in GTs, it was a prime example of what can be achieved by drivers who don’t make it in F1.

Back in 2012, 17-year-old Marciello announced himself as a future star by taking a rookie Pau Grand Prix win by over 13 seconds, prompting Prema boss Rene Rosin to say he had “speed in his heart”. He then won five European Formula 3 races in a row, an achievement only bettered by Max Verstappen. He lost out on the title, but a year later came back to beat Felix Rosenqvist, winning 13 of the 30 races.

“For sure, it was a good year when I won F3, it was an FIA championship, and it was really big at that moment,” Marciello tells Formula Scout.

“After winning this championship, everyone in Italy, and in Europe, thought that I was going to be the next Italian star in Formula 1 and this kind of thing, a real home star.

“It was good in F3 if you’re with a top team but like in every category, if you’re not with a team like Prema or Carlin, you can’t compete. When I won the championship, it’s also thanks to the car – because I had the best car, quite easy to be quick.

“I think without counting this year, it was the best year of my career. Winning 13 races and on the podium 19 times was amazing.”

Marciello had attracted the support of Ferrari three years prior when he entered Italian Formula 4 predecessor Formula Abarth. He won his first race and finished third in the standings, and was a winner in Italian F3 a year later. Ferrari’s support seemed to waiver after his European F3 success though.

He made his GP2 debut in 2014 with Racing Engineering and finished eighth in the standings. He won the feature race at Spa-Francorchamps after triumphing in a thrilling duel with Stoffel Vandoorne, but just weeks earlier had been publicly panned by Ferrari for his performances.

Marciello demonstrated raw speed throughout the season, achieving one of the best qualifying records, but suffered from horrible luck, ranging from a collision with Daniel Abt in the Barcelona feature race to transmission failure at Silverstone, where he’d secured his maiden pole position and was fighting for victory. It took until round four at the Red Bull Ring to score his first points – a pair of podiums.

“I was still pretty young, I was only 19 when I did GP2 in the first year,” Marciello adds.

“My speed was pretty good because I was the only driver to qualify top eight in every session. My race pace was also quite good. I made some rookie mistakes, many mistakes at the start of the race, some during the pitstops, I didn’t have the best year but I learned a lot in it.”

Marcello moved to Trident for his second year in the category, and he found much greater consistency, but with a team that had only once finished inside the top five of the teams’ championship since the series launched.

He scored 110 of the team’s 111 points that year, including four podium finishes. The only comparable example of one-upmanship is Romain Grosjean at DAMS in 2011. The Trident deal made it clear that Ferrari wasn’t willing to spend on top seats.

“The driving was just too difficult, the car was not there,” Marciello recalls.

“The other teams were stronger. I tried my best, I think I had a pretty good year and I didn’t make many mistakes.

“Podiums and a pole position in Monte Carlo in the wet [Marciello was fastest in his group but not overall due to differing weather] – the wrong moment in the wrong team.”

In 2015 he did make his F1 grand prix weekend debut, driving for Sauber in the free practice 1 in Malaysia. He’d also done well driving a Ferrari in a post-season test the year before, and was being courted by Mercedes’ DTM programme.

His relationship with Ferrari was breaking down though, with management restructuring leading to the previously arranged plans for Marciello changing.

“I think I was in the wrong moment with wrong person lets say,” Marciello says.

“In this year, all the mess with Ferrari came up. [Stefano] Domenicali and [Luca] di Montezemolo left, they had some plan but when [Marco] Mattiacci and then [Maurizio] Arrivabene came in, and they didn’t want to respect this plan.”

In January 2016 he split with the Ferrari Driver Academy, and his deal as Sauber reserve driver ended. He signed with Russian Time for a third GP2 season, partnering Artem Markelov and keeping himself on the F1 radar.

He enjoyed his most successful season to date, finishing fourth in the standings, taking six podium finishes and remaining in title contention until the penultimate race. Mercedes recognised his potential and snapped him up.

“In my final year in GP2, I finished behind the two Premas and level on points with [Sergey] Sirotkin. It was the best I could do with Russian Time, but they [Mercedes] believed in me, I’m happy to give something back to them.”

Marciello was put into a Blancpain programme with the French AKKA ASP team and had to learn how to drive the front-engined Mercedes-AMG GT, a very different machine to an F2 car. They quickly became a formidable combination and excelled last year. At the Hungaroring, Marciello mastered changeable conditions to come away with second and a win in two sprint races – performances that proved crucial in winning the sprint and overall title.

In the FIA GT World Cup at Macau, Marciello took a stunning pole, repeating his qualifying-topping performance from his Grand Prix appearance in 2013.

With Mercedes entering Formula E next year, there’s an opportunity for Marciello to return to single-seaters, but he affirms that although he tested in the series with Mercedes’ long-time DTM partner HWA in Marrakesh, it is out of his hands.

“[In 2019] I will still be a Mercedes driver, so I’ll do more or less the same stuff as 2018.

“We still need to plan the next season, whatever they ask me to do I’ll do it, if it’s GT4 I will do GT4, if they ask me to do Formula E, I’ll do FE.

“FE can be the future, if Formula E gets bigger than F1 or close to F1, then sure it would be nice to be in F1 and race for Mercedes. Whatever they ask me to do, I’ll do my very best.”

Marciello believes his GT success shows junior drivers shouldn’t waste too many years chasing a drive in F1.

“It’s difficult, it will always be about money,” Marciello admits. “The guy with money can buy the team and then a ride in F1. Talent, in the end, will always show up, if not in F1, then in FE, GT or whatever.

“I just would like to see the mentality changing about what’s outside F1. At the moment, everyone will only watch F1 and think they’re the best drivers, but it’s not true because there are many drivers in GT3, Formula E, LMP [Le Mans Prototypes] etc. that are very good or even better than the F1 drivers.

“There won’t be space in F1 for everyone. There are too many drivers for only 20 seats. In other categories, there are so many good drivers who don’t receive the right media feedback, the right Instagram likes or whatever because they’re not racing in F1.

“This is not fair, everyone is good, I just hope one day that people will watch other categories in the same way they watch F1.

“We need the same respect as the F1 drivers. At the end of the day if you put someone like Dries Vanthoor in F1, he will be as quick as a [Pierre] Gasly, because we’re talented like them.”

Audi duo Vanthoor and Robin Frijns, Red Bull test driver Jake Dennis, and McLaren-backed Ben Barnicoat are some of the highest profile junior single-seater talents of late that are now making money in GT racing.

“I think drivers need to be more realistic because so many talents who can waste too many years in GP2 because they really want to make it to F1. It’s not always easy, and sometimes it’s better to focus on something else. I can say I’m working as a factory driver, and not many drivers can say that.”

Undoubtedly Marciello is one of the best drivers to have raced in the outgoing generation of Dallara F3 machinery, which he adores, and to say he’s failed in reaching F1 would do an injustice to the tremendous success he’s achieving at the top of another branch of motorsport.

The post The European F3 champion making the most of a Mercedes seat appeared first on Formula Scout.

See also:?50-41?40-31?30-21

20. Richard Verschoor

Photos: GEPA/ Dutch Photo Agency

New entry

Netherlands?? age 16

SMP Formula 4 champion
Spanish Formula 4 champion

A win in his first major car race (in front of the Formula 1 teams in Sochi), combined with his strong karting resume, earned Verschoor an immediate place on the Red Bull Junior Team – just days before a certain other?Dutch teenager won the next grand prix.

Initially, Verschoor struggled to perform in his new colours, with poor starts a particular issue. But he ended a tough two weekends on home ground at Zandvoort with a win, and he couldn’t be?stopped after that.

He achieved a run of five consecutive?hat-tracks across the SMP and Spanish series over the summer on his way to both?titles, and he took another two in Spain before the year was out. He won all but three of the 20 races in the Spanish series, and a further 11 in the SMP category.

He went up against tougher opposition in outings in the German and Italian series, but made the podium on his sole appearance in the latter and was quickly a top-six fixture in two rounds in the former, with the disadvantage of being on unfamiliar tyres.

F3 might have seemed like the natural next step for Verschoor (who only turned 16 last week), but he will instead head for Formula Renault in 2017 with MP Motorsport, the team that engineered his move into, and success in, F4.

19. Joey Mawson

Photos: ADAC

Up 25

Australia?? age?20

ADAC?Formula 4 champion
MRF Challenge leader

Having come third last year, anything other than winning the ADAC F4 title would have been a surprise from Mawson, but he got the job done in impressive style, largely dominating a deep?and competitive field.

Two wins and a second at the opening round set the tone,?but in Mick Schumacher he had a friendly rival (the pair were team-mates in 2015) who kept him on his toes, cutting the Australian?s lead to just three points with his?double win at Lausitz.

Mawson was undoubtedly the class of the field though, and took at least one ?feature race? win at each of the remaining five rounds.?Some damage and penalties incurred in the pack stopped him from running away with it, but he put the title out of Schumacher?s reach with two races to spare.

While it’s true that he was older and more experienced than his competition, he’s clearly very talented also.

He is now targeting the step up to Formula 3 with Van Amersfoort, which rates him, is well off?for budget and has given him several tests, but needs to be allowed?a fifth entry in order to run him.?That he matched?Joel Eriksson so closely in ADAC F4 in 2015 is a sign of what he could be capable of.

In the meantime he’s chasing another title in?the MRF Challenge, which he leads after the first two events.

18. Max Defourny

Photos: Renault Sport/DPPI

New entry

Belgium?? age 18

Third in Eurocup Formula Renault
Second in Formula Renault NEC

Impressive in his rookie season in 2015 and rapid in winter testing, Defourny began the season as a title favourite in Formula Renault and was the man to put up the biggest fight against Lando Norris.

He began perfectly with a win from pole in the Eurocup opener at Aragon, but that would somehow prove to be his only win in that series all season.

That certainly wasn’t for a lack of speed, or a lack of effort, with Defourny providing a highlight of the entire racing season as he duelled?Norris for victory at the Red Bull Ring.

Consistency kept him in touch with Norris until his home circuit of Spa, where he had an erratic pair of races when he had the speed for so much more. At Estoril he charged from 11th to challenge Norris on the last lap, where contact cost him the championship runner-up position he deserved.

He did get second place in the NEC, where he was a three-time winner, including one occasion?where he did get the better of Norris in a straight fight at Assen.

The results weren’t always what he wanted but his speed, particularly in race-trim, was superb, and he deserves credit for being the one to trouble Norris the most. He’s sampled Formula V8 3.5 and GP3 ahead of his next move.

17. Luca Ghiotto

Photos: GP2 Media Service

Down 13

Italy?? age?21

Eighth in GP2

Ghiotto proved in his step up?to GP2 that his superb GP3 form of last year was no fluke.

Making that move within Trident – a team without a strong GP2 record – was never going to be ideal, but he was competitive throughout the season, and after a rocky start in terms of results, he became a consistent frontrunner.

He came close to a feature race podium in Austria, pushed hard for the sprint race win at Silverstone and was second to the fortunate Sergey Sirotkin in the Hockenheim feature. There was a further?podium in the Spa sprint, and may have been another in the Monza feature were it not for?the safety car bungle.

His Sepang sprint win was well-deserved, and it was significant?that it came through keeping Raffaele Marciello at bay, since he did what his compatriot couldn’t last year by taking Trident to victory.

Fifth overall was in reach before his least competitive showing of the year in Abu Dhabi, and although Antonio Giovinazzi has redefined what was possible for a GP2 rookie, Ghiotto did nothing to suggest he?couldn’t do similar to his compatriot?given the same opportunity.

His ride?next year could indeed come with the Jagonya Ayam scheme, but instead of getting a plum seat at Prema, he will likely have to try and bring Arden back to its best. Based on his efforts this year, he’s capable of that.

16. Raffaele Marciello

Photos: GP2 Media Service

Re-entry (21st in 2014)

Italy?? age?22

Fourth?in GP2

Marciello ensured he didn’t disappear from public consciousness after departing the Ferrari Driver Academy last winter with a good?third year in GP2.

He managed to remain in title contention until the final round, a fine effort against the rapid Prema pair in a Russian Time car he couldn’t place on the front row all year. Scoring points in all bar three races, his consistency was beneficial in a season of widespread inconsistency.

However, for a second year, he went winless, and it wasn’t from a lack of opportunities. He led the feature races at Baku, Spielberg, Hockenheim and Monza (all as a serious win contender, not just out of sync on strategy), but he couldn’t convert any of them.

Having decided there’s nothing to be gained from carrying on in 2017, Marciello’s time in GP2 will go down as an enigma.

How could his magnificent triumph over Stoffel Vandoorne in the wet at Spa in his rookie season be his only win? And how did the man who won 13 times on his way to the European F3 title aged 18 not even come close to making it to F1? These are questions not so much for Marciello as for Ferrari, which tasked itself with developing one of Italy’s best prospects.

15. Antonio Fuoco

Photos: GP3 Media Service

Re-entry (23rd in 2014)

Italy?? age?20

Third in GP3

This was more like it from Fuoco, who has struggled to demonstrate?the same brilliance that took him to a Formula Renault title in his first season in cars three years ago.

He was able to maintain a title challenge all the way to the final round, even though it never really looked as if he would beat his new Ferrari Driver Academy stablemate Charles Leclerc to the crown.

With his three team-mates proving to be nowhere near his level, Fuoco had to single-handedly keep?Trident competitive with the new car, up against a four-strong ART super-team.

Accordingly, qualifying was a struggle, never making the front row of the grid, but Fuoco raced well and got on top of the Pirelli tyres, with his wins at Silverstone from sixth on the reverse grid and in the Hockenheim opener from fourth the clear highlights.

His great form from the first half of the season couldn’t be repeated in the second, and?his title hopes effectively ended?with an erratic race from reverse-grid pole in Malaysia.

With ART, Fuoco may well have fought Leclerc closer. Or he might have cracked under that?pressure. There’ll be nowhere to hide from that next year, when he steps up to GP2 alongside him at Prema.

At a time when Ferrari has rightly signed up?Giovinazzi as a proven?Italian talent, it’s a chance for Fuoco to show – in the very same car – that it’s been backing the right horse?all along.

14. Callum Ilott

Photos: FIA F3 European Championship

New entry

United Kingdom?? age?18

Sixth in FIA F3 European Championship

Dropped by Red Bull after being unable to ‘do a Verstappen’ after it promoted him from karts to F3, Ilott quickly showed Helmut Marko what he was missing when he won on his first weekend as an independent at Paul Ricard.

He was a winner again at the Red Bull Ring, where he emerged as Lance Stroll’s biggest challenger on track and in the standings, but next time out at the Norisring he ruined a superb fightback from an engine-change penalty by crashing into Joel Eriksson, handing Stroll victory on a plate.

His challenge faded thereafter, not helped by?Van Amersfoort showing a similar drop-off in pace to 2015.

With two rounds to go he was within five points?of third place, but his last six races consisted of one podium, another lost to a technical infringement and several incidents, and he slipped to sixth.

Ilott proved his talent and his progress in Macau though, a year on from his?fast but crash-filled debut. He was a pacesetter from the start and led through the first corner of the main event, even though the sort-out at Lisboa and a lack of balance left him fifth by the end.

Next year he will team up with Prema,?where he could thrive and become the team’s next F3 champion.

13. Sergey Sirotkin

Photos: GP2 Media Service

Down?4

Russia?? age?21

Third in GP2

It was a frustrating season for Sirotkin, and he wasn’t afraid to show it.

Stepping into Stoffel Vandoorne’s shoes at ART, the pressure was on the Russian, and at times it showed, most notably with his spin and crash in Barcelona and Monaco respectively while chasing Norman Nato for victory, leaving him point-less until a double podium in Baku.

Still, in a team that had lost its engineering?guru Guillaume Capietto to Prema over the winter, Sirotkin frequently proved his sheer speed, claiming three pole positions and being the only man capable of troubling Pierre Gasly and Giovinazzi on a regular basis.

His first win in the Hungaroring sprint race was long-awaited but brilliant, charging from sixth on the grid. The victory that followed in the next race at Hockenheim – where he pitted twice yet?finished 13 seconds clear – was lucky but still a magnificent drive.

His second place in the sprint put him into the championship lead, but he would be left rueing a ragged run-in just as much as his?dreadful start to the year, with poor weekends at Spa and Monza quickly dragging?him out of touch.

Sirotkin’s weaknesses?are nothing a season with?Prema wouldn’t sort out – particularly given that his most impressive?campaigns have been with Italian teams – but it remains to be seen whether he will race at all next year, with the best GP2 seats already secured. A continued role with the Renault F1 team looks a possibility, alongside a future in the SMP Racing LMP1 project that will operated by ART.

12. Jake Dennis

Photos: GP3 Media Service

Up 2

United Kingdom?? age?21

Fourth in GP3

This was a make-or-break season for Dennis’ single-seater ambitions, coming with the insurance policy of maiden sportscar forays through Arden’s new partnership with the Jota LMP2 squad.

Though it did indeed?prove likely to be his last year on the F1 ladder, it was far from a failure.

As an F3 convert, Dennis has to?be compared with Leclerc and Alex Albon, and to begin with he was well in their shadows as he struggled to extract any performance from the Arden package.

During the summer break he was only ninth in the standings, but in the second half of the year he scored more points than anyone else, notching up 110 of his final tally of 149.

Arden’s superior tyre preservation began to?shine through with Dennis going from 13th to second at Spa, and it then began to nail qualifying too, enabling him to win the first race at Monza. He also claimed the Sepang sprint.

Dennis, whose height costs him a couple of tenths, proved his class with that run, even though?it wasn’t enough to justify further single-seater expenditure from?the Racing Steps Foundation. A good career ought to await him elsewhere.

11. Jack Aitken

Photos: GP3 Media Service

Up 4

United Kingdom?? age?21

Fifth in GP3

The way Aitken grabbed?two Formula Renault titles at the end of last year was impressive, but his 2016 efforts were arguably even better.

He ended the GP3 season as easily the championship’s top ‘true rookie’ – that is, discounting those to have made the insignificant step up from European F3 – thanks to an incredible run of form at the end of the year.

That was in stark contrast to the beginning of the season, when he was unable to break into the top eight in the?Saturday?race?during the first four events.

When he finally did this in Germany, a reverse-grid race podium followed, and he capitalised on Arden’s upturn after the summer break to win at Spa, from 14th to fifth on Saturday and fourth to first on Sunday.

He followed team-mate Dennis home for second at Monza, then finished on the podium across all four ‘flyaway’ races, only denied a race one?win in Abu Dhabi by contact from an understandably desperate Alex Albon. By this point he was outperforming F3 convert Dennis.

Further strong showings came at either end of the year with RP Motorsport, initially in Euroformula Open with two wins from two events, later in Formula V8 3.5 where he qualified in the top three for all four races but didn’t get in enough start practice to take a strong race result.

Fast over one lap and even better in race trim, Aitken showed his Renault Sport Academy status should be more than just a token gesture for being Eurocup champion, and he would have been?worthy of?a top-10 place in this list.

He’d also be worthy of step up in machinery for 2017, but he seems keen?on boosting his reputation further with a GP3 title bid, potentially with ART.

The post PaddockScout Top 50 2016: 20-11 appeared first on Formula Scout.

Photo: GP2 Series Media Service

Sergey Sirotkin has won a chaotic GP2 feature race at Hockenheim despite having to pit twice.

The Russian had his?first pit-stop voided due to pitting under the virtual safety car, but nothing was going to deny him?as he used the advantage of the fresher tyres to overtake the field and take his second win in a row.

When the lights went out, it was Pierre Gasly who made a terrible start on the medium tyres, almost stalling the car and dropping way back beyond the top 10. On the other side of the grid, it was Sirotkin who made the perfect start and easily kept his lead while others darted around to avoid the slow Gasly.

Norman Nato was up alongside Oliver Rowland in third position after making a good start, but Rowland came back at him and was able to retake third position around the Mercedes corner. This left Nato all out of shape and allowed Alex Lynn to overtake Nato for fourth position into the Stadium Section of the track.

Meanwhile up front, Raffaele Marciello was hounding the back of Sirotkin going into the hairpin, but even though he had DRS, he was unable to pass him there. But Sirotkin had a slow exit of the hairpin and Marciello used this as a chance to get alongside the Russian and take the inside line into the Mercedes corner and take the lead of the race on only lap 2.

Lynn then made his move on Rowland for third while his team mate Nicholas Latifi did the same and got himself ahead of Nato for fifth. Rowland who was struggling on his Soft tyres was the first to pit onto the medium?tyres on only lap 7.

The first major incident was when Artem Markelov outbraked himself into the hairpin while defending from Gustav Malja, only to lose control of the car and slam straight into the back of Jordan King, bringing out the VSC.

Sirotkin had dashed into the pit-lane just as the VSC?was thrown, and was able to return to the track in fourth position on the harder compound tyres. This effectively gave him a free pit-stop as drivers cannot change tyres under the VSC, but it was unclear whether he pitted before the VSC?.

The drama did not end there as Daniel de Jong also misjudged his braking into the hairpin and speared into the side of Sean Galael, taking both drivers out and bringing out a?VSC?again.

Marciello finally pitted on lap 13, releasing the medium tyre starters Lynn, Latifi and Nato. Sirotkin was hot on their heels on his fresher tyres, but he was now under investigation for pitting during the VSC.

Latifi was clearly struggling with the harder tyres, which made it easy for Nato?to catch up and pass him. Sirotkin would also make his way through a lap later, followed by Malja, Nabil Jeffri and Nobuharu Matsushita.

Up front, Lynn on the harder tyres in the lead of the race in the other DAMS car was also struggling. Lynn had not yet pitted, which made it easy for Sirotkin to pass and take the race lead on track. But then a lap later, it was found that Sirotkin had indeed pitted under the VSC, meaning his first stop was invalidated and that he will be forced to pit again.

With Sirotkin momentarily out of the running, the driver inheriting the race lead was Marciello. Further down the field, Luca Ghiotto?and King made contact out of turn 10 with King ending up with a rear right puncture, forcing him back into the pits.

Sirtokin finally made his second pit-stop and switched back to the soft tyres, returning to the track in fifth position.

Lynn then tagged the back of Nato into turn 2, spinning the Frenchman around and causing him to stall the car on the inside of the corner, bringing out the third VSC?period.

With the final laps underway, Sirotkin was back on the move, overtaking both Rowland and Ghiotto and closed onto the back of Marciello. He made a move into the hairpin but Marciello was able to out drag him out of the corner, only for Sirotkin to fight back with an incredible late braking manoeuvre into turn 12 to retake the race lead.

With only two laps left, Ghiotto managed to catch up and pass Marciello into the hairpin to take second position.

But nothing was going to stop Sirotkin from winning, who took first position a full 13 seconds ahead of Ghiotto in second place. The final podium position went down the absolute wire as Gasly managed to catch and pass Marciello on the finish line, with the drivers separated by a time less than the timing screens would show.

Arthur Pic made his way up from 17th to finish in fifth position, followed by Rowland and Pic?s Rapax team mate Malja in sixth and seventh. Lynn would come home in eighth after receiving a time penalty for crashing into Nato, ahead of Antonio Giovinazzi who started dead last on the grid, with Matsushita rounding out the top 10.

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Photo: GP2 Series Media Service

Pierre Gasly made it two GP2 feature race wins out of two since ending his long win drought with a controlled performance at the Hungaroring.

The Red Bull Junior held the lead from pole position at the start, as Prema team-mate Antonio Giovinazzi moved up to second past a slow-launching Sergey Sirotkin.

Gasly quickly built a margin of between two and three seconds over Giovinazzi, and he effectively?maintained that for most?of the race, with most of the frontrunners using a soft-hard tyre strategy.

Gasly’s?final winning margin was 1.3 seconds, as he moves into the championship lead.

Giovinazzi gave Prema its third one-two finish of its maiden GP2 campaign, and its second such feature race result in a row.

The Italian had to soak up long pressure from Sirotkin, whose poor start dropped him to fourth before passing?Norman Nato at Turn 3 after the pit stops.

Raffaele Marciello was seventh in the early laps but had strong pace on the hard tyre before stopping later on, rejoining in fourth.

Arthur Pic had by far his best drive of 2016 so far ?- at the scene of his sole GP2 victory two years ago – took take fifth, ahead of?Nobuharu Matsushita and Nato.

From 20th on the 22-car grid,?Jimmy Eriksson drove an attacking race and stayed out longer than anyone else that started on the hard tyre. This put the Swede in eighth and poised to start the sprint race from pole before he crawled to a halt on the final lap, pulling off at the penultimate turn.

Jordan King inherited a third straight feature race eighth place, and will look to convert that to a third straight sprint race win.?Artem Markelov?finished just a tenth behind, while?Mitch Evans beat the erstwhile points leader?Oliver Rowland to 10th.

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