Photo: Formula Motorsport Limited

Pedro Piquet has announced he won’t return to Formula 2 next year, bemoaning the influence of money in the higher formulae.

The Brazilian is the younger brother of Formula E champion Nelson Jr and the son of three-time F1 world champion Nelson. Before the second-generation Nelson made it to F1, he raced in junior single-seater teams funded and owned by his father.

The younger brother didn’t get quite the same benefit, starting his career by becoming a two-time Brazilian Formula 3 champion – remaining in Brazil to stay in education – before moving into FIA European F3, GP3 and the FIA F3 Championship and then F2.

“I need to inform you that I will not be racing in Formula 2 in 2021,” Piquet said on Instagram.

“I am passionate about this sport, but the last three years have made me understand its magnitude, other sides and also the financial support to get to F1.

“As you follow the sport, you probably saw this happening in the last two years in F2. The champion in 2019 did not have a chance to enter and the runner-up entered with his own sponsorship. This year’s runner-up will not, and who got the job was another who bought half of the team.”

Piquet drove for Charouz Racing System in his rookie F2 campaign this year and scored points twice, although was denied a potential podium by car issues in the penultimate round at Bahrain.

“How much is such dedication and investment – including the risk of life – to face the possibility of losing the job by financial sovereignty? I could very well do two more years of F2 in slightly better teams and try to reach the top three, it would be the only real way to get and stay in F1,” Piquet added.

“For someone to arrive and buy your place and all your work and investment go down the drain. I saw it happen closely with drivers and it’s not a nice thing for the person.

“Maybe this will change some day and the sport becomes more accessible, providing opportunities for the rise of talent.

“Unfortunately our currency is also devalued against the Euro, which greatly reduces the ability of large companies to invest R$150 million (approx. €25,000,000) to bet on a Brazilian in F1. Not to mention that the economy is suffering due to the pandemic, which changes the investment priority.”

Piquet will switch his motorsport focus back to karting for 2021. He competed internationally at the junior level before stepping into cars.

The post Pedro Piquet hopes state of junior racing changes amid F2 exit appeared first on Formula Scout.

Photos: LAT Images / FIA F2 Championship

The fourth year of the rebranded Formula 2 championship promises to be one of the most competitive in its history. Josh Suttill runs through the drivers and teams that are returning to action in Austria this weekend

With a compressed calendar and strict social distancing measures to follow, the pressure will be high throughout the upcoming Formula 2 season. Competitors can take solace in the improving reliability of the Dallara F2 2018, now in its third year of use, but will have new challenges to understand such as the enlarged 18-inch wheels and Pirelli tyres.

The 2020 field features seven graduates from the stacked 2019 FIA Formula 3 Championship grid, including five of the top six drivers in the standings. Those rookies will be joined by a number of returning drivers, who will be looking to impress the onlooking Formula 1 teams to earn a seat in the top tier for 2021.

There will now be 22 cars on the grid due to the arrival of Hitech GP and HWA Racelab, which takes over Arden’s entry.

Bahrain hosted the solitary three-day pre-season test back in March before the global coronavirus pandemic put a stop to track action, and not even the full field made it out there to test. Read our in-depth analysis of that test here.

Along with FIA F3, F2 will support F1 on its return this weekend at the Red Bull Ring – Formula Scout assess the prospects of each of this season’s drivers.

You can also listen to this season preview in podcast form, on Breaker, Google Podcasts, Overcast, RadioPublic, Pocket Casts, Castbox, Apple Podcasts and Spotify.

DAMS

The reigning champion team has won 11 races over the past two years, only one less than ART Grand Prix, but will have a difficult time retaining its title in a highly competitive 2020 field. In contrast to its approach in recent years, the French outfit’s title aspirations will be firmly cemented around one driver. Signing an incredibly talented but inexperienced F1 junior and a driver with two podiums in 96 F2 starts is a risk, but could it pay off?

1. Sean Gelael

Indonesia, 23
2019: 17th in Formula 2

DAMS’ signing of Gelael from Prema will bolster the team financially and it will benefit from his four-and-a-half years of experience in the series. However, Gelael suffered his worst full season yet last year, scoring just 15 points. The clear low point was at Silverstone where he withdrew after disagreeing with the stewards’ decision to award him a three-place grid penalty. DAMS may provide Gelael with his most competitive car yet, but it’s hard to see how it will retain its teams’ title.

2. Dan Ticktum

Britain, 21
2019: 9th in FRegional Europe, 20th in Super Formula

Gelael’s record will likely leave the heavy lifting points-wise to Dan Ticktum. The two-time Macau Grand Prix winner lost his Red Bull backing and Super Formula drive mid-season last year, but has rebounded by getting a place in Williams’ young driver programme. His Pirelli tyre experience is limited, and DAMS’ focus will be on helping him get up to speed with the specific demands of the series’ new rubber, but his impressive three-round GP3 cameo in 2017 proves his has the skills to get on top of it. Critics need little excuse to hound Ticktum, but freed of the Red Bull environment, he’s got a good opportunity to silence his doubters.

Virtuosi Racing

A change of ownership did little to blunt the team previously known as Russian Time, as it often proved to be the fastest package in 2019. Luca Ghiotto earned four wins while Renault junior Guanyu Zhou was the highest placed rookie in the standings with five podiums. Virtuosi has snapped up Ferrari junior Callum Ilott to partner Zhou, as he did at Prema in FIA European F3, and means it is the only proven frontrunning team to be fielding two returning drivers this year.

3. Guanyu Zhou

China, 21
2019: 7th in Formula 2

Although he’s only won three races in the last four years, Zhou is tipped by many to be title favourite with a strong team behind him and after a stellar rookie season. He learned a lot alongside series veteran Ghiotto last year and he’s highly rated by Renault. If he can deliver a sustained title challenge – for the first time in his car racing career – Zhou will be the firm favourite to replace the outgoing Daniel Ricciardo at Renault in 2021. A looming potential F1 graduation and intense calendar will put Zhou under immense pressure, but he’s a laid-back character who seems capable of handling it.

4. Callum Ilott

Britain, 21
2019: 6th in Macau GP, 11th in Formula 2

The latest twist in Ilott’s roller-coaster career has landed him in a leading team as one of five Ferrari juniors in the F2 field. His final points tally in his maiden season failed to reflect how superb he was occasionally, as he lost a top result in Monaco after his car broke down on the grid and he took a stunning pole position at Monza in incredibly difficult circumstances. If he can demonstrate that class on a more regular basis with a more consistent team, Ilott could emerge as a surprise contender to join Alfa Romeo Racing in F1 next year and supersede his recently more prominent Ferrari stablemates.

ART Grand Prix

ART Grand Prix may not have won either of the 2018 or 2019 teams’ titles, but with Williams F1 driver George Russell and Mercedes Formula E star Nyck de Vries, it’s won both drivers’ championships since the introduction of the current car. It’s looking to continue its streak with two highly-rated F1 juniors who starred in FIA F3 last year. Much is expected of both, but ART has not had both its F2 drivers finish inside the top eight in the points since the 2012 GP2 season.

5. Marcus Armstrong

New Zealand, 19
2019: 2nd in FIA F3, 2nd in TRS, 8th in Macau GP

Armstrong had a trying 2019. He was pipped by series rookie Liam Lawson to the Toyota Racing Series title at the start of the year, then struggled to match the results of his Prema team-mates when the FIA F3 season began. He suffered worst luck than most but was also involved in a number of clumsy incidents – not least his collision with fellow Ferrari junior and Prema team-mate Robert Shwartzman at the Red Bull Ring. Armstrong ended the season in stunning fashion at Sochi with a brilliant race one win and a charge from eighth to second in race two to remind everyone why he can be force this year. Considering ART’s recent form compared to Prema, Armstrong has likely made the right move to leave his usual Italian home.

6. Christian Lundgaard

Denmark, 18
2019: 4th in Macau GP, 6th in FIA F3, 23rd in F2

Lundgaard was never a factor in the FIA F3 title race in 2019 but was consistently impressive even if ART’s competitiveness was anything but consistent. He won the first race of the season on-track (he was later penalised), dominated at the Hungaroring in qualifying and the races, and convincingly beat both of his team-mates. He’ll have a tough task getting the better of Armstrong but he can lean on his one weekend of F2 experience he gained in Abu Dhabi last year. This advantage was somewhat offset by then missing pre-season testing due while quarantined in Tenerife, meaning his first experience of the 18-inch tyres will have to wait until free practice. If he can get over that, expect a fiery team-mate rivalry at the front of the field.

Carlin

In 2019, Carlin was always going to find it difficult to match its triumphant 2018 return so fourth in the teams’ standings with two feature race wins was not a bitter disappointment. It’s swapped experience for youth in 2020 with two FIA F3 graduates. They’re not as well known as some other rookies, but a strong pre-season suggests its line-up could be dark horses.

7. Yuki Tsunoda

Japan, 20
2020: 4th in TRS   2019: 4th in Euroformula, 9th in FIA F3, 11th in Macau GP

Red Bull’s rapid catapulting of Tsuonda up the European junior single-seater ranks has left him in F2 in only his second year since switching continents following his 2018 Japanese Formula 4 title. His impeccable Spa and Monza weekends last year for minnow team Jenzer Motorsport in FIA F3 highlights the potential for an extremely special driver, but it will be a steep learning curve again this year. The jump up the ladder is big, but he faced something similar last year and was a winner in Euroformula and TRS.

8. Jehan Daruvala

India, 21
2019: 3rd in FIA Formula 3

The Indian enjoyed something of a breakthrough in 2019 with easily his strongest year in car racing, which yielded third place in the new FIA F3 series. While the pre-season attention was on his team-mates Shwartzman and Armstrong, Daruvala shone by winning two of the first three races and only lost second in the points to Armstrong in the season finale. The Indian won’t have the same performance advantage he had with Prema last year, but there could still be a performance advantage if his stunning pace in pre-season testing is anything to go by.

Campos Racing

Campos Racing ended a three year winless drought in emphatic style in Baku last year courtesy of Jack Aitken. It marked a much-needed return to form for the Spanish outfit and one it will be hoping to continue into 2020. Vital to this was securing Aitken’s services for another year, and his experience will be crucial in navigating the team and his rookie team-mate through the switch to 18-inch tyres.

9. Jack Aitken

Britain, 24
2019: 5th in Formula 2

Aitken returns for his third year in the series, following on from his giant-killing 2019 campaign that included three excellent victories. He took a brilliant Baku win and made arguably the pass of the season on Louis Deletraz to win the Silverstone sprint race as the rain began to fall. He’ll have a tough task fulfilling his title aspirations against tough opposition unless Campos and he can improve their one-lap speed, but there would also be little shame in repeating last year’s success – now with a Williams F1 seat as the target for the next season rather than one with Renault.

10. Guilherme Samaia

Brazil, 23
2019: 16th in Euroformula

F2 rookie Samaia faces one of the toughest learning curves of any driver on the grid. While he was Brazilian F3 champion in 2017, he’s scored just two podiums in two years in Euroformula. In a more competitive F2 field and based off his pre-season test performance, it’s difficult to see Samaia troubling the points often. He’s also the only driver in the field to have never raced at the Red Bull Ring, venue of the first two rounds, making his learning curve that much steeper.

Charouz Racing System

Charouz had a difficult sophomore season in F2, especially following Juan Manuel Correa’s crash at Spa. But it showed its capability when Ilott handed the team its first ever pole next time out at Monza. Its 2019 points tally was nearly half of what it achieved during its maiden season, but it still managed to repeat its sixth place in the standings. Louis Deletraz has returned to the team, and it’s also signed F3 veteran Pedro Piquet.

11. Louis Deletraz

Switzerland, 23
2019: 8th in Formula 2

Deletraz has demonstrated a solid and steady improvement since making the full-time switch to F2 in 2017. He’s still yet to win a race, though he did come within 0.059 seconds of success in last year’s Monaco sprint race. A maiden feature race podium at Sochi was an important landmark, and he now reunites with the Charouz team he drove for in 2018. With a rookie team-mate, Charouz will be expecting Haas F1 reserve Deletraz to lead the team and deliver the long-awaited win.

12. Pedro Piquet

Brazil, 21
2019: 5th in FIA F3

Six years at F3 level culminated with an impressive 2019 campaign in FIA F3 for the Piquet. He’ll be looking to avoid the fate of former GP3 team-mate Giuliano Alesi, who stepped up to F2 last year after a lengthy stint in GP3 and found little success, but the key disparity is that Piquet managed an excellent race one win at Spa at last year while Alesi’s four third-tier wins all came in the reversed grid Sunday races. Despite his obvious potential, Piquet may find it difficult to stand out in this company.

MP Motorsport

MP Motorsport has bolstered its engineering side by snatching experienced F2 engineer Daniele Rossi from Carlin. It’s also hired arguably its most consistently competitive F2 driver line-up in recent years. Nobuharu Matsushita’s experience will be a huge asset for the team looking to add to the one win Sergio Sette Camara achieved for the team in the 2017 Spa sprint race.

14. Nobuharu Matsushita

Japan, 26
2019: 6th in Formula 2

The oldest driver in the field is back for a fifth season, turning down a Super Formula drive to continue pursuing his dream of making it to F1. Whether or not F1 graduation still remains a realistic prospect is questionable, but Matsushita’s persistent is admirable. A title challenge seems a stretch with MP, but placing better than the sixth place he achieved with ART Grand Prix and Carlin in 2017 and ’19 respectively would be a success. Since it joined GP2 in 2013, no MP driver has finished higher than eighth in the points, but considering his experience and MP’s improved engineering team – he already worked with Rossi last year – Matsushita stands a good chance of matching that at the very least.

15. Felipe Drugovich

Brazil, 20
2019: 16th in FIA F3

The driver who narrowly came out third-best in a title scrap with Red Bull’s Juri Vips and Ferrari’s Armstrong in the 2017 ADAC F4 season and won 14 of the 16 Euroformula races in 2018 scored points just once in FIA F3 last year. That was a misrepresentation of Drugovich’s ability, and he’s decided to forego a second season there to step up to F2. Drugovich believes the new tyres will act as reset and offset his inexperience. He’ll have an experienced team-mate to learn from and if he can impress with MP in 2020, he could land himself a top F2 seat for a title challenge in 2021.

HWA Racelab

The first year for the team under HWA’s full control is an exciting prospect considering the company’s rookie success in FIA F3 last year. The ex-DTM outfit’s long-term vision should lead to success, although it remains to be seen if the benefits of that will be realised in 2020 or if it will be written off as a learning year.

16. Artem Markelov

Russia, 25
2019: 16th in Formula 2, 21st in Super Formula

Following a woeful maiden Super Formula season, Markelov is back for a sixth full-time attack on F2. His partnership with the team began under the Arden banner in the final two rounds of last season, and qualified 16th and 14th. His poor one-lap speed has always been his Achilles heel, but on the other hand his racecraft and supreme tyre management have often more than made up for it. He’s more likely to deliver a season of stand-out drives rather than a consistently solid season. He’ll also have to get his head around the new tyres and if pre-season testing is anything to go by, that will be much easier said than done.

17. Giuliano Alesi

France, 20
2019: 15th in Formula 2

It’s easy to write off four-time GP3 race-winner Giuliano Alesi, who finally ends his four-year association with Trident to joins HWA. However, Alesi showed a marked season-on-season improvement during his time in GP3, having moved there after a single season in French Formula 4, and there’s no reason why he can’t achieve the same in F2 with more competitive machinery and a solid team-mate. Finishing top 10 in the standings may prove to be a stretch, but repeating his reverse grid race magic from his GP3 days would not do him any harm.

Prema Racing

Junior single-seater powerhouse Prema suffered arguably its worst season ever in F2 last year. It finished second-to-last in the teams’ standings and claimed just one podium: Mick Schumacher’s Hungaroring sprint race win. There was internal turmoil too as Gelael refused to race at Silverstone and the team-mates collided on occasion. Prema cannot afford a repeat of 2019 and it’s difficult to see how things won’t improve.

20. Mick Schumacher

Germany, 21
2019: 12th in Formula 2

No driver in F2 has more pressure on their shoulders than Schumacher. That appeared to manifest itself on track at times during 2019 as his usual top-10 grid spot would end with little or no points. His qualifying performances were among the best of the rookies, showing he has the underlying one-lap pace. He just needs to transition it across the entire weekend if he’s to have any chance of adding to his 2018 European Formula 3 title success. Schumacher will also be hoping for no repeat of the immense bad luck that seemed to follow him last year. Unlike 2019, he’ll have an extremely competitive team-mate, and if he loses the intra-team war convincingly his dreams of reaching F1 will have to wait longer.

21. Robert Shwartzman

Russia, 20
2019: FIA F3 champion

The young Russian was the class of the 2019 FIA F3 field and proved – unlike Schumacher – that his sudden surge at the end of the 2018 European F3 season could be repeated. He beat Armstrong and marked himself out as Ferrari’s leading junior prospect. Whether he can retain that mantle in 2020, with Ilott and Armstrong in strong machinery and Schumacher alongside him with a year of experience, is unknown. He proved adept at tyre management in FIA F3, knew how to make the most of reversed grid races, and having proven ability to manage a title fight it means it cannot be ruled out for Shwartzman to mirrors Charles Leclerc and George Russell in winning back-to-back titles on the F1 support bill.

Trident

Trident’s recent F2 form has been nothing short of dreadful: For the last three years it’s finished last among the teams in the standings. It had by far the worst retirement rate of any other team, which did it no favours, and when it was far more competitive at the end of the season it wasn’t enough to shed the unfortunate record of being the only team to fail to make the podium since the series was renamed F2 in 2017.

22. Roy Nissany

Israel, 25
2019: no racing

Nissany’s pointless 2018 campaign with Campos alongside Ghiotto was a slightly unfair reflection of the ability of a driver who won four races in Formula V8 3.5 across 2016 and ’17. He didn’t race last year, but secured a deal with Williams to become its 2020 test driver. Earning his first points in F2 will be the first target for Nissany, but he has a lot of progress to make if he’s to have a realistic shot an F1 seat.

23. Marino Sato

Japan, 21
2019: Euroformula champion, 21st in Formula 2

Sato struggled when he joined Campos at the end of the F2 season last year, failing to make a lasting impression or get on the pace of team-mate Aitken. But what he lacked in mileage and experience of Pirelli tyres there, he had in abundance in the Michelin-shod Dallara F3 car in Euroformula. He won nine races out of the 16 he participated in there, and the Taki Inoue protege put some of that down to the Michelin rubber after struggling on more complex Hankooks in European F3. To avoid being back down the order, he needs work really hard on figuring out what F2’s new 18-inch tyres demand.

Hitech GP

Hitech’s welcome debut at F2 level brings the total number of teams in the series up to 11 for the first time since it was known as GP2. It had a mixed pre-season test, but it still managed to put in some impressive laptimes. It’s difficult to know what to expect from one of the busiest teams in motorsport, but it’s more than up to its latest challenge.

24. Nikita Mazepin

Russia, 21
2019-20: 3rd in Asian F3   ’19: 18th in Formula 2

The 2018 GP3 runner-up suffered a miserable rookie year in F2. While his ART GP team-mate Nyck de Vries rocketed to the title, Mazepin never finished higher than eighth place and squandered his two big chances from sprint race pole in Baku and Sochi. He looked sheepish in wheel-to-wheel combat as he was swatted down to fourth from pole in Baku in just two corners, and wiped out Aitken and Matsushita when he failed to follow the correct rejoining procedure on the opening lap in Russia. It goes without saying that his second F2 season must be better. Returning to Hitech, run by Mazepin’s long-time career mentor Oliver Oakes, has already paid dividends in Asian F3 over the winter.

25. Luca Ghiotto

Italy, 25
2019: 3rd in Formula 2

Having initially committed to a switch to GT racing, Ghiotto returns for what will be his fifth F2 campaign. It’s easy to see why the least experienced outfit has hired the very experienced Italian. As he did with Zhou in 2019, Ghiotto can set a good example for his inexperienced team-mate to follow. Whether he priorities his F2 season or his GT World Challenge Europe campaign is unknown, and that will determine whether he can fight for the title. With a new team that seems like an unlikely prospect, but not impossible with its resources and recruitment.

The post Formula 2 2020 season preview: Who will conquer a stacked field? appeared first on Formula Scout.

Photo: FIA Formula 2 / Joe Portlock

Pedro Piquet came out on top in a dramatic afternoon session on day one of the Formula 2 pre-season test in Bahrain.

The Charouz Racing System driver had flitted among the top three once or twice but had mostly been overshadowed by his team-mate Louis Deletraz, who had set the pace in the first test session and was on top for over an hour of the afternoon’s running.

He was eventually demoted by MP Motorsport’s Nobuharu Matsushita, who held onto first place until the final few minutes when Piquet set his 1m41.877s lap.

There were several red flag periods that segmented the session, with both of the drivers at the debuting Hitech GP team, Campos Racing’s Guilherme Samaia and the guesting Sergey Sirotkin at ART Grand Prix.

Hitech’s Nikita Mazepin actually set the pace prior to Deletraz, and he and team-mate Luca Ghiotto showed continuous improvement when their own running wasn’t curtailed.

Carlin driver Jehan Daruvala had a dramatic session too but ended up in third place with a lap set with just under half an hour to go.

Roy Nissany was fourth for Trident, having languished mostly at the bottom until the final few minutes, while his team-mate Marino Sato vacated his car mid-session and handed it over to former Super Formula driver Tom Dillmann.

Formula Scout is seeking confirmation if the Frenchman did in fact take over Sato’s car, given the laptimes set were significantly faster once Dillmann’s name appeared on the timing screen and resulted in an impressive seventh place.

ART Grand Prix’s Marcus Armstrong used a last-minute lap to demote DAMS’ Sean Gelael to sixth, while Deletraz sank to eight after failing to improve on his earlier pace.

A tricky opening session left HWA Racelab with no quick laps on its F2 test debut, but its veteran driver Artem Markelov completed the afternoon with the ninth fastest time. Behind him was the confident-looking Yuki Tsunoda (Carlin) and Mick Schumacher (Prema).

Dan Ticktum spent most of the session in the pits, but he was able to take to track late on for DAMS to beat fellow Britons Jack Aitken (Campos) and Callum Ilott (Virtuosi) to 12th place.

Many of the drivers involved in causing the red flags sat at the bottom of the timesheet.

Test results

The post Pedro Piquet leads first day of pre-season F2 test appeared first on Formula Scout.

30. Mick Schumacher

Photo: Joe Portlock / LAT Images / FIA F2 Championship

Photo: Joe Portlock / LAT Images / FIA F2 Championship

Down 23
Managed a win in an otherwise difficult rookie F2 campaign

Schumacher’s first Formula 2 campaign was, on the whole, poor for a driver stepping up as European Formula 3 champion.

It started well enough, with eighth in the first race in Bahrain. But he would do no better than that in a feature race all year.

That was despite a pretty strong qualifying record: he had the ninth best average over the season, and only failed to make the top 10 at Silverstone and Sochi. That outright speed, which included being second to Callum Ilott (by 0.007s) in his qualifying group in Monaco and fourth at the Hungaroring, was in itself respectable, especially in a Prema team that lacked a proven top driver at this level to push it on.

Schumacher’s weekends were frequently ruined in feature races, with a series of incidents – some his fault, others not like being taken out by team-mate Sean Gelael in France – as well as mechanical troubles.

While, like all rookies, he said he found the tyres hard to get used to, he often looked good in this regard, especially in Austria: after a pit-lane start, he raced with the leaders in the feature race and even unlapped himself, and in the sprint race he charged from 18th to fourth. In Hungary, he turned his one other eighth-place feature race finish into a sprint race win, keeping Nobuharu Matsushita at bay.

Of course, a slightly lacklustre rookie season from Schumacher is nothing new. He did similar in both Formula 4 and F3, before making a big improvement in his sophomore year.

Beneath the surface, there were positive signs that he’ll be capable of a similar feat in F2 in 2020, when he’ll be under more pressure than ever as one of five Ferrari juniors on the grid.

29. Jake Hughes

Photo: Joe Portlock / LAT Images / FIA F3 Championship

Photo: Joe Portlock / LAT Images / FIA F3 Championship

Up 14
Helped HWA to be a force in its first F3 season

Now a veteran of F3 and GP3, Hughes was hired by HWA to lead its first team entry in junior single-seaters in the new FIA F3.

He ensured that the outfit made an almost immediate impact by claiming pole position at the second round of the season at Paul Ricard. In the race, he battled the Prema drivers for the podium, but crashed out after tangling with Marcus Armstrong.

Fortunately for Hughes, he got another chance at a top result next time out in Austria, this time benefitting when Armstrong and Robert Shwartzman collided to take the race two win.

His best performance of the year came at the Hungaroring, where he defied the supposed lack of overtaking opportunities to race from seventh to third in the opener, and from sixth to third in race two, making fine late moves on Juri Vips both times.

A fourth and final podium came in race two at Monza, and Hughes was again a frontrunner on HWA’s Macau Grand Prix debut before being caught in the first-lap qualifying race hold-up.

With HWA moving into F2 full-time in 2020, Hughes would have deserved the opportunity to finally make the step up too, but the seats went to Artem Markelov and Giuliano Alesi instead.

28. Pedro Piquet

Photo: Joe Portlock / LAT Images / FIA F3 Championship

Photo: Carl Bingham / LAT Images / FIA F3 Championship

Up 12
Went one better as GP3 became FIA F3

With the influx of talent as GP3 became FIA F3, Piquet’s decision to stay at that level for another year could have backfired, but he stepped up impressively and held his own to finish fifth – effectively best of the rest behind the four title contenders.

And whereas in GP3 his two victories and total of four podiums had come with the benefit of reversed grids, this year he raised his game at the start of a weekend, mostly notably winning race one at Spa-Francorchamps.

He was strong in this regard from round two at Paul Ricard, where he qualified fourth, held off Juri Vips to come third in race one and then came through to finish second in race two to Robert Shwartzman, defeating another of the major contenders in Jehan Daruvala.?It was the same names that he was simply able to pull away from when he won at Spa.

He finished up one point ahead of Christian Lundgaard in their fight for fifth in the standings, and might have been further clear without a few missed opportunities from top three grid spots on Sundays: he spun at the first corner in Austria, and his failure to find a way past Liam Lawson at Silverstone ultimately led him to be spun around by Daruvala, but it was a late mechanical issue that stopped him out of third place in Sochi.

After effectively six years racing F3 cars in Brazil and Europe, F2 with Charouz will be a big step up for Piquet next year, but one that this second-generation racer has more than earned by being a regular frontrunner in such a strong field.

27. Kyle Kirkwood

Photo: Road to Indy

Photo: Road to Indy

Up 12
Notched up yet another title in Indy Pro 2000

Only eight drivers this century have won four titles in their first five years in single-seaters, and the one driver whose achievements trump those of Kirkwood is McLaren F1 driver Lando Norris.

It didn’t always appear that that was going to be the case, as Kirkwood’s Indy Pro 2000 campaign with RP Motorsport had a tough start. The team was off the pace in the St. Petersburg season opener, but Kirkwood came away with a podium.

Kirkwood’s usual pace was clear from round two on Indianapolis Motor Speedway’s road course, where a penalty and a broken wing prevented him from winning but he still charged through for another podium. He struggled at the Lucas Oil Raceway oval, and collided with a team-mate in Toronto, but otherwise was on the top step of the podium until the Laguna Seca title decider.

Highlights included dominating at his favoured Mid-Ohio circuit, charging from the back to win at the Gateway oval, and taking the points lead in the penultimate round at Portland International Raceway. A ninth win of 2019 in race one at Laguna Seca meant he only needed to start race two to be champion – just as well as he was eliminated after two corners and Rasmus Lindh won to finish just two points shy.

RP also ran Kirkwood in the Euroformula Open season finale, where he impressed massively and was sixth in his second race.

Further reading
How Kyle Kirkwood conquered the Road to Indy once again

26. Max Fewtrell

Photo by Joe Portlock / LAT Images / FIA F3 Championship

Photo by Joe Portlock / LAT Images / FIA F3 Championship

Down 14
Austrian performance the highlight of rookie F3 campaign

Fewtrell’s first season in F3 was tough going, but there were many days where the 2018 Formula Renault Eurocup champion gave a good account of himself.

Though he was generally outshone by team-mate and fellow Renault junior Christian Lundgaard, his deficit was not as great as it seems on first glance. Both usually had the beating of the more experienced David Beckmann, but with ART Grand Prix struggling for consistent performance across every circuit, Fewtrell was often left mired in the midfield.

His standout weekend was the Red Bull Ring, a circuit that was also a happy hunting ground in both his Eurocup campaigns. He’d already qualified ahead of Lundgaard before the Dane’s bizarre exclusion, and having secured second on the grid between Marcus Armstrong and Juri Vips, he proceeded to battle the two proven F3 heavyweights throughout the race, keeping Vips in reach as he finished second. A fourth place followed in race two.

The next round at Silverstone was a disappointment, having topped practice at home, but he took another second place at the Hungaroring behind Lundgaard, extracting the most out of ART’s strongest performance.

From there, the end to Fewtrell’s year was hard to watch as he slumped from sixth to 10th in the standings and scored just two points, especially in the context of Anthoine Hubert’s fatal crash at Spa, which hit him and the other Renault juniors hard.

A move to Hitech GP before Macau didn’t bring an immediate upturn in fortunes, but he could be a strong contender with the team next year if he can repeat performances like Austria.

25. Theo Pourchaire

Photo: ADAC/Gruppe C Photography

Photo: ADAC/Gruppe C Photography

New entry
Claimed ADAC F4 title a month after 16th birthday

Following his French F4 Junior title, Sauber signed Pourchaire to its ADAC F4 team and the Frenchman beat juniors from Ferrari, Mercedes-Benz, Red Bull, SMP Racing and Venturi to win the German title.

Though he didn’t turn 16 until there were only two rounds remaining, Pourchaire was the most level-headed of the four Sauber juniors being run by US Racing, and his podium tally of 12 (the same amount as team-mates Arthur Leclerc and Roman Stanek combined) was testament to that.

Despite not really standing out at first, Pourchaire was in the championship lead by the end of the second round of seven, and then settled into a groove where he was usually the fastest man in the field (or at least the one who made the most of qualifying).

The weekend where he really made his title ambitions known wasn’t until the second half of the season, where he inherited one win after bad luck for Hauger, then was sublime in the wet to win another at the Nurburgring.

Bad luck at Hockenheim, in even greater proportions than rival Dennis Hauger usually received, meant he had the lowest scoring weekend of any of the top five drivers and his once handsome 68-point lead was reduced to a single point.

Pourchaire rebounded with three podiums in the season finale, the first time he’d achieved such a feat, and the title win. A jump up to FIA F3 looks most likely for 2020, possibly with ART.

Further reading
Scout Report: Sauber’s ADAC Formula 4 juniors

24. Nobuharu Matsushita

Photo: Joe Portlock / LAT Images / FIA F2 Championship

Photo: Zak Mauger / LAT Images / FIA F2 Championship

Re-entry (38th in 2017)
Took two fine feature race wins on F2 return

After a year back home in Japan in Super Formula, Matsushita returned to F2 with the hope of securing a superlicence to move up to F1 with Honda’s support. Sixth overall was not enough to succeed in that regard, but it was a respectable season nonetheless, and his most impressive to-date.

The move came with the not-insignificant disadvantage of being new to the F2 2018 car, but he didn’t let that hold him back for long, claiming pole for round two in Baku, although a mechanical issue soon stopped him in the race, and he had a fiery exit in Spain too.

He took second to Nyck de Vries in the Monaco feature race, and got the better of the eventual champion to win in Austria with a superior display of tyre management. That was Carlin’s first F2 win since Lando Norris triumphed in the 2018 season opener, and he would add another feature race victory at Monza, as well as a second place in Abu Dhabi.

With Yuki Tsunoda set to take his place as Honda’s focus in F2, the 26-year-old looks set for another return to Japan for 2020.

23. Marino Sato

Photo: Fotospeedy

Photo: Fotospeedy

New entry
Won Euroformula Open title with unexpected ease

Risk adversity is an uncommon thing to say about a racing driver, but a point of application led to former FIA European F3 backmarker Sato becoming a dominant EF Open champion.

Sato was set for a third European F3 season before his Motopark team switched championships, and similar switches elsewhere led to arguably the strongest EF Open grid in the championship’s 18-year history.

The Taki Inoue protege’s first win came in race two of the season opener, but it did little on its own to dispel his previous reputation. His second win, a lights-to-flag success at Hockenheim, came from his first pole and fastest lap and put him in the points lead.

There was no looking back from there, unless it meant cutting the risk factor, and there were six successive wins before Sato skipped the Silverstone round to make his F2 debut with Campos Racing. He gelled well with that car, but not the tyres, and after a quietly impressive first full race weekend at Monza, his performances tailed off.

Returning to EF Open was a tricky task, especially when his first race back was in near zero visibility, but Sato wrapped up the title with ease at Barcelona and added another win in a slipstream fest at Monza. His season highlights were when he upped the risk factor, whether it be in his stunning Spa pole lap, his Hungaroring starts or his Monza overtakes.

Further reading
How to win a F3 title: Marino Sato breaks down his breakout year

22. Yuki Tsunoda

Photo: Joe Portlock / LAT Images / FIA F3 Championship

Photo: Joe Portlock / LAT Images / FIA F3 Championship

New entry
Honda and Red Bull protege shone in first European season

Three F4 campaigns in Japan as a Honda junior culminated in claiming the manufacturer’s first FIA F4 title there, and Tsunoda’s reward was a dual campaign in FIA F3 and EF Open with Jenzer Motorsport and Motopark respectively, complete with a place on the Red Bull Junior Team.

His European debut in EF Open began with a second place finish and a crash with team-mate Liam Lawson. His FIA F3 debut was even better, with two top 10 finishes in an even higher quality field.

The strong results continued in both series, with EF Open initially the more successful of the two. Tsunoda took a win at Hockenheim and three fastest laps, the latter coming in an incredible charge from 10th to third at Monza.

His racecraft at the Italian circuit had already been proven in FIA F3, where he took his first race one podium from sixth on the grid, and brushed off a clash with Jake Hughes and pressure from several drivers on a drying track to win a thrilling race two.

That capped some remarkable progress with a Jenzer team that lacked any experience among its drivers, with Tsunoda at first struggling in qualifying and then charging towards the points, before he qualified third at Spa and took second in race two.

Swapping between the two championships and their different cars proved as much of a hindrance as it was a help in terms of experience. It was clear he was still learning when it came to his Macau debut with Hitech, which he finished in 11th after a number of incidents. If he does step up to F2 next year, he’ll be in at the deep end once again.

Further reading
Scout Report: Yuki Tsunoda

21. Dennis Hauger

New entry
F4’s fastest driver was Italian champion and narrowly beaten in Germany?

A heavy dose of bad luck was the only thing that stopped Hauger becoming the first driver to win both the ADAC and Italian F4 titles this year, and he should have scored in excess of 20 wins.

When Hauger was at his best, he was often struck down by mechanical problems or penalties, and it was only in the second half of the Italian season that he had an uninterrupted run, and ended up winning eight of the last 10 races.

Some of these wins were a case of keeping his head cool while others didn’t, but on occasion he could be brilliantly dominant.

This was the problem in Germany, where from the off he couldn’t get a break. He topped qualifying for the season opener but had to start from 11th. He climbed to third, but he spun in race two and clashed with Gianluca Petecof in a race three charge.

He was denied a double win at the Red Bull Ring by a penalty, and finished race three down in 21st due to damage. Being on the wrong side of a tyre gamble, and Petecof, led to further misery at Zandvoort. A piece of debris caused his car to shut down while leading at the Nurburgring, putting him 68 points behind Pourchaire. Total domination of four of the last six races brought him one point short of the title before penalties were applied to rivals.

F4 regulations delayed Hauger’s F3 debut, and in his two EF Open races at Silverstone he qualified third and finished fifth. A combination of more EF Open and FIA F3 could be on the cards for 2020.

Click here to view the rest of the 2019 Top 50

The post Formula Scout Top 50 Drivers of 2019: 30-21 appeared first on Formula Scout.

Photo: Joe Portlock / LAT Images / FIA F2 Championship

Louis Deletraz and Pedro Piquet will form Charouz Racing System?s 2020 Formula 2 line-up.

Piquet will be making the step up to F2 after finishing fifth in the FIA Formula 3 championship this year, while Deletraz returns to the team he raced for in F2 in 2018.

Both drivers ran with the squad in the post-season test earlier this month. Deletraz, who will enter his fourth season in F2 next year, topped the test, while Piquet finished eighth overall.

?We?re very happy to welcome Louis back to the team and to bring in Pedro, who impressed us when we monitored his progress in F3 last season,? said team owner Antonin Charouz.

?As testing showed, I think we have a driver in Louis that is capable of winning races and we believe Pedro will learn quickly and give a good account of himself as he makes an important step in his career.

?We?re excited about what the new season could have in store for us.?

Charouz spent 2019 racing under the Sauber Junior Team banner, running Ferrari junior Callum Ilott and Juan Manuel Correa for the majority of the F2 season. The team will return to its former name in 2020.

Piquet will make the step up to F2 after two years in GP3/F3 on the Formula 1 support bill.

Racing with Trident, he claimed three podium finishes last season, including a victory in the feature race at Spa, on his way to fifth in the championship standings.

Despite being new to the team, Piquet already knows many of the staff behind the scenes, as Charouz Racing employs a number of staff members who previously worked for Van Amersfoort in the now defunct European Formula 3 championship, where Piquet raced in 2016 and ?17.

?After two years in GP3 and F3, the time is right to take the next step in my career and I think I?m ready for the challenge that F2 will bring,? he said. ?I think I had some good training in the last series and that will definitely help me.

?I?m happy to join Charouz because they had two strong years in F2 and they have a fast car. One of the other reasons I decided to go there is because I know the engineering part of the team very well and I knew I would work with good people.?

Deletraz will return to the team he raced for in 2018, where he scored his maiden F2 podium at Monza. The 22-year-old moved to Carlin for 2019, finishing eighth in the championship standings.

?I?m looking forward to working with the guys at Charouz again – many of who are the same as when I drove there in 2018,? he said.

?I know they have good experience like me so I?m confident we can put that together and do something good in 2020.

?I?m focused on fighting at the front and trying to win with Charouz. I will go there and do the maximum.?

The post Deletraz and Piquet to race for Charouz in 2020 F2 season appeared first on Formula Scout.

Photo: Jerry Andre / LAT Images / FIA F2 Championship

The line-up for the first day of post-season Formula 2 testing in Abu Dhabi has been confirmed, with Carlin to run Nikita Mazepin alongside debutant Yuki Tsunoda.

Prema, DAMS and HWA will run their confirmed 2020 line-ups, while Virtuosi pairs its new signing Callum Ilott with Guanyu Zhou, who has been fully expected to continue with the squad for a second season.

As it announced on Tuesday, ART will run its confirmed signing Marcus Armstrong alongside Christian Lundgaard, who is tipped to step up from Formula 3 with the team next year.

Mazepin raced for ART in his rookie season in 2019, placing 18th in the standings after he had been GP3 runner-up with the outfit last year.

Although he will test for Carlin, Mazepin has also been linked to a rumoured new entry from his old F3 team Hitech.

Tsunoda, backed by Red Bull and Honda, enjoyed an impressive first season in Europe in 2019, finishing ninth in FIA F3 and fourth in a partial Euroformula Open campaign.

Louis Deletraz, who raced for Carlin this season, returns to his 2018 squad Charouz for the test, where he is joined by F3 race-winner Pedro Piquet. The Czech squad is set to drop the Sauber Junior Team name it ran this season.

Campos Racing, a three-time winner with Jack Aitken this year, runs former Brazilian F3 champion Guilherme Samaia – who started 2019 in Euroformula Open before withdrawing due to a contractual dispute – alongside FIA F3 racer Niko Kari.

Another stepping up from FIA F3 is Felipe Drugovich, who will test for MP Motorsport together with the team’s 2019 driver Mahaveer Raghunathan, who escaped his second ban of the season in last weekend’s final round.

Veteran Luca Ghiotto, who is set to leave F2 to race GT cars next season, will return tomorrow to Trident, the team with which he was GP3 runner-up in 2015 and a GP2 race-winner in 2016.

Also testing for Trident will be Euroformula Open champion Marino Sato, who contested the final four rounds of this season with Campos.

Day one entry list
Carlin: Nikita Mazepin / Yuki Tsunoda
ART: Christian Lundgaard / Marcus Armstrong
DAMS: Dan Ticktum / Sean Gelael
Virtuosi: Guanyu Zhou / Callum Ilott
Prema: Mick Schumacher / Robert Shwartzman
Charouz: Louis Deletraz / Pedro Piquet
Campos: Guilherme Samaia / Niko Kari
MP: Felipe Drugovich / Mahaveer Raghunathan
HWA: Giuliano Alesi / Artem Markelov
Trident: Luca Ghiotto / Marino Sato

The post Mazepin and Tsunoda to test for Carlin in F2 in Abu Dhabi appeared first on Formula Scout.

Photo: Gareth Harford / FIA F3 Championship

Pedro Piquet scored a commanding FIA Formula 3 win in the first race at Spa-Francorchamps as Robert Shwartzman beat Jehan Daruvala to second to increase his series lead.

Starting second on the grid, Piquet took the lead away from pole-sitter Daruvala exiting Raidillon on the opening lap.

After a virtual safety car period that lasted for around one lap, Piquet was able to quickly pull out a four-second advantage as Daruvala squabbled with Yuki Tsunoda and Leonardo Pulcini over second.

Pulcini, who went around the outside of Shwartzman for fourth at Les Combes on the first lap, went past Tsunoda and then Daruvala within a few corners at the restart, only for Tsunoda to then jump past both down the Kemmel Straight.

Daruvala eventually worked his way back up to second by lap seven of 17, but Shwartzman was also on a charge, and swept past his Prema team-mate on the run to Les Combes three laps later.

Shwartzman’s clean DRS-assisted overtake helped him to take a slice out of Piquet’s lead, but the Trident driver’s pace dropped off only on the last lap, winning by 2.2s for his first Saturday triumph at this level following his two reversed-grid GP3 victories last season.

Five seconds separated Shwartzman and Daruvala at the flag, now split by 19 points at the top of the standings, but they were well clear of a manic final-lap fight for fourth.

Title contender Juri Vips had had a quiet race having failed in an earlier bid to get past Tsunoda, but he went three-wide with both Tsunoda and Leonardo Pulcini on the run to Les Combes.

Vips claimed the inside line, with Tsunoda and a charging Christian Lundgaard (who started 14th) both running off track on his outside. Tsunoda came back on across the front of Vips, who continued in fourth ahead of Lundgaard until the Bus Stop chicane, when the Hitech driver locked up under pressure from the ART man and conceded the place.

Tsunoda took sixth ahead of Pulcini and Marcus Armstrong, who came from 19th after a disastrous qualifying to take eighth and reversed-grid pole for race two. ART duo Max Fewtrell and David Beckmann completed the top 10, while Carlin’s Teppei Natori missed his maiden point by just a single place.

Vips was fortunate not to be further back after the first lap, but he benefitted first from contact in front of him at Les Combes between Logan Sargeant and Jake Hughes (which dropped Hughes to the rear and earned Sargeant a penalty) and then from Devlin DeFrancesco and Alex Peroni locking wheels at Bruxelles, after which Peroni went off into the barriers to trigger the VSC.

Race results (17 laps)

The post Pedro Piquet takes commanding Spa FIA F3 win, Shwartzman extends lead appeared first on Formula Scout.

Photo: Malcolm Griffiths / FIA F3

Trident’s Pedro Piquet narrowly edged European Formula 3 race-winner Juri Vips to top the timesheet in the opening practice session of the new-look FIA Formula 3 at Barcelona.

Fellow European F3 star and Ferrari Formula 1 junior Robert Shwartzman held top spot for the majority of the session with Prema, and was the first driver to lap below the 1m35s threshold.

His rapid benchmark time was toppled in the final minutes of the session by GP3 race-winner Piquet. The Brazilian posted a 1m33.255s time to end the 45-minute session fastest.

Red Bull junior Vips was another driver to vault up the order late on. Driving for Hitech GP, which with Prema has joined the championship from European F3, Vips missed out on first place by 0.009s.

Shwartzman ended up third, narrowly ahead of the second Trident car of GP3 veteran Niko Kari.

Jake Hughes, who struggled to make the Pirelli tyres work during a lacklustre 2018 GP3 season, lost time in the final sector but still ended up fifth fastest for HWA Racelab. The German team is new to conventional single-seaters, having raced in touring cars for several decades.

Carlin, making its return to F1’s secondary support series since 2015, ended up in sixth place with Formula Renault Eurocup graduate Logan Sargeant, ahead of Prema’s Marcus Armstrong.

Reigning GP3 champion team ART Grand Prix – the squad which scooped all but one of the nine teams’ titles – failed to factor at the top. David Beckmann’s session involved an early tangle with Sauber junior Fabio Scherer, where the German tagged the back of Scherer’s car and damaged his front wing.

He quickly returned to the track and was briefly fastest before slipping back to ninth. ART team-mates and Renault juniors Christian Lundgaard and Max Fewtrell were 12th and 15th.

Pre-season pacesetter Leonardo Pulcini set his fastest time early in the session but ended up 24th for Hitech.

Free Practice results

The post Pedro Piquet fastest by 0.009s in practice for new-look FIA F3 appeared first on Formula Scout.

Photo: Malcolm Griffiths / FIA F3 Championship

GP3 race-winner Pedro Piquet and Devlin DeFrancesco complete Trident?s three-car line-up for the 2019 FIA Formula 3 championship.

The pair, who both competed in GP3 last season, will race alongside Niko Kari at Trident for the inaugural season of the new F3 series, a successor to GP3.

Piquet joined Trident for his GP3 debut last year, and took two sprint race victories on his way to sixth in the standings. This year he?s aiming to challenge for a third F3 title, adding to the two he won in Brazil in 2014 and ’15.

?I am really motivated for the season ahead,? Piquet said.

?I experienced a great 2018 season with [Trident], scoring two wins and several podium finishes. For 2019, I am sure that we have everything we need to do even better and challenge for the title.?

DeFrancesco moves to the team having raced with MP Motorsport in GP3 in 2018. He missed the first two rounds, having previously committed to FIA European F3, and then withdrew at the Hungaroring through illness. He scored zero points, but joined Trident for the post-season Yas Marina test and was sixth fastest.

?I?m super looking forward to this year,? DeFrancesco said.

?I started to work with Giacomo [Ricci, Trident team manager] and everybody from Trident at the tail end of last year.

?These guys are pretty unbelievable. I have a great engineer, Andrea Mancini, and the mechanics are really switched on as well.

?The new car feels quite a bit different from last year. We learned a fair few things at the shakedown and I look forward to making more progress at the official test at Paul Ricard. It?s going to be a hard year, it?s such a competitive field, but I?m ready to bounce back from a difficult 2018.?

Team boss Giacomo Ricci is confident both drivers will continue to improve in the new F3 championship.

?Pedro?s talent and potential are out of question,? he said. ?I am delighted to see him continue in his quest for Formula 1 wearing the Trident colours.

?The team will put up its best effort to support him and enable him to achieve his career goals.

?We are delighted to welcome DeFrancesco [too]. He really impressed us for the skills and consistency he showed last season.

?We also had the chance to evaluate him first-hand in postseason testing at Abu Dhabi and he really impressed the technical staff of Trident so we quickly found the right chemistry together. I am sure that all the best conditions are now in place for a high-quality season.”

The post Piquet and DeFrancesco complete Trident FIA F3 line-up appeared first on Formula Scout.

40. Pedro Piquet

Photo: Zak Mauger / GP3 Series Media Service

Photo: Zak Mauger / GP3 Series Media Service

Re-entry (49th in ’14)
Finally came good in Europe in race-winning GP3 season

After two middling seasons in European Formula 3, Piquet delivered a stellar rookie GP3 campaign in 2018, scoring more points than any other driver across the reversed-grid races.

He outpointed his Trident team-mate Giuliano Alesi, who had two years of prior GP3 experience, to finish the year sixth in the drivers? championship.

His impressive racecraft was demonstrated throughout the season, such as his excellent win at Monza, where he triumphed over Alesi in a race-long battle. He had earlier won the sprint race at Silverstone, getting the better of polesitter Alesi off the line, and holding the lead all the way to the chequered flag.

A feature race podium eluded him, hindered by a relatively poor qualifying record, and proving his class without the help of a reversed-grid will surely be his main aim next year when he seems set to stay on in the new FIA F3 rather than stepping up to Formula 2.

39. Kyle Kirkwood

Photo: Indianapolis Motor Speedway, LLC Photography

Photo: Indianapolis Motor Speedway, LLC Photography

New entry
Unstoppable in USF2000 and F3 Americas

Twenty-five race wins in a single year is a very impressive number. What is more impressive is that came from just 29 race starts. That is what Kyle Kirkwood achieved off the back of winning the United States Formula 4 championship in 2017.

However, the elephant in the room must be addressed ? the grid size for Formula 3 Americas was shockingly low. Kirkwood got the job done, but against grids as high as six and as low as four never reads particularly well.?That is not Kirkwood?s fault, of course. It also should not undermine the potential showed this year, because he showed a lot of it in USF2000.

Few drivers achieve a perfect season, and Kirkwood came rather close to it. Ten wins from 12 is an exceptional record for any driver in their first year. To add to that, Kirkwood did it with single-car entrant Cape Motorsports.

There are obvious benefits and drawbacks to running a one-car team, but to be able to nail weekends so close to perfect so consistently reflects very well on both team and driver. Only Alex Baron, who is more experienced on the Road to Indy ladder, looked close to taking the fight to Kirkwood before he left the series.

The newly-rebranded Indy Pro 2000 series is the next step for Kirkwood. After a strong 2018, he will be looking to make it four championships in three years.

38. Luca Ghiotto

Photo: Zak Mauger / FIA Formula 2

Photo: Zak Mauger / FIA Formula 2

Down 23
Strong drives lead to more F2 podiums

A switch to Campos Racing for his third season in Formula 2 did no favours for Ghiotto. The team had a best finish of seventh last year, and although the new car combined with Ghiotto’s experience and ability presented the opportunity for a fresh start, the package ultimately wasn’t strong enough to win.

Ghiotto scored from the off in Bahrain, immediately bettering Campos?s 2017 season with a sixth place in the sprint race. That was followed by an embarrassing crash at Baku, but he returned to form at Barcelona, finishing fourth and fifth. That pace continued into Monaco, but he was crashed out of the feature race. In the sprint he recovered to 10th place from the back of the grid.

The peak of his season came at Paul Ricard, where he qualified in the top five (while his team-mate was at the back), fought back from a first-lap spin to take a feature race podium and then repeated that result in the sprint.

There were two more podium appearances, at the Hungaroring and Yas Marina, but as the mechanical gremlins of the new F2 car were ironed out, the deficiencies of the Campos car became more evident, and Ghiotto only had one other top five finish in the second half of the season.

He still seemed to make the most of his machinery, including the near victory in Hungary and use of the alternate strategy to go from 16th to third in Abu Dhabi, and was in the points consistently enough to end eighth in the standings, but will hope for better when he returns to Virtuosi in 2019.

37. Dorian Boccolacci

Photo: Zak Mauger / GP3 Series Media Service

Photo: Joe Portlock / GP3 Series Media Service

Up 4
Impressed in GP3 to earn an F2 chance

Boccolacci began the year in GP3 with series debutant MP Motorsport, who took little time in getting up to speed. He won the main race at the second round at Paul Ricard, beating eventual champion Anthoine Hubert and becoming at the time only the second non-ART Grand Prix driver to win a feature race in the past 18 months.

However, Boccolacci was stripped of the home victory after he and team-mate Niko Kari failed to provide an adequate fuel sample at the end of the race. As with his misfortune-filled 2017, Boccolacci?s points tally was once again skewed and unrepresentative of his talent.

He eventually got the victory he deserved, in the Hungarian reversed-grid race, before earning promotion to Formula 2 with MP for the final four rounds of the season.

MP?s 2018 F2 season was curtailed with a multitude of reliability issues, with Boccolacci enduring a torrid run of issues at Spa and Monza. The most painful of which came in the feature race at Monza, where he was one of only two other drivers on the same far superior race strategy as eventual race winner Tadasuke Makino, until he was forced to retire.

He showed his class in the sprint race, charging from the back of the grid to finish in seventh. He also fought to score a solitary point in race two in Sochi.

36. Sacha Fenestraz

Down 31
More street circuit success bookends tough rookie F3 campaign

There were high hopes for Fenestraz in his first season in F3, but a largely tough campaign led to him losing his place on the Renault junior stable after just one year.

The 2017 Formula Renault Eurocup champion more than proved his talent though, starting off by taking victory during the season-opening European F3 round at ‘home’ in Pau. The tricky French street circuit rewards bravery, and Fenestraz looked like he had adapted to F3 already, having had just two weekends of experience prior.

But it proved to be a false dawn, as when the championship headed to the more representative permanent circuits, Fenestraz and his Carlin team floundered.

He didn?t see another top five finish until the second half of the season, even sinking to the depths of a pointless weekend at Zandvoort as team-mate Nikita Troitskiy won a race. But at Silverstone, where Carlin has always enjoyed something of a home advantage, Fenestraz looked like he was back at his best, taking a pole, two second places and enjoying some thrilling side-to-side racing with Dan Ticktum.

At the time he said a breakthrough had been made, and explained to Formula Scout that he could drive a F3 car just as well as anyone, but had been encountering tyre management issues. The Silverstone weekend was another anomaly though, because he could do no better than seventh after that, and finished 11th in the standings.

His second trip to Macau provided another timely reminder of his skill, enhancing his already superb street circuit record.?He qualified third fastest and also finishing the grand prix in third.

It initially looked like he?d be racing in the new FIA F3 championship for 2019, but it appears Japan is now his more likely destination.

35. Rinus VeeKay

Photo: Indianapolis Motor Speedway, LLC Photography

Photo: Indianapolis Motor Speedway, LLC Photography

New entry
Dutchman flew to Pro Mazda title

After a very strong first year in the United States and first year in cars, VeeKay continued to make waves in 2018.

With Juncos Racing, the title should have been the objective despite VeeKay?s relative inexperience. He delivered, in some style after hitting form at the perfect time of the season.

Wins came on the streets of Toronto, the undulating Mid-Ohio and on Gateway?s fast short oval in rapid succession. This run of form gave him a healthy advantage in the championship against Parker Thompson, who failed to make the rostrum in the five races VeeKay won successively.

He also won the opening pair of races at St. Petersburg, but that was not how he started his year. He rounded off the MRF Challenge season with four podiums (including a win) at Chennai.

With the two dominant drivers in Indy Lights off to IndyCar for 2019, VeeKay has a strong chance of making a good name for himself in the level directly below the main series. And keeping on the books of Ricardo Juncos is no bad thing as he continues to build his eponymous IndyCar team.

34. Guan Yu Zhou

Photo: FIA F3 Europe

New entry
Took a step forward in final F3 season

After two winless seasons, Ferrari Driver Academy member Zhou came into European F3 this year and won straight out of the box at Pau: the most challenging circuit on the calendar.

He narrowly lost out on a first pole just prior, and after taking the lead at the start had to endure a chaotic race before taking victory. It looked like he?d returned to the ?old Zhou? in the remaining Pau races though, failing to score in both after a poor second qualifying session.

His improved form stuck after Pau, with second place at the Hungaroring, a fourth at the Norisring, three podiums and his first pole at Zandvoort, and another pole at Spa-Francorchamps. As his Prema team-mates got faster, Zhou?s own performances faltered, but his stagnating points tally was more a result of bad luck in races. The variety of clashes he was involved in was unrepresentative of Zhou?s reputation as a clean racer.

At Spa he left pointless due to a puncture and then two clashes with team-mate Mick Schumacher. He was denied a strong result by another tyre failure at Silverstone, and then hit other team-mate Marcus Armstrong in the wet at Misano.

The decline in his performance was clearest at the Red Bull Ring, where he scraped two points as team-mates Mick Schumacher and Robert Shwartzman dominated, but he responded in perfect style by taking win, pole and fastest lap in race one of the Hockenheim season finale.

He was never title-winning material, but the Chinese driver?s progress was evident when he was the top Prema driver in qualifying at Macau, and fastest Mercedes-Benz powered entrant, and was fifth in the qualifying race until a final lap crash.

That resulted in a charge from 24th to 12th in the grand prix itself, and a conflicting end to 2018 for the Chinese driver, who?ll be racing in F2 next year.

33. Lorenzo Colombo

New entry
Rookie shines against Eurocup’s big teams

Italian F4 graduate Colombo showed promise from his first drive in a Formula Renault at the end of 2017, and made good on that with strong performances throughout the 2018 Eurocup while driving for a lesser-fancied team in JD Motorsport.

Close to the podium on his debut at Paul Ricard, he then excelled at his local circuit of Monza with a pair of podiums, and had led the second race from pole position.

Frustratingly for Colombo, that was the closest he would get to a win. But he was an almost constant threat, who scored a top-four finish at seven of the 10 circuits and claimed his second pole at an eighth. He ended the year a highly-commendable sixth overall.

?I was hoping for a top three finish for this year,” he told Formula Scout. “But it?s really hard to race against these teams because they have good drivers and they already know how the car setup is, they tested more, so I was really recovering session by session.

“I?m pretty happy with the work I?ve done with the team, because we worked a bit harder in the winter tests and in the end I think it paid off for making a good setup. It was just that we didn?t put everything together, so that?s why I?m here and not in the top three.?

Eyeing a step up for 2019, Colombo tested GP3 in Abu Dhabi last month, but could return to the Formula Renault Eurocup, where he should become an even stronger contender.

• Scout Report: Lorenzo Colombo (December 11)

32. Liam Lawson

New entry
Young Kiwi starred in ADAC F4, then stunned on his Asian F3 debut

Lawson is without doubt one of the drivers to watch for 2019, and the Kiwi made his mark in Formula 4 and 3 this year.

After impressing massively in the Mazda Road to Indy Shootout at the end of 2017, Lawson switched from Australian to ADAC Formula 4 with Van Amersfoort Racing.

The 16-year-old Kiwi starred immediately, finishing on the podium in his first race in Europe. This was followed by two 17th place finishes, but he was on the podium in eight of the next 11 races.?His first win came at the Laustizring, where many of his rivals fell due to fluid on the track. He followed that up with a second place and another win, from seventh on the grid, to complete one of the most accomplished weekends seen in F4 this year.

At the Red Bull Ring he took his third win of the season and continued to close on veteran Lirim Zendeli at the top of the standings. It would prove to be his last victory however, with a puncture in the German Grand Prix support event and off-key Nurburgring weekend ending his title hopes, before he took two poles and two podiums in the Hockenheim finale to clinch second in the standings.

Last month Lawson made his Formula 3 debut in Asia with Pinnacle Motorsport, which also supported B-MAX Racing’s entry, and put established stars from Formula Renault Eurocup, GP3 and F3 to shame. Admittedly a new tyre compound for the round meant his rookie status was less of a disadvantage, but over three races he had a combined victory advantage of 35.582 seconds. With a performance so dominant, it wouldn?t be surprising if he does the same in the Toyota Racing Series next January.

31. Linus Lundqvist

New entry
Beat Carlin to the British F3 title

The Swede only needed one weekend of preparation in 2017 before taking on BRDC British F3 this year and winning the title on his first attempt.

He didn?t necessarily have the best car through the whole season, but he maximised what he had more often than anyone else, and as a result was on the top step of the podium on seven occasions. His points advantage at the top of the standings come the end of the season equated to over two races worth.

What marks Lundqvist down is the standard of his opposition, which mostly had shown little in single-seaters to suggest they could challenge Lundqvist to the title. One of them, Nicolai Kjaergaard, did just that though, and Lundqvist only ended up securing the title in the final weekend of the year, when it arguably would?ve been won earlier were it not for a nightmare penultimate round of the season at Donington Park.

Although he wasn?t the greatest qualifier, Lundqvist made up for it with exemplary racecraft, only retiring once, and going 16 races before ending a race outside of the top eight despite the championship introducing fully reversed grids. At Spa-Francorchamps, a track he got crucial experience of in his 2017 cameo, he took two wins, the only driver to achieve the feat this year.

Lundqvist?s versatility is one of his strengths, having driven three very different types of cars in the last three years, and he?s won a 2019 Daytona 24 Hours drive in a Lamborghini. A previous iteration of that reward was won by another British F3 champion, Felipe Nasr, and helped pushed him on to a career in F1 and sportscars.

A similarly as impressive job off the back of a British F3 title might be what Lundqvist needs to show he can perform on the international stage, ahead of a likely FIA F3 campaign.

• BRDC British F3 season review: Catching (up with) Linus Lundqvist?(November 19)

The Formula Scout Top 50 has been compiled by Bethonie Waring, Craig Woollard, Elliot Wood, Peter Allen, Josh Suttill and Tim Lumb.

Click here to view the rest of the list

The post Formula Scout Top 50 Drivers of 2018: 40-31 appeared first on Formula Scout.