20. Mattia Colnaghi

Up 9 • Followed Spanish F4 title with Eurocup-3 glory

Photo: Dutch Photo Agency / Red Bull

Photo: Dutch Photo Agency / Red Bull

With two titles in as many years in single-seaters, it’s no wonder that Colnaghi was snapped up by Red Bull before he even had this year’s Eurocup-3 crown in the bag.

After overhauling more experienced competition to become Spanish Formula 4 champion last year, the Italo-Argentine driver had to settle for being runner-up to fellow graduate and MP Motorsport team-mate Maciej Gladysz in Eurocup-3’s winter series at the start of 2025 after a disastrous double non-score in the deciding round.

He started the main campaign with a pole, win and fastest lap at the Red Bull Ring, but was only on the podium twice more across the first nine races, and was trailing Red Bull-backed rookie Ernesto Rivera at the top of the standings at the halfway mark.

After that though, while Rivera was wildly inconsistent – scoring just three times in the last nine races – Colnaghi was never off the podium and put the title out of the reach of the more experienced Valerio Rinicella and Kacper Sztuka with a round to go.

Colnaghi missed the final round to test himself against a deeper field at the Macau Grand Prix, proving his class with an impressive run with with PHM Racing to fourth in the main race as leading rookie.

19. Caio Collet

Up 7 • Indy Nxt runner-up secured a seat in the top tier

Photo: James Black

Photo: Travis Hinkle

Third in Indy Nxt as a rookie in 2024, Collet came into 2025 with his sights set firmly on the title, but had the misfortune to come up against the toughest of newcomers in Dennis Hauger.

Given how well proven Formula 2 drivers have adapted to IndyCar over recent years, Hauger came in arguably overqualified, and Collet and his HMD Motorsports team were left scratching their heads wondering how to keep up with the Andretti driver’s early pace.

They kept plugging away at it though and a breakthrough finally came mid-season at Road America, where Collet put a pass on Hauger to take his first win in nearly a year.

That didn’t exactly open the floodgates, but Collet did convert two pole positions into two victories at Laguna Seca, with a retirement for Hauger there keeping the title alive. Collet made it three poles in a row next time out at Portland, only for Hauger to this time overtake for victory, putting the title pretty much out of sight.

Most importantly though, Collet gets to join his rival on the IndyCar grid next year.

18. Fionn McLaughlin

New entry • Car racing rookie won British F4 title

Photo: Red Bull

Photo: Red Bull

Signed up by Red Bull through its revived Driver Search shootout last year, McLaughlin became by modern standards a relatively late starter in car racing at the start of 2025 at the ripe old age of 17, but he quickly made up for any lost time.

Driving with Hitech GP, he was a frontrunner from the off in the Formula Winter Series, taking a win on his debut weekend on the Algarve and adding two more victories at Motorland Aragon to finish third in the standings.

In British F4, it took him nine races to win, but was never outside of the points over the next three rounds as he traded the championship lead with second year racer Martin Molnar.

McLaughlin’s win in an eventful third race at Zandvoort, when Molnar was among those involved in contact, would prove pivotal. He dropped some points too over the following rounds, but still did enough to ease away in the title race.

There might have been some doubts about the level in British F4 this year, with other drivers holding Formula 1 connections unable to do what McLaughlin did and live up to their hype, but he confirmed his potential at the FIA F4 World Cup in Macau.

Mechanical issues prevented him from doing any proper laps in practice, but he qualified sixth and went on to challenge for the win in the qualification race, only to hit the wall out of second place just a few corners from the end.

17. Enzo Deligny

New entry • The fastest driver in Formula Regional Europe

Photo: ACI Sport

Photo: ACI Sport

Deligny had lost the backing of Red Bull after a disappointing first season in the Formula Regional European Championship in 2024, but put that behind him with a much stronger 2025 campaign in which he was statistically the quickest driver on the always-competitive grid.

The French-Chinese driver remained with R-ace GP for a second season and team boss Thibaut de Merindol saw a big step in his maturity.

Marginally quicker than eventual champion Freddie Slater on qualifying performance across the year, Deligny claimed four pole positions and four victories during the season. The latter allowed him to finish third in the championship on countback against Pedro Clerot, who was more consistent but won only twice.

That inconsistency prevented him putting up a stronger challenge against Slater in the championship and there was still the odd wild moment, such as disqualification from third place at the Hungaroring for driving erratically on the slow-down lap.

Overall though we saw a much-improved Deligny this year, capped by a clean run to third at the Macau Grand Prix.

16. Dino Beganovic

Up 3 • First F2 campaign featured a pole and a win

Photo: Formula Motorsport Ltd

Photo: Formula Motorsport Ltd

Beganovic wasn’t a factor in the Formula 2 championship fight like some of his fellow rookies were, but he certainly showed strong progression.

Having scored points just four times in the first half of the season, he did so 11 times out of 14 in the second half.

This not to say that the Ferrari junior was lacking performance in the early part of the year. He qualified fifth for the cancelled season-opening feature race in Melbourne, and by round four at Imola had put his Hitech car on pole position. He finished that race third, jumped by team-mate Luke Browning after being delayed in his pit-stop before the red-hot Alex Dunne passed both.

While Browning was now firmly in the tight fight, it took Beganovic longer to consistently find his feet, but fourth in the Silverstone feature race began a more competitive sequence of results. His season – which included two F1 practice runs for Ferrari – peaked on the streets of Baku, where he won the sprint race and came third in the feature race.

15. Thomas Strauven

New entry • Superior in winter and summer in Spanish F4

Photo: Campos Racing

Photo: Spanish Winter Championship

The standing and depth of the Spanish F4 championship seems to improve with every season that passes, making Strauven’s dominance of the series in 2025 all the more impressive.

There didn’t seem to be much to separate Strauven and Campos Racing team-mate Jan Przyrowski in terms of pace in the three-round winter championship at the start of the year, with the Belgian’s better consistency helping him to take the title.

The same trend was amplified in the main championship. Strauven had an early edge in qualifying, starting on pole for six of the first eight races, during which time Przyrowski matched him for wins with three apiece. But Strauven was only off the podium once in that time, and already opening up his championship lead.

While Przyrowski then started the next seven races from pole, he didn’t win again. Strauven on the other hand ended the season with a total of 10 wins and seven other podiums from the 21 races, and 157 points more than his nearest rival – which wasn’t Przyrowski but rookie compatriot Ean Eyckmans.

14. Arvid Lindblad

Down 3 • FROC title and early F2 promise were key to F1 chance

Photo: Red Bull

Photo: TGR NZ

Lindblad ends this year with arguably the best prize of any driver on this list, as the only one who will be an F1 driver in 2026.

He took an important step towards that already in the first six weeks of the year when he won the Formula Regional Oceania Championship, giving him enough points for a superlicence. In truth, his prior record was a clear cut above the rest of what wasn’t the strongest field ever assembled in New Zealand, but stepping down a level and getting the job done under scrutiny and pressure is sometimes easier said than done.

Getting it done meant he could step up to F2 with less pressure to achieve results; valuable in the context of the struggles other highly rated drivers have had at that level.

Still, Lindblad did adapt impressively, which likely helped lead the FIA to grant special dispensation for him to receive his superlicence already at the age of 17.

That decision came less than two weeks after he won the Barcelona feature race from pole position. Including that result, across his first six rounds in F2, Lindblad had also won the Jeddah sprint race, come second in the Imola sprint and scored in all but one race.

At this stage he was third in the championship, just eight points from the lead, but he would score only seven times in the last 14 races and end up sixth in the standings. It was a tailing off that mirrored his previous campaigns in FIA Formula 3 and Italian F4, but it’s his quick adaptation at such a young age that should bode well for his next step.

13. Matteo De Palo

New entry • FREC’s surprise Slater challenger 

Photo: ACI Sport

Photo: ACI Sport

De Palo was arguably the biggest surprise package anywhere in junior single-seater racing in 2025.

That’s not to say that his potential had not been completely hidden previously, because his run to fifth in Spanish F4 as a car racing rookie in 2023 certainly showed promise. But there was little in his rookie FREC campaign in 2024 with Sainteloc Racing, finishing 17th in the standings, to put him among the favourites starting this season. After all, his new team Trident had yet to take a driver to victory in three previous seasons in the series.

Together, they put that right in race one at Misano. Maybe more surprising than that home victory was that it wasn’t a flash in the pan.

De Palo’s early 25-point advantage over Prema’s well-prepared Slater was eradicated in only five races, only for the Roman to go and win the next race at the Hungaroring. Slater started to pull away mid-season, but de Palo capitalised on two consecutive non-scores for his rival with a third win of his own at the Red Bull Ring to get in front again. They traded places again either wide of de Palo’s fourth win at Barcelona and he stayed close until the Monza decider, which he had entered only four points adrift.

Newly signed to McLaren’s driver development programme, de Palo’s first weekend in Papaya was underwhelming after a one-off switch to R-ace GP, but it’s with Trident that he steps up to FIA F3 next year – as Slater’s team-mate.

12. Mari Boya

Re-entry • New Aston junior came third in F3, second in Macau

Photo: Formula Motorsport Ltd

Photo: Formula Motorsport Ltd

49th in this list in 2023, when he was Eurocup-3 runner-up alongside his rookie season in FIA F3, it’s rare for a driver to stay in the latter series for a third season and rarer still for them to then make as positive an impression as Boya did in 2025.

The Spaniard’s appointment as an Aston Martin F1 junior in the middle of the year appeared to be one of the more left-field such signings, but it seemed to help him take a step forward.

At the time, six rounds into the season, he had been sixth in the standings with a couple of third-places to his name in the Monaco and Red Bull Ring feature races. So far, so solid. Next time out at Silverstone he won the feature race, having already finished third in the sprint race.

A second place would come later in the Hungaroring feature race and he ended the year third in the championship – and as the second-highest scorer in feature races.

Boya also made his experience count at the Macau Grand Prix to challenge for victory, ultimately finishing second.

11. Max Garcia

Up 31 • Prodigious rise continues with USF Pro 2000 title

Photo: Gavin Baker Photography

Photo: Gavin Baker Photography

Garcia will still only be 16 years old when he makes his Indy Nxt debut next year after winning back-to-back titles on the IndyCar ladder.

While his USF2000 title in 2024 was hard-fought against several other drivers, with five wins from 18 races, his run to the USF Pro 2000 crown was far more dominant with nine victories from the same number of opportunities. He was on the podium in all but five races.

Such consistency was highly valuable. As an example, Alessandro de Tullio had three poles and three wins from the first four races, but the rest of his campaign was far more hit and miss and he finished fourth, 153 points behind Garcia.

Round three’s triple header at Indianapolis Motor Speedway was particularly wild and Garcia wasn’t able to avoid being involved, but he still finished all three races in the top four and increased his points lead over de Tullio from 16 to 57.

Written by Peter Allen

The post Formula Scout Top 50 Drivers of 2025: 20-11 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: Red Bull

Four more young drivers have been named as getting time in contemporary Formula 1 machinery at Yas Marina Circuit over the next week.

The first opportunity comes tomorrow in free practice one for the season-ending Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, then next Tuesday is F1’s official young driver test.

For FP1, Alpine has called up reserve driver Paul Aron, while Red Bull Racing will run future Racing Bulls driver Arvid Lindblad and that team has called up its test driver Ayumu Iwasa.

It had long been anticipated Aron would be back in the cockpit this weekend, since Alpine had stated earlier this year that after being loaned out to rival Sauber for two practice outings he would then have a further three with them.

“I’m looking forward to being back behind the wheel of the A525 this weekend,” said the 21-year-old, who came third in Formula 2 last year and has been focused on reserve driver duties through 2025.

“The [FP1] performances in Monza and Mexico City were very positive for my personal development as a driver and I’m looking forward to building on that for a final time this year.”

Iwasa graduated from the Red Bull Junior Team for 2025, but into a test driver role after Isack Hadjar beat him to a race seat at Racing Bulls. He has driven in three practice sessions for the team over the past two years, while also racing in the top-tier Super Formula championship at home in Japan.

In his rookie season he came fifth, and won the title this year but was overlooked by Racing Bulls for 2026 in favour of Lindblad. He concludes his rookie F2 season this weekend, and is in contention to come fifth in the points.

Lindblad started his single-seater career in 2022, and his F1 promotion was announced two days ago. Last year he was fourth in the FIA Formula 3 Championship, and he began 2025 by winning the Formula Regional Oceania championship.

The latest additions from junior single-seaters to F1’s young driver test next week are Dino Beganovic and Kush Maini.

Beganovic is a member of the Ferrari Driver Academy, and will test with the team after two practice call-ups in 2025. He is another F2 rookie, and sits eighth in the standings with one win so far.

Far more experienced in F2 is third-year driver Maini, who has also won in 2025 but languishes down in 15th in the points table. He will test with Alpine, who he is a reserve driver for.

“I can’t wait to take part in the post-season Abu Dhabi test and to have my first proper experience of the A525,” said the 25-year-old.

“Yas Marina Circuit is one I know well from F2 and it will be impressive to see the level of performance F1 cars have around this track. I’m very appreciative of the team for trusting me in this role and will aim to do the best job possible with the programme the team gives me.”

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Photo: Hitech GP

Hitech GP driver Dino Beganovic has labelled his run to ninth place in Formula 2’s Losail feature race as one of his best ever drives.

Beganovic had been 11th fastest in qualifying, 0.711 seconds off pole but 0.508s ahead of his then-title contending team-mate Luke Browning, so opted to start the race on Pirelli’s hard compound tyres while those ahead began on softs.

After the top 10 pitted across laps six and seven, Beganovic was promoted to the front of the field. He was 5.4s clear of the next driver on the same strategy by lap 10, and held a 10.6s lead when the safety car was summoned on lap 15.

While others chose to pit, committing to running half of the race on the quicker degrading soft tyres, Beganovic opted to stay out such was his pace advantage.

Following the restart pulled away again, creating a 5.6s gap before pitting on lap 27. That only left him with five laps to maximise the grippier compound he was now on, but he returned to track in 12th and after Browning had pitted from the lead Beganovic moved up to ninth. He found it far harder to utilise his pace in traffic, and made up no further places.

“It was a great race on Sunday – I think we did everything right. Looking back now, maybe we should have stopped when we got the early safety car period, seeing how this played out elsewhere, but I think we can be proud of our pace and our race in general,” Beganovic reflected. “We had fantastic speed, and I think this was one of my best races I’ve ever done.”

The fastest lap went to Beganovic by 0.263s, with Browning his closest rival on single-lap pace. On the final lap, Rodin Motorsport’s Alex Dunne became the third fastest driver in the field but was 1.301s off Beganovic’s benchmark.

“The consistency was great, and the pace all the way to the end was fantastic,” the 21-year-old Swede added.

“Without that safety car, we could have been fighting for the win – so very annoying – but at the same time I’m very proud. We came back from a disappointing Friday, where we didn’t extract everything and didn’t have it all set, but I have a really good feeling going into Abu Dhabi for the last round.”

A sprint race win in Baku, two feature race podiums and pole at Imola have been the standout results of Beganovic’s rookie F2 season and he sits eighth in the standings ahead of this weekend’s finale.

He made his F2 debut with DAMS last year, contesting the last two rounds and making the podium. Next season he will return to DAMS’ line-up.

The post Beganovic calls run to ninth in Qatar one of “best races I’ve ever done” appeared first on Formula Scout.

Photo: Formula Motorsport Ltd

Dino Beganovic will reunite with DAMS in Formula 2 next year, after making his debut with the team at the end of 2024.

The 21-year-old Swede contested the final two rounds of last season with DAMS, and made the podium in just his third race.

He joined Hitech GP for his full-time step up into F2 this year, and sits eighth in the standings with two rounds to go but remains in contention to be championship runner-up. Last time out in Baku he took his maiden win and then his second feature race podium of 2025. Beganovic has also taken a pole and four fastest laps this season.

“I’m extremely happy to return to DAMS for another season in F2,” said Beganovic.

“I felt an instant connection with the team last year — both on a professional and human level — and we showed great potential together, including a podium in Abu Dhabi.

“I’m grateful for the trust they’ve placed in me, and for the continued support from the Ferrari Driver Academy. The goal now is to build on the progress we’ve made and fight consistently at the front.”

Beganovic has driven for Ferrari in two Formula 1 practice sessions this year, and became one of its junior drivers ahead of his car racing debut in 2020. Since then he has been Formula Regional Europe champion and an FIA Formula 3 race-winner.

“We were impressed by Dino’s maturity and professionalism during his first outings with us,” DAMS owner Charles Pic said.

“His work ethic, technical understanding and consistency perfectly match the values of our team. We’re thrilled to welcome him back for this next step in his career, and we’re confident we can achieve great things together.”

The post DAMS brings Dino Beganovic back to its F2 line-up for 2026 appeared first on Formula Scout.

Photo: Formula Motorsport Ltd

Dino Beganovic claimed a dominant first Formula 2 win in the Baku sprint race as Luke Browning completed a Hitech GP one-two.

Ferrari junior Beganovic took the lead from second on the reversed grid when the lights went out, followed by Sebastian Montoya who started quickly from third.

Polesitter Rafael Villagomez was slower away and attacked by both Martinius Stenshorne and Pepe Marti into Turn 1. Three into one didn’t go and they made contact; Stenshorne on the inside was able to continue in third but Villagomez and Marti were forced to retire.

There was further contact in Turn 2, with Oliver Goethe squeezed to the inside by John Bennett and spinning around into retirement. Arvid Lindblad was also tagged around by Ritomo Miyata as they tried to avoid the incident ahead, but he managed to continue.

Beganovic quickly pulled away after a safety car restart, with Montoya falling into the clutches of Stenshorne. The Trident-run debutant snatched second place down the inside of Turn 3 on the third lap of the restart, only to suddenly slow a lap later.

With Stenshorne forced to park up, the safety car eliminated Beganovic’s advantage of over four seconds, but he would have little trouble building that up when the race resumed once more, even with rain starting to fall.

Behind, Alex Dunne passed Browning for third in Turn 3 on the restart, only to have a big lock-up into Turn 1 a couple of laps later. The McLaren junior managed to stay out of the barriers and get back on track, but did lose out to Browning in the process, with Gabriele Mini also slipstreaming past at the end of the lap.

Browning went on to pass Montoya for second with three laps to go, but couldn’t make inroads into his team-mate’s advantage with Beganovic ultimately sealing the win by 6.2s.

Montoya would slow out of third place and fall through the field with a couple of laps to go, with Dunne in position to inherit a podium place having got back in front of Mini. Jak Crawford had also just overtaken Mini and picked up fourth.

Championship leader Leonardo Fornaroli was having a quiet race until he passed the fading Mini on the last lap around the outside of Turn 3, touching the wall on exit in the process of securing fifth. Richard Verschoor also got ahead of Mini just as they took the chequered flag.

Race results (21 laps)

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Photo: Mahindra

Four more junior single-seater stars have been chosen by Formula E teams for the championship’s rookie test in Berlin on July 14.

Mahindra will utilise Formula 2 racers Dino Beganovic and Kush Maini [pictured above]. The latter was the team’s reserve driver and contested the rookie test with them last season.

The 24-year-old Indian has already been in action with Mahindra in 2025, having driven in the rookie-only practice session at the Jeddah E-Prix.

“I was really impressed with the Mahindra M11Electro in Jeddah, it’s a great car to drive and I can’t wait to experience it again in Berlin,” said Maini. “Mahindra is a manufacturer I’ve worked with first-hand a lot over the last 18 months, and I’ve seen the hard work and development that has gone into improving the team’s results on-track.”

Maini is currently a reserve driver for Alpine’s Formula 1 team alongside his third F2 season. He sits 12th in the standings, and two positions ahead is Ferrari junior Beganovic. The 21-year-old has two podiums and a pole from his rookie campaign so far, and has done two F1 practice sessions with Ferrari.

“I’m looking forward to the opportunity to drive for Mahindra at the Berlin rookie test, and to try a FE car for the first time,” Beganovic said.

One place behind Maini in F2’s points table is Gabriele Mini. He claimed a podium in a 2024 cameo, and started his rookie season by topping the year’s first qualifying session. Since then he has made the podium once and had several non-finishes.

The 20-year-old Italian is an Alpine junior, and that team’s collaboration with Nissan led to him driving for them in the 2024 rookie test, rookie-only practice session and now the 2025 rookie test.

“It’s great to be back, I’ve enjoyed my two previous outings with the team, so I’m delighted to work with them again,” said Mini.

“It’s a track I know well,” he added. “I also had the chance to drive the Gen3 Evo in the FP0 session in Jeddah, with the 350kW power mode, new tyres, and all-wheel drive, so I will be aiming to put these two experiences together. My main goal is to keep learning and to help the team complete its programme for the day, like we did in Jeddah, while also showing my pace.”

The Cupra-partnered Kiro Race Co. team (formerly known as Team China Racing, NIO and then ERT) has completed its rookie test line-up by calling up Callum Voisin.

“I’m thrilled to be joining Cupra Kiro for the Berlin rookie test and to get my first experience of FE,” said the 19-year-old.

“I’ve been following FE for a long time, and I’m really looking forward to learning everything I can, both in the car, and from Dan [Ticktum] and David [Beckmann].”

Voisin was 2023 GB3 champion and a race winner in FIA Formula 3. He is currently in his sophomore year in the championship.

Click here for more on FE’s rookie test entry list.

The post Beganovic, Mini, Maini and Voisin to drive in Formula E’s rookie test appeared first on Formula Scout.

Photo: Formula Motorsport Ltd

Formula 2 championship leader Alex Dunne will make his Formula 1 free practice debut with McLaren in Austria this week.

A member of McLaren’s driver development programme since last year, the Irish driver stepped up from FIA Formula 3 to F2 and has made a stunning start to his rookie season with Rodin Motorsport, scoring feature race wins in Bahrain and Imola and leading the standings by three points over veteran Richard Verschoor after six rounds.

He was handed his first taste of F1 machinery by McLaren at Zandvoort in May when he drove its MCL60 chassis from 2023 under the testing of previous cars (TPC) regulations, and got a similar outing at United States Grand Prix venue Austin last week.

Dunne will take over the car of Lando Norris in Friday’s opening practice session at the Red Bull Ring.

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Photo: Formula Motorsport Ltd

Dino Beganovic claimed his maiden Formula 2 pole at Imola, as championship leader Richard Verschoor qualified down in 19th place.

A red flag stoppage with six minutes left on the clock brought an early end to what was scheduled to be a half-hour session, denying drivers a final attempt to beat Hitech GP driver Beganovic.

He had just jumped to the top of the times, 0.003 seconds ahead of Prema’s Sebastian Montoya, when red flags waved following an off for Kush Maini. The DAMS driver had lost control of his car and made heavy contact with the wall, causing rear-right damage. With only a short window before when Formula 1 practice was due to begin, the decision was made to not restart the session.

Rodin Motorsport’s free practice pacesetter Alex Dunne was fastest early on in qualifying, ahead of ART Grand Prix’s Victor Martins. Arvid Lindblad briefly took provisional pole for Campos Racing before Martins jumped back to the top, 0.3s clear of the rest of the field.

Invicta Racing’s Leonardo Fornaroli and Dunne got between Martins and Lindblad on the timesheet before pitting to switch tyres ahead of their final runs.

Montoya was one of the first to head back out for that, having been at the tail end of the top 10 and needing to make a big improvement. He did just that, jumping up to first place with a lap 0.003s faster than Martins’ previous benchmark.

It was not long before he was demoted to second himself, as Beganovic set a 1m27.418s that would ultimately earn him pole.

The only other driver to improve before the session-ending red flags was MP Motorsport’s Oliver Goethe, who jumped up from outside the top 10 to go eighth fastest.

That left the top two in the championship in the bottom half of the order. Goethe’s team-mate Verschoor was 19th, and Campos’s Pepe Marti qualified 12th.

Hitech’s Luke Browning qualified seventh, and completing the top 10 were Maini and team-mate Jak Crawford.

Qualifying results

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Photo: Formula Motorsport Ltd

Ferrari junior Dino Beganovic will join Hitech GP to contest his first full season of Formula 2 in 2025.

After completing a two-year stint in FIA Formula 3, Beganovic stepped up to F2 for the last two rounds of the 2024 season with DAMS and made a strong impression, qualifying fourth in both Qatar and Abu Dhabi and taking a podium finish in the Yas Marina sprint race.

The Swede had previously raced with Prema through his entire single-seater career. He finished third in Italian Formula 4 as a rookie in 2020, then had two years in the Formula Regional European Championship, taking the title in 2022. He stepped up to F3 the following year and finished sixth in the championship in both 2023 and 2024, taking two wins in his second campaign.

“I’m thrilled to join Hitech GP for my first full season in Formula 2 next year,” Beganovic said. “Having had a brief introduction to F2 over the last couple of weeks, I’ve been really impressed by the car and the level of the championship.

“Stepping up full time in 2025 with one of the series’ top teams is an amazing opportunity. I’m tremendously grateful to Hitech, Scuderia Ferrari Driver Academy, and everyone else who made this possible. It’s a big, important step in my career and I can’t wait to start working with the team this week at the post-season test.”

Beganovic will partner former F3 rival Luke Browning, who also made a late-season move up to F2 with another team, in ART Grand Prix.

“We’re delighted to welcome Dino for our 2025 Formula 2 campaign,” said Hitech’s F2 team manager Clive Hatton. “Having competed against him for several years, it is great to have him driving for Hitech and we look forward to working with him.

“Dino’s record in single-seater racing is impressive. After two highly competitive seasons in Formula 3, he took his F2 debut in his stride in Lusail, demonstrating that he was ready to take the next step up the ladder. His performance in Abu Dhabi one week later was outstanding.

“Together with Luke, we have a strong line-up to fight for the Formula 2 Championship title next year. They each bring F2 race experience that will be invaluable heading into testing and the new season.”

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