Photo: Williams Racing

Luke Browning will graduate from Formula 2 to a race seat in Super Formula and reserve driver role in Formula 1 this year.

The 23-year-old Englishman will make his debut at single-seaters’ top level with Kondo Racing, and be Williams’ go-to driver in F1 should either of its full-time drivers be unable to race.

He will also be involved in the team’s car development through simulator work, but Browning’s 12-race SF campaign in Japan means he will not be able to fulfil his reserve driver duties in at least four grands prix.

The Williams Driver Academy has featured Browning in its ranks since April 2023, and under its tutelage he has won the Macau Grand Prix, come third in the FIA Formula 3 Championship and fourth in F2.

His first F1 test mileage came with rival team Aston Martin in October 2023 after he won the Aston Martin Autosport BRDC Award the preceding year, then he sampled contemporary F1 machinery for the first time at Yas Marina Circuit in December 2024 when he drove for Williams in the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix’s first practice session then in the post-season young driver test.

Last year Williams handed him further free practice outings at the Bahrain, Mexico City and Abu Dhabi grands prix, and he featured in the young driver test again.

“I’m incredibly excited to be stepping up as reserve driver with Williams this year,” said Browning. “The Academy has been instrumental in my growth, supporting me through both F3 and F2 while giving me the chance to get up to speed with modern F1 machinery through testing and FP1 sessions.”

He added: “[SF] will be a completely new challenge, and I’m looking forward to getting stuck in! As my next step up towards a full-time F1 seat, this gives me another chance to show how I’ve developed on track and continue to build my skills in a new environment and culture.”

Williams’ team principal James Vowles applauded how Browning has already “supported the team’s journey back to the front of the grid through his involvement in simulator and FP1 work, which has been invaluable as we enter this new era of regulations”.

Accompanying the announcement of Browning’s 2026 programme was the list of Williams’ current academy members, which revealed the departures of Japanese karter Sara Matsui.

Dean Hoogendoorn, who has been a Williams junior since August 2024, is still only 13 years old and has been signed by kart manufacturer Parolin as one of its factory drivers for 2026.

Last year the Dutchman raced for Prema, better known for its junior single-seater success, and he was ranked as one of Formula Scout’s top karting stars of 2025. He won the CIK-FIA European Championship, the WSK Super Master Series, came third in the CIK-FIA World Championship and fifth in Champions of the Future on OK Junior karts, won SuperKarts USA’s SuperNationals on X30 Junior karts and came third in the equivalent race for KA100 Junior karts.

The post Luke Browning lands F1 reserve driver role and Super Formula seat appeared first on Formula Scout.

10. Kean Nakamura-Berta

New entry • Prema’s Italian F4 and E4 champion

Photo: ACI Sport

Photo: ACI Sport

Nakamura-Berta came into 2025 having been dropped by the Alpine Academy after a first full Formula 4 season that didn’t live up to the early promise he’d shown in the Middle East, where he’d run Freddie Slater close for the title.

Prema kept its faith in the London-born Japanese-Slovakian to spearhead its all-conquering F4 squad this year and he became the first driver to win both the Italian and E4 titles in the same season, proving he is the Formula 1 team’s loss.

This year he could only finish third in the Middle East series as R-ace GP locked out the top two, but he started his Italian campaign with a run of five straight victories and never looked back.

He was challenged for pace at times by team-mate Sebastian Wheldon – new to European racing but with a good amount of car experience under his belt – and by former international karting rival Gabriel Gomez of the always competitive US Racing team, but Nakamura-Berta’s consistency was unrivalled.

From his 20 starts in the Italian championship, he won nine times and was on the podium in all but three of his other 11 races – a new record. It was a similar story in the three-round E4 series, where he took four wins and four other podiums.

9. Richard Verschoor

Up 15 • F2 veteran was title contender in best season yet

Photo: Formula Motorsport Ltd

Photo: Formula Motorsport Ltd

Verschoor reunited with MP Motorsport for a fifth and final season in Formula 2 in 2025, self-orchestrating a deal to put himself in a truly frontrunning car for the first time.

During the first half of the season he was making the most of the opportunity. A victory in the Jeddah feature race made him the championship leader, and another in the main race at the Red Bull Ring put him back on top by 24 points at the halfway point of the season.

In the second half of the campaign he was on the podium just once, when he won the Qatar sprint race, as a drop-off in qualifying form – 10th in Lusail was his best starting place in the last six feature races – left him otherwise fighting for the lower points positions.

Stripping the paint from his car from Monza to get down to the minimum weight limit didn’t improve his performances, but did put the tall Dutchman’s stronger earlier season form in context.

It wasn’t a season that was ever likely to earn the former Red Bull junior a shot at F1, but it did land him a contract with McLaren and a step towards a fully deserved future as a professional.

8. Nikola Tsolov

Re-entry • Reinvigorated career with F3 challenge

Photo: Formula Motorsport Ltd

Photo: Red Bull / Dutch Photo Agency

This was a year in which Tsolov returned to the sort of form that allowed him to take Spanish F4 by storm as a single-seater rookie in 2022 and place 17th in this list.

After Tsolov’s two years of toiling in FIA Formula 3 with ART Grand Prix and his split from the Alpine Academy, Campos Racing convinced Red Bull to support him for his third year at this level and he didn’t let either party down.

As for similarly experienced team-mate Mari Boya, there were some struggles in qualifying early on that left him playing catch-up in the championship, even though he won the Bahrain sprint race and came third at Imola. At Monaco came a pole position and feature race victory, and a procedural breakthrough helped him improve in qualifying at more conventional circuits.

He took another pole position and feature race win at the Red Bull Ring, closing him to just one point behind eventual champion Rafael Camara, only to be disqualified for excessive plank wear.

His title chances never recovered, but Tsolov did secure second in the standings and went on to impress in two early F2 appearances with Campos ahead of 2026.

7. Alex Dunne

Re-entry • F2 rookie thrilled with early wins

Photo: Formula Motorsport Ltd

Photo: Formula Motorsport Ltd

Dunne was arguably the standout talent of 2025. In its context, a single performance or sequence of results from a young driver can excite more than a whole championship-winning campaign, and not much bettered Dunne’s early-season F2 form in terms of impression this year.

The Irishman’s potential was well known (he last featured in this list in 27th in 2023) but his step up to F2 came off the back of a pretty low-key single year in FIA F3 and few could have expected him to be a title contender.

Clearly his Rodin Motorsport-run car was fast but Dunne’s dominant win in his first ever feature race in Bahrain was remarkable, and was followed up just two rounds later by a charging drive at Imola that made him the championship leader.

He took pole next time out in Monaco, but things began to unravel when he tried to turn in on Victor Martins at Sainte Devote. The ensuing social media backlash was wholly unjustified, but there would be a few more scrappy moments alongside the sublime over the rest of the year, which cost some points. That’s completely understandable though for a driver who had no prior experience of fighting at the front at anything like this level.

Some outright pace also seemed to be lost across the year, but Dunne was having to single-handedly lead his team without a capable team-mate for most of the year.

6. Jak Crawford

Up 22 • Individual excellence combined with team anonymity

Photo: Formula Motorsport Ltd

Photo: Formula Motorsport Ltd

Inconsistency plagued an F2 season in which Crawford’s individual brilliance not only earned him victories and poles but also lower positions in the top 10 at times when other drivers would likely have not been a points contender at all.

The highs included victories at Imola, Monaco, Silverstone and Baku, but the lows were points-free weekends where DAMS didn’t choose the right direction to go in with his car and there were even deeper rooted problems like engine issues.

This contributed to Crawford only having the 11th best race pace in the field, yet he led more green flag action than anybody else, and the only driver to beat his podium tally and feature race points haul was the champion.

While there wasn’t much more Crawford could do to maximise his car’s potential at times, the third-year F2 driver was not able to take the title fight to a rookie all the way to the finale.

5. Luke Browning

Up 2 • Was a title challenger in first and only F2 season

Photo: Formula Motorsport Ltd

Photo: Formula Motorsport Ltd

Browning finished on the podium in five of the opening eight races in his first full season of F2, and by the ninth race – a fourth-place finish in the Monaco feature race – he had taken the championship lead.

Consistent feature race results were the foundation of Browning’s title bid: he finished inside the top six in nine of the first 10, culminating in his one and only victory from pole position at Monza. Even a drop-off in Friday form in the middle of the year couldn’t stop him on Sundays, and his charging wet-weather drive from 12th to third at home at Silverstone was his personal highlight.

He was the closest challenger to eventual champion Leonardo Fornaroli – 17 points adrift – at the point when his season tailed off, with just one point from the final five races. This certainly wasn’t all in his control: a brake issue plagued him in Abu Dhabi qualifying, by which point the title was already lost and he was already looking towards Super Formula for 2026.

Browning finished fourth in the championship but would have been worthy of more. His feature race points tally was the third highest, with just two points fewer than Jak Crawford and 13 fewer than Fornaroli.

4. Freddie Slater

Up 1 • Showed winning ability in F3, FRegional and GB3

Photo: ACI Sport

Photo: ACI Sport

Slater won a third of the races he contested in a part-time GB3 campaign this year, and 40% of his races in the Formula Regional European Championship. In total, his 2025 featured 16 victories, eight other podiums and 12 poles.

The Middle East was where Slater began life as a FRegional and FIA F3 rookie. In the former, he started the region’s championship with two poles that were converted into wins, and while he repeated that winning feat at a later event he missed out on the title. In the latter, Slater qualifed in the top 10, then finished second with fastest lap on debut.

FREC was his primary focus, and he won at six of the 10 circuits on the calendar. Two early retirements and a mid-season disqualification meant he did not clinch the title until the penultimate race, but he still ended the season 36 points clear.

The GB3 outings occurred on non-clashing weekends, and Slater led that championship too as he won the season’s first two races from pole. He won again when he returned to the grid at Spa-Francorchamps, then got two second places in his third and final appearance at Brands Hatch to come 12th in the standings.

Spa was also where Slater’s second weekend in F3 was, and in November he raced in the FIA FRegional World Cup-awarding Macau Grand Prix. On the trickiest of street circuits he topped the first qualifying session, was just pipped in the second, won the qualification race then one small error ended his victory chances and his day in the main race.

3. Rafael Camara

Up 5 • Perfect preparations meant F3 title was earned early

Photo: Formula Motorsport Ltd

Photo: Pauline Ballet

After three excellent years with Prema, Camara made the step up to FIA F3 this year with Trident and it led to him comfortably claiming the title as a rookie.

The championship’s new car proved to be of great benefit rather than a new challenge in an inexperienced line-up at Trident, since the team found out the intricacies needed to nail qualifying during the pre-season.

Of course Camara still needed to deliver with the strongest car on the grid, and he did just that by taking pole, victory and fastest lap in the feature race in three of the first five rounds. His team’s advantage waned after that, but Camara still won from pole at the Hungaroring and that crowned him champion with a round to spare.

Even with the rest of the paddock having caught up to Trident, come season-end the benchmark driver on single-lap and race pace continued to be Camara and in such a competitive championship he had a ridiculously high median starting position on Sundays of 1.5.

2. Dennis Hauger

Re-entry • Utilised F2 experience to dominate Indy Nxt

Photo: Joe Skibinski

Photo: James Black

Three seasons in F2 proved unrewarding for Hauger, as his points tally decreased with each campaign and he never came higher than eighth in the standings despite being one of the top talents on the grid. But without those years of disappointment in junior single-seaters’ most competitive championship he wouldn’t have been able to dominate Indy Nxt with ease in 2025.

Hauger’s knowledge of tyre management meant the pitstop-free yet lengthy races in IndyCar’s primary feeder series suited his skillset, and qualifying also proved far easier to get right than in F2. In fact, he was on pole at seven of the first eight circuits on the calendar and often said “it feels natural” to drive Ind Nxt’s car.

His seamless transition into the championship was shown by taking victory, pole and fastest lap in each of the first two rounds, and if there were any questions about whether such dominance would continue into the oval leg of the season he showed he could adapt to the new challenge of those circuits too. He claimed pole for his first oval race, which was the only one one of the four he didn’t finish on the podium of.

Hauger last made this list in 2023, coming in at 31st place, and his high placing this year is in spite of an Indy Nxt grid lacking strength in depth due to such an impressive level of domination.

1. Leonardo Fornaroli

Up 5 • Mr consistency nails F2 title in his rookie season

Photo: Formula Motorsport Ltd

Photo: Formula Motorsport Ltd

That Fornaroli won last year’s FIA F3 title with consistency and without winning a race was understandably used against him. That he continued with a similar approach in F2 and won the title at the first attempt has to be applauded for what it is.

It certainly cannot be said that Fornaroli wasn’t fast. He had the best qualifying results on average, was second-fastest on ultimate one-lap pace to Victor Martins (who could rarely use that pace in the races) and started from pole in three feature races and from second place in two others.

Critically and most impressively, he qualified inside the top 10 at all 14 attempts. Courtesy of the reversed grid, that helped him to win three sprint races alongside his solitary feature race victory across four consecutive weekends as the season entered its second half. That sequence took him from fourth in the championship and 28 points off the lead to having a lead of 28 points with three rounds left to play.

He was consistent in his race results as well as his qualifying performances, only failing to score points in two of the 25 races that it took him to clinch the title.

Right now, F2 rewards drivers who can score consistently with a fast car underneath them, and nobody could stop the combination of Fornaroli and Invicta Racing.

The post Formula Scout Top 50 Drivers of 2025: 10-1 appeared first on Formula Scout.

The correlation between pace and results was missing once again with the Dallara F2 2024 for some this year, but the bigger story was whether anyone in the field really had the potential to beat Leonardo Fornaroli

When Formula Scout came to review the 2024 Formula 2 season, the first using a new car, the easiest way to sum up the relationship between pace and points was “How talent shone through in an F2 season of statistical quirks”.

The same applies to 2025, where the fastest driver in the field came 11th in the standings. And he knew he was fastest.

Invicta Racing was the team to beat with the Dallara F2 2024, and did the title double again as rookie Leonardo Fornaroli was crowned champion and Roman Stanek scored over 100 points too down in 10th in the table.

Over the 27-race season, Fornaroli amassed twice as many points as his team-mate and 36 more than anyone else. The same gap split second to fifth in the standings. A record-equalling 14 rounds led to 10 drivers scoring a century of points, a tally only matched in 2020 and beaten in 2022, but Fornaroli’s total was only the 17th highest haul in GP2/F2 history.

Halfway through the latest campaign, Formula Scout delved into the data and Stanek’s quote “in F2 qualifying and the race, they are two different sports” headlined the analysis due to the disparity between the two numerical threads.

And rather than start now with comparing Fornaroli to his rivals, we’ll look at Stanek’s season as the pace and results of a ‘weaker’ driver in a line-up is a good way of demonstrating how competitive their team and their lead driver is.

Invicta was fifth in the teams’ standings at the season’s halfway point, 37 points behind championship leaders Campos Racing, with Fornaroli and Stanek fourth and 11th in the points table. Across the first seven rounds, they were on average the third and ninth fastest drivers in the field, then 11th and 16th on race pace.

Absolute pace

Stanek scored three-and-a-half times as many points in the season’s second half, his tally actually beating what Fornaroli achieved in the first half of the season. At the halfway point, Stanek had seven feature race points while Fornaroli had 65.

In the second half of 2025, Stanek scored 65 feature race points and Fornaroli netted 81. That 16-point difference was smaller than the advantage title rivals Jak Crawford at DAMS (61), Richard Verschoor at MP Motorsport (18) and Alex Dunne at Rodin Motorsport (36) had, but larger than Luke Browning’s three-point outscoring of team-mate Dino Beganovic at Hitech GP.

Having a competitive team-mate was an advantage, since Invicta and Hitech’s duos all scored 65 or more points and the teams rose to first and second in the standings. Crawford, AIX Racing’s Joshua Duerksen and Prema’s Gabriele Mini were the only other drivers to exceed 37 points in the season’s second half, with 67, 62 and 41 respectively.

Invicta’s team principal James Robinson told Formula Scout about Stanek’s input in the team’s competitiveness, which was key to Fornaroli’s title bid, saying “his technical understanding of the vehicle is really second-to-none”.

By the end of the year, after Stanek had taken two poles which were converted into second places and won the feature race at Spa-Francorchamps, and victories in three sprint races and one feature race had gone to Fornaroli, the pair were on average the second and fourth fastest drivers of 2025 on single-lap pace (with Fornaroli ahead) and eighth and 14th on race pace.

The improvement in results at Invicta, making it the team to beat, were backed up by quotes from the Silverstone sprint race which kicked off the second half of the campaign. Fornaroli claimed his first win, and Stanek joined him on the podium.

“We changed massively,” said Stanek. “Mainly the work is done outside of the race track, then you just come on the race and prepare it. We did a lot of work behind the scenes, from simulator to some mental health and how to drive a race car. I’ve been missing… not some information, but some little details that helped me in the races, especially.”

Photo: Formula Motorsport Ltd

He added that “although it’s my third season in F2, every day you keep learning new and new stuff” and that the team had “improved a lot”.

Fornaroli was less insightful about the team’s pace, with his favourite phrase over the year being “it means nothing”. What he meant was that strong results or the points lead, which he took in round nine at Spa, couldn’t be taken for granted.

He was analytical about individual races in conversation, primarily because that’s the info people asked for after each of his four wins, but after winning the Spa sprint race he did discuss his progress as a rookie.

“Now that I have more races in my back, as well as testing, I understood more about the tyres. At the start, it was not easy because compared to Formula 3 it’s quite different. But the biggest step forward I did [was] in Silverstone, so there I learned a lot and it was a very similar situation [to winning today].”

That first win, after becoming 2024 FIA F3 champion with no victories, was “a weight lifted” and a “confidence boost” that enabled Fornaroli to further raise his game.

Fornaroli and Stanek’s working relationship actually extended back to 2022, with both racing for Trident for three years but always in different championships, and they credited it frequently during the season for their collective strength as a line-up.

Crawford came second in F2 this year, and despite the continuity of racing for DAMS faced blind alleys on set-up and had to rely on individual brilliance to bring home big results. He scored 88 points in the season’s first half, and 87 in the second.

After winning the wet Silverstone feature race, a points-free Spa weekend followed. Then Crawford finished third in both races at the Hungaroring, but a points-free weekend at Monza followed. Then he won the Baku feature race from pole, but scored only one point at Losail.

Photo: Formula Motorsport Ltd

Crawford knew Silverstone would be a “a track that would suit our car”, and expanded on how circuit comparability impacted consistency.

“We find every weekend quite different, and always different challenges, of course. I mean it’s same for everyone, but we seemed to already last year with the team struggle a bit more with consistency. And this year it’s been a lot better, but it hasn’t been consistently at the front, it’s been kind of consistently in the top 10. I think we’re improving.”

At the Hungaroring he qualified third, rose from eighth to third in the sprint race then maintained his position behind the Invicta duo in the feature race. The third-year F2 driver called his best qualifying lap “one of the best laps I’ve done in F2”, despite it not delivering pole, and cited previous instances of post-practice set-up adjustments hampering his qualifying.

Invicta’s drivers were slowest in Monza practice and Crawford was ninth, behind team-mate Kush Maini. In qualifying, Browning took pole, Maini showed DAMS’ potential by pipping Stanek to second, Fornaroli was eighth and Crawford was in 11th with engine issues that left him way off the pace in the races too.

Since several of Crawford’s bad weekends occurred in the first of back-to-back rounds where he then bounced back, he said “I feel like we’ve done a great job to look past the bad, until we feel like we need to look back at it and make adjustments”. Whether that approach truly helped is unknown, but even if he had been consistent Crawford felt the title wasn’t likely.

“It’s hard to beat when the team [Invicta] and also Leo have done a great job. So anyways, even at our best, it would have been very difficult still. We just missed a little bit. Maybe Invicta were the most consistent team, especially when it came to qualifying. I feel like me, Richard and Luke, we were all a bit inconsistent. And it just comes down to a bit the car.

“Kind of [on] the new car that we’ve had since last year, it’s more tricky to get into the window. I feel like the tyres always have been very tricky to get in the correct window. So those two things, if you’re not getting it right every time, you pay the price.”

Photo: Formula Motorsport Ltd

Ahead of Monza, Verschoor sought improved pace by introducing a blander livery that weighed less in paint. According to F2’s own info, he was the tallest driver on the grid in 2025. Therefore his car spent many races far above the minimum weight.

He was 24 points clear at the top halfway through the season, sixth on absolute pace and second on race pace, and ended the year seventh and first on those two metrics. His performances earned him McLaren Formula 1 junior status alongside Fornaroli, and unlike the champion he has a confirmed racing programme for 2026 as he heads to the European Le Mans Series.

But having led the way on 114 points, he only scored 56 more after that despite eight successive points-scoring races. His sole podium was victory in the Losail sprint race. That result made him the highest-scoring driver in sprint races this year, but Fornaroli, Crawford and Browning were far ahead with their feature race tallies. While his single-lap pace only worsened slightly after the Red Bull Ring round in summer, where he claimed his third win, that proved costly while others improved.

He never qualified on pole, but having an average starting spot on Sundays of 6.86, with a median of fifth place since 19th in Imola was his only time outside of the top 10, still proved enough to bring in the points in the season’s first half. His average starting spot was 10.71 in the second half, where Silverstone and Losail were the only tracks where he was in the top 10.

There was some irony that at Monza his new livery did seem to help, as he was second fastest in qualifying before he had his fastest lap deleted for triggering a red flag period when he crashed out while in clean air.

To some degree, poor qualifying form meant more opporunities to rise up the order in races. But he actually proved better at that in the season’s first half, improving his position in nine out of 13 races. The Losail win was his eighth in F2, making him the joint fifth most successful driver in GP2/F2 history. It meant “not much” for a driver with over 125 starts.

Fornaroli won the title the next day, and the unravelling of Verschoor’s title attack appeared to be of his own making as team-mate Oliver Goethe was in the top 10 five out of seven times in the season’s second half and his average starting spot on Sundays was 9.14.

Qualifying

Goethe served three-place grid penalties in both Losail races for an impeding violation in qualifying, which he had topped. That meant “a huge amount” to Goethe, after working hard through the season to improve his qualifying, and Verschoor was 0.678s back in 10th. MP and Invicta were the only two teams to get both of their cars into the top 10, and while Goethe exited the weekend with no points he was fifth in both races of the Abu Dhabi season finale while Verschoor scored nothing.

“Yesterday I just didn’t do a good job. I also apologised to the team of course for that. My team-mate did a phenomenal job,” Verschoor said after his Losail win.

“He showed that he’s really quick and that the car is very good around here. And I think we showed it again today in the race. For sure the car is very competitive on this kind of track. Also next week, I know that we are good as well in Abu Dhabi. So it’s up to me to perform. Yesterday I could just feel that – I’m not someone that is driving at all in the break.

“I haven’t been in a race car for two months, and I think that’s just not really smart. Even though it’s very expensive to drive, it’s just not smart because I could feel the difficulty in putting the lap together.”

For a driver in his fifth F2 campaign, it was a very odd remark. After the big break before the Middle Eastern rounds in the previous three seasons, he had returned to action with a sprint race podium each time. His expectation of performing strongly at Yas Marina Circuit was based on a run of podiums there since 2022, including third place and fastest lap in last year’s feature race with the then-new Dallara F2 2024 car.

“I just didn’t have the right feeling with the car [at Losail]. Even though I could feel that there was a lot of potential, I struggled to put everything together, to nail every corner, and I only did five laps in free practice because my engine broke. I had to change engine after FP. So that was also not helping. It just didn’t click. Sometimes you have those kind of sessions, and it was definitely up to me.”

Photo: Red Bull Content Pool

Based on his own comments, even with a competitive car Verschoor was not getting in positions to remain a rival to Fornaroli.

He also didn’t want to take credit for Goethe’s improving over his first full F2 season, after his team-mate said “I try to learn as much as I can from” Verschoor. But he revealed they spent lots of time together away from the track, and was full of praise:

“I always said that he’s a super fast driver. He just couldn’t really show his potential straight away, but if you see the learning slope that he did, it’s just incredible. Being on pole yesterday I think was something no one was really expecting of him, but he pulled it off.”

That Invicta’s line-up entered 2025 with similar experience disparity, but the roles were reversed in terms of who was doing the late-season catching up to the lead driver’s performance level, further marks out Fornaroli as 2025’s only title-capable driver.

But what about Browning, Dunne, or even Campos’s Arvid Lindblad? Browning came fourth in the standings, but second was within reach, Dunne was Verschoor’s closest rival at the halfway mark and Lindblad’s performances earned him an F1 seat.

Lindblad can be ruled out, impressive as he was in his rookie season, as he was behind team-mate Pepe Marti in the standings when the Spanish sophomore ended his campaign two rounds early to step up to Formula E with Cupra Kiro.

“His decision to step away from F2 and commit fully to our FE project is a real statement of intent,” said the team’s chief operating officer Russell O’Hagan, and he was right. It was a cannily timed move, as Marti was a Red Bull junior like Lindblad but not getting any F1 test time or free practice call-ups like his team-mate was. If beating him wasn’t putting him contention for a 2026 Racing Bulls berth, and Ayumu Iwasa’s title-winning Super Formula season wasn’t enough to be picked over Lindblad either, then it was unlikely a spectacular 2026 in F2 or Red Bull’s usual dumping ground SF would for 2027.

Furthermore, Marti’s replacement Nikola Tsolov also outshone Lindblad. On his debut at Losail, a new track to him and without the pre-season preparations other rookies had, the FIA F3 graduate qualified seventh while Lindblad was 17th.

Race pace

Did less than three rounds. Race pace is calculated using drivers’ best rolling average of 10 consecutive green-flag laps

That put him fourth on the sprint race grid, and he took third from Van Amersfoort Racing’s Rafael Villagomez on lap one. They went wheel-to-wheel again on the final lap and Tsolov came off worse, dropping to 10th.

He was also set to finish one place higher than he started in the feature race, but a penalty for a unsafe release from his first ever pitstop put him back to seventh. Tsolov had “a busy couple of weeks trying to prepare myself physically” and faced many new elements under the lights in Qatar but “the only surprise was the call to move up” to F2 itself.

Lindblad redeemed himself by charging up to fourth, but that was his first top-five finish in a feature race since his win from pole in round six at Barcelona. When they headed to Abu Dhabi, Tsolov was faster again in qualifying. An impeding violation meant a three-place grid penalty in both races for Tsolov, but he rose from fifth to third in the sprint race and while there were only two circuits to take data from his average deficit to the benchmark on single-lap and race pace was sixth best in the field.

The fastest driver in the Yas Marina sprint race was Duerksen, who bookended 2025 with victories, claimed six podiums in the last eight races, led more laps total than all but Crawford and Fornaroli, was fifth on race pace for the year but 13th on single-lap pace and came ninth in the standings in a one-sided garage as team-mate Cian Shields propped up the field.

In contrast to Duerksen, Browning scored one point in the last five races and that cost him the championship runner-up spot. He led the points after round five in Monaco, had the best race pace in four races, and it would’ve taken only one race going differently for him to be 2025’s top scorer in feature races. Despite leading less than a feature race-worth of laps all season.

Laps led (excl. safety car periods)

1 Crawford 103   2 Fornaroli 90   3 Lindblad 61   4 Verschoor 60   5 Duerksen 54   6 Dunne 55   7 Beganovic 49   8 Marti 44   9 Maini 42   10 Browning 22   11 Stanek 16   12 Martins 12   13 Montoya 8   14 Miyata 5   15 Goethe 3   16 Mini 1

Photo: Formula Motorsport Ltd

Browning’s unpropitious end to the year began in the Baku feature race, where he had a slow start, lost time in a double stack pitstop, went off at a restart and pitted again to be a lap down. At Losail he spun in practice, qualified 18th and recovered to 10th in the feature race by cycling to the front (7% of his time leading in 2025) before pitting with three laps to go.

At Yas Marina he qualified 17th while struggling with a brake issue, finished the two races in 20th and 14th and got a pitlane speeding penalty.

Browning was fifth and fourth on absolute and race pace at the season’s halfway point, and improved to fourth in the latter but fell to eighth in the former with a minor worsening of his actual average gap to the benchmark pace on any given weekend.

He matched Fornaroli’s tally of nine podiums, while Crawford, Dunne and Duerksen all got eight, but only won once (from pole at Monza). The only other driver without multiple victories in the top in the standings was team-mate Beganovic.

Did a lack of winning form matter? Not according to Browning himself. “Honestly, I don’t mind [not winning],” was his take after a double podium in round three at Imola. He added at Barcelona “it doesn’t cross my mind at all to win any races” and “I couldn’t tell you who won the Barcelona feature race four years ago, but I can tell you who won the championship, so that’s the main goal for me”.

While being happily win-free doesn’t sound like a title-winning mentality, the Williams junior was conveying how relaxed he felt about his season at that point having met his personal targets — including improved consistency and showing race-winning pace. And he’d won twice en route to third in the 2024 FIA F3 Championship, behind Fornaroli and one-time winner Mini.

At the end of the season, after Browning had spent many weekends being asked by media about whether wins or consistency was more important for winning the title, Formula Scout circled back to his early-season comments. Since he had won a race, but not the title, what did he want his season to be remembered for within the paddock, and outside of it?

Points scored

Feature races			Sprint races
Pos	Driver	Points	Pos	Driver	Points
1	Fornaroli	144	1	Verschoor	62
2	Crawford	133	2	Fornaroli	61
3	Browning	131	=3	Dunne	44
4	Verschoor	108	=3	Lindblad	44
5	Dunne	102	=3	Marti	44
6	Beganovic	90	6	Crawford	38
7	Lindblad	88	7	Duerksen	34
8	Duerksen	73	8	Browning	31
9	Stanek	72	=9	Stanek	29
10	Marti	68	=9	Martins	29
11	Montoya	67	=11	Beganovic	26
12	Martins	64	=11	Mini	26

“Great question. What was really special about this year for me, which I think really shows who I was as a driver, is being the hero for the British fans at the home grand prix. That feature race, I came from outside the points, and I was lapping a second quicker than most people in the grid in the wet. And around my home circuit that I knew so well, I think it showed talent, because after all, all the cars are equal in the wet.

“That was probably one of the most standout things for me, and what I’d like to be remembered by is my wet-weather prowess. But I think equally the ability to execute and just optimise what I have in terms of the points. For the pace that we’ve had this year versus the points and situations that I’ve been in, I’ve almost optimised everything as a driver that I can.

“Not always do you have the luck to win the championship, you need pace and luck. And we didn’t have so much luck this year, especially with the safety car coming out when we were looking on for a podium last weekend [from 18th on the grid]. These things happen. Dominating in Monza was a good highlight, and not an easy one on a circuit that’s so easy to overtake. And just doing this in our first year. It takes guys years and years to perfect this championship, and still don’t achieve it. And although I’ve not managed to perfect the championship, we got bloody close at times, and I think I’m very proud of that.”

Saying he optimised everything doesn’t correlate with the season-end particularly. Beganovic finished ahead of him in 10 races, and six of those were in the last three rounds. He dominated the Baku sprint race to break his own victory duck and lead a Hitech one-two, and in the Losail feature race led a one-two again on fastest laps and race pace. But he finished ninth, and called it “one of my best races I’ve ever done”.

Hitech came second in the standings with its all-rookie line-up, and the 38-point gap to Invicta could’ve been far smaller or negated entirely. So maybe Browning was a title-calibre driver maximising his potential until the last two qualifying sessions.

Invicta, Hitech and Campos were the only teams to get double podiums, each doing so twice, while the champions were on the podium at 10 circuits, with Hitech, Campos and Rodin (which came eighth in the teams’ standings) collecting trophies from eight rounds. Like AIX, Rodin was reliant on one driver and its rookie Dunne scored all but five of its 155 points.

Photo: Formula Motorsport Ltd

He was frank about what lacking a team-mate he could take data references from to improve his own car meant for his year.

“There was a relatively big gap between myself and the other car for most of the year,” Dunne told Formula Scout.

“There were a couple of times where there were things that I could maybe have a look at just to compare myself. But for the most part, it was very difficult to pick apart things to find for the majority part of the year. In fairness to Martinus [Stenshorne], in Qatar he jumped in pretty quickly and did a good job there. So I would say that was kind of the first weekend of the year where I had another reference to properly analyse and learn from, and spend a lot more time looking through the data to just see where I can improve.

“I think for the most part of the year, even without a strong reference, we’ve still done a good job kind of getting there, not by ourselves, but without having data to properly compare to each weekend. We’ve always managed to still reach a very high level.”

Dunne was the second fastest driver at the season’s halfway point, and sixth on race pace. He was surpassed by Fornaroli on absolute pace after that, and to ninth on race pace despite his average gap to the pace-setters only increasing marginally. That’s impressive given the lack of a strong team-mate meant he couldn’t enjoy the learning curve Fornaroli had.

As a McLaren junior Dunne could lean on their support to improve himself, while Browning felt he developed massively under Williams this year. Dunne got two F1 practice call-ups too, both on F2 weekends so requiring in-event adaptation, then he left McLaren in October to reportedly pursue a seat with an F1 rival. Dunne didn’t comment on this when asked by Formula Scout.

There’s one driver who notably has not been named in this review of the 2025 F2 title fight, because he didn’t feature in it.

Victor Martins was on average the fastest driver in qualifying this year, without a doubt, as he was never off the pace. But the reasons he came 11th in the standings in his third campaign with ART Grand Prix will require analysing on their own.

The post Could anyone have beaten Fornaroli to the 2025 F2 title? appeared first on Formula Scout.

Photo: Formula Motorsport Ltd

Super Formula post-season testing at Suzuka next week will feature a large group of junior single-seater stars.

The December 10-12 group test doubles up as the Japanese championship’s official rookie test, and is a key opportunity to impress for drivers aiming to race there.

Luke Browning is the highest profile junior single-seater star entered into the test, and will do days two and three with the Toyota-powered Kondo Racing team. The 23-year-old Englishman is a race-winner in Formula 2 this year and is aiming to end his rookie season this weekend as championship runner-up.

As a Williams junior, he has been called up to drive in four Formula 1 practice sessions, the latest being at Yas Marina Circuit this weekend in between F2 action. He will also do F1’s young driver test there on December 9 before flying to Japan.

Ex-F2 star Jack Doohan, who did six F1 races with Alpine this year before being demoted, is reportedly eyeing an SF switch.

Also coming from overseas to test is Charlie Wurz, who will join for day one’s afternoon session then also drive in the next two days with Team Goh, which was last seen on the grid under that name in 2022. The 20-year-old has spent the last two years in the FIA Formula 3 Championship, and came 13th this season with two podiums.

Planning to be on the SF grid in 2026 after making his single-seater racing debut next month in Formula Regional Oceania is Kalle Rovanpera, and Toyota’s two-time World Rally champion from Finland will do the full test with KCMG.

Gaining test mileage at the top level after racing in Japan’s third-tier Super Formula Lights championship in 2025 are six drivers.

Honda-powered B-MAX Racing has called up three of its SF Lights drivers: champion Yuto Nomura (days one and two), podium-finisher Zachary David (day three) and backmarker Yasuhiro Shimizu (day three).

Toyota junior Rikuto Kobayashi, who came third in the standings with one win and also made his SF debut in the double-header Twin Ring Motegi round, will do the full test with the TGM Grand Prix squad that replaced Goh in SF in 2023.

INGING will put Kazuhisa Urabe, who was 10th in SF Lights and third in the FRegional Japanese Championship this year, in one of its Toyota-powered cars for the final day, and former Honda junior Souta Arao will hope to impress the manufacturer again by testing on days two and three with ThreeBond Racing. Arao was only able to contest one SF Lights round this year.

Kiyoshi Umegaki and Tokiya Suzuka did double programmes as Toyota juniors in 2025. They came first and second in FRJC, while in Japanese F4 the title was won by Suzuki and Umegaki came seventh in the standings.

The pair will join SF’s test for the final day, with Umegaki at Rookie Racing and Suzuki driving for KCMG.

The post Browning leads junior single-seater stars entering Super Formula test appeared first on Formula Scout.

Photo: Aston Martin F1

Formula 2 title rivals Jak Crawford and Luke Browning will be on double duty during the season finale at Yas Marina Circuit, as both will drive in Formula 1.

Between F2 practice and qualifying on the Friday of that weekend, they will contest the first free practice session of F1’s Abu Dhabi Grand Prix and there will only be a half-hour gap between the end of that and the start of F2’s qualifying session.

Browning will drive for Williams, and it will be his fourth F1 practice call-up since becoming a member of the Williams Racing Driver Academy in 2023. He appeared in FP1 at the 2024 Abu Dhabi GP, and at the Bahrain and Mexico City grands prix this year.

F1’s post-season young driver test will also be in Abu Dhabi, and Browning will be at the wheel again with Williams.

“It’s going to be an unforgettable weekend in Abu Dhabi fighting for the F2 title while getting back behind the wheel of the FW47, and it’s a challenge I’m going to relish,” said the 23-year-old.

“The young driver test will give me a final opportunity to help the team prepare for 2026 and I’m looking forward to being part of a F1 weekend for the last time this season. Thank you to everyone at the Driver Academy and Williams for the trust once again.”

Crawford will drive in practice and testing at Yas Marina Circuit for Aston Martin, ahead of becoming the team’s third driver (the reserve driver role in all but name) next year.

He has been one of its junior drivers since early 2024, and made his F1 practice debut at last month’s 2025 Mexico City GP.

Bolstered by private tests in the team’s older cars, Aston Martin claims Crawford has already driven 1,304 miles in F1 machinery and is already developing its 2026 car through simulator work.

“I’m thrilled to get back behind the wheel of the AMR25 for the second time this season,” the 25-year-old said of his Abu Dhabi call-up.

“I’ve spent a lot of time in the simulator at the AMR Technology Campus this year, and being able to translate that work onto the track is incredibly rewarding. Mexico was a huge learning experience for me and I’m looking forward to continuing that development in both the FP1 session and the young driver test.”

Aston Martin team principal Andy Cowell added: “It’s fantastic to see Jak back in the car so soon after Mexico. Building mileage in the car and maintaining momentum is exactly what we aim for in developing our young drivers. This session in Abu Dhabi will be an important step as he prepares for his new role as third driver next year, and we’re excited to continue supporting his growth.”

There are two rounds left of the F2 season, with Losail next up on November 28-30, and Crawford and Browning sit second and third in the standings. They are 19 and 27 points off championship leader Leonardo Fornaroli respectively.

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Photo: Formula Motorsport Ltd

Luke Browning will make his third appearance in a Formula 1 practice session with Williams at the Mexico City Grand Prix next weekend.

The 23-year-old has been a member of its Williams Racing Driver Academy since 2023, and that has already resulted in F1 practice call-ups at the 2024 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix and 2025 Bahrain Grand Prix.

He also drove for the team in post-season testing last year, and this April got further mileage in its 2023 F1 car in a private test at Monza.

“I’m hugely grateful to be given another chance to drive in a free practice session with Williams and to experience the FW47 for a second time,” said Browning.

“I’ve been working hard to prepare for the session so I can make the most of this amazing opportunity and help the team plan for the race weekend ahead. I can’t wait to get back into an F1 car and I’m incredibly grateful to everyone in the driver academy and at Williams for their trust and support.”

Browning is currently fighting for the Formula 2 title in his first full season. He contested the last three rounds of 2024 with ART Grand Prix, with a best finish of sixth, then joined Hitech GP for 2025 and so far has taken one win, eight other podiums, one pole and two fastest laps. There are two rounds left of the season, both taking place after the Mexico City GP.

“Luke has had a strong season in F2 so far, consistently showing his pace across a range of circuits and racing conditions,” said Williams’ sporting director Sven Smeets.

“He has continued to support the team through his simulator work and the Testing of Previous Cars programme, preparing him well for his next free practice session. We look forward to seeing him take to the track in Mexico as build his experience as a WRDA Driver.”

The post Luke Browning gets third F1 practice call-up with Williams in Mexico appeared first on Formula Scout.

Photo: Formula Motorsport Ltd

Luke Browning claimed his maiden Formula 2 victory in an incident-packed feature race at Monza.

Browning navigated multiple safety car restarts and fought back from a late overtake from Joshua Duerksen to take the win by 3.560 seconds.

The Hitech GP driver held onto the lead off the line and in the opening laps pulled away from the rest of the field. A bad start for Kush Maini dropped the other front row starter back into the pack, but once Oliver Goethe had fought his way to second that lead rapidly narrowed.

On the fourth lap, Goethe flew past Browning to take the race lead. A few laps later, Goethe came into the pits, leaving Browning at the front of the field and battling with Roman Stake for position.

Before Browning was called into the pits, Alex Dunne was hit hard from behind by Arvid Lindblad, wiping Dunne out of the race and bringing out the first safety car. Everybody who hadn’t already pitted came through the pit lane, undoing any advantage Goethe might have had by pitting early.

Browning emerged from the pit stop phase top of the order ahead of Stanek and Duerksen, with Goethe in eighth.

Racing resumed on lap 11 but a second incident for Lindblad almost immediately brought out the safety car again. Lindblad had damage to his front wing from the first incident and was unable to make the first corner. He locked up and went straight on, narrowly avoiding Browning but making heavy contact with Stanek, taking him out of the race. Lindblad limped back to the pits where he retired.

It had been a late restart and a few other drivers were caught out with incidents further back, including Cian Shields and Amaury Cordeel, while Victor Martins spun after contact with Gabriele Mini.

The incident was quickly cleared and this time Browning was on the defence when racing resumed. He couldn’t stop Duerksen sweeping past him and into the race lead, and was unable to fight back before a third safety car was called, this time for an incident involving Sami Meguetounif.

Duerksen managed the restart well but couldn’t hold off Browning for long. Browning swept through into the lead, while Duerksen fell back into a battle with Pepe Marti. Duerksen just held off Marti, taking second position and a double podium finish at Monza.

Rafael Villagomez took fourth after losing out to Marti earlier in final portion of the race.

After a poor start, championship leader Leonardo Fornaroli managed to climb back up to fifth, just ahead of Dino Beganovic. Mini took seventh as Richard Verschoor, Sebastian Montoya and John Bennett completed the top 10.

Race results (30 laps)

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Photo: Formula Motorsport Ltd

Luke Browning took a maiden Formula 2 pole at Monza after rival Richard Verschoor crashed out and points leader Leonardo Fornaroli was halted by a technical issue.

With everyone hoping for a tow, there was a long wait for anybody to hit the track at the start of the session with Alex Dunne the first to blink. His first lap ended up being only 15th fastest, eight tenths of a second off the pace set by Kush Maini.

The first of three red flags followed when Gabriele Mini came to a halt on track. Cian Shields also stopped on his way back into the pit lane.

After the restart, Browning took top spot with a time of 1m32.390s with Verschoor slotting into second, 0.315s down.

Fornaroli then ground to a stop in Parabolica, seemingly stuck in a high gear, and triggering another red flag.

When the session resumed once more, the time remaining had been reduced to just six minutes.

Verschoor now found himself running first on track and without a slipstream, but after an additional warm-up lap was still looking quick, dropping only half a tenth in the first sector.

However, he then lost the rear of his car in the first Lesmo and crashed into the barriers on the inside, bringing an early end to the session.

With nobody able to improve, Browning secured pole with Verschoor second but at risk of losing his best time for causing a red flag. He had been 10th after his first lap at the start of the session, leaving him likely to drop into the second half of the field.

Maini’s early effort was good enough to finish third ahead of Roman Stanek and Oliver Goethe.

Dunne was able to improve in the second phase of flying laps and finished up sixth, in front of Arvid Lindblad, whose attempts to improve were foiled by an unplanned visit to the pits.

Joshua Duerksen was eighth while the final red flag kept Fornaroli in ninth in front of Sami Meguetounif. Dino Beganovic was 11th ahead of Jak Crawford and Victor Martins and could inherit pole for the sprint race if Verschoor loses his best time.

Qualifying results

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Photo: Formula Motorsport Ltd

Luke Browning left it late to top Formula 2 practice at the Hungaroring, bettering long-time pacesetter Oliver Goethe.

Running was interrupted early on as red flags waved five minutes in due to ART Grand Prix’s Ritomo Miyata stopping at the exit of turn one with a mechanical issue.

After a five-minute stoppage, running resumed and Invicta Racing’s Roman Stanek set the early pace with a 1m32.528s lap.

Laptimes began to rapidly improve, with the positions at the top of the timesheet alternating between several drivers.

A 1m32.206s put Rodin Motorsport’s Alex Dunne into first place, before ART GP’s Victor Martins and then Invicta’s Leonardo Fornaroli went quicker.

MP Motorsport appeared the team to beat though, as Richard Verschoor moved ahead after setting a 1m31.176s and team-mate Oliver Goethe then went 0.037 seconds faster.

The newly resurfaced turn one caught many drivers out. Rodin’s Amaury Cordeel locked up entering the corner on two consecutive fast runs, and Dunne and Van Amersfoort Racing’s John Bennett were also caught out by the lack of grip.

There were few improvements in the middle of the 45-minute session, with Goethe one of the exceptions as he set a 1m30.753s to move over 0.3s clear at the top.

Martins and Hitech GP’s Dino Beganovic split the MP drivers with 10 minutes to go, with Goethe maintaining an advantage of 0.2s as he improved again to 1m30.742s.

Stanek and Dunne both tasted second place before Hitech’s Browning posted a 1m30.873s to cement his place as Goethe’s closest rival.

Prema’s Gabriele Mini then looked set to take top spot, but a mistake into turn six meant he could not improve and remained in ninth place.

As the chequered flag fell, new fastest sector one splits were set by Browning and then Dunne. When Browning met the start-finish line, he had completed the lap in 1m30.609s and that put him 0.133s ahead of non-improver Goethe at the top.

Dunne looked set to go even faster but a mistake into turn 12 meant he remained third, 0.302s behind. Stanek claimed fourth, and AIX Racing’s Joshua Durksen was fifth fastest. Less than half a second covered the top 10, which Fornaroli was outside of.

Free practice results

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Photo: Formula Motorsport Ltd

Formula 2 title aspirant Luke Browning is relaxed about the prospect of a season free of race wins this year.

He made his F2 debut in 2024 with ART Grand Prix, doing the final three rounds and claiming a best finish of sixth.

This year he joined Hitech GP and sits fifth in the standings with five podiums from the first six rounds. The first time he commented on the prospect of a win-free 2025 was after round four at Imola, where he got a double podium.

“Honestly, I don’t mind [not winning],” he said to media including Formula Scout. “I won enough last year [in Formula 3], and it didn’t get me the championship, so I’m after the best end championship result that we can get. And if that’s consistently not winning, but consistently picking up points, I’m happy with that.”

Browning won five times with Hitech en route to the 2022 GB3 title, then stepped up to the FIA F3 Championship with the team. He claimed one podium as a rookie, then won both races at the non-championship Macau Grand Prix. That set up a 2024 in which he came third in the championship with two feature race victories.

Having no wins in F2 — while mastering consistency — was brought up again after round five in Monaco. In the sprint race Browning was third, and was fourth in the feature race.

“In these championships everyone goes ‘you need to be consistent and you can win the championship’. Everyone’s trying to be consistent, so it sounds stupid to say it, and it sounds easy to say it when it’s happening to you,” he mused.

“It’s so easy to go into a race and something outside of your control happens. It’s super tough. As expected. But at the end of the day, the championship’s supposed to be tough.”

He added to Formula Scout: “We’ve had a podium at each [of the last two rounds], so in terms of a goal we’ve ticked it off. It’s been okay. I think is the way to put it. It’s not been fantastic, we’ve not won both races, but equally we’re in the mix, and we’re doing what we set out to do each weekend, and we’re there.”

Browning was later probed at Barcelona, where he finished the races in sixth and 20th, about what personal improvements were needed to win.

“From my perspective, I’m on it. It doesn’t cross my mind at all to win any races,” he said, pointing out he sits on a trophy haul from lower categories.

“I’m not missing any race wins or championship success. I think it would have been nice last year to win F3[‘s title], and we didn’t because we weren’t consistent enough. So this year we’re more consistent, and it’s paying off in championships. And that’s ultimately the goal.

“I couldn’t tell you who won the Barcelona feature race four years ago, but I can tell you who won the championship.”

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