Photo: FRECA

Formula Regional European Championship rookie Thomas ten Brinke has announced his retirement from racing at the age of 16.

ART Grand Prix driver ten Brinke sits 13th in the FREC standings at the halfway point of the season with five points finishes from eight starts. It was just his second season in cars, after he came third in Spanish Formula 4 last year.

The son of Dakar racer Bernhard ten Brinke had graduated to single-seaters from a stellar karting career in which he won the CIK-FIA World Karting Championship in 2019, and the German title for OK Junior karts in 2018.

“Dear all. For the past few years, I’ve been extremely dedicated to racing. I’ve been go-karting for five years, became world champion and finally made my move to autosport. I loved the first races in F4, the racing, the competition and moved my way up to Formula Regional soon after,” ten Brinke said in the announcement of his racing retirement on social media.

“During the weekends of FRECA, I started feeling a pressure I didn’t know before. How badly I would’ve wanted to compete, I struggled mentally to perform. Together with the coaching of [former Formula 1 driver] Giedo van der Garde and Ken de Meester, I tried to turn things around, but the past weekend in Zandvoort it became clear to me. There was no joy.

“I know that driving race cars is a dream for a lot of people – and that thought also makes this decision even harder – but I have to stay true to myself and admit that racing doesn’t make me enjoy my life the way I want.

“Therefore it’s with a heavy heart that I’m writing that I will stop my racing career immediately. For all the people that helped me along the way: a big thank you. I don’t know what the future will bring, but I know I’m taking the right decision. All the best, Thomas.”

ART responded to ten Brinke’s post shortly after, stating that it was “informed of Thomas ten Brinke’s decision to stop his racing career immediately. It has been a huge pleasure to work with you, Thomas. We respect your hard decision and we wish you all the best for the future.”

Ten Brinke’s team-mates Gregoire Saucy and Gabriele Mini are currently first and sixth in the FREC points.

The post Thomas ten Brinke quits racing with immediate effect appeared first on Formula Scout.

Photo: Xavi Bonilla / Dutch Photo Agency

ART Grand Prix driver Thomas ten Brinke will miss the first round of the Formula Regional European Championship by Alpine season at Imola this weekend after testing positive for COVID-19.

Ten Brinke was absent from both of Friday’s practice sessions and confirmed afterwards that he had returned two positive tests since arriving in Italy.

The 16-year-old was set to make his Regional Formula 3 debut after contesting five rounds of the Spanish Formula 4 Championship in 2020.

“So frustrated and gutted to share this news: after arriving in Italy, being careful and followed all the COVID-measurements, my test came out positive twice,” he posted on social media.

“That means I can’t make my debut for ART this weekend. For the past months I put all my work and effort into this moment, which now collapses. Obviously I will directly go into quarantine. To all the other drivers this weekend: good luck, and I’ll be back.”

Ten Brinke, who has been coached by ex-Formula 1 driver Giedo van der Garde, was the European junior karting champion in 2019 and finished third in the Spanish F4 standings last year with MP Motorsport despite missing the opening two rounds.

His ART Grand Prix team-mates for this season, Gabriele Mini and Gregoire Saucy, finished one-two in Friday practice for the F1 support event at Imola.

Another driver absent from practice was MP Motorsport driver Franco Colapinto, who was taking part in practice for the European Le Mans Series opener in Barcelona in the G-Drive Racing LMP2 car he shares with Nyck de Vries and Roman Rusinov.

Colapinto is also entered for the FREC meeting, but it remains to be seen whether he will take part in Saturday’s qualifying sessions and opening race.

The post Ten Brinke ruled out of FREC debut after testing positive for COVID-19 appeared first on Formula Scout.

Photo: F4 Spanish Championship

The 2019 world junior karting champion Thomas ten Brinke will step up to the Formula Regional European Championship by Alpine with ART Grand Prix this year.

The Dutch driver, son of Dakar racer Bernhard ten Brinke and coached by ex-Formula 1 driver Giedo van der Garde, made his single-seater debut in the third round of the Spanish Formula 4 season in 2020.

Driving for the dominant MP Motorsport team, he scored two podiums on his debut weekend and made seven more trips to the rostrum over the final four rounds, including a maiden win from pole position in the final race at Barcelona. He finished third in the standings behind team-mates Kas Haverkort and Mari Boya.

Since then he’s tested Regional Formula 3 cars with several teams including ART.

“I have to admit, it’s going quick. Very quick!” ten Brinke said.

“A few months ago, I was driving go karts, then I had the chance to compete in the Formula 4 Series in Spain and now I am already at the next chapter. However, it all feels natural and thanks to the support of my dad and my sponsors I can realise my ambition and dream.

“But the dream isn’t finished yet … I will be a rookie and one of the youngest in the championship. The goal? To improve myself step by step and get on the podium a few times. This is the team that can help me achieve that, and I can’t wait to work with them.”

Ten Brinke is the first driver signed by ART for the newly-merged FREC, with Italian F4 champion Gabriele Mini also tipped to form part of its line-up.

“ART Grand Prix has always been committed in supporting young drivers in their quest to climb the motorsport ladder, and Thomas has the typical profile,” said team boss Sebastien Philippe.

“In 2020, he completed a final year of karting and the first half season of single-seater racing at the same time, all with exceptional success that has nothing to do with chance.

“Very well supported, talented, methodical and focused, he has all the assets needed to make his first full season in single seater racing a real success.”

Both Haverkort and Boya have also been testing with a view to moving up to FREC, the former after taking part in two Formula Renault Eurocup rounds during 2020.

The post Thomas ten Brinke moves up to Formula Regional with ART appeared first on Formula Scout.

Formula 4 is now well established as the founding ground of single-seaters’ future stars. This year there were drivers across the globe who made an impact in the category, and some are already destined for greatness

There were well over 100 drivers who raced in Formula 4 this year, and the lucky few not only got to win, but got to win big. The coronavirus pandemic first led to Esports competitions cropping up in place of real-life racing, and the F4 rookies were pitched against drivers far more famous and experienced. It ended up putting many of these young drivers on the map before they had even started racing for real.

Then when the lockdown restrictions relaxed and global travel started up again, we ended up with rescheduled calendars and grouped together schedules that resulted in the Chinese F4 championship being the host series of the prestigious Macau Grand Prix and several series making use of alternative circuit configurations to boost the race count.

Before we get into the list of drivers that made the biggest impact internationally (we’ve already covered off the stars of British F4 in their own review), here are the drivers that didn’t quite make the cut…

Winner of the aforementioned Macau GP, Charles Leong showed once again that he’s one of Asia’s top rising talents with victory in his home race. Leong was only a guest driver, as he won the Chinese F4 title back in 2017, but the Macanese driver had only done seven races in Formula 3 in 2019 and budget issues made it look unlikely he would race at all this year.

The inclusion of his home race into the most accessible series for him opened up some doors though, and he turned up to Chinese F4’s second Zhuhai quadruple-header as preparation for the grand prix. He took a double pole and won three of the four races, then was similarly in control in Macau where he took pole, qualification race victory and main race victory too.

Another Asian talent who starred was 2019 Japanese F4 champion Ren Sato, who was sent over to France this year as a Honda junior. While four wins, two poles and six fastest laps sounds impressive, especially for a driver switching continents, it was only good enough for second in the points as he was firmly beaten to the title by fellow Honda protege Ayumi Iwasa. More on him later.

Not far behind Sato in the points come the end of the season was Isack Hadjar, who on his series return won three races.

The champions of the Danish and NACAM series didn’t have the highest calibre of opposition, but Conrad Laursen and Noel Leon still did great jobs to win their respective titles. Leon had his season in Mexico split entirely in two by the pandemic, but was straight back on it once racing resumed, while Laursen was in his rookie single-seater season.

Other top newcomers included Thomas ten Brinke, who immediately turned his world-beating karting abilities into victory-fighting form in Spanish F4 when he turned up mid-season, ADAC F4’s rookie champion Tim Tramnitz, and Prema’s Italian F4 duo Gabriel Bortoleto and Dino Beganovic.

A lot can be said of the high quality of the grid in Italy, although which team you drive for does contribute in some terms to where on the grid you will be, but for Ferrari junior Beganovic to finish third in the points despite early struggles was quite an achievement. He ended up several places up in the standings on the trio of Andrea Rosso, Filip Ugran and Leonardo Fornaroli, who all looked like they deserved more from their year.

Motorsport Games F4 Cup gold medallist Rosso was firmly in title contention mid-season and had won three races, but he only got one podium after that and slumped to seventh in the points.

Ugran was similar, having been the early title leader until round three at the Red Bull Ring – which he missed due to being unable to travel – and making the podium twice in the remaining four rounds wasn’t enough to stop him falling to eighth in the standings. On the plus side, he took two wins and a second place in a Spanish F4 cameo at Paul Ricard.

Karting graduate Fornaroli drove for the Prema-linked Iron Lynx team and was consistently strong, but never quite fast enough to challenge for the top positions.

Gabriele Mini ITALY Prema
Italy champion, 10th in ADAC – Starts 26 Wins 5 Poles 11 Fastest laps 4 Podiums 16 Points 379 Pts/race 14.6

Photo: ACI Sport

Photo: ACI Sport

Formula Scout first encountered Mini in the paddock during round three of the Italian F4 season, and it was almost unbelievable how professional he already was on and off-track. But then we remembered this was a driver who is following the likes of Jules Bianchi and Charles Leclerc as a protege of Nicolas Todt. He’s already preparing for a future in Formula 1.

And yes, Gabriele Mini is indeed quite small. But between graduating from karts at the end of last year to the end of this one, the 15-year-old has definitely grown a lot.

His first weekend in cars is probably the one that stands out the most, as the Prema driver took a triple pole on his Italian F4 debut at Misano and then converted the first of those into a win.

The next time he was racing was actually in the ADAC championship, but again he made the perfect start with a win from pole there too. Despite only contesting two rounds of that season, his four podiums from six races there earned him 10th in the standings.

When he returned to Italy he wasn’t winning everything, and to be fair the second round of the season at Imola really wasn’t Prema’s strongest, but he showed his class again at the Red Bull Ring with a double pole and a second series win.

Further wins came at Mugello and the second visit to Imola, and if he wasn’t rear-ended by Rosso at Monza he probably would have won there too. He was in podium contention for almost every race, against the most high-calibre field anywhere in F4 this year, and he wrapped up the title with a whole three-race round to go.

Francesco Pizzi ITALY Van Amersfoort Racing
UAE champion, 2nd in Italy, 11th in ADAC – Starts 48 Wins 11 Poles 4  Fastest laps 5 Podiums 12 Points 563 Pts/race 11.7

Photo: ACI Sport

Photo: ACI Sport

Pizzi made one of the best starts to a single-seater career in modern times when he made his debut in F4 United Arab Emirates, as he won his first four races. A further four wins over the 19-race season was impressive work, but there was one obvious shortfall for the Italian: qualifying.

He rarely started from the front in the Middle East, and when he joined Van Amersfoort Racing for a campaign on home soil it was much the same. Obviously starting on pole in the latter series is harder, as a qualifying session where there is 30 cars on track makes it very hard to find clean air or even just have an undisrupted run before somebody brings out the red flags.

• Feature: The Italian talents fighting over their home F4 title (October 2020)

Pizzi admitted it was something he really needed to work on, and it wasn’t just qualifying where the single-lap deficit showed, but he made up for it by simply being rapid in the races. It was he who led the points at the end of the first and second Italian F4 rounds, but the title momentum swung to Mini at the Red Bull Ring when Pizzi’s qualifying disadvantage really took its toll in the points.

A double win and a first pole at Monza brought him right back into contention, but then at Imola he only made the top 10 once in qualifying and that practically sealed the deal for Mini to be champion.

Pizzi was comfortably title runner-up though. There were no other full-time drivers who could reach his peaks, and he fitted right in at VAR. A graduation to Formula Regional European Championship with ART Grand Prix looked on the cards for 2021, but with Mini now set to race there it’s more likely Pizzi will make the step up with VAR instead.

Hibiki Taira JAPAN TGR-DC RS 
Japan champion – Starts 12 Wins 10 Poles 6  Fastest laps 4 Podiums 12 Points 270.5 Pts/race 22.5

Photo: Japanese F4

Photo: Japanese F4

The F1 itch remains at Toyota, even though it publicly says it has no interest in the potential future engine formula for the pinnacle of single-seaters, and the driving talents its supporting in Japan aren’t just being lined up for domestic careers.

Taira is the latest of the manufacturer’s proteges to make a splash, in its own official junior team too.

The 20-year-old’s F4 debut came in 2018, in the South East Asia championship, and he picked up three podiums in his first weekend of racing. Despite missing over half of the season, he finished sixth in the points.

A full-time single-seater shot came last year in Japanese F4, where Toyota put him in at its favoured customer team TOM’S. There was only one podium, but spectacular rookie seasons in Japan’s junior single-seater series are a rarity, and he finished in the top five more often than not.

After several years of Honda running its own junior team in Japanese F4, which uses Toyota power, a fairly significant series change came along for 2020 as it pulled out and Toyota slided in with its own Toyota Gazoo Racing Driver Challenge Racing School squad.

Taira was one of four drivers for the team, but in all but one race he was the driver that was contributing to Toyota’s points haul. Across a 12-race season he won 10 times, a winning rate unrivalled since the series’ 2015 creation. The only times he was beaten were the season opener, where after much battling he finished third, and the season-ending race where he trailed rival Reiji Hiraki of Helm Motorsports for pretty much the whole race in second place.

What stood against Taira was the quality at the front of this year’s field was down on the past, not least because of Honda’s absence, although he scored 122.5 more points than his team-mates’ tallies combined.

Hunter Yeany USA Velocity Racing Development
USA champion, 4th in USA Western WS, 4th in YAcademy WS – Starts 20 Wins 10 Poles 2  Fastest laps 7 Podiums 19 Points 400 Pts/race 20

Photo: US F4 / SCCA / Gavin Baker

Photo: US F4

By the end of 2020 there were already starring F3 performances being put in by Yeany, such was the magnificence of his debut season in single-seaters with Velocity Racing Development.

Yeany took to the USA’s non-FIA series to get his first competitive miles in F4, with his debut coming in F4 Western’s Winter Series. He took pole for his very first race, and finished both of the races of that weekend in second place.

An unusual situation prevented him from contesting the next round, but then he found a place at the final round of the YAcademy Winter Series at Homestead-Miami Speedway and won all three races with VRD. It was already looking like he would be one of the stars of the upcoming United States F4 season.

Yeany ended up being classified as the winner of the first race of the season at Mid-Ohio, which had a chaotic conclusion in that its race-shortened distance meant it didn’t count for championship points, and then the Jay Howard Driver Development-run cars were chucked out of the results. Yeany was promoted from third place to victory as a result, then from third to second in race two, after JHDD driver Christian Bogle had been first across the line in both races.

Bogle withdrew from the series after that, leaving Yeany as the title favourite. He won two races at each of the next two rounds, then did the clean sweep of all three wins at Sebring – celebrated by posing with a broom. At a rain-hit Homestead-Miami his winning run ended after a five-second penalty in the final race, but by then the title was already won.

He skipped the season finale to make his debut in Formula Regional Americas instead, where he made an immediate impact, and will race in the Regional F3 series next year.

Ollie Bearman BRITAIN US Racing
7th in ADAC, 10th in Italy – Starts 29 Wins 2 Poles 3x2nd Fastest laps 2 Podiums 5 Points 229 Pts/race 7.9

Photo: ACI Sport

Photo: ADAC F4

Like fellow rookie Mini, it was the off-track impression that made Bearman stand out as much as his on-track performances in ADAC and Italian F4, and it actually comes as some surprise that he was so far down the points in both series.

While very timid in wheel-to-wheel combat at first, he was immediately on the pace and that was no surprise given his late decision to move into single-seater racing for this year came after very impressive pre-season test showings.

• Feature: Scout Report: Ollie Bearman

There were only five podium finishes across the year, two of which were wins, but he was the second highest-scoring rookie in Germany behind team-mate Tramnitz and his scoring rate in his three Italian F4 appearances was the fourth highest in the series – only behind champion Mini and Red Bull-backed second-year F4 racers Jonny Edgar and Jak Crawford.

That Bearman couldn’t convert his pace into results often enough in Germany is something he needs to work on for his expected second season in the category next year, as only 14 times in 10 rounds did he maintain or improve upon his start position with his race result. Either way, an exciting talent for the future.

Kas Haverkort NETHERLANDS MP Motorsport
Spain champion – Starts 21 Wins 13 Poles 12  Fastest laps 10 Podiums 17 Points 383 Pts/race 18.2

Could Haverkort be the next Max Verstappen? His scintillating Spanish F4 form and then seamless move up to the Formula Renault Eurocup mid-season as a car racing rookie suggests the Dutch teenager’s already got what it takes to crack the next level as well as the entry one.

His F4 wins came in all forms, and highlighted all the different sides to his ability. Some were dominant runs from the front, others required staunch defensive work, and the triple win of his first weekend in cars was completed by passing MP Motorsport team-mate Joshua Dufek for the lead.

• Feature: Scout Report: Kas Haverkort

Even his lowest scoring rounds showed race-winning pace, but the action occasionally got messy and at Jerez he ended up clashing with his main title rival.

While Haverkort wasn’t as dominant as fellow Dutchman Richard Verschoor was in the series’ inaugural season back in 2016, he certainly had a far higher calibre of opposition than was about four years ago, and was pushed forward in his own abilities by the standard of his team-mates.

If there’s areas to improve for Haverkort then it’s probably in the wheel-to-wheel moments, but to be fair to him he didn’t have too many of those when he won so many races from pole.

Mari Boya SPAIN MP Motorsport
2nd in Spain – Starts 21 Wins 3 Poles 3 Fastest laps 4 Podiums 14 Points 272 Pts/race 13.0

Photo: Spanish F4

Photo: Spanish F4

The driver who took the battle to Haverkort for the longest, and got the closest to rivalling or beating him on a regular basis, was MP team-mate Boya.

His domestic karting career suggested he would be one to watch, although his international results weren’t always so impressive, and his transition into car racing worked a treat.

He was second to Haverkort in his first race, was quickest in qualifying during round two at Paul Ricard – where the interlopers from Italian F4 were present – and was on the podium at every single circuit.

Boya’s standout weekend was at Motorland Aragon, where he led the first two races from the front and then finished third in the finale. At this point it was still feasible he could beat his team-mate to the title, but a triple win for Haverkort at Jarama next time out sent the crown to the Netherlands rather than Spain.

Since the end of the season he’s been testing in FREC with several teams, although a second year in F4 wouldn’t do his career or his development as a driver any harm – especially if he switches to the ADAC and Italian paddocks.

Jonny Edgar BRITAIN Van Amersfoort Racing
ADAC champion, 4th in Italy – Starts 35 Wins 8 Poles 6 Fastest laps 9 Podiums 17 Points 469 Pts/race 13.4

Photo: ADAC/Gruppe C Photography

What was arguably the beat seat in F4 was secured by Edgar for 2020, and he made the most of it by winning the ADAC title and finishing fourth in Italy despite missing two rounds.

His racecraft was sometimes on another level to his opposition, although fellow Red Bull junior and VAR team-mate Jak Crawford eventually caught on to some of his tricks and provided a proper challenge, and the season-opening ADAC round at the Lausitzring was where Edgar’s really left its mark as he took two wins from the opening two races.

He should have won the third race of that weekend too, as he charged from eighth place into the lead. A sudden rain shower prompted a pitstop though and when red flags were waved before he had time to regain the lost positions it meant he finished an undeserved seventh.

At the Nurburgring he was then outshone by the debuting Mini, but won every race he started from pole until it came to the title-deciding Oschersleben round. What would have been his seventh win of the season was denied when slight contact with Crawford led to a puncture, and set up a thrilling final race showdown for the title.

Once again Edgar’s racecraft came to the fore, rising from seventh to finish second and just beat his team-mate to the crown.

In Italy the pair were usually closely matched on pace too, but it was Edgar who got more out of the races to win twice, and in mixed conditions too.

Jak Crawford USA Van Amersfoort Racing
2nd in ADAC, 6th in Italy – Starts 35 Wins 7 Poles 5 Fastest laps 5 Podiums 19 Points 449 Pts/race 12.8

Photo: ACI Sport

Photo: ACI Sport

Both Edgar and Crawford would have been deserving ADAC champions, and it was definitely more on a benefit for the two to be paired up with one another in the same team than it was an issue in any way.

Obviously only one driver could come out on top though, and through small margins it was Edgar with his one year more of experience in the Tatuus F4-T014 car.

Crawford was absolutely sublime in qualifying, notching up poles in Germany and Italy, and the 15-year-old was efficient at getting to a race weekend and having a car that would be ready to win rather than still fussing over set-up options after the first or second race of a round. He was also highly praised by his team boss Frits van Amersfoort.

The pressure was at its highest in ADAC’s Oschersleben finale, and the way Crawford set himself up as the title favourite heading into the final race was quite the accomplishment. That he couldn’t rise up the grid in the same way his team-mate did in the finale wasn’t a huge surprise – the reversed grid raced tended to be his weakness throughout the year – and when he and Edgar got too close on track it was mainly because they were so closely matched most of the time.

His first win in the Italian series came at the Red Bull Ring, and was earned in brilliant style. He passed poleman Mini on the rise to Turn 3 on the opening lap, before a late-braking Mini reclaimed the position, then on lap two was running three-wide with Edgar and Mini into Turn 4. The two VAR drivers went either side of Mini, got past him cleanly and emerged still side-by-side heading into the next corners. Eventually the lead was decided in Crawford’s favour, and after further battling and a safety car restart he had to handle, Crawford ended up as the winner.

Ayumu Iwasa JAPAN FFSA Academy
France champion – Starts 21 Wins 9 Poles 6 Fastest laps 7 Podiums 7 Points 371 Pts/race 17.7

Photo: Elliot Wood

Of the two Honda juniors who were sent to French F4 this year, Suzuka Racing School’s single-seater champion Iwasa was expected to play second fiddle to reigning Japanese F4 champion Sato. What actually happened was the reverse, with Iwasa being just that little bit quicker in qualifying and then proving very adept at European-style racing.

Four of his nine wins this year came after being beaten to pole but then being the best in the races. This was particularly evident at the long Spa-Francorchamps, a circuit not bested suited to F4, where Iwasa had his most complete weekend of two wins and a second place.

• Feature: Scout Report: Ayumu Iwasa & Ren Sato

From Formula Scout’s time in the paddock, it seemed that both Honda juniors already had a decent grasp of French. In English it was Iwasa who could go into more depth, and if he remains racing in Europe next year it’s a skill he will have to improve on if he wants to follow Yuki Tsunoda into F1.

His future plans may be impacted by Honda’s departure from F1 as an engine supplier after 2021, and while his priority is to remain abroad he’s also not against the idea of returning to Japan in higher-class machinery and forging a career at home.

Juju Noda JAPAN Noda Racing
6th in Denmark – Starts 9 Wins 1 Poles 3 Fastest laps 2 Podiums 3 Points 85 Pts/race 9.4

Photo: Noda Racing

Photo: Noda Racing

Not even Mick Schumacher’s F4 debut attracted the amount of attention that Noda’s first race in Danish F4 gathered, and the prodigious talent proved why in her first weekend at Jyllandsringen.

The daughter of former F1 driver Hideki Noda was beaten in qualifying by Team FSP’s Laursen, but he set his best lap under yellow flag conditions and therefore had it taken away. This put Noda on pole, and she made a confident start to her first European race. On lap three of 15 Laursen started to draw back in, and they ended up fighting for the lead.

Noda responded to the pressure by claiming back fastest lap, and stretched out a lead of several seconds as the race entered its second half. An error brought that gap back down to just over a second, but she was still comfortably ahead and won.

• Feature: What can be taken from Juju Noda’s victorious Danish F4 debut?

A podium in the second race was stripped away due to using unregistered tyres, but she responded by finishing fourth in the final race of the weekend. It wasn’t the most spectacular weekend, especially given Noda already had racing experience in F3 machinery back in Japan, but it made headlines across the globe.

Noda was the driver to beat over a single lap, taking pole in the remaining two rounds that ran before the pandemic cut off the end of the season, but her racecraft was patchy and she’d often make mistakes under pressure that – on the short circuits of Denmark – lost her several positions.

As Noda made her debut aged 14, Danish F4 was the top series in Europe she could really race in with her family-run Noda Racing team, and proving herself against the best in ADAC and Italy sadly wasn’t an option until next year. It would be great to see her doing just that, competing against F1 juniors and big-name teams as one of the very youngest on the grid, in 2021.

Further reading
Opinion: Why junior series should embrace Esports again this winter
British F4 season review: Fortec’s Browning wins in closest action yet
The F4 stars who made an impact in FIA F3 post-season testing
The South American nation finally entering the single-seater map
The day Lance Stroll made motorsport history in F4
Opinion: Revisiting the racing versus education argument

The post The standout Formula 4 drivers around the world in 2020 appeared first on Formula Scout.

Photo: Drivex School

Danish driver Valdemar Eriksen won the second Spanish Formula 4 race at Jerez, while MP Motorsport’s title contenders Kas Haverkort and Mari Boya finished at the back.

It was Global Racing Service’s Suleiman Zanfari, who won the Swedish Karting Championship last year, who started from pole and led most of the race while the series’ usual frontrunners battled behind him.

Boya, the debuting Thomas ten Brinke and Haverkort started second, third and fourth, and Haverkort passed ten Brinke in the opening laps to hound Boya and ensure the Spaniard didn’t move ahead of him at the top of the championship standings.

At the same time Boya was all over the back of Zanfari, but on lap six it all went wrong as Boya and Haverkort crashed into each other and had to head to the pits for repairs. They reappeared on track, but over a minute behind Zanfari.

Ten Brinke picked up the job of challenging Zanfari for the rest of the lead, and was just over a tenth behind as they entered the final lap. Once again the reigning World Junior Karting champion was denied a win, just a day after making his single-seater debut, as his attempt at taking first place didn’t go to plan and Eriksen swept through to claim victory.

Oliver Goethe ended up being the top MP driver in second place, with Moroccan talent Zanfari rounding out the podium. Joshua Dufek pipped his MP team-mate ten Brinke to fourth place too, although ten Brinke has already risen to eighth in the points despite missing the season’s opening two rounds.

GRS’s Lorenzo Fluxa was sixth, ahead of Enzo Joullie (MP) and Quique Bordas (Praga F4). Haverkort and Boya were a very distant 18th and 19th, with Haverkort maintaining his one-point lead over Boya and now Goethe in the title battle.

Race results (12 laps) 

The post Valdemar Eriksen wins at Jerez in Spanish F4, title contenders hit drama appeared first on Formula Scout.

Photo: Spanish F4

Mari Boya held off debuting team-mate Thomas ten Brinke to win the opening race of the weekend at Jerez in Spanish Formula 4.

The Spaniard had to hold off Dutch driver ten Brinke, the 2019 world junior karting champion, who was contesting his first ever car race and looked immediately quick. Boya ended up denying ten Brinke a debut success by 0.385 seconds.

The result moves Boya up to second in the drivers championship ahead of Oliver Goethe, who ended the race in eighth place. Just one point separates him and championship leader Kas Haverkort, who retired from the race.

Swiss driver Joshua Dufek completed a podium lockout for MP Motorsport, while Drivex School’s Ivan Nosov fended off Global Racing Service’s Lorenzo Fluxa and Praga F4’s Quique Bordas at the line to take fourth, with just 0.285s separating the three drivers.

French driver Enzo Joullie came home in seventh ahead of Goethe, after starting the weekend with a strong performance in wet qualifying to take pole, while GRS duo Alex Garcia and Suleiman Zanfari rounded out the points.

Race results (15 laps) 

The post Boya wins Spanish F4 opener at Jerez, ten Brinke second on debut appeared first on Formula Scout.

Photo: FIA Karting/KSP

Thomas ten Brinke, the reigning world junior karting champion, will make his single-seater debut with MP Motorsport in the Spanish Formula 4 round at Jerez this weekend.

Ten Brinke, who turned 15 in February, began this year the OK senior category of karting with Ricky Flynn Motorsport, finishing sixth in round two of the FIA Karting European Championship at Sarno in Italy but skipping last weekend’s final round at Wackersdorf, where Mercedes junior driver Andrea Kimi Antonelli claimed the title.

As well as his dominant world championship win from pole position in Finland one year ago, ten Brinke was third in the European OK Junior championship and second in the WSK Euro Series, also with the RFM team.

He is coached by former Formula 1 driver turned World Endurance Championship racer Giedo van der Garde – himself a world karting champion.

Ten Brinke’s father Bernhard was a team-mate of Fernando Alonso in the Toyota Dakar Rally team at the beginning of 2020, and has also competed in circuit racing,

MP Motorsport’s Spanish F4 effort increases to seven cars for Jerez with the addition of ten Brinke as well as the Argentine driver Ignacio Montenegro.

Montenegro has karted across North and South America and Europe, placing 18th in last year’s IAME International Final at Le Mans in the X30 Pro class.

MP drivers fill the top three positions in the standings after the opening two rounds, with Kas Haverkort heading Oliver Goethe and Mari Boya.

The post World junior kart champion Thomas ten Brinke debuts in Spanish F4 appeared first on Formula Scout.

The CIK-FIA World and European championships are the main focus of the karting world, and champions are invited to the same prize giving gala as the winners of Formula 1, Formula 2 and Formula E. That’s not to say that’s the only location of talent in the karting world though, with the WSK-organised events focused in Italy always providing a hotbed for top drivers, and several national championships are rivalling the continental series for talent, if not drama.

Lorenzo Travisanutto ITALY 20y/o
CIK-FIA World & European champion – OK, WSK Euro Series champion – OK, South Garda Winter Cup winner – OK

Photo: KSP Reportages

It may have been the fourth season in the OK class for Travisanutto, but he followed his Nico Rosberg-backed domination of 2018 with an even more convincing monopoly of trophies this year with the support of crack sportscar team HTP Motorsport.

Leaving Rosberg also meant departing the factory Kart Republic setup, although Travisanutto teamed up with CV Performance Group to continue racing its karts for 2019.

Travisanutto packed in practically every race in the category he could, starting with WSK’s Super Master Series. He won the first final at Adria from seventh on the grid, and was pipped to a second success by Dexter Patterson at Lonato, who was taking revenge after Travisanutto beat him in the South Garda Winter Cup. Sixth place finishes in the remaining two Super Master Series finals, after less than spectacular heat results, dropped him to third in the standings.

He matched that result in the lengthier German championship, losing the title there by prioritising the clashing CIK-FIA European season finale, where added a second continental crown to the WSK Euro Series one he secured the month before.

His biggest success was the CIK-FIA World Championship, won for the second time in a row. It was the ninth time karting’s biggest trophy has had a multiple-time winner, but it didn’t come easy. Juho Valtanen started from pole, and sprinted away in the first half of the final. Travisanutto tracked him down and muscled his way past, but was under pressure until the final few laps.

The end of the year brought another change of team for Travisanutto as he linked up with the famous Tony Kart brand, rounding out a podium lock-out with Pedro Hiltbrand and Joe Turney at the WSK Final Cup.

Marijn Kremers NETHERLANDS 21y/o
CIK-FIA World champion – KZ, 2nd in USA SuperNationals – KZ, 3rd in WSK Euro Series – KZ2

Photo: KSP Reportages

A successful but under the radar career in shifter karts blew up for Kremers in 2019, and ended with a graduation to British Formula 4 with Carlin in the Feed shootout organised by 1997 F1 world champion Jacques Villeneuve.

The bedrock of his success was continuing a long relationship with Birel ART, which had a management restructuring pre-season and ran Kremer in junior categories as well as his three seasons in the top-level KZ karts. He warmed up for the big competitions by returning to KZ2s in the South Garda Winter Cup and WSK Super Master Series, both which he finished fourth in, and the WSK Euro Series, where he was third.

While he only managed eighth in the CIK-FIA European championship, he was in a grid packed with drivers who were either far older or even more experienced than he was, as shifter karts often attract ‘career’ karters. Birel team-mate Alex Irlando, who finished sixth, was the only other driver of similar experience fighting in the top 10 as frequently as Kremers was.

The single-event world championship was where Kremers moved into the spotlight. He was rapid in qualifying at Lonato, then took a second place and two wins in his heats. This put him on pole for the final, and he fended off an early challenge from Adrien Renaudin to comfortably lead the first quarter of 25-lap race.

Renaudin then got through, and opted for a defensive approach to keeping the lead. Kremers reclaimed the place with a late dive at the chicane, then used a gear change to cut across Renaudin to prevent him from coming back at him. Thereon he was untroubled, taking Birel’s first shifter world title since 2000 and a rare global triumph for a driver early in his career.

Thomas ten Brinke NETHERLANDS 14y/o
CIK-FIA World champion – OKJ, 2nd in WSK Euro Series – OKJ, 3rd in CIK-FIA European championship – OKJ

Photo: Gregory Lenormand / DPPI

In a feature on top karting team Ricky Flynn Motorsport earlier this year, Formula Scout pointed out ten Brinke as the star of the team’s potent six-strong line-up in the OK Junior class. The Dutch teenager, whose father Bernhard is one of Fernando Alonso’s Dakar Rally team-mates, won last year’s German Junior title and followed it with heat wins and third overall in the WSK Champions Cup.

Otherwise, his 2019 didn’t start in style. He was fifth fastest qualifier for the South Garda Winter Cup, and took three heat podiums to earn semi-final pole. Victory put him on the final front row, but an on-track dispute led to a spin and his kart being mounted.

Runner-up spot in the WSK Super Master Series standings was lost to an incident that prevented him making the final of the final round, but he was a convincing second place in the WSK Euro Series – nobody was going to beat Andrea Kimi Antonelli.

On the biggest stage of all, the CIK-FIA World Championship at Alaharma, it was ten Brinke who was the class of the field. He was put in the same qualifying group as Antonelli and beat him, then won five of his six heats. Second place in his fifth heat behind Nikita Bedrin was the lowest he ever placed, as he dominated the final from pole.

The events at Alahrama followed a dismal end to his CIK-FIA European campaign. Despite retiring from one of his heats, he was in second after round one of four, and moved into the lead in round two with some podium finishes. Qualifying wasn’t kind to ten Brinke, and charging performances in the penultimate round wasn’t enough to keep the lead. He pulled the short straw again in the Le Mans title decider, going ninth fastest and 63rd overall in qualifying. The top driver from his session was 39th.

From 21st on the grid, he breached the top 10 once with a podium, but was eighth in his final heat before overtaking under yellow flags got him penalised. It was his second offence, meaning he missed the final and ensured he wouldn’t win the title.

Emilien Denner FRANCE 17y/o
FIA Int. Super Cup winner – KZ2, Trofeo Andrea Margutti winner – KZ2, 2nd in CIK-FIA European Championship – KZ2

Photo: KSP Reportages

There is feverish expectation over what 17-year-old Denner could do on his car racing debut in the Toyota Racing Series next January, after just three seasons of competitive karting.

His 2017 ended with 13th in the WSK Final Cup’s KZ2 classification. One year later he was runner-up, after taking third in the CIK-FIA European Championship, where he was disqualified from the first round final but dominated the second.

It was clear something big was on the horizon going into 2019 as he remained in the category, although the winter events didn’t suggest too much, as the CPB Sport driver finished 11th in the South Garda Winter Cup and 12th in WSK Super Master Series.

Eight place in the WSK Euro Series against very experienced opposition was encouraging, and started a strong run of form. Denner was the benchmark man in April’s Trofeo Andrea Margutti, and took four podiums and an impressive fourth in the standings in the 10-race German shifter championship on a Sodi kart rarely used by top teams.

The quality of opposition was a little lower for the FIA International Super Cup, but that just gave Denner the excuse to wipe the floor. He topped the 120-strong qualifying classification, swept all six of his heats and dominated the final.

A CIK-FIA European title would’ve also been his were it not for one incident. In the final at Wackersdorf, a forceful move on Senna van Walstijn led to Denner receiving a 10-second penalty and meant his front fairing was out of place. Another penalty was due, and while he did win the final at Sarno, the points lost at Wackersdorf was the exact amount needed for the title.

Denner joined the KZ runners for the USA’s end-of-year SuperNationals, and finished fourth in the final with fastest lap.

Kajus Siksnelis LITHUANIA 14y/o
FIA Karting Academy Trophy winner, 3rd in CIK-FIA World Championship – OKJ, 10th in CIK-FIA European Championship – OKJ

Photo: KSP Reportages

FIA Formula Two race-winner Kazim Vasiliauskas stands out as Lithuania’s greatest F1 prospect so far, but the young Siksnelis may be changing that statement in the future as he makes quick progress up the karting ladder.

The reigning Lithuanian national champion was supported through 2019 by Simas Juodvirsis, the winner of the 2012 CIK-FIA European Championship in KZ2 karts. Siksnelis was racing primarily in the OK Junior category for Swedish team Ward Racing, and it took a while for his confidence to build on the international stage.

Siksnelis made it to 10th in the final of the first European round at Angerville, proof of his learning curve as his best heat result was sixth. At Genk he had a lowkey final from a low starting spot; a heat one retirement neutralising a win and last-lap defeat in two other heats. Third in the Kristianstad final came before a disastrous Le Mans finale, where he was 14th in his best heat.

The total failure in France proved a blessing for Siksnelis, who had the CIK-FIA World Championship and FIA Karting Academy Trophy finale up next. Big results were up for grabs in both, and there was Lithuanian interest because of it.

He was sixth fastest in his world championship qualifying session, which was where he finished his heats when the track was dry. Wet weather at Alaharma threw a curveball in that Siksnelis struggled with, and he started 16th for the final. Within a lap he’d made it to 10th, and picked off drivers lap-by-lap to reach fourth. Keeping a cool head earned him third on the final tour.

That confidence boost helped Siksnelis win the Academy Trophy. Penalties and changing weather at Wackersdorf put him on the back foot, but he upped his game at Sarno, and second place in the Lonato finale took him from fifth to first in the standings. He ended the year with 14th in the FIA Motorsport Games Karting Slalom, and will move up to OK karts in 2020.

Christian Ho SINGAPORE 13y/o
2nd in FIA Karting Academy Trophy, 2nd in German Junior championship, 11th in CIK-FIA World Championship – OKJ

Ho was one of the youngest in OK Junior karts this year, and he got a great 13th birthday present in October by becoming a Sauber junior. He’d already set some age-related records in the year, as well as setting landmark results for Asian karters.

At the end of 2018, Ho made his OKJ debut and found it physically tough, but his pace was clear to see and he was snapped up by RFM for the end of the season – immediately being thrown into the deep end in cold and wet conditions (which Ho admits to always struggling in) and having to borrow some of Zane Maloney’s old kit.

The results were promising, but it did look like the physicality of the more powerful karts was counting against Ho as 2019 began. When he returned to the wet for WSK Super Masters Series he looked far more comfortable, performing well in his heat but repeated mistakes or lack of pace in qualifying meant he was never able to feature at the front if he made it to the finals.

When qualifying did improve, Ho was nervous from starting at the front, and there were many mistakes early on. More track experience – and warmer temperatures – helped Ho, and he came into his own in the German Junior championship. He was on the podium in every final race, three of which he won, and was second in the points despite missing a fifth of the season.

The pressure was low there, but when high it seemed to get to Ho in the CIK-FIA European Championship. In the FIA Academy Trophy it didn’t, and after a topsy-turvy first weekend he went on a winning run to become runner-up. His world championship weekend also had errors, but Ho was one of the fastest in changing conditions and 11th place was a good result.

Ho joined Sauber days before the WSK Open Cup but instantly gelled with his new team, setting pole and racing to fifth in the final. Tyre struggles meant he didn’t match that result in round two, but gathered more valuable experience ahead of 2020.

Mathilda Olsson SWEDEN 18y/o
Rotax Max Euro Trophy champion – Senior, 9th in Rotax Max International Trophy – Senior, 13th in IAME Euro Series – X30 Senior

Few international karting events are won as convincingly as Mathilda Olsson’s Rotax Euro Trophy crown this year, in the spec-engined rival category to OK, and while it wasn’t a result she repeated in higher calibre events, it was undeniably impressive.

Olsson finished third in the 2018 Euro Trophy for Strawberry Racing, and knew where she needed to improve to be champion. She began her season in the Rotax Euro Open at Genk, where she was consistently on the pace but heat results of third and 12th left her ninth on the grid for the first final. She charged through to second in that, then repeated the result in race two.

The season began proper at Adria, where she was fastest in pre-event testing, free practice and qualifying. The split-session format meant she didn’t start from pole, but she won her heats anyway then dominated the two points-paying final races.

Kristianstad was much of the same, but against some additional adversity. A shocker of a qualifying session on home soil left her 21st fastest, but she charged through to sixth in both of her heats. That made her job in the finals a little easier, and she flew past the field to win the first race. The second was a challenge from the front, as she had Axel Saarniala literally rubbing her wheels throughout. At the very final corner he found a way through, denying Olsson a perfect score by 0.173 seconds.

The Wackersdorf season finale also began with qualifying trouble; she set half the number of laps as her rivals and qualified 14th. Admittedly she was only one second off pole and had already won the title, but it was a frustration all the same. Olsson was up to second two-thirds into heat one and missed out on victory by 0.117s, ending up sixth on the grid for the final.

Rhys Hunter pushed the limits of defending to try to deny Olsson victory but failed. It was the reverse in race two, with Olsson’s defensive work falling just short. Title success brought her a Rotax Grand Finals ticket, in which she classified 22nd.

Dexter Patterson BRITAIN 16y/o
WSK Super Master Series winner – OK, 3rd in CIK-FIA European Championship – OK, 6th in CIK-FIA World Championship – OK

Photo: KSP Reportages

The last Scot to race for Sauber was a descendant of Robert the Bruce, and Patterson has been using the same fighting spirit to star on karting’s world stage in his second year at the OK level, even if his results haven’t told the full story.

On paper, Patterson’s season peaked at its beginning with the WSK Super Masters Series title. He was comfortably best in the wet at Adria, outwitted Travisanutto to win at Lonato, shook off an awful first lap to finish second at La Conca, and won everything at Sarno.

His rivalry with Travisanutto went in the latter’s favour in the South Garda Winter Cup and the WSK Euro Series, which was generally a messy time on-track for Patterson (especially in heat races) but still resulted in third in the standings.

It was the CIK-FIA competitions that Sauber wanted Patterson to focus on, and when the time came he did just that. He was unlucky not be on pole for the first European round at Angerville, but still led every single lap of four of his five heats and was unchallenged in the final. The heat where he fumbled just happened to be the one where he was up against Travisanutto. Sauber – and the Kart Republic team it emblazons – praised Patterson’s performance on the demanding French circuit.

Travisanutto thrashed everyone at Genk, and a new-tyre run by Patterson netted him a distant second place. Two brilliant heat wins were compounded by the type of clashes that yardstick driver Travisanutto was avoiding, and while he left Kristianstad in the lead thanks to fourth in the final, it was a case of ‘what if’ having fallen from pole to seventh on lap after bumping his rival.

By the time of the Le Mans finale he had conceded his lead, and then the title after a failed move on Kobe Pauwels put him out on the spot. The world championship six weeks later didn’t serve justice, as Patterson struggled in qualifying then opted for caution as he rose through to finish sixth. There were few trophies, but Patterson raced hard against the very best.

Andrea Kimi Antonelli ITALY 13y/o
WSK Super Master Series, Euro Series, Italian, Final Cup & Open Cup winner – OKJ, 2nd in USA SuperNationals – KA100 Jr

Photo: KSP Reportages

Mercedes F1 and Rosberg protege Antonelli sometimes looked unstoppable in the OK Junior arena this year, and kicked off 2019 with three major trophies in a row: the South Garda Winter Cup, and WSK’s Super Master Series and Euro Series.

To warm up for those events he entered the WSK Champions Cup, where he was favourite to win but got shuffled to fourth.

The WSK Super Master Series title came despite failing to make the final in the Sarno title decider when he clashed dramatically with rival Thomas ten Brinke, and an underwhelming start to the Euro Series somehow ended up in him also winning the Italian title.

This was all, for reminder, completed as a rookie to the class as 13-year-old Antonelli was a star of Mini karts last year.

Most drivers concentrate on the big CIK-FIA titles, and this was where Antonelli’s more experienced rivals made their mark over the diminutive Italian. Marcus Amand was the surprise driver who beat Antonelli to the European title, with the latter’s early no-scores counting against him despite a late podium run.

The world championship was arguably a stronger performance from Antonelli, despite finishing several places lower in fifth, as he put together a more complete weekend under higher pressure. He won three of his heats after qualifying fifth out of 100 cars, just 0.165s off what would have been a headline-grabbing pole position, and raced confidently throughout.

He ended his year with more WSK competitions, winning the Final and Open Cup, and was pipped at the finish line to success in America in the USA SuperNationals’ KA100 Junior category.

Gabriele Mini ITALY 14y/o
2nd in CIK-FIA European Championship – OK, 2nd in WSK Champions Cup – OK, 4th in WSK Euro Series – OK

Photo: KSP Reportages

Nicolas Todt’s latest protege didn’t have the headline results he enjoyed in 2018, but it was still a stellar rookie season.

Mini stepped up to OK karts with the Parolin Racing Kart team, and immediately made an impact by finishing second in the WSK Champions Cup. At first it wasn’t clear what that impact was, as Mini was slowest of all in qualifying.

He turned that into eighth place in his first ever race, and followed that up with a fourth. The inexperience was still clear to see, with Mini ending the first lap of the next race 19 places down and having to recover his way up to 15th. His progress in the pre-final took him to fifth, and he beat some big names to take second in the Cup itself.

The first wins came in the heats of the South Garda Winter Cup, and Mini’s name was already being considered for title contention in the competitions he entered afterwards. He was behind four highly-rated returning drivers in WSK Super Master Series, roughly the maximum he would have been expected to achieve. In WSK’s Euro Series he went one better, but yielded a slow start before dominating the Adria season finale, something rookies rarely manage.

Momentum was starting to build as Mini got more comfortable with OK karts, consistently being among the small group of names winning races. He wasn’t quite a title threat in the CIK-FIA European Championship, mostly because he didn’t collect points from the heats, but was still second in the standings thanks to coming strong in the finals.

He was bang on the pace in the important part of the competition in the world championship too, and he really could have been a victory contender if he managed to bed himself into weekends quicker and ensure better starting spots.

With his 15th birthday looming next March, Mini has already topped a Formula 4 test with Prema and has been assessed by the Ferrari Driver Academy.

10 more to watch…

Harry Thompson was being groomed by Red Bull for a junior single-seater future until last month, when the Briton unexpectedly left the F1 team’s ranks to join up with Kart Republic for a season in KZ karts next year. The 15-year-old was third in this year’s OK world championship with RFM, and won the German title for the second year in a row.

Another with significant patronage is Kirill Smal, who is SMP Racing’s latest wonderkid. He finished just behind Thompson in the world championship this year as an OK rookie, a highlight of an otherwise under-the-radar season with Ward.

The driver who sat between them and the dominant Travisanutto on the biggest stage was Nico Rosberg’s protege Taylor Barnard. His results were more consistently impressive, winning the WSK Champions and Open Cups, finishing second in the Super Master Series and fourth in the CIK-FIA European Championship. He also starred on X30 Senior karts in his free time.

Swede Dino Beganovic was another making swift progress in OK karts. He won his national title and was sixth in CIK-FIA European in his rookie season, as well as finishing runner-up in the equivalent WSK-organised series. His Travisanutto-rivalling pace in the latter won him the Italian title and, like Mini, he’s been testing F4 cars with Prema and the Ferrari Driver Academy.

British teenager Guy Cunnington stepped up to Rotax Max Senior karts this year, the cheaper equivalent of OK, and starred at home and abroad. He won his home title, and came from ninth on the grid to briefly win the prestigious Grand Final at Sarno by 0.003s in one of the most dramatic finishes to a karting event in history.

Cunnington had overtaken Saarniala for the lead on the final lap, but the Finn came back at him at the last corner, deliberately going wide to carry more speed. The pair crossed the finish line side-by-side, with the timing beam declaring Cunnington winner. There was no photographic evidence to tally up with the timing though, and so the result was decided on the drivers’ fastest laps instead. The win was handed to Saarniala.

Emil Skaras applied his KZ2 experience better than ever this year, winning the CIK-FIA European title, coming home as runner-up in the Swedish championship, and finishing behind Denner and Campos Racing recruit David Vidales in the International Super Cup. He also cameoed in F4 South East Asia, where he took a pole and a win.

French-Finnish driver Marcus Amand – another with an esteemed F1 manager in Didier Coton – beat Antonelli to the CIK-FIA European title in OKJ kart. He was inconsistent elsewhere and sixth place in WSK Super Masters Series was his next best result.

A heavy schedule led to success for Emirati Jamie Day, who won the French Cup title against a full international field and was a frontrunner in every continental competition in Europe. He was sixth in both of the key CIK-FIA contests, and his partnership with Lennox Racing Team has led to a tie-up with Charles Leclerc’s new karting brand for 2020.

Day’s countryman Rashid Al Dhaheri, 11, was the star of Mini karts this year against the likes of Mercedes-backed Jamaican Alex Powell, convincingly winning the WSK Super Master Series and Euro Series titles for Parolin, and the Macau International Kart Grand Prix.

Similarly consistent in fighting with the best in OKJ contests was another SMP junior, Nikita Bedrin. The Tony Kart driver’s second season included second place in the WSK Final Cup, third in the WSK Euro Series and fifth in the CIK-FIA European Championship.

The post The top karting stars of 2019 appeared first on Formula Scout.

Ahead of making his Formula 1 race debut this year, Lando Norris tested some of the machinery that he raced the last time he entered – and won – a world championship.

Like F1, it required a lot of driver skill, and was physically and mentally tiring after more than a handful of laps. After his first day of testing, he was found fast asleep in a hotel reception: absolutely shattered by the effort he had put in.

What Norris was driving was not a high-powered single-seater, but a 125cc KZ go-kart.

One of the most successful teams in modern karting is Ricky Flynn Motorsport, and the British squad is best known for winning the 2014 CIK-FIA KF Karting World Championship with future F1 star Norris.

It’s won two further senior international titles, as well as 16 in the junior ranks. On a national level, the titles continue to add up. And if you’re aged 11 or above, you could add to those titles in the future.

“We’re basically the first step on the ladder for the youngsters in their racing career,” says team principal Ricky Flynn.

“We’re trying to hone them, teach them, educate them on all the aspects of racing. Data acquisition, racing lines, racing etiquette, and obviously trying to win races with them – in preparation for them moving onwards and upwards to their ultimate goal: F1.”

Flynn himself traded that path, beginning in 1983 as a karter, then progressing to Formula Renault UK, at which points the costs became too much and he fully committed himself to running karters, a profession he had already begun.

Photo: Mobil 1 The Grid

Photo: Mobil 1 The Grid

Ricky Flynn Motorsport (RFM) began in 1994, and was already running a international operation by the early 2000s.

“Once you’ve been racing and you’ve got that in your blood, it’s difficult to get rid of it. I stopped racing and didn’t really want to give up being around racing, so continued in a different vein but still with that competition in mind. The will to want to win, to be the best at what you’re doing, and try to achieve the world titles and all the other titles that go with it.

“It started out quite small in 1994 [in the British championship], and has progressed to this stage; which is that we take on every team which we can, wherever we are around Europe or around the world.

“As you can see from the results on track, we’ve got some outstanding drivers that are coming through. Some are in their first year with us, some in their second year, some are in their third year in Seniors. We’ve got some extreme bright talents in here that I’m sure will be making a good career in motorsport later on after they leave us.”

While RFM doesn’t provide media and fitness training – it directs all of its drivers towards individuals who can – there is still a huge focus on preparing drivers for their next career step as much as optimising what they currently race in. The one driver who “springs to mind” to Flynn in reaping the rewards of that approach is McLaren F1 driver Norris.

The 19-year-old tested with the team at Italy’s South Garda circuit this February to prepare for the Australian Grand Prix, driving one of the kart’s built by McLaren stablemate Fernando Alonso’s business, and had quite the experience.

Photo: ADD Management

Photo: ADD Management

“It was quite nice to have him back under our roof for a couple of days testing, with no pressure, no racing,” says Flynn. “Just sharpening him up in readiness for his 2019 season.

“I think if you speak to the drivers, and you listen to old F1 drivers too, they never experience the grit and everything else that karting gives you, until they get to F1.

“It’s such a physical lap, such a busy lap, that it really sharpens the mind, sharpens the reflexes, sharpens everything. The lap is obviously quite a short in comparison to F1 too. It’s really great preparation, because there’s no rest out there for them. If they’re doing a 20-lap stint, it’s basically 18 minutes of extreme hard work for them.”

“It’s going alright, I’m a bit tired already,” Norris said on his YouTube vlog after his first few laps back in the kart, and the first time he’d worked with the team since his 2014 world championship success.

Karts still use shifter gearboxes, which can take time to adapt back to from the semi-automatic paddle shift and hand-operated clutch systems of top-line single-seaters. To engage gear, karters have to lift off the throttle, but without losing momentum or position in races that usually include more than 30 entries.

With such short laps, and the high frequency of gear changes within each lap, it’s no surprise that it’s the physical side that caught out Norris first.

Photo: ADD Management

“The easy part is the gear changing. All you have to do is lift, and then you can change. I’ve never said it before in my life, but I’ve got too much grip. It’s too good.

“As soon as I start turning, I start bouncing. My ribs hurt, and my back hurts, and my neck hurts, my legs and basically everything. I have many bruises on my body right now. But it’s all part of it, so lets go again.”

Flynn picks up on the story at the end of Norris’s first day back in a kart.

“When we got back to the hotel, he was actually asleep in the reception, within 20 minutes of getting back there. That tells you that he worked hard that day.

“They all looked – we didn’t just have Lando there, we had other [ADD Management] drivers as well that are in lower formulas – to prepare them, and they all looked like they’d been a few rounds in a boxing ring, shall we say, when they left here on the first evening.”

RFM now only races in the OK and OK-Junior kart classes, at a world and national level, and its 2019 line-up is highly rated.

Red Bull junior Harry Thompson and Kai Askey drive its OK karts, while Thomas Ten Brinke heads a six-kart entry in OKJ. The Dutchman currently leads the CIK-FIA European Championship, and was third in the WSK Champions Cup. Another of RFM’s younger stars to look out for is 12-year-old American Ugo Ugochukwu, another European title contender.

Photo: Mobil 1 The Grid

Photo: Mobil 1 The Grid

Behind the drivers is a large workforce that means RFM (and its karting opponents) rival many car racing teams on personnel numbers, technical complexity, and costs.

“Everybody’s key [in the team]. We’ve got engine guys, who are a Danish company based with us in Italy. We’ve got all the mechanics on all the karts; without them nothing ticks. Then we’ve got race engineers going through the data with the drivers after every session.

“Every driver has two karts. Generally the kart they’re racing, then the other kart can be turned into a wet chassis if it’s raining, or just as a spare chassis in case they crash and destroy one. We’re changing them regularly as the year goes on, and if you look inside our truck we have every spare part you can think of.

“I don’t know how many tens of thousands of parts we have in there, but it’s so we can be on the road [without issue]. We’re on the road for sort of three months at a time, without having to go back to base. And we have stuff shipped in.

“Back at base we have people organising to get this sort of circus to all the events – with the flights, the hotels and all the logistics. Which is again a massive, massive part of it. There’s probably, for this [WSK Champions Cup] event, in region of 27 to 30 people to make this event work as it does, as smoothly as we try and make it work.”

Photo: Mobil 1 The Grid

Photo: Mobil 1 The Grid

Karting doesn’t have the mainstream appeal it had in the 1980s, when the likes of Martin Hines became TV stars racing in superkart grand prixs, and the prices are continuously going up despite the limited technical potential karts have compared to even the most basic of cars.

Most of this investment takes place on engine-building, an area that is hugely political, and the wealthiest karters will push money into having more spare engines and tyres. Moving an increased amount of equipment around, with a ever-busier testing calendar, means costs go up even further.

“It’s very difficult, and the costs are escalating year on year,” confirms Flynn.

“[Budget disparity], that’s another part. Where there’s the driver without a budget – we’re always looking to help and achieve that with them’ make sure they can fulfil the potential they deserve and that the money isn’t holding them back in any way.”

Some of karting’s largest events – including the CIK-FIA world championships – are actually one-off events, and most karters will tackle national or continental campaigns on top of that. The WSK Champions Cup is usually the curtain-raiser of the karting calendar.

“Going back many years, it was always the first race of the year. It’s changed a little bit in the last couple of years, there’s a race just before this one now. But it was always the first race of the year,” Flynn explains.

Photo: FIA

“It’s a one-off race, so lots of people can come, put a toe in the water and see where they’re at, from wherever in the world. Just put themselves against the best in the world to see whether they’re good enough to continue in the European and world level for the year, or ‘hold up, we need to have another year back in our home country doing a domestic championship to improve before we come and try to tackle these big boys on the big stage’.

“Be ready for that, rather than just wasting their time, money, effort and everything else. It’s always been a very, very big race, and as you can see the amount of entries now, it’s not changed.”

Taylor Barnard beat Gabriele Mini – proteges of Nico Rosberg and Nicolas Todt respectively – to win the OK classification of the Champions Cup, and there are several other karting names being touted as the future faces of F1.

According to Flynn, at least one of the names racing in Italy that weekend would “hopefully in two to five years going to be the next Lando Norris”.

This article was adapted from a Mobil 1 The Grid video feature. You can watch the original video below.

Further reading
The top karting stars of 2018
Sauber expands junior team into karting with Kart Republic
Powell joins Antonelli as Mercedes F1-supported karter
10 karting stars to watch [2012]
10 more karting stars to watch [2014]

The post The team that taught Lando Norris to be world champion appeared first on Formula Scout.