Photo: Dutch Photo Agency

The Nicolas Todt-led All Road Management firm had announced some changed to the line-up of junior single-seater drivers it supports.

Noel Leon departed its ranks last week after 16 months as a member of its driver stable. In that time the 20-year-old Mexican, who was aleady a champion at the Formula 3 level in Euroformula, has done two FIA F3 Championship campaigns.

With Van Amersfoort Racing he came 10th in the points with four podiums, and took two feature race podiums en route to 17th in the standings this year with Prema. He also came third in the 2024 Macau Grand Prix in a Formula Regional cameo.

At the start of this month, 18-year-old Hiyu Yamakoshi joined All Road for support in his FRegional European Championship programme with VAR. He is currently eighth in the standings with two rounds to go, taking two podiums early in the season but only scoring once in the last seven races.

The Japanese racer is also competing part-time in GB3, where two fourth places are his best results, and came 16th in FRegional Middle East as a part-timer at the start of 2025. Last year he was third in Italian Formula 4 and fourth in the sister E4 championship.

Yesterday another new member arrived, as Kasper Schormans was named as the winner of the Richard Mille Young Talent Academy shootout which All Road organises. Part of the prize is a paid-for 2026 Spanish F4 seat with MP Motorsport.

Dutch driver Schormans, 16, was the oldest of the six finalists who spent a day at Italian driver training firm Formula Medicine’s facilities for “fitness, mental and physical assessments”, then on September 21/22 tested F4 cars at Jerez.

He was Rotax Winter Cup, BNL Series and BNL Kick-Off winner and Rotax Max Challenge International Trophy runner-up on Rotax Junior karts, and has since come fourth in the CIK-FIA European championship and fifth in the WSK Final Cup for KZ2 shifter karts.

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Photo: Dutch Photo Agency

The finalists for this year’s FEED Racing France and Richard Mille Young Talent Academy shootouts have been named.

Launched in 2019, FEED Racing France is a scheme and racing school founded and fronted by 1997 Formula 1 world champion Jacques Villeneuve and former CART driver Patrick Lemarie that has used its shootout to provide a scholarship for drivers to race in French Formula 4.

That element has not been mentioned through the promotion of this year’s contest, but FEED’s website still lists a “competition to win a season in F4” as part of its business.

The 2025 Volant F4 was a multi-stage process starting with a five-day pay-to-drive course in F4 cars, which attracted 57 drivers.

There was then to be a quarter-final day and a 16-driver semi-final day, both split into four sessions and being pay-to-drive, then a 10-session final for six drivers on September 22-25.

There were 24 drivers who automatically qualified for the quarter-finals, and nine named as wildcards to form a list of 33 to fill the next stage’s 32 slots. They were split into two groups of 16, each contesting a whole day earlier this month.

Six drivers from each quarter-final day at Magny-Cours qualified for the semi-finals there (meaning 12 participants), then half of those progressed to the final.

That list consists of 18-year-old Israeli Yuvan Rosen, 16-year-old Swiss karter Mathys Sarua-Pictet, former stock car racer Troy Adams’ 14-year-old son Truly, and the French trio of Clement Outran (16), Mattheo Dauvergne (14) and Sacha Bouder (17). Outran came fifth in the 2024 IAME Euro and Benelux series on X30 Senior karts.

The RMYTA shootout organised by the Nicolas Todt-led All Road Management firm hands a paid-for 2026 Spanish F4 seat with MP Motorsport to its winner and is open to karters no older than 17.

It had 65 applicants, and six were chosen for the final. The first stage of that is a day spent at Italian driver training firm Formula Medicine’s facilities for “fitness, mental and physical assessments”, then on September 21/22 there is on-track testing at Jerez.

The oldest finalist is 16-year-old Kasper Schormans. The Dutch racer was Rotax Winter Cup, BNL Series and BNL Kick-Off winner and Rotax Max Challenge International Trophy runner-up on Rotax Junior karts, and has since come fourth in the CIK-FIA European championship and fifth in the WSK Final Cup for KZ2 shifter karts.

There are also 15-year-olds Elliot Kaczynski, Iacopo Martinese and Noah Wolfe, and 14-year-olds Borys Lyzen and Aston Sharp.

Martinese was third in the 2024 European championship for OK Junior karts and this year has come fifth in WSK’s Super Master Series at home in Italy and sixth in Champions of the Future in the OK class. Englishman Wolfe was 10th in the latter and 12th in the European championship.

Kaczynski, from Sweden, was runner-up in the South Garda Winter Cup when in junior karting.

Scotland’s Sharp has already done F4 testing, and was 14th in 2024’s CIK-FIA World championship for OK-J karts.

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Photo: Dutch Photo Agency

The finalists have been named for the seventh running of the Richard Mille Young Talent Academy shootout, which awards a paid-for seat in Spanish Formula 4 as its prize.

Six drivers have been chosen to contest the shootout, and they are regular karting rivals. There are the French trio of Andy Consani, Andrea Dupe and Louis Iglesias, Scotland’s Zac Drummond, Belgium’s Ean Eyckmans and Italian talent Sebastiano Pavan.

Iglesias was a finalist in 2023, and came eighth in the CIK-FIA World championship for OK karts that year. Eyckmans and Dupe were 15th and 23rd respectively in that race.

Eyckmans was 11th in the European championship, and in the Champions of the Future series Pavan, Inglesias and Eyckmans came 10th, 14th and 19th.

Consani and Drummond were primarily racing OK Junior karts in 2023, with Consani finishing ninth in the World championship and 16th in the European championship, which Drummond was seventh in.

The first event of 2024 on the finalists’ OK kart schedule was the WSK Champions Cup and Eyckmans and Drummond finished sixth and seventh. Eyckmans was then champion of WSK’s Super Master Series, with Pavan third.

In the European championship, Iglesias was fourth in the standings, Pavan and Drummond were 14th and 15th, while the others were outside of the top 20.

The CotF and WSK Euro Series are still ongoing, with Drummond currently fifth in the former while the other finalists all outside the top 20, and in the latter Consani and Drummond are currently second and third, with Eyckmans and Dupe in eighth and 11th.

To be eligible for consideration for the shootout, drivers had to be born between January 1 2007 and April 1 2010, not be a member of any driver management group and have a minimum experience level of having raced in international competitions in senior karting.

While previously one shootout spot was reserved for a driver from Birel ART’s factory karting team (or a satellite squad), for 2024 three spots were reserved for drivers from the team and Lennox Racing, the factory operation for the Charles Leclerc line of karts Birel ART manufactures.

There will be two parts to the two-day shootout in early October. Italian driver training firm Formula Medicine will conduct physical and psychological tests (split into ‘athletic’ and ‘mental’ sessions’) on the finalists, who will then drive F4 cars run by MP Motorsport at Jerez. The winner will race for MP in Spanish F4.

All Road Management organises the shootout, and is run by Nicolas Todt. He is also Birel ART’s assistant director.

The Ferrari Driver Academy is running its Asia Pacific and Oceania Selection Programme at Sepang on September 15-18 with 13 drivers, who are contending for a place in the FDA Scouting World Finals.

Australians Tyler Calleja, Harrison Duske, Lincoln Evans, Seth Gilmore, Cohen Kokotovich, JesseJames Samuels, Nicolas Stati, Costa Toparis and Dante Vinci, Azerbaijan’s Visal Raman, Indian talent Arjun Chheda, Chinese F4 champion Tiago Rodrigues and Japan’s Sena Tsukamoto make up the 13.

The post Six karters to contend for Spanish F4 seat in Richard Mille shootout appeared first on Formula Scout.

Photo: F4 Spain

Italian karter Mattia Colnaghi has earned a paid-for seat in Spanish Formula 4 next season after winning the sixth running of the Richard Mille Young Talent Academy shootout.

After two days of on-track testing in F4 cars at Navarra, in addition to off-track assessments, Colnaghi was chosen by the organising All Road Management company’s jury as the best of the eight finalists and will race for MP Motorsport in 2024.

The on-track shootout contained two half-hour practice sessions, then a 15-minute ‘qualifying’ session on new tyres and one race simulation lasting 25 minutes using the same tyres. Crashing in any session eliminated a driver from the shootout.

Colnaghi was one of three finalists who has also recently been invited to one of the Ferrari Driver Academy’s scouting camps.

He stepped up to OK karts at the end of 2022 and came 32nd in the WSK Final Cup. This year 15th in the European championship has been the standout result, having failed to score in the WSK Super Master Series and placing 42nd in the Champions of the Future series.

In the Navarra shootout, he was fastest in both practice sessions and qualifying, then “excelled in the race simulation showing consistent performance that kept him at the top of the selection pool” according to All Road.

“I’m very happy for this huge opportunity given to me by Richard Mille and All Road Management. I look forward to racing in the Spanish F4 championship with MP Motorsport,” said Colnaghi.

“It’s a great chance and I hope to make the most of it. I will work hard to achieve good results in my first year of motorsport.”

Nicolas Todt, who runs All Road, commented: “Conditions could not have been trickier on a wet and drying track, but it was a perfect scenario to get the best out of the drivers. Despite fierce competition from some very notable young racers, Mattia left a remarkable impression on the judges.

“His physical and mental readiness was evident during the Formula Medicine evaluation, and he was just as impressive behind the wheel. The high level of competition made the final decision a tough one, but Mattia ticked all the boxes.”

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Photo: Dutch Photo Agency

The finalists have been named for the sixth running of the Richard Mille Young Talent Academy shootout, which awards a paid-for seat in Spanish Formula 4 as its prize.

Three of the finalists, Emanuele Olivieri, Mattia Colnaghi and Maciej Gladysz, have recently been selected to take part in the Ferrari Driver Academy’s scouting camps.

Olivieri started his rookie year on OK karts by finishing fifth in the Lonato Winter Cup and eighth in the WSK Champions Cup. He followed that up with 13th in WSK Super Master Series, 15th in Champions of the Future and 34th in the CIK-FIA European championship.

Colnaghi stepped up to OK karts at the end of 2022 and came 32nd in the WSK Final Cup. This year 15th in the European championship has been the standout result, having failed to score in WSK SMS and placing 42nd in CotF.

Former Sauber junior Gladysz won the junior-level FIA Karting Academy Trophy in 2021, and in 2022 won the CotF Winter Series and came fourth in the CIK-FIA World championship for OK-Junior karts. This year he stepped up to OK karts, coming 20th in the European championship, and has done F4 testing.

The other five finalists are Jimmy Helias, Louis Iglesias, Martin Molnar, Thomas Strauven and Sita Vanmeert.

Helias finished third in the WSK Final Cup on his OK kart debut late in 2022, and this year was fourth in the Lonato Winter Cup, won by Molnar, and seventh in WSK SMS. Iglesias is currently 12th in the WSK Euro Series and was 14th in CotF.

Molnar was also WSK Champions Cup runner-up, while Strauven was WSK SMS runner-up and recently made his car racing debut in Spanish F4 at Jerez. Vanmeert is the only finalist to come from X30 karts.

There will be two parts to the shootout, with finalists heading to Formula Medicine’s facilities in Italy on October 9 for physical and psychological tests (split into ‘athletic’ and ‘mental’ sessions’). Following that, they will drive F4 cars at Navarra on October 17-18. The winner will race for MP Motorsport in Spanish F4 next season.

The shootout’s Navarra part starts with two half-hour practice sessions, then a 15-minute ‘qualifying’ session on new tyres and one race simulation lasting 25 minutes using the same tyres. Crashing in any session eliminates a driver from the shootout.

To be eligible for consideration for the shootout, drivers had to be born between January 1 2007 and April 1 2009, and have spent 2023 racing in international competitions in senior karting. One spot in the shootout was reserved for a driver from the factory Birel ART team (or one of its satellite squads).

Drivers were allowed no more than two weekends of single-seater racing experience, while any karter who was part of an established driver management agency was ruled out unless they were Formula 1 juniors who could move under the wing of All Road Management – the company that organised the shootout – for 2024.

All Road is run by Nicolas Todt, son of ex-FIA president Jean Todt, and backs drivers primarily in karting and single-seaters.

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Photo: Italiaracing

Emirati karter Keanu Al Azhari has earned a paid-for seat in Spanish Formula 4 next season after winning the fifth running of the Richard Mille Young Talent Academy shootout.

After two days of on-track testing in F4 cars at Navarra, in addition to off-track assessments, the 14-year-old was chosen by the organising All Road Management company’s jury as the best of the six finalists and will race for MP Motorsport in 2023.

Italiaracing, which was present at the shootout, reported that Al Azhari set the pace on the second afternoon of running, which was split into two sessions. He headed Alpine Academy affiliate Matheus Ferreira, French karting star Evan Giltaire, Italy’s Cristian Bertuca, who came fourth in last year’s WSK Open Cup, his OK kart rival Gabriel Gomez from Brazil and Dutch shifter karter Kris Haanen.

In 2022, factory Tony Kart driver Al Azhari has also raced on OK and KZ2 shifter karts, his rookie year in both, coming 36th in the CIK-FIA European Karting Championship and 43rd in the World championship. Last year he was ninth in the Champions of the Future series on OK-Junior karts and 24th in the European championship.

All Road Management is run by Nicolas Todt, son of former Ferrari Formula 1 boss and FIA president Jean Todt, and backs several drivers primarily across karting and single-seaters.

Its Richard Mille-sponsored shootout has so far provided F4 seats for Enzo Valente, current FIA Formula 3 racer Rafael Villagomez, French F4 title contender Hugh Barter and his Spanish F4 rival Tymoteusz Kucharczyk who was the first recipient of the prize to race with MP after previous winners landed French F4 seats instead.

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Photo: WSK Karting

Polish karter Tymoteusz Kucharczyk has earned a paid-for seat in Spanish Formula 4 next season after winning the fourth running of the Richard Mille Young Talent Academy shootout.

The winner-takes-all shootout featured 12 drivers drawn from teams across the world that use Birel ART karts, and took place across three days on October 11-13 at Navarra. Previous editions took place at Le Mans as winners got French F4 seats.

The 12 finalists, all nominated by Birel ART dealers, spent the first two days focused on assessments of “physical and mental capacities” with Formula Medicine, before testing with MP Motorsport (supplier of the prize seat) in F4 cars on day three.

“I am thrilled. I am speechless,” said Kucharczyk. “Making the leap from go-karts to single-seaters is always an important and complicated step, but the hard work of these years gave me the opportunity to be able to participate in this event.

“I have given my best in each of the stages, always listening the advices to improve and, moreover, I have had fun with all my colleagues and rivals.”

Kucharczyk, who has tested under the eye of Formula 1 grand prix winner Robert Kubica as he races his kart chassis, will be one of MP’s four drivers for 2022, as Spanish F4 limits teams’ car count following a boom in the grid size this season.

“I thank Richard Mille and MP Motorsport for their trust in me for next season and I promise to make the most of this opportunity, so I’ll keep working hard, not only on the track, but also outside being a great student at school”

This year the 15-year-old stepped up to senior karting in OK karts, and came second in WSK’s Open Cup, third in its Euro Series, sixth in the Super Master Series and 14th in the Champions Cup. His CIK-FIA European Karting Championship campaigned resulted in 24th place in the standings, as he was disqualified from the final of one round.

The two runners-up in the shootout were Nicolas Todt protege Martinius Stenshorne and Australian shifter karter and touring car racer Oscar Targett.

Each driver got four 20-minute runs in the F4 car on the final morning, with the six fastest going through to the follow-up test sessions in the afternoon. After that, the Richard Mille jury selected Kucharczyk, Stenshorne and Targett to contest a qualifying simulation on new tyres and then took all stages of the shootout into consideration when deciding upon the winner.

The other finalists were Frenchman Sacha Maguet, Portuguese junior karting champion Duarte Pinto Coelho who has tested in F4 with DR Formula, the British Karting Championship’s IAME X30 Junior frontrunner Oliver Stewart, Dutchman Tijs Kleinjan, Austrian shifter karter Horst Felix Felbermayr, Mexico’s Franck Meyer Robredo, short oval dirt track racer and Canadian Karting Championship star Dale Curran Jr, Belgium’s Alessandro Tudisca and Sweden’s Vigor Hjorvard.

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Photo: KSP Reportages

Australian karter Hugh Barter has earned a paid-for seat in French Formula 4 next season after winning the third running of the Richard Mille Young Talent Academy shootout.

The Le Mans-based winner-takes-all shootout featured 10 drivers drawn from tems across the world that use Birel ART karts, and took place across two days on October 12/13 with the assistance of French F4 organiser FFSA Academy and Formula Medicine.

Barter was born in Japan but races in the Australian Karting Championship as an Australian. He is one of the top drivers in its Junior-level AK4 category, and is managed by Birel ART importer and former Australian F4 team Patrizicorse.

“The standard of the participants was very high,” said Barter.

“It pushed me to surpass myself and I gave my best in all the tests.

“I was exhausted after the physical assessments, which is normal! I started cautiously during the first F4 sessions in the rain as I only had the experience of a single-seater day in Australia and it was dry. I admit that I really like computer simulation games… but it’s still a game, the real driving is quite different.

“The relationship with my engineer was very important. I took his advice into account to make progress, both on the wet track and on the dry. I am very happy to have won the Richard Mille Young Talent Academy. It’s an incredible opportunity to be able to take part in the French F4 Championship next year.”

Dr Riccardo Ceccarelli’s Formula Medicine organisation physically and mentally assessed the 10 finalists before the driving element of the shootout began, with simulator sessions used to familarise the karters with the F4 car and the Bugatti circuit ahead of testing each of them in the Mygale F4 cars for real.

The first day ended with Morgan Caron from Nicolas Todt’s All Road Management company, Ceccarelli, two Richard Mille representatives and Ronni Sala – the man behind kart manufacturer Birel and junior single-seater powerhouse ART Grand Prix joining forces in 2014 – interviewing the finalists.

Drivers got their first taste of the F4 car at the start of the second day, in wet conditions, with an hour alloted to each over three sessions. From those tests, the best five were selected for a second, shorter test on a drier track.

Barter, Sweden’s Junior 125 champion Albin Karlsson and France’s shifter karter Craig Tanic were then selected for a third and final F4 test, and with all parts of the assessment process considered it was decided that Barter performed best.

The previous two winners of the Richard Mille shootout are Enzo Valente, who won in Pau during prize F4 season, and Rafael Villagomez. Mexican karting graduate Villagomez is yet to make the podium in French F4, but has in his parallel British F4 programme.

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Photo: Lola Lovinfosse

Since 2012, Formula Scout has annually identified the top talents in karting to look out for in junior single-seaters in the years beyond. In this special female-only edition, we’re naming the best from karts and cars

In the last five years, karting has been the biggest area of growth in motorsport when it comes to female license holders in many nations, and it is this all-important statistic that will ultimately pave the way for the long-awaited return of a woman racing on the Formula 1 grid.

Some of the young karters who started their participation off the back of Venturi Formula E boss Susie Wolff’s Dare 2 Be Different organisation and other prominent initiatives being launched in 2016, are now racing in the top global tournaments and making waves in the motorsport world.

Here are six internationally competing karters, and four on-the-rise car racers, who could make it to F1 in the future.

Key Rotax Max (MAX), Trent Valley Kart Club (TVKC), Russian Circuit Racing Series (RCRS)

Mathilda Olsson SWEDEN 18y/o
5th in 2020 MAX Euro Winter Cup – Senior, 2019 MAX Euro Trophy champion – Senior, 3rd in 2018 MAX Euro Trophy – Senior

Swedish star Mathilda Olsson made it into Formula Scout’s list of the top karting talents last year with an incredibly assured title in the Senior category of the Rotax Max Euro Trophy, a series which she had finished third in the year before.

Rotax Max is a spec-engined rival category to the more prominently known OK, and the level of competition is high in all of the main series. While the Euro Trophy wasn’t the highest calibre of events, it was won by Olsson in a classy style that built on lessons she had learned earlier in 2019, and costs less than the CIK-FIA competitions.

Olsson started her year in the Rotax Euro Open at Genk, where she was on the pace but a dud heat 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 Euro Trophy season began proper at Adria, where she was fastest in pre-event testing, free practice and qualifying. The split-session format kept her off pole, but she won her heats anyway then dominated the two points-paying final races.

Kristianstad was much of the same, but against additional adversity. An awful qualifying session on home soil left her way down the order, but she charged to sixth in both of her heats. She then flew past the field to win the first main race. Race two was a defensive job, which worked well until the very final corner of the race and led to a 0.173 second loss.

The Wackersdorf season finale also began with qualifying trouble that went beyond laptimes, but was of little consequence as she was already champion. Again, she almost won in the heats, then took victory and a second place in the two main races.

Olsson has stuck with the Strawberry Racing team she has already shared a significant amount of success with for 2020, and got the year off to a winning start in the winter Rotax competitions before the coronavirus pandemic stopped racing.

Ella Stevens ENGLAND 13y/o
2020 TVKC Winter champion – X30 Mini, 13th in 2019 British IAME Cadet Championship, 2017 BirelART UK champion – Cadet

W Series racer and two-time Formula Renault champion Alice Powell coaches many drivers in karting, and the protege with the most expectation on their shoulders is fellow Briton Ella Stevens.

In 2017 she won Birel ART’s British Cadet championship, doing so with a race to spare despite losing points early in the year as she was caught out in some areas of her racecraft due to her inexperience. That grid had strong female participation within the greater picture of British karting, but also marked a rare occasion where a female driver had won a British title.

Attacking the British Super One Championship and Little Green Man Series in IAME Cadet karts the next year as a privateer was not going to lend itself to top results, but in the latter series still put a title to her name in the privateer class. She was 16th overall in both series, despite missing races, and was the top privateer finisher several times in the more financially competitive Super One series. Unfortunately some strong overall results went amiss due to contact on-track.

Stevens joined Fusion Motorsport for her second attempt at the two series, but her 2019 got off to a bad start in the winter competitions with collisions and engine issues for which she was not to blame. A first win was also lost to a photo finish decided on who had fastest race lap.

Her main campaigns had messy beginnings that were difficult to shake off, but the pace was clearly there to fight near the front and she claimed a British championship pole but no podiums. Given her stellar 2017, the pressure was now on for Stevens heading into winter and her step up to X30 Mini machinery.

From the off, the larger karts suited Stevens better and she won Trent Valley Kart Club’s winter title. With that kind of confidence boost, she very well could have added another national crown to her resume this year (and may still do).

Cecilia Hedqvist SWEDEN 16y/o
7th in 2019 Swedish Championship, 4th in ’19 Swedish Kart League – OK, 19th in ’18 Swedish Junior Championship

Photo: Cecilia Hedqvist

One set of Swedish relations is coaching another in the case of Cecilia Hedqvist and her cousin Oliver, who have benefited from the support of touring car stars Andreas and Jessica Backman.

Hedqvist was set for a big year prior to coronavirus’s pausing of proceedings, and has come a long way since taking her first podium in a kart in 2016. She had the Backmans helping her by then, and results quickly improved after as she came third in the Junior 60 category of the North Sweden Cup the year after after several seasons of limited progress in the series.

For 2018 she moved up to OK and X30 junior karts, and entered major international competitions as well as building her reputation at home. Podiums were hard to come by, but the experience was priceless and she actually made her first race appearance abroad in the very different world of the top level OK karts in Trofeo Andrea Margutti at the start of the year.

Her first OKJ races in the Swedish championship came after, and her pace was immediately evident. The combination of illness, injury and bad luck sapped any momentum though due to missing races, but a return to regional competition did bring Hedqvist’s first ever win and a confidence boost in the rainy conditions she usually struggled in.

That year’s CIK-FIA World Championship was in Sweden, so Hedqvist joined local team Ward Racing for the senior tournament and came 96th overall. The confidence curve continued, and her year ended with a scholarship win that enabled a full-time move to OK karts with Ward for 2019.

She came an impressive seventh in the Swedish national championship – won by Ferrari junior Dino Beganovic – and fourth in the slightly lower profile Swedish Kart League but had a tough time on her world championship return. A second year spent in the category promised much more in 2020.

Maya Weug SPAIN 15/o
Currently 25th in 2020 WSK Super Master Series – OK, 16th in 2018 CIK-FIA World Championship – OKJ

Photo: Birel ART

Back in 2016, Maya Weug beat SMP Racing junior Kirill Smal and Mercedes-Benz F1 junior Andrea Kimi Antonelli to win the WSK Final Cup for 60 Mini karts. She beat both again in WSK’s Night Edition, and was one of the top drivers in the traditional pre- and post-season tournaments in Italy. In the national championship she was only 15th, but she’d certainly made an impact.

A move up to OKJ beckoned for 2017, and the only Italian highlight was 12th in WSK Final Cup. It was in Britain where she starred the most, qualifying behind only Sauber junior Harry Thompson in the X30 Junior element of the British Kartmasters Grand Prix and was very unlucky to only finish 28th in the final race. Weug’s efforts were recognised with the ‘Spirit of…’ award.

She returned to the PFI International circuit for the world championship, this time in an OKJ kart, and came 36th in a grid packed with current single-seater stars. There was cautious expectation that Weug could be at the very front in her second season at that level, but it didn’t prove to be the case.

The year started with 22nd in the WSK Super Master Series, with the only event where her pace really merited better was the world championship in Sweden. She finished 16th this time, once again in a grid filled to the brim with talent.

Birel ART brought Weug on board as a factory driver and part of the Richard Mille Young Talent Academy for her graduation to senior karts last year, and it was another tricky but promising season against the highest calibre opposition. Qualifying struggles left her 23rd in the Super Master Series, and she was 51st and 61st in the European and World championships respectively. Despite those poor results, she was quick to be resigned by Birel ART for 2020.

Weug could have been in French Formula 4 this year had she won last December’s Richard Mille Shootout, and, along with FR1.6 test experience, she is already preparing to be ready to race single-seaters in 2021.

Lola Lovinfosse FRANCE 14/o
15th in 2020 WSK Champions Cup – OK, 39th in ’20 South Garda Winter Cup – OK, 10th in 2019 Trofeo delle Industrie – OK

Photo: Sportinphoto / Manetti Motorsport

FFSA Academy student Lola Lovinfosse has aspired to the levels of success that AlphaTauri F1 driver Pierre Gasly has achieved since she started karting in 2015, and is another driver who’s now making her name with Swedish team Ward Racing.

Lovinfosse was a midfielder in the French Mini and Cadet scene prior to her teens, when she made the move into X30 Junior and Nationale karts. Results immediately improved at home, and she raised eyebrows in appearances abroad. After a single season in those, she moved up to OKJ and then OK karts in 2019. It was a remarkable rise in more ways than one.

Her first ever OKJ appearance was the WSK Champions Cup, where she came 21st as a privateer. Lovinfosse then teamed up with Manetti Motorsport, coming 58th in a part-campaign in the Super Master Series, and then building up momentum with 47th in the Euro Series, eighth in Trofeo Andrea Margutti and cameoing in the CIK-FIA European Championship.

Along with some races in the Swedish Junior Championship, Lovinfosse ended her time in OKJ by joining Ward for the CIK-FIA World Championship in Finland. She was pleased with her own performance, which resulted in 67th in a field of well over 100.

A month later she joined Ward’s OK line-up in the WSK Open Cup, and charged to 20th in the final on her debut. A five-second bumper penalty demoted her to 27th, but her pace was no fluke; she returned to Lonato a week later and came 10th in Trofeo delle Industrie. The next Open Cup round at the 7Laghi circuit was the week after, and 17th place earned her 27th in the points.

As an OK rookie they were seriously impressive results, and 2020 had already got off to a good start. In the wet Champions Cup she finished 15th from 10th on the grid after struggling in qualifying, came 39th in the talent-crammed South Garda Winter Cup and is 43rd out of over 100 in the Super Master Series despite missing one of the two rounds that’s been held.

French F4 is Lovinfosse’s target for 2021, with W Series next on the agenda before emulating Gasly in making it to F1.

Barbora Bauerova SLOVAKIA 14/o
11th in 2019 Motorsport Games Karting, 50th in ’19 FIA Academy Trophy, 7th in 2018 Slovakian Indoor Championship – Junior

Photo: FIA Motorsport Games

A graduate of Slovakia’s indoor karting scene, Barbora Bauerova was thrust into international competition last year by making her way to the final of the FIA’s Girls on Track Karting Challenge in France.

She missed out on joining the six-strong Girls on Track European Team, but the 14-year-old remained abroad to race in several high-profile FIA competitions.

The first of those was the three-round FIA Karting Academy Trophy, in which she finished 50th overall in. The single-make OKJ-level series where drivers represent their home nation was a step up in competition for the teenager, but provided valuable learning material for her 2020 programmes.

Bauerova then teamed up with countryman Michal Vilim to represent Slovakia again in the inaugural FIA Motorsport Games at Vallelunga. The karting slalom event used identical electrically power karts, which can handle very differently to more traditional outdoor machinery, and required each team to run a line-up that included a male and a female.

Slovakia’s duo finished 11th out of the 28 competing countries. They made their way into the knockout stages by going 15th fastest in qualifying, but were firmly beaten by Germany in their first face-off. While the Motorsport Games is off for 2020, Bauerova could be going for gold medal in 2021.

The stars already in cars…

Photo: LAT Images

Jamie Chadwick ENGLAND 22/o
Cars: 2020 W Series, 2019 W Series champion, 2018-19 MRF Challenge champion, 2015 British GT4 champion

The first ever champion of the all-female W Series is now a household racing name, and is aiming for a historic third single-seater title in 2020 by defending her W Series crown. It’s her results outside of the series that are more interesting though.

She’s become an expert at the winter racing series, winning the MRF Challenge title and a race in Asian Formula 3 on merit, and has also made starring appearances in Formula Ford’s end-of-year Walter Hayes Trophy. What Jamie Chadwick is capable of in higher-spec machinery, such as Euroformula’s Dallara 320, will hold the key to whether she makes it to F1, as she’s more than proven she has the pace across a variety of different cars to have a career in racing.

Marta Garcia SPAIN 19/o
Cars: 2020 W Series, 4th in 2019 W Series, 9th in 2017 Spanish F4   Karts: 4th in 2016 CIK-FIA European Championship – OK

Having already gone through the processes of being picked up and dropped by an F1 team, Marta Garcia has done a great job of getting her career going again with the help of W Series. Victory at the Norisring last year was her first in cars, and she’s likely to be one of Chadwick’s main title threats when the season eventually gets underway.

With a strong management team behind her, and some seriously encouraging test showings in other F3 cars already, Garcia should also be able to transfer her W Series form into other series as successfully as Chadwick has.

Irina Sidorkova RUSSIA 16/o
Cars: 2020 W Series, 6th in 2019 F4 SMP, 2018 RCRS National Junior champion, 2nd in 2017 RCRS National Junior

SMP junior Irina Sidorkova had an unconventional route into single-seaters, as have many Russian drivers, having won her first car racing title aged 13 and competed in ice racing and touring cars at a junior level in her home country.

After winning the national title in the latter, SMP was keen to get her into open-wheel cars and put her in its own F4 series for 2019. She claimed several podiums, and scored points in a Spanish F4 campaign, and then made it through the 2020 W Series driver selection process. With a year of single-seater experience under her belt, the Russian could really impress this season.

Juju Noda JAPAN 14/o
Cars: 2020 Danish F4, 14th in 2019 Lucas Oil Winter Race Series, 2017-’19 Formula U17

The daughter of former Formula 1 driver Hideki Noda wants to win in F1 and Formula E, and has already been racing single-seaters for several year. She turned 14 at the start of this year and relocated to Denmark to race in the country’s F4 series.

We know that Noda’s set ominously quick test times in F3 cars in Japan, but the Okayama-based Formula U17 series she’s won races in is a weak indicator of where she’d stand against wider opposition. But to be as comfortable as Noda is in a race car at her age is hugely impressive, and her tests across Europe and US racing debut suggest she could be champion in Denmark.

Photo: Noda Racing

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The Mexican karter, who raced for shootout partner Birel ART in KZ2 shifter karts last year, triumphed over 16 other teenaged drivers from 14 countries over three days of tricky weather conditions at Le Mans early last December.

Drivers, picked by Birel ART distributors and the factory kart team, were tested on physical, mental and media skills, and drove the Mygale chassis used in French F4.

Villagomez has also signed a deal with Fortec Motorsports to contest eight of the 10 British F4 rounds. He will miss the Brands Hatch Indy round early in the season and the Silverstone International round late in the year.

?I?m happy to announce that I will be joining Fortec Motorsport for the 2020 F4 British Championship,? said Villagomez.

?It will be my first year moving from karting and joining a team like Fortec is very exciting, I?ve already tested with the team and the feeling was great. I can?t wait to keep working with them and keep on improving throughout my first year.”

The Mexican’s shootout success came in difficult conditions, with fog meaning drivers initially had to set laps in the French F4 cars behind the safety car, before they were free to lap for two 30-minute sessions.

Seven drivers made it to the final phase of the shootout, with Villagomez being joined by NACAM F4 frontrunner Pablo Perez de Lara and one-time F4 South East Asia racer Shrien Naidoo, French Junior karting champion Craig Tanic, F1600 racer Mac Clark, Greece’s Giorgios Markogiannis and Thailand’s Satumno Thanapongpan.

These seven had one final 15-minute session in the fog, which concluded in Villagomez being declared winner.

“Rafael Villagomez undoubtedly made the difference by making steady progress over the two days,” said Birel ART president Ronni Sala.

“This second edition of the Richard Mille Young Talent Academy confirmed the great interest in its concept by giving young kart racers racing under the colours of Birel ART a great opportunity to prepare for their move to single-seaters.

I salute the impeccable behaviour of every participant and wish Rafael, our 2019 winner, every success.”

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