Photo: Red Bull

Red Bull has resolved its messy F1 driver situation for 2025, promoting Liam Lawson and Isack Hadjar, but are its chosen line-ups inspired or unprepared? Two Formula Scout writers have their say

An often dramatic and unpredictable Formula 1 silly season ahead of 2025 was finally concluded this week when Red Bull finalised the driver line-ups for its two teams.

Having waved goodbye to the underperforming Sergio Perez, it has handed Liam Lawson the daunting task of becoming team-mate to Max Verstappen at Red Bull Racing, opted to keep the more experienced Yuki Tsunoda at sister squad Racing Bulls for a fifth year and promoted Formula 2 runner-up Isack Hadjar to be his team-mate.

Here’s what Formula Scout’s writers made of the messy way the two outfits settled their 2025 line-ups, and which drivers they would have picked to put in both teams:

Talent deserves a chance, but not like this

Photo: John Cowpland / Toyota Gazoo Racing NZ

I feel sorry for Lawson. This is the dream drive he’s been aiming for since he was snapped up by Red Bull after his spectacular 2019 Toyota Racing Series campaign, but he goes in woefully underprepared for it with just 11 grand prix starts to his name.

Lawson has always had the raw talent to make it this far. The same confidence that enabled him to drive around the outside of a more experienced Marcus Armstrong in the wet on his TRS debut has been on show in his short F1 career so far, and is a vital ingredient to holding your own against the very best. But will that be enough to save him if he finds himself being dismantled by Verstappen in qualifying, as each of his predecessors have done?

The crazy thing is that Lawson could be going in with 34 F1 races under his belt had Red Bull not wasted its time trying to revive Daniel Ricciardo’s career in 2023, when it was abundantly clear from Lawson’s initial stand-in stint last year that he should have that drive. It could even be 46 races if Lawson had been chosen over Nyck de Vries at the start of that season.

In the end, he would spend hardly any of the the 12 months between his two F1 stints in a racing car at all, because Red Bull has continued to lack the sort of extensive old-car testing programmes that its rivals have.

Red Bull did so well to keep faith in Lawson’s talent and give him time on his way up the ladder, but that he doesn’t go into this ultimate chance better prepared is another failure of its modern driver development setup.

Lawson did however end up as the only viable solution to a sorry mess that’s wrapped up in the complex politics of the team – some it understandable and some of it less so.

This whole time there has been only one driver I would put in the Red Bull seat: Carlos Sainz Jr. That’s the level of well-rounded driver you need to be to go into that team and stand a chance of performing and delivering alongside Verstappen and it’s baffling that he wasn’t given more consideration, rather than being left to find refuge at Williams.

Much has been made of the fractions that broke out when a young Verstappen and Sainz were team-mates at Toro Rosso, now Racing Bulls. But there’s an easy solution to that for any team boss who has authority: ban both drivers’ motorsport-famous fathers from the garage and let their grown-up adult sons do their jobs in peace.

Tsunoda may well have ‘deserved’ the opportunity but discussion of his strengths and weaknesses is perhaps pointless. Having a Honda-linked driver in a Red Bull seat after their engine contract ends in 2025 is surely not desirable. Yes, Tsunoda could have been extracted from his contract, but he will always remain a product of Honda.

One reason why Japanese manufacturers support Japanese drivers is simply for national pride, and there could be no greater compliment to Honda than for them to be able to say: “A driver we found in Japan was deemed by Red Bull to be better than any driver they could find in the rest of the world.” And remember that it was Honda’s decision to withdraw from F1 (one it later reversed) that has forced Red Bull to build its own Ford-badged engines for 2026 – a source of uncertainty about the team’s future competitiveness that might even lead Verstappen to join Adrian Newey in defecting to Aston Martin.

Of course, if Red Bull had signed Sainz it would have left no room at Racing Bulls for Hadjar to step up to F1 – which is the best story in all of this.

Much to the credit of Helmut Marko and Guillaume Rocquelin, Hadjar has been a success story for the Red Bull Junior Team in its current form. As with Lawson, Hadjar has been nurtured from humble beginnings without much in the way of his own funding, and Red Bull kept faith in him even when things got tough. He was the lowest-placed of six Red Bull juniors in F2 in 2023 but the only one that remained with its backing in the series this year.

Placing him at Campos Racing didn’t look like a recipe for success on paper, but Hadjar has flourished as its team leader and has made great strides in his composure – a cause for doubt previously. That’s not to say he’s perfect, but drivers with his speed, confidence and fighting spirit are those that everyone surely wants to see in F1. And Red Bull has done the right thing to give him his chance to shine rather than bring someone in from outside, as much as Franco Colapinto deserves to be on the grid too.

Hadjar however would also have benefitted from more frequent private testing during this year, something it seems Red Bull will finally provide next year for Arvid Lindblad. Such a programme is crucial if the company wants to see a return on its investment in junior drivers and make sure they’re prepared for the opportunities that may continue to open up in their F1 line-ups in the coming years.

Peter Allen

Colapinto would have been clever catch

I am too young to have reported on Verstappen before he was in F1, but I worked as closely as you can get (without being a member of a racing team) with Lawson and Tsunoda on their way up the ladder. They’re both very mature, but like Sainz and Verstappen I do wonder if Red Bull felt they did not want the pair continuing as team-mates for 2025.

They got on very well with each other, both are fiercely competitive, and the team radio would definitely be loud during races if they stayed together. Outsiders could easily misconstrue Tsunoda’s in-car outbursts, and Lawson’s equivalents, as a fractured or unproductive relationship either on the side of the drivers or the team. But their personalities are like many other Japanese and Kiwi drivers I’ve worked with, and all parties involved have known each other for years.

When they were Euroformula team-mates in 2019, Lawson and Tsunoda truly did push each other’s boundaries, but that was a key part of the learning experience and the level of scrutiny placed on their on-track battles and working relationship off-track was less than had they been in the F1 support paddock. A teenaged me still did a lot of scrutinising, and some awful television commentary on their various clashes, near misses and great passes on each other and with rivals, and could see both were clearly future F1 stars. I think the questions some have about the pair now are ones Red Bull had answers for back then.

But the unknown was whether the opportunity for one to race in F1 would come at the expense of the other, and Red Bull’s relationship with Honda meant it was Tsunoda who was fast-tracked up the ladder. Thankfully, Lawson has now joined him on the F1 grid.

Based on the sucess of their 11 races as Racing Bulls team-mates so far, if I were team principal Laurent Mekies I would have desired line-up continuity for 2025. But if I were Red Bull Racing’s team principal Christian Horner, then promoting Lawson (despite being less prepared than Tsunoda) and making that decision early would have been my plan.

Photo: Fotospeedy

But since I’m neither, I would have placed Tsunoda alongside Verstappen for 2025 and pinched Williams’ F1-experienced junior Colapinto to partner Lawson at Racing Bulls. While Verstappen credits a champion mentality for a personality and on-track approach that has started to heckle rivals more and more, his father clearly had a big influence on that and at every stage of his racing career he has been the young driver in a team setting out to usurp older rivals through ‘raw talent’.

In the centrally-run 2014 Florida Winter Series, he was on the grid with the younger Lance Stroll but for both it was their first races in cars and Verstappen already knew how he measured up to him having crushed Stroll in karting the year before.

Therefore you have to go back to a Rotax Max Challenge Euro Trophy round in May 2013 for the last time when Verstappen had a younger team-mate (future IndyCar racer Zachary Claman DeMelo) and a different type of pressure to absorb.

Verstappen has spent enough time in the F1 paddock with Tsunoda to not be unsettled by him, even if Tsunoda could have proved to be a tougher team-mate to beat than most would anticipate. But he has a less established relationship with Lawson, certainly in a racing context, and if Red Bull Racing doesn’t make the car to beat in 2025 and leaves Verstappen looking elsewhere for when F1’s next technical era begins in 2026 then he will find it even more frustrating if Lawson handles a season being mired in the pack (and therefore being able to keep team spirits up) better than he does.

Therefore the easiest way for Red Bull to not lose Verstappen sooner than it wants is to put Tsunoda alongside him.

As for Racing Bulls, an inexperienced line-up is never ideal but Lawson already knows the car and team well and therefore the technical direction it will take in 2025, while Colapinto was superb in his nine races with Williams as the underperforming Logan Sargeant’s replacement but was never going to retain the seat for next season due to Sainz being signed. Red Bull would be/could have been very clever to tap into the fertile Argentinian fanbase and sponsorship market, and Colapinto’s proven abilities behind the wheel of an F1 car, by signing him up.

Ida Wood

The post Which drivers should Red Bull have put in its F1 cars for 2025? appeared first on Formula Scout.

Photo: Formula Motorsport Ltd

Rodin Cars and MotorSport New Zealand have tied up to provide a prize to next year’s New Zealand Formula Ford champion.

The automotive manufacturer and national governing body of Kiwi motorsport will commit to providing “an all-expenses-paid, three-day testing and evaluation programme with Rodin Cars in New Zealand”, then should the driver impress then Rodin will offer them a testing programme with its racing team in England.

An “outstanding performance during this phase could secure the driver a seat in one of Rodin Motorsport’s Formula 4 teams in either the British or Spanish championships”. Other stars of the NZ FFord scene may also be evaluated by Rodin.

• Read more: The Red Bull junior keeping an eye on FF1600

“We’re in a great position to provide a clear pathway for talented young drivers from this side of the world,” said Rodin founder David Dicker. “Watching them grow and excel on the global stage reaffirms our company’s passion for driving and motorsport in general.”

MotorSport New Zealand president Deborah Day added: “We are incredibly proud to partner with Rodin Cars to offer this truly life-changing opportunity to our aspiring drivers. New Zealand has a remarkable history of producing world-class driving talent, and FFord has played a crucial role in that for over 50 years. The list of New Zealand’s FFord graduates who have excelled internationally is a testament to its success as a development formula.”

Rodin bought out the team formerly known as Carlin last year, and kept its racing programmes active in Formula 2, FIA Formula 3, GB3 and F4. It also has two Kiwi drivers it individually supports: Liam Lawson and Louis Sharp.

On the same day as Rodin announced its new talent programme, Lawson was confirmed as replacing Daniel Ricciardo at RB for the remainder of the 2024 Formula 1 season and Sharp was named as a finalist in the Silverstone Autosport BRDC Award.

The 22-year-old Lawson is returning to the team’s line-up after standing in for Ricciardo in five grands prix last year. He secored two points and came 20th in the standings, and was also Super Formula runner-up in 2023 with three wins.

In his junior single-seater career, Lawson won the NZ FFord title, was Australian F4 and ADAC F4 runner-up, Toyota Racing Series champion, Euroformula runner-up and then a race-winner in FIA F3 and F2.

With an impressive lineup headlined by Formula 1 driver Liam Lawson and reigning British Formula 4 Champion and GB3 Championship leader Louis Sharp, Rodin has quickly established itself as a force in world motorsport. Its teams compete in championships around the globe, including FIA Formula 3 and FIA Formula 2.

Sharp, 17, came fifth in New Zealand’s South Island FFord series and fourth in British F4 in 2022, then won the title in the latter series last year. For 2024 he stepped up to GB3, and looks set to wrap up that title this weekend.

The 2025 NZ FFord season starts next January, with races at Timaru, Highlands Motorsport Park, Manfeild and a to-be-announced venue for round four.

The post Rodin announces talent programme as protege Lawson lands F1 seat appeared first on Formula Scout.

Photo: Red Bull Content Pool

Liam Lawson should be racing in Formula 1 this year, according to the man who reckons he’s “put more money into his career than Red Bull”.

“He should be in F1 this year. The fact that there wasn’t a single driver change this year doesn’t reflect well in my view on F1, because you wouldn’t see it in any other sport, would you?” asks Rodin Cars founder David Dicker rhetorically.

The New Zealand-based producer of single-seater track cars first backed Lawson for his 2021 Formula 2 campaign with Carlin, which recently became Rodin Motorsport.

After an impressive F1 debut with AlphaTauri in 2023, deputising in five races for the injured Daniel Ricciardo, Lawson is this year again serving as reserve driver for Red Bull Racing and its sister team, rebranded as RB.

“We supported him last year. He’s a nice kid. I think it’s a real shame that he’s not in a car, to be honest,” Dicker told Formula Scout in the F2 paddock.

Ollie Bearman’s sensational last-minute call up by Ferrari in Jeddah highlighted F1’s conservative driver choices, a view clearly shared by Dicker.

“How many guys on the F1 grid would be capable of winning the world championship if they were in the best car? Five or six maybe, the rest of them, not a [chance].

“I don’t understand why they don’t turn them over a bit more, because in business and everything else you would. It’s almost like, ‘Jeez, this kid’s going to be heartbroken if he’s out of a seat.’

“Man, you’ve got to perform,” he stresses.

“Obviously, we keep an eye out for guys that are coming up. Because they’ve got to have talent or they’re not going to be able to move forward. That’s cruel but that’s just the way it is.”

Louis Sharp is the next young Kiwi being “fully supported” by Rodin as he makes the step up to GB3 after his title-winning season in British Formula 4. Another Rodin-backed youngster, Australian Alex Ninovic, takes his place in the F4 squad.

Despite the focus on Antipodean drivers, Dicker says: “I’m not a massive nationalist. I’ll be honest.”

“But obviously we’re in New Zealand and with Louis, we met him, and we thought he was a nice kid and we thought we’d test him because we’ve got F3 cars at our track and he was good so we thought ‘Why not?’

“It’s expensive, but it’d be great if we could get him to F1. That’s what we’re trying to do. Whether he can do it or not I don’t know, we’ll find out this year. He’s gone well in testing so far, so it’s really just a matter how far he can go.”

Dicker is clearly passionate about developing young drivers but sees racing benefitting “the car company in the same way that it helps Ferrari, obviously on a much smaller scale.”

“We want to build racing cars in the car business and obviously if we’re going to build racing cars, we’re gonna have a factory-type team.”

The post Liam Lawson “should be in F1 this year” says long-term backer appeared first on Formula Scout.

Photos: Red Bull Content Pool

Every year, some of junior single-seaters’ top drivers are handed professional opportunities. Some lead to long-term careers in sportscars, while others try out the more cut-throat world of F1 and IndyCar

In addition to annually ranking the top 50 drivers in junior single-seater racing since 2011, Formula Scout also recognises the achievements of the very best of those who ‘graduate’ into the world of professional racing each year.

Logan Sargeant was the only driver to make it to Formula 1 at the start of 2023, joining Williams for a season in which he scored a single point but did enough to retain his seat for a second year, and during summer AlphaTauri called up Sargeant’s former Formula 2 and Formula 3 rival Liam Lawson to substitute for the injured Daniel Ricciardo.

IndyCar had five rookies who contested more than just the Indianapolis 500. Last year’s Indy Nxt runner-up Sting Ray Robb joined Dale Coyne Racing, and in a car co-run by Rick Ware Racing he took a best finish of 12th and came 23rd in the points. Benjamin Pedersen only came fifth in the 2022 Indy Nxt season but also earned an IndyCar graduation with AJ Foyt Racing. He finished no higher than 15th, leaving him 27th in the standings.

Joining the grid for the final two races of the season with Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing was F2 graduate Juri Vips, who had been out of racing for several months after his F1 dreams ended in summer 2022 with the use of racial slur on a livestream. It was difficult to judge how well Vips did with his last-minute call-up, but RLLR has “a long-term plan” for him.

Esports star Cem Bolukbasi had a brief junior single-seater career, coming ninth in the Formula Regional Asian Championship and fifth in a part-time Euroformula campaign in which he claimed two wins in 2021, then racing part-time in F2 last year, but that was enough to get him a seat on the Super Formula grid with TGM Grand Prix for 2023.

Qualifying 20th for his debut at Fuji Speedway suggested he might be out of his depth, but it only took 10 laps for him to get into the top 10 and he eventually finished eighth. His qualifying form didn’t improve, with 14th being his best starting position, but he did score points with a ninth place at Suzuka and he came 18th in the standings.

Photo: B-MAX Racing

FRegional Japanese Championship race-winner Riki Okusa was his team-mate for the last two rounds, while FRAC and FRegional Americas champion Raoul Hyman stepped up with B-MAX Racing but could do no better than 18th in qualifying and 15th in races over the season.

Andretti Global had to call upon their reserve driver David Beckmann for the Jakarta E-Prix, and the F2 graduate finished 16th on his Formula E debut.

There were plenty of ex-junior single-seater racers who found success in LMP2 prototypes. Jota Sports’s Oliver Rasmussen did two FIA F3 Championship rounds alongside his World Endurance Championship programme last year, but for 2023 was able to focus solely on sportscars and he came sixth in the standings. He won his class in the Monza Six Hours.

Euroformula graduate Filip Ugran was 10th in the standings with Prema, and Alpine driver Olli Caldwell came 18th.

Marino Sato bounced back from four underwhelming years in F2 by joining United Autosports in the European Le Mans Series. He won three of the six races and was championship runner-up. Two places behind was Duqueine Team’s Nico Pino, who won the season opener, finished second in the next race but then didn’t visit the podium again.

David Schumacher drove in the DTM and FIA F3 in 2022, and swapped the latter for the GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup this year. He drove a Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo to 17th in the standings there, topping the Gold Cup classification at the Nurburgring, and to 25th in the DTM.

Nicola Marinangeli came sixth in International GT Open in a AF Corse-run Ferrari, and team-mate Conrad Laursen was seventh in ELMS’ GTE class.

As none of these names could make the cut, here is Formula Scout’s Class of 2022… Key Wins (W), poles (P), fastest laps (FL)

10. Calan Williams AUSTRALIA 23y/o
9th in GTWC Europe Sprint Cup (29th in GTWCE [Gold Cup champion])   2022: 23rd in F2   2021: 19th in FIA F3 Championship

Photo: SRO/ Patrick Hecq Photography

Williams made the podium more times this year than he did in his last five years in single-seater racing.

A fourth place was his best finish from two seasons in Euroformula, and a sprint race podium at Paul Ricard was one of only three times in which he scored points in two FIA F3 Championship campaigns. It took just three races to earn a top-four finish when he stepped up to F2 last year, but did not score again after that and came 23rd in the standings.

Despite that lack of success, he was picked up crack GT racing team WRT for 2023 to drive one of their BMW M4 GT3s in GTWCE. He shared his car with Niklas Krutten, and the pair were entered into the Gold Cup classification.

They came ninth overall in GTWCE’s Sprint Cup, making the podium in the season finale at Zandvoort, and claimed the Gold Cup crown with four wins from the 10 races.

Jean-Baptiste Simmenauer joined them in the car for the Endurance Cup, and their best result was 12th overall in the Monza Three Hours. That equated to being the third best Gold Cup entry, and despite finishing in a lower position they were Gold Cup runners-up in the Spa 24 Hours and third in the Nurburgring Three Hours. That led to them being fifth in the Gold Cup’s Endurance standings, and combined with the Sprint results meant Krutten and Williams were 29th overall in GTWCE and the Gold Cup champions.

9. Alex Quinn BRITAIN 23/o
10th in IMSA LMP2 (2 FL)   2022: 17th in USF2000 (3 W, 2 FL)   2021: 9th in FRegional European Championship

Photo: PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports

Quinn actually graduated from British F4 to sportscars back in 2018, competing in British GT’s GT4 class and failing to score in his six races.

He then returned to single-seaters, coming fourth in the 2020 Formula Renault Eurocup with a win an a pole then moving across to the FRegional European Championship the year after and starting the season with two podiums in the first four races but later going on a long points-free run and ending up ninth the standings.

Last year he only made one race outing, but did an impressive job in his USF2000 cameo on Indianapolis Motor Speedway’s road course as he won all three races and set the fastest lap in two of them. It was enough to come 17th in the points table.

This year he stayed in America to join PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports in IMSA’s LMP2 class. It proved to be an inspired move from the off, with Quinn being in the class’s pole-winning car for the Daytona 24 Hours and Sebring 12 Hours. He was seventh and fourth in class respectively at the end of those two races, and less than seven seconds off victory at Sebring.

He finished third in his next two outings in the Six Hours of the Glen and Petit Le Mans, although the latter event didn’t quite go to plan. Although his car started on overall pole, both Quinn and his team-mate spun while at the wheel. Quinn’s mistake cost them the LMP2 lead.

8. Logan Sargeant UNITED STATES 22y/o
21st in F1   2022: 4th in F2 (2 W, 2 P)   2021: 7th in FIA Formula 3 (1 W), 19th in ELMS (1 P), 6th in Le Mans Cup – GT3 (2 W, 2 P, 3 FL)

Photo: Williams Racing

Sargeant’s two wins and two poles in his sole F2 season helped him come fourth in the standings, and earn a Williams F1 seat for 2023. Was it too soon?

He became the first American to race in F1 for over seven years, just as the world championship added a third race in the USA to its schedule, ticking a box several other teams in the paddock had tried but failed to.

Sargeant was thoroughly bettered by his team-mate Alex Albon, being outqualified by him at every single event and scoring one point to Albon’s 27. Fittingly Sargeant’s best results came on home soil, as he took his sole point in the United States Grand Prix and his best starting position was sixth in the Las Vegas Grand Prix. The only other time he reached Q3 was at the Dutch Grand Prix, where he qualified 10th.

Sargeant’s worse form tended to be on sprint weekends, with less practice time before qualifying, and he finished no higher than 16th in a sprint race.

In Japan he suffered a qualifying crash that required Williams to rebuild his car to enable him to race, and he only lasted a few laps before a lock-up and another crash. This time he kept going before the damage eventually led him to retire. The next event was the Qatar Grand Prix, where he failed to set a flying lap in sprint qualifying, spun out after two laps of the sprint race then retired from the grand prix itself due to heatstroke. It wasn’t a great end to the year, but ultimately he did enough to earn a second season with Williams.

7. Kakunoshin Ohta JAPAN 24y/o
7th in SF (1 W), 14th in Super GT   2022: 2nd in SF Lights (4 W, 6 P, 7 FL), 8th in Super GT300, Super Taikyu – ST-Z champion (2 W, 3 P, 3 FL)   2021: 14th in FRJC, 5th in Japanese Formula 4 (1 FL), 3rd in Super Taikyu – ST-Z

Photo: Super Formula

Ohta took two wins from three Japanese Formula 4 seasons, which didn’t suggest his single-seater career would amount to much, but he did make the podium in French F4 and FRJC cameos.

Then last year he stepped up to Super Formula Lights with Toda Racing and everything changed. The one-car entry was the winner of four races and six pole positions, with other impressive stats including seven fastest laps and 12 podiums. Ohta ended up being championship runner-up, and was only a few points short of becoming champion.

He stepped up to SF for 2023 with Dandelion Racing, and initially found the step up difficult. In the first four races, Ohta qualified no higher than 17th and finished no higher than 15th. But then his form started to improve, rapidly.

At Sportsland SUGO he qualified ninth, but finished 15th again, then at Fuji Speedway (the first track on the schedule he was visiting for a second time in his rookie season) he qualified third – just 0.268 seconds off pole – and finished sixth. He was 1.5s off fourth place at the chequered flag.

Ohta was even closer to the pace at Twin Ring Motegi, qualifying on the front row, then in the double-header Suzuka finale he was fourth in qualifying for race one and made the front row again for race two.

In race one he rose to second on the opening lap, then lost a spot on lap two and was still in third when the race was red flagged due to a huge crash. Half points were awarded, but Ohta earned a ‘proper’ podium in race two by snatching the lead on lap one then holding off Lawson throughout to win. The result put him seventh in the standings, a position nobody would have expected pre-season.

Having raced in Super GT300 last year and won the title in Super Taikyu’s GT4 class, Ohta was also promoted to Super GT’s top GT500 class for 2023 and he took one podium en route to 14th in the points.

=5. Linus Lundqvist SWEDEN 24y/o
31st in IndyCar (2 FL), 13th in Porsche Carrera Cup Scandinavia   2022: Indy Nxt champion (5 W, 7 P, 3 FL)   2021: 3rd in Indy Nxt (3 W, 3 P, 2 FL)

Photo: Joe Skibinski

Photo: Travis Hinkle

Sometimes waiting a little longer for your debut at single-seaters’ top level can prove more effective than stepping up straight after winning a second-tier title. F2 champion Oscar Piastri had to remain patient for a whole year, while 2022 Indy Nxt champion Lundqvist got to make his IndyCar debut this August rather than need to wait until 2024.

For a long time Indy Nxt had a prize money system that guaranteed the champion at least three IndyCar starts, including the Indy 500, the next year. But when IndyCar’s owner Penske Entertainment took over Indy Nxt in 2022, it reduced the size of the champion’s prize pot. Lundqvist couldn’t make the step up with the money he had.

He won three races as an Indy Nxt rookie in 2021, then romped to the 2022 title with five wins and six poles. Andretti Autosport gave him an IndyCar test at the end of his first season, then he had to wait until April of this year for another as Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing ran him on the Texas oval. Ed Carpenter Racing provided further seat time at Sebring in June, then at the end of July he got called up to race as Meyer Shank Racing needed a substitute for the injured Simon Pagenaud.

Just like Piastri, Lundqvist stunned a paddock with his adaptation and his reward is spending next year in a team he could win races with.

Lundqvist qualified 11th for his debut in Nashville, then ran as high as third and set the fastest lap in the race before crashing out. Negotiations with multiple teams about a 2024 seat began shortly after.

MSR called up Lundqvist two more times. He started and finished 12th on the IMS road course, then on the Gateway oval took another fastest lap. Only two other drivers got multiple fastest laps this year. Four days after that performance, Chip Ganassi Racing announced it had signed Lundqvist to race full-time next season.

=5. Robert Shwartzman RUSSIA/ISRAEL 24y/o
8th in GTWCE Endurance Cup (1 W, 1 P) (19th in GTWCE)   2022: no racing   2021: 2nd in F2 (2 W, 3 FL)

Photo: Ferrari

Photo: SRO

Shwartzman came fourth and second in his two F2 seasons, earning him sixth place in Formula Scout’s Top 50 in both years.

After that Ferrari promoted its junior to an F1 test role for 2022, then to being their reserve driver for 2023. He was also given a race programme for this year, joining AF Corse’s line-up in the GTWCE Endurance Cup.

The sportscar newcomer quickly got up to pace in his Ferrari 296 GT3 and contributed to the success of the car he co-drove with the far more experienced Nicklas Nielsen and Alessio Rovera. They finished eighth in the Monza 3H, seventh in the Paul Ricard 1000 Kilometres and then won the season-ending Barcelona Three Hours to come eighth in the standings. Despite missing all of the sprint rounds, they still came 19th overall in GTWCE.

Shwartzman was a valued member of Ferrari’s F1 squad too, and he drove in free practice at two grands prix. He then contested the WEC’s rookie test in Ferrari’s hypercar and topped the times, and is expected to race an additional third entry next season.

Away from his Ferrari work, Shwartzman took up two opportunities this year that may suggest he still has an eye on racing single-seaters even if he can’t find a way into F1. He did an IndyCar test with Ganassi and set a strong impression on the team, and drove for DS Penske in FE’s rookie test and also its more recent pre-season test.

4. Jake Hughes BRITAIN 29y/o
12th in FE (2 P)   2022: 16th in F2   2021: 18th in F2

Photo: McLaren

Photo: Formula E

After several seasons acting as reference driver first in FIA F3 then in F2, Jake Hughes finally earned a well-deserved drive in a professional series like FE.

McLaren took over Mercedes’ works team in the championship and promoted Hughes from development and reserve driver to a race seat.

The Briton was a rookie in terms of competing, but knew the team and the car well thanks to his involvement in previous years, and took advantage of it. He caused a sensation in the early rounds, where he impressed with his pace. He was third, second and first in the first three qualifying sessions, with his pole position coming in Riyadh, but dropped to fifth, eighth and fifth in the races as his McLaren powertrain was less competitive in the longer distance.

Hughes struggled to replicate his blistering pace of the opening rounds as the season progressed, but still scored points at several events. He was back on pole on the most famous street circuit of them all, Monaco, but the podium escaped him once again as he finished in fifth.

As a rookie, he edged his more experienced team-mate Rene Rast, and definitely proved he belongs in the world championship. Given teams know his skills for technical development as well as results on track, he could well become one of FE’s main contenders in the years to come.

3. Marcus Armstrong NEW ZEALAND 23y/o
20th in IndyCar, 18th in Macau GP   2022: 13th in F2 (3 W)   2021: 13th in F2 (1 W)

Photo: James Black

Photo: Chris Owens

On reflection it’s puzzling that Armstrong was 13th in all three of his F2 seasons, despite winning four races and driving for three top teams. He made the podium in two of his first four races, but that strong form then deserted him in his rookie year.

When title-winning IndyCar team Ganassi signed Armstrong for 2023 to drive on a part-time deal, with his schedule omitting all of IndyCar’s oval races, nobody thought that the Kiwi didn’t deserve it but the question was raised on how difficult would it be to measure his progress as a driver by starting his career at single-seater’s top level in one of the very top teams rather than proving himself at a smaller squad.

Armstrong qualified 13th and finished 11th on his debut, then in his next appearance came eighth in the Long Beach Grand Prix. There were four more top-10 finishes and no DNFs from his 12 starts, enough to beat three full-timers to IndyCar’s ‘Rookie of the Year’ honours. His scoring rate was strong enough to put him 13th in the standings had he done the whole campaign, ahead of several big-name drivers.

A trend that continued from his junior single-seater career was underperforming in qualifying, although this year his average finishing position was only very slightly higher than his starting average. He’ll need to improve in 2024, since Ganassi has given him a full-time ride and he’ll have two less experienced drivers as team-mates.

2. Liam Lawson NEW ZEALAND 21y/o
2nd in SF (3 W, 1 P, 2 FL), 20th in F1   2022: 3rd in F2 (4 W, 3 FL)   2021: 2nd in DTM (3 W, 4 P, 1 FL), 9th in F2 (1 W, 1 P, 2 FL)

Lawson impressed in his maiden season racing GT cars in DTM back in 2021, becoming vice-champion in a campaign he juggled with what was also his first F2 season.

In 2022, the Red Bull junior focused on F2 and finished third ahead of Carlin team-mate Sargent. However, those achievements and proving himself as a quick adapter were not enough to earn a F1 seat, and he had to content himself with a spot on the SF grid with Team Mugen alongside F1 reserve driver duties.

Like he had done several times in the past, the New Zealander won on his debut in the series from third on the grid, then was demoted from third to fifth because of a penalty in the second race of the season-opening double-header at Fuji.

Lawson took his inevitable first win in round three at Autopolis and then another in round five at Fuji, which left him one point off championship leader Ritomo Miyata with three races to go.

An unfortunate race at Motegi, where he finished 13th after an incident at the start, put him on the back foot heading into Suzuka’s double-header finale. The title decider marked the first time he started on pole, but finishing second in the race also meant he finished second in the championship, eight points behind Miyata.

Between the last two rounds, he made his F1 debut with Red Bull’s second F1 team AlphaTauri. Daniel Riccardo injured himself in the second practice session at the Dutch GP, and Lawson was in the car for FP3 and excelled straightaway. He finished 13th in the latest of late call-ups, and stayed for four more grands prix, always matching the pace of his team-mate Yuki Tsunoda both in qualifying and races. If there was a standout event, then it has to be the Singapore Grand Prix as Lawson got through to Q3 – beating Tsunoda and Red Bull’s two drivers – and scored his first F1 points by finishing ninth in the race.

Unless something changes massively, Lawson will spend 2024 back on the sidelines as reserve driver to Red Bull’s two teams and hoping he can finally have a very much deserved spot on the grid in 2025.

1. Oscar Piastri AUSTRALIA 22y/o
9th in F1 (1 P, 1 W, 2 FL)   2022: no racing   2021: F2 champion (6 W, 5 P, 6 FL)

Photo: McLaren

Photo: McLaren

Although he graduated from F2 in 2021 as a dominant champion, it was not until 2023 that Piastri landed a professional race seat, which makes him eligible for this list.

It is true that Piastri arrived in F1 having completed an extensive testing programme as an Alpine junior. However, the challenges posed by the pinnacle of motorsport should not be underestimated and especially in Piastri’s case, as he came in amid a team change and a legal battle for his services.

His season was in crescendo. The Australian did not have the dream start other McLaren F1 rookies enjoyed in the past, partly due to the struggles of a car that was not born well. But as it ramped up, Piastri also raised his level to become a regular in the fight for top positions.

In the second half of the year, he matched his rapid team-mate Lando Norris over one lap, outqualifying him on several occasions. Norris still had the upper hand in races though, where Piastri usually fell a bit behind. If he closes that gap in 2024, the battle within the Woking stable will be extremely tight.

In the flyaway leg of the season, Piastri reached the podium in Japan and Qatar, the highlights of a formidable rookie F1 campaign. If his drive at Suzuka had been excellent, then his performance at Losail was on another level. He made the most of his testing experience at the Qatari circuit as well as a strong car to claim pole in the sprint shootout and win the sprint race on Saturday. Then on Sunday he rose from sixth on the grid to second place for what is his best career result to date.

Written by Alejandro Alonso Lopez and Ida Wood

The post Formula Scout’s Class of 2022 appeared first on Formula Scout.

Photo: Red Bull Content Pool

A day after making his Formula 1 race debut, Liam Lawson has been announced as driving for AlphaTauri again at this weekend’s Italian Grand Prix.

Lawson drove in two practice sessions for the team in 2022, and has served as their reserve driver this year while also racing in Super Formula where he is fighting for the title with thee wins from seven races so far.

He was not expecting to race in F1 this year, have been overlooked to replace Nyck de Vries when AlphaTauri dropped him last month. The team instead chose Daniel Ricciardo, but last Friday he broke his left hand in a crash during practice for the Dutch Grand Prix at Zandvoort and Lawon was brought in at late notice to take his place for the rest of the weekend.

Saturday’s practice session marked his first ever running in the AlphaTauri AT04 and he was 18th fastest, but in qualifying he ended up down in 20th and last place. In Sunday’s race, which marked his first experience of driving an F1 car in the wet, he finished 13th. “That was wild… first grand prix done, still doesn’t feel real,” he said afterwards.

Ricciardo had surgery on his wrist this morning, and AlphaTauri sent Lawson to their simulator back in Italy to prepare for this weekend’s race at Monza in case he would be needed again. Confirmation came in the afternoon that Ricciardo would be absent, despite successful surgery, and that Lawson would be making his second F1 start.

The post Liam Lawson to make second F1 start with AlphaTauri at Italian GP appeared first on Formula Scout.

Photo: Red Bull

Liam Lawson will make his Formula 1 debut in the Dutch Grand Prix after being called up to replace the injured Daniel Ricciardo at AlphaTauri for the rest of the weekend.

Ricciardo has broken a metacarpal on his left hand after a crash in the second free practice session at Zandvoort on Friday. Lawson was at the circuit on duty as reserve driver for Red Bull and its sister team, although reports suggested that Nyck de Vries – who was dropped to make way for Ricciardo a couple of races ago – could also have been given the chance to contest his home grand prix.

Lawson is racing in Japan’s Super Formula series this year, where he is currently second in the standings and fighting for the title with Ritomo Miyata and Tomoki Nojiri with one double-header round at Suzuka in October remaining.

He impressively won his debut race at Fuji in April, and won there again last month following a second victory at Autopolis. His title hopes did take a hit in last weekend’s race at Motegi after a dramatic first-lap crash.

Lawson spent the previous two seasons in Formula 2, also winning his debut race there in Bahrain at the start of 2021 before finishing third in the 2022 points.

Having started racing cars aged just 13 in Formula First in his native New Zealand, Lawson went on to win the country’s Formula Ford 1600 title before racing Formula 4 in Australia and then Germany’s ADAC series, finishing runner-up in both.

He then won the 2019 Toyota Racing Series at the first attempt against his more experienced compatriot Marcus Armstrong, catching the eye of Red Bull which facilitated a dual programme in FIA Formula 3 and Euroformula Open. A second year in F3 yielded fifth overall before stepping up to both F2 and DTM, where he narrowly missed out on winning the 2021 crown.

Lawson will be reunited with his former Euroformula team-mate and rival Yuki Tsunoda in the AlphaTauri line-up. He drove in F1 free practice sessions with the team at Spa and Mexico City last year, and with Red Bull in Abu Dhabi.

However, he had yet to appear on track for either team so far this season, and will drive the AT04 for the first time in Saturday morning’s third practice session before going into qualifying.

The post Liam Lawson to make F1 debut at Zandvoort after Ricciardo injury appeared first on Formula Scout.

Photos: Red Bull Content Pool

AlphaTauri decided to sack Nyck de Vries today and replace him with Red Bull’s veteran reserve driver Daniel Ricciardo for the rest of 2023. For a team with a history of running young drivers, has it changed tactic?

Red Bull has two teams in Formula 1, and a driver development programme which is active in every tier of single-seater racing this year and even in karting too. But the last Red Bull Junior Team members to make their way to Red Bull Racing did so in 2019, and only for 12 races, and the B-team AlphaTauri (now branded as a ‘sister team’) has been running the same junior single-seater graduate for two-and-a-half years and they were the first direct RBJT graduate to the team since 2015.

Despite this lack of active progression from drivers in junior series into F1, AlphaTauri still has a reputation for being the team for providing such opportunities. That probably needs reviewing by this point.

And ignoring any ‘obligation’ that AlphaTauri may hold to be the end destination for Red Bull juniors to justify the continued existence of the RBJT, at the end of the day it is still a bad decision to put Ricciardo in a car with handling characteristics that are unlikely to suit him and also to do so now rather than later in the year.

Nyck de Vries only lasted 10 grands prix before getting sacked, the shortest career of any Toro Rosso/AlphaTauri driver, and he didn’t even make it to the summer break. While the very concept of the summer shutdown actually makes it harder for a new driver to integrate themself into a team if they join in that period, it is also a gap in the racing schedule not just for F1 but its support series too. Therefore it’s the best time to sit down and review the season up to that point, and the targets for the rest of the year and the next one too.

Had AlphaTauri postponed the decision to sack de Vries until then, or even to the end of the European leg of the F1 season at the start of September, rather than signing up Ricciardo for the rest of the season now, then they could have been in a better position with their options for 2024.

Yuki Tsunoda, the most recent RBJT graduate at AlphaTauri

Despite the team saying the contrary, Sergio Perez is under pressure to perform at Red Bull Racing right now and if an AlphaTauri driver was performing strongly enough then on previous form they would not hesitate in moving them into Perez’s seat. It had already been determined that de Vries was not doing enough to retain his place on the F1 grid, let alone be in consideration for a move to RBR, but Red Bull has now denied itself the opportunity to assess drivers other than Ricciardo.

A shootout test in old F1 cars or practice outings for seat candidates in the next few races would have left Red Bull in a better place to choose who should replace de Vries. It’s a mistake they made with de Vries in the first place, as he was signed long before he even tested an AlphaTauri car for the first time.

Ricciardo had not even driven a 2023 F1 car until today, doing a Pirelli tyre test at Silverstone that reportedly seriously impressed the team. Hours later, it had been agreed he would be ‘loaned’ to AlphaTauri.

It’s important to note that only a few teams were invited to that test, and AlphaTauri was not one of them. Therefore the trackside staff were not the crew that Ricciardo will be working with going forward. Had AlphaTauri been nominated to test Pirelli’s new tyres, they likely also would have wanted an experienced driver in their car for the sake of applicable feedback on how the prototype tyres differ to those used in recent seasons.

But at the same time, AlphaTauri would have been going into such a test knowing they wanted to replace de Vries, and with an opportunity to assess multiple drivers in their 2023 car and observe their working relationship with the team’s engineers and mechanics. The question is would Red Bull (and specially its motorsport advisor and RBJT chief Dr Helmut Marko) have picked the drivers or would have AlphaTauri’s (changing) management?

So, to the real point of this column: who are the options that have been ignored by going down the Ricciardo route?

The first is Red Bull junior Liam Lawson, who made free practice outings with AlphaTauri and RBR last year.

Liam Lawson

The 21-year-old Kiwi was snapped up by Red Bull a week after winning the Toyota Racing Series early in 2019, and placed in a dual F3 programme for the rest of the year.

He won four races in Euroformula and claimed two podiums in the FIA F3 Championship, then started 2020 by coming second in TRS before returning to FIA F3 and winning three times en route to fifth in the standings.

The lack of an F1 pipeline even at that point was shown by the fact Lawson then got placed in the GT3-spec DTM series for 2021 in addition to stepping up to Formula 2. He controversially was denied the DTM title in the final race, and won on his F2 debut but only got two more podiums after that and sank to ninth in the standings.

His sophomore F2 campaign resulted in four wins and third in the points, more than enough to earn the FIA superlicence required to race in F1. But Lawson was seventh in the standings at the point earlier in the year when de Vries was signed (with team-mate Yuki Tsunoda signed for 2023 before that), and Red Bull had set Lawson the target of becoming champion.

No room at the F1 inn, and no point staying in F2? Red Bull is used to that conundrum, and by the end of the year had secured Lawson a seat in Super Formula with Team Mugen.

Racing in a top-level single-seater series against professional and very experienced drivers, with a more consistent formbook too, has shown how talented Lawson is.

He qualified third on his debut at Fuji Speedway, and went on to take victory with fastest lap, and at Autopolis he won from the front row. He has finished the other three races in the top five, and sits second in the standings with four races to go.

The next two don’t clash with F1, while the double-header Suzuka finale is on the same weekend as the Mexico City Grand Prix. That means Lawson won’t be free to be RBR’s reserve driver in Mexico, or alternatively it could have meant Lawson would have only had to miss one weekend of SF to race for AlphaTauri in F1.

Lawson in Super Formula

It would have been disrespectful to break Lawson’s contract with Mugen so he could race in F1 that weekend, which has more sway than you would think in these kinds of decisions.

When Red Bull chose to put their junior Pierre Gasly in a Toro Rosso seat mid-season in 2017, he was fighting for the SF title and they had to send him back to Japan to contest the finale which clashed with the United States Grand Prix.

Talking of SF-experienced racers, the other candidate to replace de Vries that Red Bull would have been well-placed to take more patience on was Alex Palou.

The 26-year-old Spaniard has no previous relationship with Red Bull, but it’s known that he has caught Marko’s eye this year while he romps towards a second IndyCar title. Palou won in Euroformula, GP3, Japanese F3 and Formula V8 3.5 before reaching the top level of single-seaters in SF in 2019.

While Mugen rotated through several Red Bull juniors that season, Palou shone with Nakajima Racing and claimed a win, three poles and two fastest laps en route to third in the standings. Japanese connections then helped him move to IndyCar for 2020, and he was on the podium by just his third race.

Chip Ganassi Racing signed Palou for 2021, and he rewarded their faith by winning three races and the title. His form dipped last year as he pursued a move to McLaren SP, which ultimately did not go ahead, but he won the season finale and this year he has won four races out of nine and only once finished outside of the top five.

However Palou is still pushing for a move to McLaren, and not just to its IndyCar team. His attention now is on a F1 move for 2024 and the whole IndyCar driver market is in a state of gridlock until it is settled on whether Palou will leave Ganassi.

Marko’s interest in Palou stemmed, aside from his stunning form this year, by the fact the IndyCar season concludes in September and therefore he would technically be free for the last eight rounds of the F1 season.

Photo: IndyCar

The courting that took place between McLaren and Palou did lead to a deal where he gets to test their old F1 cars, so he’s building useful experience.

Red Bull could have benefitted from another team’s work with a driver, particularly by waiting for not only Palou’s season to conclude but for him to get even more F1 test mileage.

But Red Bull’s decision means Palou’s potential F1 future lies solely in McLaren’s hands, unless AlphaTauri do snap him up for 2024 before the F1 season is done, and there is seemingly no way McLaren can actually provide Palou with an F1 seat.

So if he stays in IndyCar next year, then it will be just as impactful on if he remains with Ganassi or moves to McLaren.

Ganassi only has one driver signed for next season, with their Indianapolis 500 winner Marcus Ericssion also potentially leaving, and there are several young drivers interested in joining including the team’s junior Kyffin Simpson who is racing in the Indy Nxt support series.

David Malukas has eyes on joining a top team, and F2 graduate Marcus Armstrong wants a full-time seat for 2024 as he has been a part-time Ganassi driver this year. They need to know if to look elsewhere if Palou is staying, such as the third McLaren entry that Palou is earmarked for.

However if Ganassi lose Palou and Ericsson, they may look to the other top teams to try to buy one of their drivers out of contract, and then that potentially opens up an attractive seat at say Andretti Autosport or Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing.

There could be as many as four Indy Nxt graduates headed to IndyCar next year, while F1’s new line-ups may not include any junior single-seater graduates.

The post Red Bull has reduced its future options with its de Vries replacement appeared first on Formula Scout.

20. Franco Colapinto

Up 13 • Scored pole on his and VAR’s FIA F3 debut, and won twice

Photo: Formula Motorsport Limited

Photo: Formula Motorsport Limited

Colapinto arrived in FIA Formula 3 with championship newcomer Van Amersfoort Racing as a driver with the ability to cause an upset, but few would have bet on the combination doing just that on the first day of the season when the Argentine scored a superb pole position in Bahrain.

Perhaps helped by pre-season testing taking place at the same track, it proved to be a bit of a false dawn for VAR’s performance level in its first season. Colapinto slipped back to third in that first feature race, which became fifth after a track limits penalty, and his next best qualifying result over the season would be fifth at Zandvoort – which he turned into third for his only feature race podium.

He still qualified consistently inside the top 12, and converted reversed-grid poles into wins at both Imola and Monza, as well as taking podiums in the corresponding races in Austria and Hungary. When not on the podium, he scored in just three other races, but was almost always leading the VAR charge – with the exception of Silverstone, a track that was new to him but that team-mate Reece Ushijima knew like no other.

Colapinto’s talent – which is well-known in sportscar circles too – would be deserving of a Formula 2 drive or a place in one of F3’s top teams at the very least for 2023. He looks set to be reunited with MP Motorsport, where he could cause a few more upsets.

19. Roman Stanek

Re-entry • Revitalised career with a strong third year in F3

Photo: Formula Motorsport Limited

Photo: Formula Motorsport Limited

Stanek came into this third FIA F3 season knowing that his whole career was on the line. No matter that he had been rushed into a move up from Formula 4 before he was ready or had struggled in less than competitive teams.

A self-confessed Italophile, he was immediately at home in the reigning champion team, Trident, setting the pace in pre-season testing. At Bahrain he was blisteringly fast but two separate punctures robbed him of a hefty points haul to get his season underway and to bolster his confidence.

He finally took a deserved but slightly fortunate first F3 win at Imola, a circuit he loves, and followed it up with second from pole in Barcelona as he gained the upper hand over team-mate Zane Maloney. On occasions, he got caught out by the timing of yellow and red flags in qualifying but then most of the field had the same claim.

He faded slightly after a poor run of results mid-season, just as Maloney hit a streak of form which almost carried him to the title. Two second places at Spa-Francorchamps kept him in contention coming to Monza, but his hopes vanished as he got involved in another driver’s mistake.

He was finally able to demonstrate that the potential he showed in F4 is still there and fully deserves to make the step to F2.

18. Louis Foster

Up 16 • Won Indy Pro 2000 title in maiden year of US racing

Photo: Gavin Baker Photography

Photo: Gavin Baker Photography

The 2021 Euroformula runner-up Foster took on a new challenge this year by moving his racing career to America, where he had been at university, to race in Indy Pro 2000.

Working alongside renowned engineer John Hayes, Foster quickly adapted to the unique features of racing Stateside, such as the ovals and street circuits, but initially did struggle with the hard tyre compound used in IP2000 after learning to manage tyres with very different characteristics in Europe.

The race pace was always there, so once he got on top of what the tyre needed in qualifying he was able to string together seven wins in 10 races. That run of success included an impressive victory on his oval racing debut and two wins on the bumpy Toronto street circuit. He could be a title threat in Indy Nxt when he steps up to the series next year with Andretti Autosport.

17. Nikola Tsolov

New entry • Karting graduate took Spanish F4 by storm 

Photo: F4 Spain

Photo: F4 Spain

Tsolov was nothing short of a sensation in his first season of single-seater racing.

Like his mentor Fernando Alonso, the Bulgarian joined Campos Racing for his first step in cars, lining up in the Spanish F4 championship. The series is getting stronger by the season, but Tsolov was a clear step ahead of both his fellow rookies and more experienced challengers most of the time.

He won 13 of the 21 races, and claimed 15 pole positions. After the opening round at Algarve, he only finished off the podium once – and that was a fourth place.

Team-mate Hugh Barter ran him closest and made a valiant effort to delay the inevitable with five wins from six races in the autumn, but Tsolov’s consistency was such that there was only so much he could do. Title secured, Tsolov went on to win all three races at Barcelona – a feat he had already achieved in back-to-back rounds at Valencia and Spa in the summer.

Some of his early-season margins in qualifying, and the races at Jerez and Valencia, were crushing – akin to what Andrea Kimi Antonelli was doing in other parts of Europe – while the Spa slipstream ensured he had to use racecraft to turn his poles into wins.

FIA F3 with ART Grand Prix in 2023 will be a big jump, but while Tsolov’s Alpine affiliation seems unlikely to last after Alonso’s Aston Martin defection, there will be no shortage of eyes watching to see just how good he could be.

16. Liam Lawson

Down 7 • Third overall in F2, with four wins in sprint races 

Photo: Red Bull Content Pool

Photo: Red Bull Content Pool

After joining forces with Carlin, Lawson’s red-hot pre-season testing form understandably made him a title favourite for many, but after a double podium from that first weekend a title bid never really materialised.

Lawson was unexpectedly overshadowed by rookie team-mate Logan Sargeant, and in the five feature races from Jeddah to Baku he scored just two points, falling as low as 10th in the standings. Even though he ranked fourth on qualifying ‘supertimes’ over the season, he only twice started a feature race in the first two rows of the grid.

He could at least shine more frequently in sprint races, winning four of them despite never starting one from pole, demonstrating a more refined if slightly less spectacular form of the racecraft that had stood out in 2021. At Spa he followed a sprint win with third place in the feature race and repeated those results to end the year strongly in Abu Dhabi – enough for him to beat Sargeant by a single point to third in the standings.

Incidentally, those two weekends were the ones where he also drove in Formula 1 free practice, and with his top-three position in the end, he can feel slightly hard done by that he wasn’t given more consideration for the vacant seat at AlphaTauri. But Red Bull evidently still believes in his potential – nobody should forget how good he was in the DTM against seasoned professionals – and has placed him in Super Formula for 2023, a series that could suit him better than F2 has.

15. Gabriele Mini

Up 31 • Fought spiritedly against Prema dominance to take P2 in FREC 

Photo: FRECA/DPA

Photo: FRECA/DPA

His sophomore Formula Regional Europe season may have had more ups-and-downs than a fairground ride, but after snatching second in the points with a thrilling drive in the finale, Mini’s smile was perhaps the broadest in the paddock.

Some of his performances were simply mesmerising – a dominant weekend at Imola as well as his crushing superiority in that Mugello finale. His ART GP team, who had ran Gregoire Saucy to the 2021 title, was never able to match Prema, or by the end of the season a revitalised R-ace GP, and Mini was usually in a different race to his team-mates, including a highly-rated Mari Boya.

He suffered more than his fair share of misfortune – a clutch problem cost him a win at Imola, a disqualification for a technical infringement a podium at Spa – which seemed to weigh heavily on him at times.

Some of his overtaking moves were inspired, either with perfect judgement of the right time to use the newly-introduced push-to-pass system or just old-fashioned racecraft.

Two years at ART GP did not quite deliver the expected results and Mini heads to Hitech for the step up to FIA F3. But this year he could show that the talent evident in his title-winning F4 year is very much still there.

14. Enzo Fittipaldi

Re-entry • Emerged as surprise F2 star in breakthrough season

Photo: Formula Motorsport Limited

Photo: Formula Motorsport Limited

Fittipaldi was undoubtedly the surprise package in F2 this year. After a late-season move up to the series in 2021 with Charouz Racing System had been brought to a premature close with his terrifying crash in Jeddah, he stayed with the Czech team, with its longstanding links to the Fittipaldi family, for a full season.

Nothing in the early races suggested that either team or driver was on the verge of a breakthrough as he failed to score in the first five races, although admittedly still suffering from the effects of his broken heel. But once back to full fitness, he suddenly couldn’t stop scoring. Though he took no victories, he did take three feature race second-place finishes, each from lowly grid slots, as well as one third.

Indeed, on feature race points alone, he would have finished fifth in the standings, just one adrift of Ayumu Iwasa. His results owed much to his innate racing ability, a knack for staying out of trouble and quiet tactical masterstrokes from the team.

His average qualifying position was just 13th, so low that he even missed out on picking up consolation points in sprint races. An inspired qualifying at Spa netted a front row start but he was outgunned on top speed, dropping back before losing fifth to a harsh post-race penalty. With Red Bull support and an expected move to Carlin, 2023 will be a true test of his ability.

13. Alex Dunne

New entry • Won British F4 at a canter while being best of the rest in Italy

Photo: Jakob Ebrey Photography

Photo: Jakob Ebrey Photography

Dunne’s place on the British F4 grid with Hitech was only confirmed a few days before the opening round, having already agreed to continue his continental relationship with US Racing that began during a fractured first year in cars in 2021. But he had already won twice for Hitech in the United Arab Emirates at the start of the year, and with the same second-generation car being introduced to Britain, the combination proved to be the one to beat from the start.

After winning the first race from second on the grid he then started from pole from the next seven opportunities in non-reversed-grid races. Another five wins from those poles were enough to build a healthy advantage in the championship.

Following the slightest of wobbles in the two rounds either side of the summer break, normal service resumed with another pair of double wins at Snetterton and Thruxton. Winning all four ‘main’ races from pole across the two visits to the latter’s high-speed layout stands out as particularly notable given how close races there normally are.

Conceding a win to rival Ollie Gray at Silverstone meant the title was confirmed in strange circumstances in qualifying for the Brands Hatch finale – with Dunne not even in the country. He was instead racing in Italian F4, where his feat of making Antonelli wait until the final round to be crowned champion was arguably just as impressive as his own British title.

Dunne got a 57-point head-start from Antonelli’s opening-round shocker, but went on to beat his rival fair-and-square for victory at the Red Bull Ring and deserves credit for heading the other Prema drivers in the championship. He deserves more than to race mainly British circuits again in GB3 next year, but another title would do his future no harm.

12. Dino Beganovic

New entry • Became FREC champion after impressive step forward

Photo: FRECA/DPA

Photo: FRECA/DPA

With victories at four of the most iconic tracks on the planet – Monza, Monaco, Spa and Imola – Dino Beganovic matched consistent speed with an almost total absence of errors to rebound from a difficult 2021 to take the FREC title in style.

Few had tipped him for the title against the likes of Paul Aron, Mini and Hadrien David, but having taken an immediate championship lead he withheld the pressure convincingly. His performance at Monaco stood out as a highlight, nailing the critical pole lap in the dying seconds and managing the race from the front.

Barring a complete reversal of fortunes, the championship was already his by the summer break – it was not until round five at Zandvoort that he finished outside the top two. He only qualified on pole four times, but more importantly, unlike his main rivals, he was seldom left mired in the midfield. He did have a couple of off-weekends, in Hungary and Barcelona, but could still score strongly even when he was not the out-and-out fastest as at the Red Bull Ring.

A critical observer might highlight the lack of any memorable overtakes or charges through the field. But to be fair, he had no need of such heroics. Yes, Prema had emerged from its mid-2021 doldrums to produce the fastest car but the hard work over the winter from driver, team and Ferrari finessed a faster, mentally stronger and more complete racer and deserving champion.

11. Linus Lundqvist

Up 21 • Delivered on expectation with Indy Lights title triumph

Photo: James Black

Photo: James Black

Having started 2021 as the strongest driver, but eventually finishing third in his rookie season, Lundqvist knew only the title would suffice in 2022 if he were to then graduate to top-level single-seater racing. Unfortunately, it looks like becoming champion has not been enough.

Although the grid had slightly grown on last year, there was arguably a less inspiring opposition for Lundqvist to pit himself against and so it was no surprise that he won four of the first six races. While his eventual title-winning margin was a comfy 92 points, he only won once in the season’s second half and there were no dominant displays to show the IndyCar paddock when he was doing the rounds with the teams.

He led twice as many laps as anyone else and was the benchmark for one-lap pace, but the real reason Lundqvist’s title is being undervalued is because of the changes IndyCar made as the series’ new promoter.

It provided Lundqvist with a $500,000 scholarship to spend on getting into IndyCar, compared to his immediate predecessor’s $1.3 million, and the season was cut from 20 to 14 races. There was going to be no eye-catching record-breaking for Lundqvist even with a super dominant campaign.

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Photo: Super Formula

Honda has announced the full line-ups of all the teams that will be using its engines in Super Formula next year, and there are three rookies among its ranks.

The highest profile of these is Red Bull Racing’s Formula 1 reserve driver Liam Lawson, who steps up to SF with Team Mugen after two seasons in Formula 2. Mugen has run several Red Bull juniors in SF since the brand started sending drivers there.

Lawson came ninth in F2 last year as a rookie, winning on his debut and claiming pole in Baku, then won four sprint races in 2022 to come third in the standings. Recently he drove a SF car for the first time in the series’ official post-season test.

His SF campaign has three clashes with F1, meaning the 20-year-old New Zealander will be unavailable for reserve driver duties at the Emilia-Romagna, Canadian and Mexico City grands prix.

The second of Honda’s SF rookies is Kakunoshin Ohta, one of the brand’s own junior drivers and the 2022 SF Lights runner-up. Ohta raced in Japanese Formula 4 from 2018 to 2021, winning two races in that time. His step up to the Formula 3-level SF Lights series with the one-car Toda Racing team proved rewarding as he took four wins and six poles to be series runner-up.

Ohta has also earned a promotion within Honda’s Super GT line-up from the GT300 class to the top class. He came eighth in Super GT3000 this year, and will now partner Takuya Izawa at Nakajima Racing in a GT500-spec car.

Already announced to be racing in SF and now confirmed with a team is Raoul Hyman, the reigning Formula Regional Americas champion.

The South African’s title success in the United States earned him a scholarship from Honda to race in SF, which he will use with B-MAX Racing.

A rival of George Russell in BRDC British F4, Hyman’s career has taken him through F3, GP3, then down to FRegional in which he won the Asian title in 2018. That earned him a step back up to F3 in 2019 as a Sauber junior, after which he did not race single-seaters again until entering FRegional Americas this year and winning the title.

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Photo: Super Formula

There were seven drivers from junior single-seater racing in Super Formula’s post-season rookie test at Suzuka, including several Formula 2 drivers.

The most notable inclusion was Red Bull junior and F2 race-winner Liam Lawson. He will act as one of the brand’s reserve drivers in Formula 1 for 2023 and is anticipated to also spend his year racing in Japan.

Although Lawson has been coy about whether he will race in SF when asked, comments have already been made by Red Bull’s motorsport advisor Dr Helmut Marko saying that he will be in the series. He was driving in the test for Team Mugen, who ran Red Bull juniors from 2017 to ’19 before the COVID-19 pandemic brought an end to its programme for F2 graduates.

“The car is very fast, so a lot to get used to,” said Lawson after his first day in the car. “The team’s been great to me so far, very welcoming, so I’m excited to hopefully keep working with them.”

Fellow F2 racer Cem Bolukbasi was also at the test, and his Honda-powered car was run by the Servus Japan company.

Servus raced in the 2022 SF season as the operating company behind Team Goh, who require backing to remain on the grid for 2023. Therefore Bolukbasi was listed as driving for a ‘to be determined’ team.

The fastest of the SF newcomers at Suzuka and fourth fastest overall was SF Lights runner-up Kakunoshin Ohta, who was driving for Dandelion Racing. He was 0.310 seconds off the fastest lap of the test set by Red Bull junior Ren Sato, who finished 12th in his rookie SF season this year with Goh and is working to find a place on the grid and to retain his Red Bull backing for 2023.

Despite only doing one of the two days, KCMG’s Seita Nonaka was second fastest of the debutants and 0.650s slower than Ohta in 15th place. The Toyota junior is already confirmed to be racing in SF Lights next year.

The remaining rookies filled five of the bottom six places, with Lawson 0.868s off Ohta in 19th place.

Behind him were reigning SF Lights champion Kazuto Kotaka, who was driving for the Kondo Racing he will race for in SF next year, Toyota Racing Series champion and single-seater returnee Igor Fraga, Bolukbasi and Formula Regional Americas champion Raoul Hyman who has won a scholarship to race for a Honda-powered team in the series in 2023.

Bolukbasi caused the first red flag stoppage of the test, with drivetrain problems leading to Ohta stopping on track and causing another on Wednesday morning. The afternoon session began with Nonaka immediately spinning into the gravel.

Hyman was the first session-stopped on Thursday morning following a spin, and in the afternoon Ohta had another car-stopping issue just as he exited the pits.

Test results [Rookies only]

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