Having annually ranked the top 50 drivers in junior single-seater racing since 2011, Formula Scout is now also recognising the achievements of the very best of those who ‘graduate’ into the world of professional racing each year.

Here is Formula Scout’s Class of 2019… Key Wins (W), poles (P), fastest laps (FL)

9. Ukyo Sasahara JAPAN 24y/o
15th in Super GT, 18th in Super Formula, NC in Asian F3 (3 W, 4 P, 1 FL)   2019: Asian F3 champion (8 W, 7 P, 7 FL)

Photo: Red Bull Content Pool

Photo: Red Bull Content Pool

The former Formula Renault star has essentially gone through his single-seater career twice now, with his first taking him up to FIA European Formula 3, and the second starting off in Japanese Formula 4 and concluding in a Super Formula seat.

Admittedly the Red Bull athlete only got his SF chance after travel restrictions prevented Red Bull’s Formula 1 junior Juri Vips from racing, but he was chosen by Team Mugen as the replacement because he was highly rated by team manager Shinji Nakano.

Sasahara had only done three Super GT races with Mugen at this point, with a best finish of 10th, but Nakano had already said his signing was good enough to race in F1 in the future. This came after a 2019 in which as well as winning the Asian F3 title with Hitech GP, Sasahara also became the first winner of the Motorsport Games GT Cup and was Porsche Carrera Cup Japan champion.

That momentum continued into 2020 at first as he returned to Asian F3 as a guest, consistently beating the likes of future Haas F1 drivers Pietro Fittipaldi and Nikita Mazepin.

In Super GT he made the top five in qualifying once, at Suzuka, but wasn’t able to make anything of it after his car lost a wheel just a few laps in. There was redemption next time out at Twin Ring Motegi though as he claimed his first and only podium of the season alongside Hideki Mutoh.

The SF season was far less rewarding, having not tested the Dallara SF19 car before, and in the early rounds he struggled with the series’ soft compound tyre supplied by Yokohama. He progressed a lot over the seven-round season, particularly in qualifying where he ended up with a higher average starting spot than title contenders Ryo Hirakawa and Nick Cassidy, and in the final race at Fuji Speedway he was fighting both of those drivers on track on the way to his first points finish in seventh.

8. Oliver Askew USA 23y/o
19th in IndyCar   2019: Indy Lights champion (7 W, 7 P, 5 FL)   2018: 3rd in IP2000 (1 W, 3 P, 2 FL)

Photo: IndyCar

Photo: IndyCar

So much was expected from reigning Indy Lights champion Oliver Askew as he stepped up to IndyCar this year with the returning McLaren, a team co-run with Schmidt Petersen Motorsports, but he ultimately failed to deliver.

The Floridian looked at his strongest on the ovals, but he admitted himself that he lacked the consistency needed to make progress race-by-race over such a compressed season with limited practice time due to the pandemic.

Besides qualifying fifth at the Indianapolis Grand Prix, his second IndyCar start, which he then crashed out of, he was usually struggling on one-lap pace and only made the top 10 on the grid again on his end-of-season return in St. Petersburg.

• Feature: The youthful dynamic that’s already moved McLaren to the front

His absence from the previous double-header, also on Indianapolis Motor Speedway’s road course, was a result of concussion he picked up in a nasty crash during the Indianapolis 500 – a race he led for a few laps – two months prior.

Besides the Indy 500, the only other round where he looked capable of fighting at the front like team-mate Patricio O’Ward was the Iowa double-header. In the first race of that weekend he picked up his first IndyCar podium in third place, then in race two he led for 10 laps on the way to sixth place.

His season had begun encouragingly with a ninth place on the Texas oval, ahead of O’Ward, but before season’s end it had already been announced he wouldn’t be retained for 2021 and finishing 16th from 10th on the grid in St. Pete didn’t turn too many heads.

It was a trying season with a few instances of contact with other drivers, but overall nothing to say that Askew doesn’t deserve a second year in IndyCar. It’s a shame then that he is unlikely to be returning to the grid soon.

7. Sergio Sette Camara BRAZIL 22y/o
20th in Super Formula (1 P), 27th in FE   2019: 4th in F2 (2 W, 2 P, 2 FL)   2018: 6th in F2 (1 P, 3 FL)  2017: 12th in F2 (1 W, 1 FL)

Photo: FIA Formula E

Photo: FIA Formula E

Once a Red Bull junior and then a McLaren one too, Sette Camara was snapped up by Red Bull once again as its F1 reserve driver for this year. This came after after signing as Dragon Racing’s reserve in Formula E and courting IndyCar interest, and not long before he took a place in B-MAX Racing by Motopark’s SF line-up. He was going to be in a lot of places in 2020.

Obviously the pandemic stripped back many of those commitments, and his first summoning came in FE’s six-race week-long Berlin season finale in August. He replaced Brendon Hartley in the team’s line-up, and Sette Camara knew he would have to be on top of his game to even match two-time World Endurance champion Hartley’s haul of two points in the first five races.

He was last in qualifying for his debut on the circuit’s reverse layout, and was set to finish 21st before exceeding the maximum limit of 45kWh on electrical energy used in the race and was disqualified as a result.

The next day brought an improved 20th place on the grid, and he came 17th after another driver got disqualified for the same reason as he did.

Reverting to the circuit’s standard layout for the next two races suited Sette Camara far more, having navigated this route on the team simulator before, and he earned the team’s highest starting spot of the 2019-20 season by qualifying 11th for the first of those. His race ended in a multi-car crash though, and he would start from last place the next day.

There was no redemption in the race, but on the very green alternative layout used for the final two races of the season a few days later he made the most of being in the later – and grippier – qualifying groups to qualify ninth twice. He faded down to 15th and 19th in the races, but beat team-mate Nico Muller in both.

Two months later he finally made his SF debut at Sportsland SUGO, after missing the opening two rounds, but it began in embarrassing style for the Formula 2 graduate with a red flag-causing spin in free practice. Sette Camara got lucky to scrape through the first two stages of qualifying, but then stunned the paddock by earning B-MAX its first series pole on his debut.

Having never made a practice start in the car it was no surprise that he lost the lead off the line, but ran in a comfortable second place until the pitstop phase of the race. After his stop, he went just four corners before crashing out on cold tyres. It was a painful end to a very encouraging debut, and his only start in Japan before returning to F1 and FE duties in Europe.

6. Toshiki Oyu JAPAN 22y/o
4th in Super GT300, 6th in Super Formula (1 win)   2019: 4th in SF Lights (1 W), 14th in Euroformula (2 W, 2 P)

If it wasn’t for crashing into his Nakajima Racing team-mate Tadasuke Makino, among others, and often making a mess of race starts in his rookie SF season then Oyu would be far higher up this list. But by professional standards, he was really putting his job at risk with the race-ruining collisions he started his professional career with.

What puts him at number six though is the way he turned it around, with an end of season qualifying average that was third best of the season regulars and a win and a podium that left him sitting handsomely as top rookie in the points by some way.

• Feature: How “worried” Nakajima had his faith in Oyu rewarded

His breakthrough win from second on the grid at Suzuka, the penultimate race of the season, was inherited after Nick Cassidy had an engine failure but it came after a mistake-free performance for the first time. He then followed that up with a charge from seventh to second at Fuji, proving he could actually race wheel-to-wheel too.

He certainly had the opportunity to beat Sho Tsuboi to victory too, and did attempt a move on the eventual race winner, but to not take further risks in going for the win showed the development Oyu had made over his up-and-down first year in SF.

The Honda junior, who was a winner in Euroformula and Super Formula Lights in 2019, also got parachuted into a seat in Super GT300 – the secondary class of Super GT – with Team Aguri and came fourth in his first campaign in a car with a roof.

Only one other car scored in seven of the eight races, although Oyu’s non-score came through a problem of his own making again. He was fighting for second place with just a few laps to go, and ended up punting the rear of the car ahead. That ripped off his bonnet and led to a fluid leak, as well as a loss of positions, before he brought the car to a stop on the next lap.

5. Sacha Fenestraz ARGENTINA/FRANCE 21y/o
4th in Super GT, 13th in Super Formula   2019: SF Lights champion (8 W, 5 P, 9 FL), 6th in Super GT300 (1 P)

Photo: Super GT

Photo: TGR Media Service

Like Oyu, Fenestraz starred in qualifying as a SF rookie but then had crashes mostly undo his hard work, although often these were Oyu’s fault. In the season opener the reigning SF Lights champion made the front row and after being passed by his team-mate Kenta Yamashita finished third, becoming one of a rare few to make the podium on their debut.

He completed five racing laps in three rounds as he was often hit out, but he had the highest qualifying average of anyone. As his Kondo Racing team’s form started to dip he then finally got a chance to finish some races, although was out after one lap again in the first race of Suzuka’s double-header, and he rose up the order to finish an impressive eighth in the season finale.

• Feature: Why 2020 could have propelled Sacha Fenestraz back into F1’s view (February)

The Franco-Argentinian Toyota protege had a better time of it in Super GT, where he was promoted to the top class with TOM’S after starring in GT300 in 2019.

His first three races all resulted in podiums, leaving him and team-mate Yuhi Sekiguchi as points leaders. The success ballast that came from that made his job a whole lot harder in the two rounds after, where he was a pointless 11th and 12th.

Fenestraz fought his way to seventh in round five at Suzuka, bringing him back to within two points of the title lead. A balance issue then left him down in 13th at Motegi, and as one of the title outsiders once more. Third place in the Fuji finale lifted Fenestraz and Sekiguchi up to fourth in the points, but they had the potential to be champions.

Early in the year he also took part in the FE rookie test in Marrakech for Jaguar, and was 10th fastest.

4. Dorian Boccolacci FRANCE 22y/o
5th in Lamborghini ST Europe (2 W, 1 P), 12th in ADAC GT Masters (1 W), 15th in GTWCE Endurance   2019: 14th in F2

Being picked up by three manufacturers in a single year, as well as winning at the Nurburgring 24 Hours, is quite the first season in professional motorsport, and it’s only because F2 graduate Dorian Boccolacci was making his mark in GT3 – which have driver aids and are often set-up to be friendly for gentleman drivers rather than for outright speed – rather than the highest echelon of sportscars which holds back his placing.

You could argue that Boccolacci was up against as tough as opposition as anyone on this list, as he took in programmes in the Intercontinental GT Challenge, GT World Challenge Europe, Lamborghini Super Trofeo Europe and ADAC GT Masters.

His main success came as an official Lamborghini young driver in its one-make series, where he was partnered up with 2012 Italian Formula Renault 2.0 champion Kevin Gilardoni. The pairing won twice together at Barcelona and were fifth in the points.

• Feature: The junior driver spurned by Renault’s last F1 name change

Audi customer team Sainteloc Racing called upon Boccolacci’s services for GTWC Endurance, which rivals WEC’s GTE Pro class as the top GT racing series in the world, and he did a solid job to come fifth on his debut in the Imola 3 Hours.

He was 10th in the Nurburgring 6 Hours, but returned to the circuit – and its full Nordschleife layout – for its 24-hour race a few weeks later in a Porsche. Boccolacci entered as a warm-up for the Spa 24 Hours, which is a GTWCE round, and he made it through some of the wettest conditions imaginable to win his class in 41st place.

That boosted his confidence for Spa, where he and his Sainteloc team-mates were one of the victory contenders throughout. With two hours to go it was Boccolacci who led the field on a soaking wet track, and a splash-and-dash pitstop a few minutes later only dropped him one spot. His final stop an hour later under the safety car cost him his victory shot though, and he came third best in a four-way fight for fourth that went to the chequered flag.

The 22-year-old’s other campaign was in a Zakspeed-run Mercedes-AMG in Germany, where he was also a winner. Which manufacturer could the Frenchman be on the payroll of next year?

3. Nicholas Latifi CANADA 25y/o
21st in F1   2019: 2nd in F2 (4 W, 3 FL)   2018: 9th in F2 (1 W, 3 FL)   2017: 5th in F2 (1 W, 2 FL)   2016: 16th in GP2

Photo: Williams Racing

Photo: Williams Racing

From the outside, it looked like Latifi did everything Williams asked of him in his first year in F1, and team-mate George Russell’s brief promotion to Mercedes showed just how high quality the bar was being set for Latifi to try to match.

He was outqualified for all 17 races, although that was to be expected after Russell did the same to Robert Kubica in 2019 and came close to beating Valtteri Bottas when partnered with him at Mercedes for the Sakhir Grand Prix.

• Feature: Why Nicholas Latifi’s rise to F1 is more remarkable than you think

It was a fairly clean season for Latifi, although it wasn’t like he was often in wheel-to-wheel battle due to Williams’ backmarker car, and it was only at the Turkish Grand Prix where he was particularly error prone as he spun off in qualifying and had a race-ending collision.

His only other two retirements weren’t even his fault, with him being one of many caught out by the safety car restart chaos at Mugello’s Tuscan Grand Prix, and then an oil leak ending his Sakhir GP.

He often raced competitively and on three occasions he finished 11th, putting him ahead of Russell in the standings until his Mercedes call-up, but he really needs to get closer to his team-mate on pace if he wants to stay with the team for a third season after 2021. At the same time, in a season as tricky as this one to become a rookie in – while Williams was changing management too – he did a good job in what were the fastest cars in F1 history.

2. Rinus VeeKay NETHERLANDS 20y/o
14th in IndyCar (1 P, 1 FL)   2019: 2nd in Indy Lights (6 W, 7 P, 6 FL), Asian F3 Winter Series champion (4 W, 2 P, 4 FL)

Photo: IndyCar

Photo: IndyCar

One race into VeeKay’s IndyCar career and the Dutch teenager was already under a lot of scrutiny. In free practice at Texas he crashed heavily and clumsily, ruling him out of qualifying later that day as repairs were done to his car to ensure he could race. His day didn’t improve, as in the race he lost it on the high line and wiped himself and Alex Palou out on the spot.

The 2019 Indy Lights runner-up was able to rebound whenever he faced a low though, and despite qualifying down the field for round two at Indianapolis, he was able to charge his way up the order and finish fifth through some clinical overtaking and defensive work on a circuit his Ed Carpenter Racing team usually wasn’t strong at in its road course form.

• Feature: Rinus VeeKay: IndyCar’s answer to Max Verstappen? (2019)

He was back in the headlines for crashing at Iowa, although this time it was because Colton Herta rode over his car on a restart and it highlighted how the new-for-2020 aeroscreen cockpit protection device had ensured both drivers emerged alive and unscathed.

Once again he rebounded in fine style. He was the only Chevrolet-powered driver to make the Fast Nine in Indy 500 qualifying, and put himself fourth on the grid as well setting the fastest ‘no tow’ lap on Carb Day. The race didn’t go to plan, as he earned a penalty after sliding into one of his crew members during a pitstop, but his pace with oval specialist ECR had been encouraging and at the Gateway double-header a week later he claimed a sixth and a fourth.

At Mid-Ohio he was a top 10 contender again, then on the return to the IMS road course he took his first pole by a massive 0.7803 seconds. During the first half of the race he fought for the lead with Herta lap after lap, then in the last stint he hunted down his rival and passed him to claim his first podium. VeeKay ended 2020 as IndyCar’s Rookie of the Year and with his seat at ECR already secured for 2021.

1. Nyck de Vries NETHERLANDS 25y/o
5th in ELMS (1 W, 1 FL), 11th in FE, 13th in WEC (1 LMP2 win)   2019: F2 champion (4 W, 5 P, 3 FL)   2018-19: 25th in WEC

Photo: FIA Formula E

Photo: FIA Formula E

Nyck de Vries was headed towards the ultimate journeyman career in junior single-seaters even as he marched towards the 2019 F2 title, but Mercedes-Benz then came calling after using him as its simulator driver and signed him for its foray into FE.

The professionalism that made de Vries stand out at the very start of his time in car racing meant he fitted seamlessly into the F1-esque Mercedes operation and as team-mate to Stoffel Vandoorne there was a shared experience of falling foul of F1 – and especially McLaren’s – politics.

On his debut at the tricky Riyadh street circuit in Saudi Arabia he topped his qualifying group and put himself third on the grid, then drove a strong race to sixth. Besides the top six drivers in FE’s first ever race in 2014, only one other driver has matched or eclipsed sixth place on their series debut, and that was ex-F1 driver Scott Speed way back in season one.

• Opinion: What being a world championship means to Formula E (January)

De Vries went from hero to zero in race two of that weekend, qualifying last and then charging up to eighth only to be docked 29s and thrown back to 16th for overtaking behind the safety car and a technical infringement on his car.

In Santiago he again excelled in the race, showing off his racecraft to make it onto the podium – which was then taken away from him by a five-second penalty for using battery coolant that was too cool.

He qualified third in Mexico City, and was running in fifth before a race-ending clash with Virgin Racing’s Robin Frijns that came about after his front wheels locked while using fanboost. A similar software issue led to another driver crashing too.

De Vries just kept at it despite the setbacks, and qualified fourth in Marrakech – the final race before the COVID-19 pandemic. He was running third when he was issued with a drive-through penalty for using too much power during regeneration, and rose back up to 11th place after that.

In Berlin the penalties and crashes kept on coming, overshadowing how brilliantly he had adapted to the series’ unique challenges, but it ended on a high as he completed a Mercedes one-two behind Vandoorne in the final race and gave Mercedes little choice but to sign both drivers for a second season. Expect wins in 2021.

De Vries also excelled in sportscars this year, winning in WEC and the European Le Mans Series in LMP2 machinery. He is now a mainstay in the prototype sportscar paddock, and may well be in contention for a future Le Mans Hypercar seat.

The post Formula Scout’s Class of 2019 appeared first on Formula Scout.

20. Liam Lawson

Photo: Toyota Gazoo Racing NZ

Photo: Toyota Gazoo Racing NZ

Up 12
Stunning TRS success earned Red Bull backing for dual European campaign

Lawson’s end-of-2018 Asian Formula 3 cameo resulted in three dominant wins out of three, and set the tone for 2019.

He began with his local Toyota Racing Series, a series he always aspired to race in once he was old enough, and beat Marcus Armstrong in a thrilling title duel. What impressed was that Lawson immediately established himself in M2 Competition’s line-up, surprising his team bosses. He won the season opener from pole, and the third race by 9.921 seconds after passing his team-mates.

Further examples of brilliant racecraft, in all weather conditions, meant there were podiums even when he started poorly. An ambitious move ultimately won Lawson the New Zealand Grand Prix and the overall title, and he became a Red Bull junior within days. Arguably, no driver excited junior single-seater observers as much as Lawson did in TRS.

Like fellow Red Bull recruit Yuki Tsunoda, Lawson was placed in a dual campaign of Euroformula Open (with Motopark) and FIA F3 (with MP Motorsport), and was stellar in both – albeit repeating the overambition that ruffled rivals in TRS.

Lawson only took two EF Open poles despite being the fastest driver, and he could have won the first four races of the year. He won two, in style, but the second Paul Ricard race and Pau GP were lost to team-mate clashes he was at fault for. Once juggling both series his results dipped, and a clash with Tsunoda lost him a Spa-Francorchamps win.

Lawson was also MP Motorsport’s fastest driver in FIA F3, and he dialled down the risk when podiums were up for grabs – including a thrilling victory battle with Tsunoda at Monza. A month later he repeated the duel in EF Open and won. Holding onto his other FIA F3 podium finish at Silverstone and his run from 20th to seventh in the Macau Grand Prix were also highlights.

19. Frederik Vesti

New entry
Prema driver ran away to inaugural European Formula Regional title

There’s no shame in saying it was an incomplete Vesti that romped to 13 wins in Formula Regional European Championship this year, certainly as it opens up the question of how much greater a driver he could be in 2020.

Qualifying push laps and race starts were Vesti’s biggest weakness for much of the year, which he made up for with an intimate understanding of how to push the Pirelli tyres in races, and particularly clean and strong racecraft.

This was displayed in multiple ways, most memorably in the middle of the season when he held off last-lap suspension failure and Prema team-mate Olli Caldwell to win at the Hungaroring, and overcame a slow start and then diffuser damage from being punted off track to win the opening two Red Bull Ring races. Vesti is the first to admit that overtaking is tough in Formula Regional.

A well-executed overtake earned Vesti a win at Barcelona two rounds later, the first time Prema hadn’t been the fastest team, and it was a formality that he took two dominant wins at Mugello despite rival US Racing continuing its strong form.

Vesti was rightly promoted to Prema’s FIA F3 line-up in place of the injured Jehan Daruvala for the Macau GP, and he did a top job qualifying seventh (ahead of team-mate Armstrong) before a strong drive from 18th to 10th in the grand prix itself.

Further reading
How ?incomplete? Vesti was the class of Formula Regional Europe

18. Callum Ilott

Photo: Joe Portlock / LAT Images / FIA F2 Championship

Photo: Joe Portlock / LAT Images / FIA F2 Championship

No change
F2 rookie impressed with progress and fortitude

Ilott went through some difficult moments in 2019, but while he might not be satisfied with 11th place in the Formula 2 standings, his strong end to his rookie season was particularly impressive, and even more so given the circumstances.

Crashing out of qualifying for round one in Bahrain was an ignominious start, but by Barcelona he’d qualified in the top five, and ended that weekend with a sprint race podium. In Monaco he topped his qualifying group, joining Nyck de Vries on the front row, only for his car to cruelly shut down before the start with an electrical issue.

Barcelona was a bit of a false dawn in terms of race performances, because over the summer Ilott struggled to make his tyres last and turn his fine qualifying speed – he ended the year with the fifth best average in what had been considered a midfield team – into representative results.

Ilott was particularly badly hit by the awful events of Spa, losing a close friend (and twice a past team-mate) in Anthoine Hubert, while team-mate Juan Manuel Correa was also sidelined and in a serious condition. Ilott went to Monza a few days later as the sole Charouz entry and produced a stunning maiden pole position in tricky weather conditions.

Missing out on podiums late on in both races – again due to tyre struggles – could have broken him, but Ilott ended the year strongly with a podium in the Sochi sprint race, and a front row start and two top-five finishes in Abu Dhabi. A move to Virtuosi for next year should only make him better.

17. Victor Martins

Up 13
Just fell short in Eurocup title fight after late winning run

He lost the Formula Renault Eurocup title, but Martins did a top job this year and equalled the series’ 21st century qualifying record of nine poles in a season. Three of his nine poles were not converted into victories, and there were no wins when he did not start from the first grid slot – this was ultimately why the MP driver didn’t become champion.

Martins soaked up the literal heat of the Abu Dhabi season finale to set the space in every session. The floodlit first race was costly though, as the entirety of the opening lap was poor from Martins and team orders were required to reduce some of the damage. Nothing could be done to reclaim the lead though, a pole position wasted.

There was no circuit where MP looked more dominant at than Paul Ricard, but it was Martins’ team-mate Lorenzo Colombo that maximised that advantage to take a double win. Martins’ own double success came at Barcelona, where it was his own talent that made the difference between himself and the rival R-ace GP drivers.

Martins would more than deserve to step up to FIA F3 for next year, and if – as speculated – he’s been dropped by Renault, that would be incredibly harsh because his talent is still clear to see. Refuge seems it could come from ART Grand Prix and its new Eurocup venture, with team boss Sebastien Philippe (a fellow world junior kart champion) a known supporter.

16. Oscar Piastri

New entry
Claimed Eurocup crown with seven victories

Pipping Martins to the Eurocup title was Australian Piastri. Moving from Arden to R-ace GP for his second season in the series was the starting point of his success, as was a canny ability to score well out of any situation.

His tally of seven wins was last bettered in the championship back in 2010, and he might have made it eight had he not spun out on the warm-up lap of the wet first Hungaroring race – something he bounced back from perfectly the following day.

Piastri’s season highlight was the Nurburgring, where he struggled in his debut season and this time took two wins from two pole positions. The second was truly dominant, putting a 14s gap over second place in 17 laps.

All five of Piastri’s poles were converted into wins, with his other two coming at the expense of poleman Martins. At Spa he slipstreamed past his rival and was then never challenged, while he benefitted from Martins’ awful opening lap in Abu Dhabi despite his own bad start to control the race and put one hand on the title in “the most nervous half-hour” of his life.

Piastri should be set for a Renault academy place as reward, and joined Prema for two days of the post-season FIA F3 test at Valencia, topping the last session.

15. Sacha Fenestraz

Up 21
Found redemption in Japanese F3 title

A tricky first season in F3 last year led to Fenestraz being cruelly dropped by the Renault Sport Academy, but reminders of the Eurocup champion’s talent were clear to see in a debut weekend victory in Pau, battles with Dan Ticktum at Silverstone and a podium in Macau.

Sticking with the Dallara F317 by moving to Japan, but on Yokohama tyres rather than Europe’s Hankooks, was an inspired move as Fenestraz followed Nick Cassidy in becoming the second series rookie and foreigner this decade to win the title.

He won his first race in the series at Suzuka with a lap one move, then had his worst moment of the season the next race when he made contact with rival Ritomo Miyata and ended up a lap down.

Fenestraz went from third to a comfortable first in the standings the next time out at Autopolis, taking a triple win for B-MAX Racing by Motopark. That was followed by a win at Okayama and a five-race podium run. A sixth win of the season came at Fuji, the start of the second half of the season, but it would have been seven had a dominant run in race one not been stopped by a penalty for overtaking just before the start/finish line after a safety car period.

From then on, Fenestraz put in performances usually associated with experts of the Japanese circuits, never finishing lower than second and taking two wins at Twin Ring Motegi to seal the title a round early.

The local manufacturers were already registering their interest in the Franco-Argentine by mid-season, no doubt helped by an impressive parallel Super GT300 campaign, and it looks like he will take Toyota’s 2020 offer to race in Super Formula and Super GT.

Further reading
Why it?s not just Red Bull with eyes on Japan

14. Sergio Sette Camara

Photo: Joe Portlock/FIA Formula 2

Photo: Colin McMaster/FIA Formula 2

Down 4
Abu Dhabi a glimpse of what could have been in F2

Sette Camara went from comparing well to Lando Norris at Carlin in 2018 to finishing second-best to Nicholas Latifi at DAMS in 2019.

Of course, Latifi was at home at DAMS and Sette Camara certainly wasn’t, and seemed to take time to get comfortable at first even though he took two podiums in Bahrain.

Being spun around at a Baku restart and a scrappy Barcelona weekend didn’t help, but by Paul Ricard he was on pole, although he was beaten by de Vries off the start. At the Red Bull Ring he was finally back on the top step in the sprint race, but then he pretty much went missing again – that was the first of five straight rounds without a feature race podium.

In Abu Dhabi it finally all came together, and he was quickest in practice and qualifying before taking a fine feature race win – his first in F2. Then he charged through to third in the sprint race, and had Luca Ghiotto and Latifi not occupied the two places in front of him, he might somehow have beaten them both to second place in the championship, despite his inferior win tally. Instead, he ended up just seven points adrift in fourth.

They say you’re only as good as your last race, and Abu Dhabi certainly provided a reminder of what Sette Camara is capable of. Will it be enough to see him return in 2020?

13. Rinus VeeKay

Photo: Road to Indy

Photo: Road to Indy

Up 22
Won Asian F3 winter series, fought for Indy Lights crown and earned IndyCar ride

Despite being the reigning Pro Mazda champion, VeeKay was always going to have a much tougher time beating his long-time rival Oliver Askew than he did in 2018.

While driving for a team with recent Indy Lights title success in Juncos Racing, the strength of that outfit simply didn?t weigh up to that possessed by Askew’s outfit Andretti Autosport.

For VeeKay to keep the title alive until the final round ? and to beat some other experienced opposition in the standings ? was very impressive. A few mistakes slipped in, not least a scruffy race at Road America, but that was arguably a consequence of having to extract more from his equipment than his rival on a circuit where tyre management is important.

His performances didn?t go unnoticed. He tested for Ed Carpenter Racing, impressed, and was duly awarded a full-time seat replacing the well-regarded Spencer Pigot.

He had started 2019 by proving his talent against different opposition by winning the Asian F3 Asian Winter Series title, outclassing Ticktum and several Eurocup stars.

VeeKay does have the benefit of healthy sponsorship, but his results have always spoken for themselves ? six wins from 18 races in Indy Lights and seven from 14 in Indy Pro 2000 over the past two years.

Further reading
Rinus VeeKay: IndyCar?s answer to Max Verstappen?

12. Luca Ghiotto

Photo: Joe Portlock / LAT Images / FIA F2 Championship

Photo: Carl Bingham / LAT Images / FIA F2 Championship

Up 26
Farewell F2 campaign had highlights and disappointments in equal measure

Ghiotto’s fourth and final season at F2 level was his best yet, but the speed that he and Virtuosi had promised a lot more.

He took pole for the opening race in Bahrain, and round three in Barcelona, but made terrible starts on both occasions, put down to clutch issues. His subsequent comeback drives, as well as his Bahrain sprint race win that took in a pit-stop, proved his race pace, but mistakes cost him in the intervening Baku round. Then came Monaco, when a technical infringement disqualified him from third, and another non-score at Paul Ricard after a range of late dramas, leaving him sixth in the standings and 54 points off the lead.

A pair of second places in Austria and victory over Latifi at Silverstone put him back on track, but that was his only feature race triumph of the year – a poor reflection of his pace. That said, he didn’t repeat his early two poles, and although he charged from 13th to second at Monza, it was sprint race wins that proved more easily in his reach in Sochi and Abu Dhabi.

With more luck, Ghiotto could have challenged de Vries for the championship, but he also didn’t make good enough use of Virtuosi’s pace, and struggled for supremacy at times over team-mate Guanyu Zhou. What he’s achieved in F2 with limited funds deserves credit, but he didn’t make a convincing enough case to earn a chance in F1, and can thus have few complaints as he moves into sportscar racing.

11. Oliver Askew

Photo: Road to Indy

Photo: Road to Indy

Re-entry (40th in ’17)
Indy Lights champion secured McLaren IndyCar chance

‘Crucial’ was how Askew described 2019 ? his maiden and only season in Indy Lights. He entered the year as title favourite as he was driving for juggernaut Andretti Autosport, and he delivered on the expectation.

His reward for title success as a rookie was being signed by McLaren for its new 2020 IndyCar programme, having previously impressed IndyCar giant Chip Ganassi Racing in tests.

Askew was not always the fastest in Indy Lights, but he metronomically racked up results. Just three races ended with him off the podium, with one of those his sole non-finish. The other two were still top fives, and his average finishing position was 2.55.

The two important results came in the oval races at Gateway and Indianapolis’s Freedom 100, both offering additional points and which were won by Askew. The Gateway win concluded a run of four wins that put one hand on the $1.1 million cheque for winning the series.

Once again, the Indy Lights field lacked depth, hitting double figures in less than a third of the races, which prevents a higher ranking in this list. But like predecessor Pato O’Ward, Askew had to see off a talented rival, and McLaren deserves credit for pairing the two champions.

Further reading
How Askew scored the winner in Road to Indy rivalry with VeeKay

Click here to view the rest of the 2019 Top 50

The post Formula Scout Top 50 Drivers of 2019: 20-11 appeared first on Formula Scout.

Photo: Indianapolis Motor Speedway

Indy Lights runner-up Rinus VeeKay will graduate to IndyCar next season in a full-time drive with Ed Carpenter Racing.

The 19-year-old won this year’s Asian Formula 3 Winter Series, and just missed out on the Indy Lights title to Oliver Askew, who has secured his seat on the IndyCar grid with McLaren Schmidt Peterson.

VeeKay started testing with ECR in August, and will replace 2015 Indy Lights champion Spencer Pigot in the team. Departing Renault Formula 1 driver Nico Hulkenberg had also been linked to the drive before VeeKay was signed.

?I?m so happy!? said VeeKay.

?It?s a dream come true and something we have worked extremely hard for over the last couple of years. To step up from USF2000 to IndyCar in three years is really special.”

In 2017, VeeKay was pipped to the USF2000 title by Askew, and struck back last year by beating the American in Indy Pro 2000 and earning the Mazda scholarship for his Indy Lights drive.

?I would like to thank [ECR team prinicpal] Ed Carpenter and his partners for this great opportunity and trust.

“The number of available seats in IndyCar is very limited, so it?s a great honour that they have chosen me to join their team. I?m really looking forward to the start of the season.?

Carpenter, who races for ECR as well as running it, spoke enthusiastically of VeeKay’s signing.

?I have been following Rinus?s path through the Road to Indy, especially the past two years.

?It was clear to me that he deserves to be in an Indy car. After his first day in a car at Portland this past season, that feeling became even more apparent. His pace, feedback and demeanor inside the car was very impressive for such a young driver.

?We?re very excited for the 2020 season to get here and have an ECR car return to Victory Lane!?

The post Ed Carpenter Racing signs Rinus VeeKay to full-time IndyCar seat appeared first on Formula Scout.

Photo: Indianapolis Motor Speedway

Indy Light runner-up Rinus VeeKay joined Belardi Auto Racing for the post-season Chris Griffis Memorial Test at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, and set the fastest time.

The Dutchman, who won six times this year in his rookie season with Juncos Racing, topped all six sessions over the two days and set a best time of 1m15.4790s on the IMS road course.

?We found the setup in the last session and won the day, though that wasn?t the main goal,? said VeeKay.

?I was here to help [the team] evaluate their setup so that was a bonus. I tested here with Belardi two years ago, so it was great to be back with them. I hope I am going to IndyCar next season but this is two days of driving, two days of getting better and trying to improve that much more.?

Andretti Autosport’s Robert Megennis was second fastest in every session, 0.2988 seconds back on VeeKay. He was joined at the team by Indy Pro 2000 graduates Rasmus Lindh and Danial Frost, and Formula V8 3.5 race-winner Egor Orudzhev.

USF2000 runner-up Hunter McElrea topped the IP2000 classification at the test in a one-two for Pabst Racing. Fellow USF2000 graduate Colin Kaminsky was second fastest and topped the first session of the weekend.

Parker Thompson, who finished second in IP2000 in 2018 and was third in the standings last year, switched teams to DEForce Racing and was third fastest. USF2000 champion Braden Eves was fourth for Exclusive Autosport, and switched to RP Motorsport after setting his fastest time.

Completing the top five was 2018 Asian Formula 3 champion and Sauber junior Raoul Hyman, who was also driving for Exclusive Autosport.

Jay Howard Driver Development’s Christian Rasmussen returned to USF2000 and set the pace there, ahead of Pabst’s Yuven Sundaramoorthy and DEForce’s Kiko Porto.

Dutch karter Rick Bouthoorn was fourth for Pabst, with the more experienced Eduardo Barrichello (DEForce) fifth and two-time USF2000 starter Wyatt Brichacek (JHDD) in sixth.

The post Indy Lights runner-up Rinus VeeKay tops Chris Griffis Test appeared first on Formula Scout.

Photo: Hitech GP

Motorsport’s absolute measure of success is trophies, and this year FIA Formula 3 Championship squad Hitech GP has been earning silverware even when its cars are finishing 20th.

The Silverstone-based squad, the third to use the Hitech name, is currently the sole operating team in W Series and the World Motorsport Games Formula 4 Cup. This has its benefits – namely a guarantee of victory every race – but far more challenges than a usual racing team would face.

Former Red Bull junior Oliver Oakes fronts the modern iteration of Hitech, founded in 2015 when Oakes was just 27. The 2005 World Karting champion had known David Hayle, who co-founded Hitech Racing in 2002, from a young age and wanted to launch a team of his own after seeing some of the young drivers he helped have their potential unfulfilled elsewhere.

Two FIA European F3 appearances in 2015 preluded a full campaign the next year, where it finished second in the teams’ standings and third in the driver’s championship with George Russell. With record windtunnel time, a testing war between teams and possibly the biggest amount of money ever spent on development in F3, it was quite the year to be a debutant.

“I joined it in 2016, invested a fortune, did a really good job – we were third with George and took the fight to Prema,” Oakes tells Formula Scout.

“We got to the end of 2016, and then it was a brand new update kit with no windtunnel testing. I went: ‘but I’ve just bought everything’. Then it became apparent in 2017 that certain teams had been testing in windtunnels, there was lots of stories going about. And you know what it is in motorsport, if there’s a rumour there’s an element of truth.

“After that in 2017, I was pretty disillusioned with continuing in F3.”

Photo: Wafeproject Photography

F3 was in the DNA of Hitech, and the team scaled back in 2018 to leave room to commit to the new FIA F3 concept introduced this year – which it successfully beat European F3 rival Motopark for a slot in. Some of its Dallara F317 chassis were then sold to Double R Racing, freeing room on the factory floor for its most recent projects.

“Dave [Ryan, W Series sporting director] came to a F3 race last year, looked round a couple of teams.

“From my understanding, myself and an Italian team appeared to him as the type of teams he’d want running W Series. Then I think between us it was then a case of who could actually take it on.

“I can’t explain in words the amount of work it took to get it up and running, but also we knew that. It’s more just when you look back at it going: god, If I could describe to you seven trucks, 20 cars, finding 60 people, getting them all from A to B. All the equipment, from zero.

“The last three years in Hitech I’ve started a brand new F3 team of four cars, going to five for the title, the Asian F3 department which ships a load of kit to Asia, also from zero. That goes from track to track, and we’ve opened a Sepang base for that.

“Then we started W Series and FIA F3 this year from zero. It’s really nice, because actually what I realise now in the company is we’ve got some good resources, and we don’t want to do lots of projects, we want to do stuff properly.

“You want to enjoy what you’re doing, and at the moment we’re really lucky. We had a team gathering before [the FIA F3 round at] Silverstone. Because it’s very rare that we’re all in one place, whether that be the Technologies department, the Asia team, FIA F3 or W Series. It’s so nice to get everyone together and go ‘we’re all part of this’. It’s quite cool.”

That Silverstone weekend resulted in pole and both wins for Hitech through Juri Vips and Leonardo Pulcini. F3 rookie Yifei Ye, whose signing has helped Hitech understand how to “work with a rookie and bring them on”, also came close to scoring his first point.

“Juri won at the Red Bull Ring and we had proper pace. But Silverstone, what was a surprise for us was we had a perfect weekend in terms of execution. Good qualis, good races. From that side, you leave it smiling going ‘you’ve got to soak up that moment’. Because it won’t happen all year long, we all know that.

“There’s a really funny picture of me hugging Rene [Rosin, Prema boss], because we’re giving banter going ‘it was my turn this week’. We know from one race to the next it will be one of us enjoying it, and the other kind of depressed on the pitwall.”

The 30-car FIA F3 grid, as a F1 undercard, gets far less track time than the disbanded European series, making it a less-than-simple transition despite both championships visiting many of the same circuits.

“We thought we were prepared in the Barcelona season opener, and to be brutally honest, people can see now that at Barcelona we were probably a team where we were there on race pace, but in quali we missed a little bit. It’s very clear to see since then – Paul Ricard, Red Bull Ring, Silverstone – our trajectory is improving.

“In European F3, you had Hankooks and push the whole session. You know track to track, stupid things, but like the way to the grid, what you do with pit trolleys. When you arrive on the F1 package, everything’s different – it’s really odd.

“It probably doesn’t affect performance, but it does affect your efficiency. It takes your mind off other stuff. For me, I’m just really proud of the guys, and I know everybody can write good things about us, but actually feet-on-the-ground we know every weekend in FIA F3 is going to be a fight. There are so many top teams there, and hopefully as a young group we’re in there amongst it. Actually, I think it’s no shame on anyone saying that it’s hard.”

The ability to fight ART Grand Prix and Prema at the front is primarily why eyes have been on Hitech this year, but its W Series work is an even greater challenge.

“When you first put pen to paper on a project like W Series, regardless of if its three or 20 cars, obviously quality of people is your biggest headache. What’s different with this is it’s a driver-orientated series. By that, I mean you want to give everyone access to onboards, set-ups, data. To be brutally honest, we didn’t struggle on the quality of engineers, what we struggled with is adapting to some drivers that have done a lot of racing and some haven’t. That’s the hardest thing to get your head around.

“In a normal team with three cars you sort of pair people, the difference here is they also rotate cars and engineers to keep everything fair – so that sort of communication between everyone is an interesting battle to get on top of. You’ve got a mix of cultures and languages, differing abilities of drivers. Some have done a lot of racing, some haven’t.

Photo: LAT Images

“What the brains of the operation really is that we operate here as we would as a race team as Hitech – and by that the way we work in FIA F3. All the engineers use our own engineering tools, and basically the thought-process, the way of analysing data, all of that is identical. And the way we do the run plans.

“For me it’s quite proud, it’s very different to see 60 people working in your ethos as opposed to the 10 operational in F3. But it’s very nice, from another side, just to give everyone the same opportunity. I think that’s what’s different with W Series, compared to something else centrally run like French F4.

“What Dave Ryan has wanted is to give the same opportunity to everyone, whilst running it centrally to ensure everything is fair, costs are controlled and it’s done properly. That’s quite an achievement on his part.”

Unlike most championship’s, W Series’ Saturday-only races means technical preparation and rebuilding for the next round can be done on Sunday before leaving the track.

The Asian F3 department, which has a crossover of personnel, brought the Hitech name its first title since Felipe Guimaraes’ 2013 F3 Sudamericana triumph when Raoul Hyman won the 2018 crown. Rinus VeeKay then took the 2019 Winter Series crown, and Ukyo Sasahara added a second main series title at Sepang last weekend.

Hitech will get even busier through winter, with the 2019-20 Asian F3 season, W Series driver selection tests and its newest centrally-run project: the Motorsport Games Formula 4 Cup. It also marks the team’s first venture outside of F3.

“I would say with all these types of cars these days, it’s just your way of working you transfer across series.

“You guys as journalists know better than me the key movers in each team in terms of engineers, and who’s doing what. I think what we’re lucky as a company now is we’ve sort of got a bit of momentum going with the way we work and what we do, that we feel quite confident taking on new cars that our same DNA works across different categories.

“I think what’s hard, and I’ve been through the receiving end of it as a new team is when you’re sort of [metaphorically] firefighting, it’s never easy. But I think as well when you start to do one or two projects, you start to build up almost a psychological handle as to how to tackle stuff, and that’s helpful.

“I feel very fortunate to have done the original F3 before everything sort of becomes monomake. Because I had the year in ’16 where it was probably the most competitive year of F3 ever, with windtunnel programmes, all this development. As a baptism of fire as a team boss back then, to now where everything is quite normal.

“I laugh, because when people moan now about schedules, workloads, spare parts, I think: god, that’s just normal operational stuff, not development. And actually I was really lucky to be part of that, because I feel like if I hadn’t, I wouldn’t have gained that knowledge and experience. And if you look back at the history of old F3, that’s brilliant.

Juri Vips at front, Yifei Ye at rear

“Obviously it’s uneconomical to continue year after year, that’s why all the teams needed investment, but it was an interesting time of racing. I think you can see it this year in 2019: FIA F3 is exciting. We sit on the pitwall, and if you had a fly on the wall listening, it is like that every single time you hit the track, you are looking for minuscule amounts of perfection. It’s brilliant.

“You can’t fault having a grid of 30 cars. Any driver in the top 10 would be on your wishlist as a F1 junior. I get goosebumps in FIA F3, it’s a bit sad. But I know we’re going up against teams that have got a 20-year history, we’re in our fourth year of racing. If you don’t think that that’s awesome, then you shouldn’t be doing racing.

“I massively enjoy that, and I enjoy the difference of coming to W Series and running something centrally. I get pleasure here from seeing all 20 cars pull away from the pitlane and all the guys working like clockwork. It’s really gratifying.”

Oakes has been heavily involved in individual drivers’ careers, including many of Britain’s rising stars, and his passion to work with young drivers is in part explained by: “I failed to reach F1, and I’d like someone else to achieve what I didn’t”.

He still works with Ferrari Driver Academy-linked Tony Kart in karting, naming France’s Jimmy Helias as one to watch, and is a huge junior motorsport fan. So are Hitech GP’s stats a continuation of the Hitech Racing’s that competed in Britain and Brazil?

“Not sure, really. The core values of the initial team when it started under David was a high-tech, professional team. I’ve always resonated with what David did. I could have chose a unique name, but in a way the company’s not about me it’s about Hitech.”

Oli Oakes racing in GP3 at Monza, 2010

The post How Hitech GP became the newest force in Formula 3 appeared first on Formula Scout.

Photos: Indianapolis Motor Speedway

There was more anticipation than usual over Indy Lights this year, given the meteoric performances delivered by the series’ most recent graduates – 2018 champion and Red Bull junior Patricio O’Ward, and IndyCar’s youngest winner Colton Herta.

The series increased the prize pot awarded to the champion to $1.1 million for 2019, while push-to-pass was introduced (albeit in a way more akin to Formula 1’s DRS than IndyCar’s own P2P) in an attempt to make the racing more exciting and to prepare the drivers more for the top level of the Road to Indy ladder.

The expectation was that 2018 Indy Pro 2000 title rivals Oliver Askew and Rinus VeeKay would extend their rivalry, which started the year before in USF2000, and this proved to be the case. It was one-one in terms of titles coming into 2019 – Askew triumphed in USF2000, while VeeKay took IP2000 honours last year.

There was one notable change, with Askew leaving longtime team Cape Motorsports to join Andretti Autosport, while VeeKay stayed with Juncos Racing. Both teams were Lights title winners in the last two years with O’Ward and Kyle Kaiser respectively.

“[Andretti is] a family atmosphere over both Indy Lights and IndyCar and the other series that it runs,” Askew told Formula Scout ahead of last weekend’s Laguna Seca season finale, where the 22-year-old won the title.

“Everyone’s very friendly here and very professional. They have a lot of personnel, I think we have over 150 people working here full-time. It’s not a Formula 1 team but it’s a very high calibre programme that runs here and it’s fortunate for me to be a part of it. I’ve learned a lot as well. Between my team-mates and myself, we all work together really, really well.”

Andretti Autosport’s IndyCar driver Ryan Hunter-Reay chats with Askew

Askew didn’t just have his Indy Lights team-mates to lean on this year, but Andretti’s whole repertoire of drivers.

“I can ask the IndyCar guys for advice whenever I want, they’re always there for us and it’s nice on the weekends when the track conditions are changing a lot and we are able to call up [director of race operations] Rob Edwards and he can let me know what is going on with the track. I think that’s a plus and that’s why we’ve been so successful the past couple of years.”

Fellow IP2000 graduate Robert Megennis and the experienced Ryan Norman drove alongside Askew at Andretti, with Mario Andretti’s great-nephew Jarett joining the team for the Freedom 100. Belardi Auto Racing fielded Zachary Claman DeMelo and Julien Falchero before they ran out of budget, leaving USF2000 graduate Lucas Kohl as the team’s one full-time entry. Aaron Telitz also drove for Belardi at four rounds.

Series veteran Dalton Kellett partnered VeeKay at Juncos, while the debuting HMD Motorsports (rebranded from BN Racing in a mid-season overhaul) ran David Malukas and single-seater returnee Toby Sowery, the latter in partnership with Team Pelfrey.

The first success of the season at St. Petersburg went to Belardi and DeMelo after resisting a charge from Sowery, who was new to all of the circuits bar Road America. Askew and VeeKay were third and fifth, but upped their game to qualify first and second for race two.

VeeKay made his mark by passing Askew at the start for victory before contact between the pair put Askew out of the race. It would be the champion’s sole retirement of the 18-race season, and the only major contentious point between the pair.

Much of the tone of 2019 was set at the series’ first visit to Circuit of the Americas. Askew obliterated the opposition in the opening race by 24.68 seconds, and battled past Megennis to win race two, earning him the points lead. VeeKay picked up a second and a fourth, while DeMelo struggled to bounce back from qualifying troubles.

Megennis simply bettered Askew in the first race at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course, while VeeKay took his first pole, second win and the points lead the day after. Askew picked up a brace of podiums there, and he reclaimed first place in the standings by winning the famed Freedom 100 from Norman in a typically close finish.

“The only place we really struggled at was at Road America and even then, we came away with a podium,” said Askew of his season. “My steering wheel came loose.”

Norman took victory in the first race around the Elkhart Lake circuit – in which VeeKay was penalised, while the Dutchman bounced back to take the second. By this point, 51 points covered the top five, but the sheer quantity of wins and podiums hinted towards the expected Askew/VeeKay championship narrative.

The returning Telitz brilliantly won the first race on the streets of Toronto, while Askew began a crucial run of races in which he put himself into a good position to take the title with a second. Four race wins on the bounce thereafter meant that VeeKay required something out of the ordinary to wrestle the lead back.

“The crucial moments [of the season] were our competitors not being as consistent or making mistakes, so we’ve just been spot on – every single day we’ve been executing. The most pivotal part of the season was sweeping the weekend at Mid-Ohio and winning the extra points race [worth 45 for the win as opposed to the standard 30] at Gateway.”

The progression of the Indy Lights points tally throughout 2019

That Gateway oval race was arguably the most defining point of all. Askew had to work his way past a super fast VeeKay to win, after initially losing position to the Dutchman, and continue to extend his points lead rather than have it dented.

“Going into the second half of the season those were two tracks I knew we were going to be good at and we just had to execute and get the points on the board.”

The points gap stood at 52 by then, meaning Askew just had to keep his podium going in an eight-car field to win the title.

VeeKay did what he could thereon, sweeping the final four poles of the season and taking three wins (with Sowery winning Portland race two), but it was in vain as Askew became champion by finishing an off-form fourth in the first Laguna Seca race.

Sowery’s strong results in the final few races vaulted him ahead of Norman and Megennis to third in the standings, as their seasons fell somewhat flat by the end. For Sowery, it was a strong end to a season where his speed didn’t always go rewarded.

“They [Megennis and Norman] showed quite a bit of speed, especially in pre-season testing,” Askew says, “and I think where we’ve excelled on my side of things is adapting to different conditions over the race weekend so we’re a little bit more consistent, and at the end of the season you can see that’s [become] a pretty big points deficit over time.”

It is expected that both Askew and 19-year-old rival Veekay will graduate to IndyCar next year in some capacity. Their rivalry has been a highlight of the RTI in recent years, and it will be fascinating to see whether it will continue into the top level or whether – like O’Ward and Herta, the pair have different long-term destinies.

“I think it’s healthy,” said Askew of his VeeKay rivalry. “I mentioned it at Portland to somebody I don’t think we – either of us – would be as good without each other and without the competition we’ve put up over the past couple of years. So I think we can both kind of relate to each other and I guess that’s both of our benchmarks. We both have a similar amount of experience so we can kind of see where we’re at compared to each other.”

There are similarities between this season and a number of recent Lights campaigns – small numbers and one or two really strong drivers leading the way. But, as Herta and O’Ward proved in IndyCar this year, what the series lacks in outright quantity it can really make up for in quality.

More cars would help, and Exclusive Autosport and potentially RP Motorsport will help bolster numbers slightly next season, but the strength of the graduates proves that the series works in its current format regardless of grid size. Provided this year’s alumni get the right support and opportunities, there shouldn’t be any reason for a repeat next year.

“I was reading on some of the forums on a motorsports website the other day and there are people commenting on one article about me saying ‘Indy Lights champion that doesn’t mean anything’ but then immediately other people are reacting to that comment pointing out Herta, pointing out O’Ward. Those are really good drivers who came through and Colton didn’t even win the championship last year and he’s already winning races in IndyCar, so I don’t think the car count in Indy Lights right now defines how talented the drivers are,” said the new champion.

From the archives
Five young drivers McLaren should take a IndyCar chance on (August 2019)
How Patricio O’Ward became Red Bull’s next Formula 1 project (July 2019)
Rinus VeeKay: IndyCar’s answer to Max Verstappen? (March 2019)
What next for the Road to Indy? (October 2018)

The post How Askew scored the winner in Road to Indy rivalry with VeeKay appeared first on Formula Scout.

Rinus VeeKay resisted initial pressure from champion Oliver Askew to win the last race of the Indy Lights season and complete a double victory at Laguna Seca.

Starting from pole position, Veekay managed to keep hold off the lead at the start ahead of fellow front-row starter and season-long rival Askew, who sealed the title in race one.

Askew stayed within a second of the lead for the first few laps before VeeKay pulled out a gap, the Juncos Racing driver finishing up just over five seconds clear as he notched up his sixth win of the season.

Toby Sowery was some 12 seconds further back in third, a result that clinched the HMD Motorsports driver the same position in the final standings.

Ryan Norman had been just three points behind Sowery coming into the race, and moved up to fourth on lap one after contact with Andretti team-mate Robert Megennis at Turn 2.

Forced wide, Megennis also briefly fell behind Dalton Kellett, but by lap five of 30 was looking around the outside of Norman at Turn 2 for fourth place, eventually finding a way past on the inside of the same corner two laps later.

Norman would go on to fall into the clutches of Kellett, holding off the Juncos driver by just nine tenths of a second at the line. That ensured he held onto fourth in the standings, only four points in front of Megennis.

David Malukas was seventh with Lukas Kohl again rounding out the eight-car field.

Race results (30 laps)

The post Rinus VeeKay seals Laguna Seca double in Indy Lights finale appeared first on Formula Scout.

Photo: Indianapolis Motor Speedway

Rinus VeeKay dominated the first Indy Lights race at Laguna Seca, as rival Oliver Askew secured the title and a seat in the 2020 Indianapolis 500.

From pole, VeeKay put in a mistake-free performance up front to take victory by 9.8874 seconds for Juncos Racing.

HMD Motorsports’ Toby Sowery finished the race as runner-up, pulling away from an all-Andretti Autosport battle for third between Robert Megennis and Oliver Askew.

Megennis passed Askew for position around the outside of Turn 1 on the opening lap, then pulled away from the championship leader for the first two thirds of the race.

Askew looked to have better tyres in the final third, but only once looked likely to make a move. Fourth place was enough to seal the title for Askew, who will receive the $1.1 million scholarship prize that guarantees him three raced in IndyCar next year, including the Indy 500.

David Malukas in the end finished just behind Askew for HMD, with Dalton Kellett (Juncos), Ryan Norman (Andretti) and Lucas Kohl (Belardi Auto Racing) completing the order.

Race results (30 laps)

The post Rinus VeeKay dominates at Laguna Seca, Oliver Askew seals Indy Lights title appeared first on Formula Scout.

Photo: Indianapolis Motor Speedway

Juncos Racing’s Rinus VeeKay charged to pole for the final Indy Lights race of the season at Laguna Seca.

Championship leader Oliver Askew set the pace initially for Andretti Autosport, before being bettered by the joint HMD Motorsports/Team Pelfrey entry of Toby Sowery amid constant improvements in the field.

VeeKay was last on track during the first qualifying runs, but the extra clean air meant he moved to the top with his fifth effort.

He ended the first runs with an even faster lap, and one that remained as the top time until Sowery surpassed him with four minutes of the half-hour session left to run.

Askew moved into first place two minutes later, as VeeKay had an off at Turn 11 on his flying lap, and it looked like Askew would take pole until VeeKay posted the fastest lap of the weekend with 15 seconds to go.

“It was quite hard. I lost it on entry in Turn 11, and to not spin and be backwards I just went through the grass and went for another lap,” VeeKay said.

“It was tough with almost a red, and a yellow, and everything. I knew the car was going to be great, and I just took a deep breath and did what I had to do.

“The team made good adjustments to the car for the temperature, but you could really feel more grip in the high-speed corners just because of the cooler air [of the morning].”

To meet the timing beam before the chequered flag, Askew sped up on his cool down lap but was denied a final pole effort when his team-mate Robert Megennis span at The Corkscrew chicane.

Sowery and Megennis ended up third and fourth fastest, with Ryan Norman the last to post a lap to claim fifth. He was briefly stopped at Turn 6, nearly causing a red flag, but got his car going again safely.

Qualifying results

The post VeeKay on pole for last Indy Lights race of season at Laguna Seca appeared first on Formula Scout.

Photo: Indianapolis Motor Speedway

Rinus VeeKay beat title rival Oliver Askew to pole for race one of the Indy Lights season finale at Laguna Seca.

Several drivers reported that the track condition felt considerably different to how it was in free practice, and this appeared to catch out Andretti Autosport’s trio of drivers.

Despite running fewer laps and pitting early, Juncos Racing’s VeeKay seized the initiative to take pole by a massive 0.6282 seconds over the joint HMD Motorsports/Team Pelfrey entry of Toby Sowery.

Championship leader Askew was a further 0.1462s behind, but the one point VeeKay gets for pole means he is still 40 points off the leading Andretti driver.

Askew’s team-mate Robert Megennis was fourth fastest, and was one of many who had a qualifying run ruined by VeeKay’s team-mate Dalton Kellett spinning. Kellett had been at the top of the times with three minutes of qualifying left, before sinking to fifth.

HMD Motorsports’ David Malukas ended the session in sixth, with Andretti’s Ryan Norman and the solo Belardi Auto Racing car of Lucas Kohl filling the fourth and last row of the grid.

Due to Indy Lights’ small grids and points scoring format where retirees still earn points, Askew only has to start both Laguna Seca races to win the title.

Qualifying results

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