Photo: Formula Motorsport Limited
Kaylen Frederick is staying in single-seaters’ third tier for a fourth year, but the American is finally leaving FIA Formula 3 after one top-five finish in 49 races.
The 21-year-old won the series now known as GB3 back in 2020, with a campaign that featured nine victories and eight poles.
Having taken the title with Carlin, he stayed with the team as he stepped up to the FIA F3 Championship. It was not his first taste of third-tier competition, having done two Euroformula rounds in 2018, but his rookie F3 season proved troublesome as an injury and then COVID-19 ruled Frederick out of seven races. He ended the year 22nd in the standings with two points.
Switching to Hitech GP for 2022 resulted in a strong start, as Frederick scored seven times in the first half of the season. But no points in the second half meant he fell from 11th to 17th in the standings. It looked like he would finally show podium-fighting form in 2023 when he signed with ART Grand Prix, but the team had an unexpectedly poor season and Frederick scored just 11 of the team’s 71 points and was 21st in the standings.
For 2024 he will move across to Japan’s F3-level Super Formula Lights series and drive for the B-MAX Racing team in a seven-car line-up. Among his team-mates are Honda junior Syun Koide, the famous “Dragon” and Rin Arakawa, who over the last four years has come eighth, second, third and sixth in Japanese F4 with a total of two wins and 18 other podiums.
TOM’S has expanded its line-up to four cars with the addition of Yuga Furutani. The 2021 Formula Regional Japan champion will be going into his third SF Lights campaign with the team, with eight podiums from his first two.
There are still reports that the series will be replacing its fleet of Dallara 320 cars this year with the new Dallara 324, a design which Dallara is still yet to confirm exists. Such reports has prompted another series which uses the Formula 3-level Dallara 320 car to deny it’s changing chassis this season.