All photos: Renault Sport
FR3.5 is growing in stature with each passing season. Here’s your guide to a driver lineup featuring some of the most exciting young drivers around ahead of this weekend’s season opener in Aragon…
Much of Formula Renault 3.5’s recent success in terms of Formula 1 graduates can be attributed to Red Bull, with the series becoming their finishing school of choice. Daniel Ricciardo and Jean-Eric Vergne finished runner-up in the previous two seasons, and are now both racing in F1. Lower budgets than GP2 and a calendar that doesn’t clash with any Grands Prix (with the exception of Monaco) has seen a number of F1 teams follow Red Bull’s lead – the 2012 grid features drivers contracted to no fewer than seven F1 teams.
While the GP2 grid featured seven drivers that we had profiled during the course of 2011, Formula Renault 3.5 beats that figure by one. Demand was high for each of the 26 seats, with all being filled prior to the first of the pre-season tests. Pre-season tests that allowed the teams to get to grips with a brand new car, which features DRS.
Here we run through each driver and pick out those to watch.
Carlin
1. Kevin Magnussen
Age: 19
Nation: Denmark
Talent: 5 out of 5 | Experience: 2 out of 5
F1 hopes: 4 out of 5 | Title chances: 4 out of 5
Son of former F1 racer and current sportscar ace Jan, Magnussen is a member of McLaren’s Young Driver Programme and has this year been given an increased role that includes simulator work and a run at the Young Driver Test. Last year he finished runner up in British F3 to Felipe Nasr, with an impressive haul of seven wins in his second year at F3 level.
He remains with the Carlin team for his step up to Formula Renault 3.5, the team that has won the last two titles and dominated last year. The pressure’s on then for Kevin, but he has been right on the pace in testing since the end of last season. He can certainly score race wins and could also be an outsider for the title.
A top championship position could see him knocking on the doors at the F1 teams right away, perhaps taking on a Friday role combined with more FR3.5 to remain race-ready.
Click here to read our driver profile of Kevin
2. Will Stevens
Age: 20
Nation: United Kingdom
Talent: 3 out of 5 | Experience: 1 out of 5
F1 hopes: 3 out of 5 | Title chances: 3 out of 5
Stevens is best known for having been taken on as a karter by the Honda F1 team, remaining on their books through their season as Brawn. He failed to live up to expectations a little in Formula Renault UK, finishing fourth at the end of his second season in the category. He remained in the class in 2010, this time contesting the Eurocup where he was fourth overall, behind three converts from Formula BMW.
Despite this slightly disappointing record and the large step up in power up to FR3.5, Stevens was immediately on the pace and topped the timesheets during post-season testing. He was subsequently snapped up by Carlin, having previously driven for the two other British junior racing heavyweights Fortec and Manor in the past two seasons.
His lack of experience means he’s unlikely to be right at the sharp end this season, but will hope to make good progress if he’s planning a second season in 2013.
Fortec Motorsports
3. Carlos Huertas
Age: 20
Nation: Colombia
Talent: 3 out of 5 | Experience: 2 out of 5
F1 hopes: 3 out of 5 | Title chances: 3 out of 5
Huertas moves to FR3.5 after finishing third in British Formula 3 last year behind Magnussen, in what was his third season in the championship. He finally claimed his maiden win at the last round of the campaign.
He has joined a top team in Fortec and has looked on the pace during testing. He doesn’t really have the right mix of talent and experience to be quite amongst the leading contenders this year, but could easily be there and there abouts.
4. Robin Frijns
Age: 20
Nation: Netherlands
Talent: 5 out of 5 | Experience: 1 out of 5
F1 hopes: 3 out of 5 | Title chances: 4 out of 5
Frijns was guilty 12 months ago of showing a little lack of ambition, by only following his Formula BMW Europe triumph up with a move to the Formula Renault Eurocup, when predecessors Gutierrez and Nasr had switched to F3. I was quesionning his judgement, but in the end it worked out very well indeed as he scooped a second consecutive continental title and really established himself as one of the best young drivers around.
He’s totally made up for any small step he made last year by making the huge leap into FR3.5 this year. It’s not unchartered territory though, his predessors as Eurocup champions Albert Costa and Kevin Korjus also made the move and did very well, finishing fifth and sixth respectively in their first campaigns.
Amazingly, Frijns has been quicker than anyone else in pre-season testing. It remains to be seen however whether he can defy his lack of experience and carry that form into the season proper. Certainly one to watch, regardless.
Click here to read our driver profile of Robin
ISR
5. Sam Bird
Age: 25
Nation: Britain
Talent: 4 out of 5 | Experience: 3 out of 5
F1 hopes: 3 out of 5 | Title chances: 4 out of 5
Now 25, last season could really have been Bird’s best shot at making the big time. His GP2 campaign got off to a good start, but lost his way halfway through the year. The switch to FR3.5 not only allows him to prove himself in a different championship, but more importantly keeps him race-sharp while being able to concentrate during Grand Prix weekends on his duties with Mercedes.
The F1 team seem to rate him highly, but it remains to be seen whether they’d hand him a race seat over certain other drivers, some of whom have already proved themselves in F1. Winning the FR3.5 title would be one way to earn some attention, but he hasn’t quite looked amongst the leading contenders in testing. That could easily change of course, and entering his ninth year in car racing he certainly needs it to.
Click here to read our driver profile of Sam
6. Jake Rosenzweig
Age: 23
Nation: United States
Talent: 2 out of 5 | Experience: 4 out of 5
F1 hopes: 2 out of 5 | Title chances: 2 out of 5
2012 is Rosenzweig’s third year in FR3.5, and really needs to perform after finishing 19th and 15th in the previous two seasons. The increase in quality in the field this year could mean that he’s going to slip backwards if he doesn’t show an improvement.
In ISR he’s got a top team, but then he had one of them in 2010 when he drove for Carlin. He showed some promise at the tail end of 2011 with a pair of fourth-place finishes at Paul Ricard, but he’ll need to dig deep to repeat that performance and show that he deserves to race at his level. Or indeed at a higher level, after driving for Addax in the non-championship GP2 race at Abu Dhabi last November.
Tech 1 Racing
7. Kevin Korjus
Age: 19
Nation: Estonia
Talent: 5 out of 5 | Experience: 3 out of 5
F1 hopes: 4 out of 5 | Title chances: 5 out of 5
2010 Formula Renault Eurocup champion Korjus shone upon his graduation to FR3.5 last year, becoming the series’ youngest ever winner at the season opener at Motorland and claiming further wins at Spa and the Nurburgring. That left him between Wickens and Vergne in the title race, but unfortunately things tailed off for him after that.
Sixth overall was still a fine result for his debut season, but sticking with Tech 1 for 2012 the pressure is now on for him to take the title.
A member of the Gravity management stable and thus now on the books at the Lotus F1 Team, Korjus tested for the team at Abu Dhabi last year. Championship glory this year could lead him to a reserve role next year ahead of a race drive in 2014.
Click here to read our driver profile of Kevin
8. Jules Bianchi
Age: 22
Nation: France
Talent: 5 out of 5 | Experience: 3 out of 5
F1 hopes: 5 out of 5 | Title chances: 5 out of 5
There are some very exciting driver lineups out there in FR3.5 in 2012, but Tech 1 still manage to win hands-down, with two of the most highly-rated drivers of recent years. Korjus is joined by Bianchi, who a couple of years ago was the driver everyone was getting excited about after an F3 Euro Series title campaign the dominance of which hadn’t been seen since Lewis Hamilton.
His reputation has taken something of a beating since then though. Tipped to follow Hamilton and Hulkenberg and win GP2 at the first attempt, he couldn’t even win a race in 2010. A number of incidents saw a disasterous start to his 2011 campaign in which he was supposed to rival Romain Grosjean. Both years he still finished third, but that was a bit of a failure for someone of Bianchi’s stature. More recent incidents behind the wheel of a Force India haven’t helped matters.
So like Bird, the pressure’s on Bianchi to win after his FR3.5 switch, at least in terms of winning people over. His own backers, including Ferrari, seem to believe in him anyway, and so they may not be so worried about results – more that he is just getting race mileage.
Click here to read our driver profile of Jules
P1 Motorsport
9. Walter Grubmuller
Age: 23
Nation: Austria
Talent: 2 out of 5 | Experience: 4 out of 5
F1 hopes: 2 out of 5 | Title chances: 3 out of 5
From the most exciting driver lineup to the least. Grubmuller’s CV highlight is finishing runner-up in British F3 to Daniel Ricciardo in 2009. A fine acheivement, you might think. But it was his third year in the championship, after two previous seasons where he finished 16th and 14th.
Interestingly, he has since finished 16th and then 18th in Formula Renault 3.5. So surely then he’ll be runner-up this year? We doubt it, although his experience should certainly allow him to mix it towards the sharp end, but he really doesn’t have the necessary talent to launch a title challenge.
10. Daniil Move
Age: 26
Nation: Russia
Talent: 1 out of 5 | Experience: 5 out of 5
F1 hopes: 1 out of 5 | Title chances: 3 out of 5
What Move is doing entering a sixth straight season of FR3.5 I don’t know. He never did anything in his early career to warrant a place in the series, and it’s only really down to his supreme experience over the competition that he picked up a couple of podiums last year and finished tenth overall. It’s certainly time for him to consider alternative employment within the racing world.
The new, faster car and the improved level of competition could mean that he’s in for a harder season this year. Equally the combined experience of him and his teammate could really help the P1 team to get on top of the new car.
Lotus
11. Richie Stanaway
Age: 20
Nation: New Zealand
Talent: 5 out of 5 | Experience: 2 out of 5
F1 hopes: 4 out of 5 | Title chances: 4 out of 5
Stanaway stood out as one of the top talents of 2011, picking up a second straight championship title in Germany, taking the F3 Cup title to add to his Formel Masters one from 2010. He really caught many people’s attention however when he won on his debut in the GP3 Series at Spa.
A move to GP3 had looked on the cards, but he tested FR3.5 at the end of the year and was immediately topping the timesheets.? He’s continually showed that he takes no time at all to adapt to new machinery, and so will be amongst the leading contenders in the title race.
Another on the books at Gravity and Lotus, Richie will be keen to get the better of Korjus, even though the Estonian aleady has a year under his belt at this level.
Click here to read our driver profile of Richie
12. Marco Sorensen
Age: 21
Nation: Denmark
Talent: 3 out of 5 | Experience: 2 out of 5
F1 hopes: 3 out of 5 | Title chances: 3 out of 5
Sorensen was the only man to get anywhere near Stanaway in German F3, and this year becomes his teammate with the new-found support of the Gravity-Lotus partnership. He also won on a one-off appearance in the F3 Euro Series last year at Silverstone, and previously caught the eye on his way to third in the Formula Renault 2.0 NEC in 2009 behind Antonio Felix da Costa and compatriot Magnussen.
Like Stanaway, Sorensen was bang on the pace when he jumped into the previous FR3.5 car at the end of last year, though matching the rapid Kiwi is probably going to be a bit of a tough ask.
BVM Target
15. Giovanni Venturini
Age: 20
Nation: Italy
Talent: 3 out of 5 | Experience: 3 out of 5
F1 hopes: 3 out of 5 | Title chances: 2 out of 5
Venturini came to the attention when he flew to victory in Auto GP at Monza last year in his very first race out of Formula Renault 2.0. He failed to maintain that form however as another young Italian took charge of the series, and he finished up ninth in the standings. One further victory did come however at Oschersleben.
Prior to finishing fifth in the Formula Renault Eurocup in 2010 he was third and second in the Italian and Swiss championships respectively in 2009 – his first full season in single-seaters.
16. Nicolai Martsenko
Age: 18
Nation: Russia
Talent: 1 out of 5 | Experience: 2 out of 5
F1 hopes: 2 out of 5 | Title chances: 1 out of 5
Martsenko seemed to take the Vitaly Petrov route into single-seaters by coming out of Lada racing. Since then he’s been in German F3, coming 18th overall in 2010 and improving to 12th in 2011 – with a best result of fourth.
So when you compare his record to a couple of other drivers who’ve graduated from the same series, the signs suggest that he’s going to struggle. Saying that, he’s not been rooted right at the bottom of the timesheets in testing. It really seems daft to be making the move up so early in his career without having proved himself first.
Team RFR
17. Mikhail Aleshin
Age: 24
Nation: Russia
Talent: 4 out of 5 | Experience: 4 out of 5
F1 hopes: 3 out of 5 | Title chances: 4 out of 5
The 2010 champion Aleshin returns to lead new Russian outfit RFR. Funding issues meant that his planned GP2 graduation for 2011 never really went to plan, an unfortunate situation for a guy who used to be backed by both Red Bull and Lukoil.
Testing pace suggests that he won’t be able to repeat with his new team what he achieved in 2010 with frontrunners Carlin, but at the same time it’s hard to completely rule out a man who’s been there and done it before.
18. Anton Nebilitskiy
Age: 22
Nation: Russia
Talent: 1 out of 5 | Experience: 4 out of 5
F1 hopes: 2 out of 5 | Title chances: 2 out of 5
Nebilitskiy enters his fourth season of Formula Renault 3.5, no doubt hoping to feed off Aleshin’s experience as he looks to improve on his best season so far in 2010 where he was 14th overall with one podium. He failed to score a point during his rookie season in 2009, while in 2011 he slumped to 19th in the final standings.
Previously he scored just one podium finish during three years in various Formula Renault 2.0 categories, with links back home clearly the only reason he got to make the step up.
Pons Racing
19. Yann Cunha
Age: 21
Nation: Brazil
Talent: 1 out of 5 | Experience: 2 out of 5
F1 hopes: 1 out of 5 | Title chances: 1 out of 5
Cunha was runner-up in Formula 3 Sudamericana in 2010, but last year stepped up to British F3 and endured a miserable campaign. He would have finished up bottom of the full-time entrants with just four points – expect he was also handed a 40 point penalty for breaking a championship rule that stated he was not allowed to take part in another F3 race at a circuit used by the British championship.
That was a European F3 Open race at Spa, a series he later won a race at in Portimao and finished ninth in the standings.
He’s been stuck at the bottom of the timesheets during pre-season testing in FR3.5 though, so he could be in for another tough year. The simple solution would of course be to race in a series with weaker competition…
20. Zoel Amberg
Age: 19
Nation: Switzerland
Talent: 2 out of 5 | Experience: 2 out of 5
F1 hopes: 2 out of 5 | Title chances: 2 out of 5
Amberg steps up to FR3.5 after a difficult maiden GP3 Series campaign where he failed to score any points with just one top ten finish. He’d previously shown promise though, winning the Formula Renault Middle European Championship (formerly Swiss, currently ALPS) title in 2010.
He showed well too when he contested the final three rounds of the European F3 Open last year, scoring four podiums from six starts including one win.
Expect him to be fighting somewhere between the middle of the grid and the lower midfield.
International Draco Racing
21. Nico Muller
Age: 20
Nation: Switzerland
Talent: 4 out of 5 | Experience: 2 out of 5
F1 hopes: 3 out of 5 | Title chances: 4 out of 5
Muller took a surprising third overall in the first season of GP3 in 2010, his first out of Formula Renault where he dominated the Swiss championship. He then showed that was no flash in the pan by finishing up fourth last year despite a decent increase in the level of competition.
He’s certainly someone who has earned his step up then, and although Draco have had a quite couple of years recently then did win the title with Bertrand Baguette in 2009 so he has the potential to do well. He’s looked pretty good in testing too. He’ll probably fall short of a title challenge, but could easily be fighting for wins.
22. Andre Negrao
Age: 19
Nation: Brazil
Talent: 2 out of 5 | Experience: 3 out of 5
F1 hopes: 2 out of 5 | Title chances: 3 out of 5
Negrao’s form in his solitary Eurocup Formula Renault campaign didn’t suggest he had what it took in FR3.5, but he did a fairly reasonable job with a best result of sixth.
It was enough to earn him a second season with the Draco team and he’ll be looking to become a more regular feature inside the top ten. Testing more often than not suggested he’d be further down in the midfield for the most part, though he did end one day at Barcelona in fourth place, half a second behind his timesheet-topping teammate Muller.
Comtec Racing
23. Vittorio Ghirelli
Age: 17
Nation: Italy
Talent: 2 out of 5 | Experience: 2 out of 5
F1 hopes: 3 out of 5 | Title chances: 1 out of 5
Ghirelli stepped straight into GP3 out of karts as he turned 16 in 2010, and failed to score a single point in two years in the championship. He did last year show a little bit of promise in Formula Renault ALPS where he scored three podiums from nine races.
Once again he’s made an unecessarily large step into FR3.5 without proving himself at the level below, and his testing pace suggests that this year will again be a struggle for him. But at 17, he could potentially have a lot of years at this level so it’s all about building up experience.
24. Nick Yelloly
Age: 21
Nation: United Kingdom
Talent: 3 out of 5 | Experience: 3 out of 5
F1 hopes: 2 out of 5 | Title chances: 3 out of 5
Another to struggle in 2011’s ultra-competitive GP3 season with an empty points tally, Yelloly did however shine when he stepped into the FR3.5 for his home race at Silverstone. He stayed in the car for the following two rounds too and finishing the season finale in second place.
The change of car and change of team from Pons could have an effect on his chances this year, but his testing pace has been fairly promising and he could certainly be adding to his podium tally during the year.
Arden Caterham
25. Alexander Rossi
Age: 20
Nation: United States
Talent: 5 out of 5 | Experience: 3 out of 5
F1 hopes: 4 out of 5 | Title chances: 4 out of 5
Rossi had a great 2011 season, finishing third in his rookie FR3.5 campaign after finishing in the same position in GP3 12 months earlier. His involvement with Caterham had made it look as though he would step up to GP2 after racing with them in the non-championship Abu Dhabi races, but Caterham’s tie-up with FR3.5 newcomers Arden means he continues in the series for a title tilt.
The team’s inexperience in the series however could make that difficult, and they certainly seemed to struggle in testing. Rossi will hope that as the season gets underway he’ll be right amongst the leading contenders.
Click here to read our driver profile of? Alexander
26. Lewis Williamson
Age: 22
Nation: United Kingdom
Talent: 5 out of 5 | Experience: 2 out of 5
F1 hopes: 3 out of 5 | Title chances: 3 out of 5
Williamson made two FR3.5 appearances last year stepping in for Daniel Ricciardo as the Aussie was otherwise engaged in F1 duties, and this year the Scottish driver is a full-time member of the Red Bull Junior Team.
He had an impressive GP3 season last year, and even though he ended up eighth after a difficult couple of final weekends, he could have been much higher up and was by far and away the best of the drivers to step up out of Formula Renault or similar.
Again, his pre-season testing pace hasn’t been brilliant, and as a late starter in cars he can’t afford to waste much time, particuarly with Helmut Marko as his boss and the likes of Carlos Sainz Jr snapping at his heels.
Click here to read our driver profile of Lewis
DAMS
27. Lucas Foresti
Age: 19
Nation: Brazil
Talent: 3 out of 5 | Experience: 2 out of 5
F1 hopes: 3 out of 5 | Title chances: 2 out of 5
Foresti won three races during the first half of last year’s British F3 season but eventually wound up in seventh. He’s already tasted success in 2012 with the dominant defence of his F3 Brazil Open title at Interlagos in January.
His pre-season pace hasn’t been great, and as a result the Brazilian could find himself in the lower midfield for the majority of this season.
28. Arthur Pic
Age: 20
Nation: France
Talent: 4 out of 5 | Experience: 3 out of 5
F1 hopes: 4 out of 5 | Title chances: 4 out of 5
Pic is of course the younger brother of new F1 driver Charles, and won the series currently known as French F4 back in 2008 before coming third in the Formula Renault Eurocup two years later.
He had a disappointing rookie season in FR3.5 last year at Tech 1 compared to teammate and fellow Eurocup graduate Korjus, finishing down in 23rd place with just one result inside the top eight. Things have looked much better in pre-season after a switch to another French team DAMS, where he has reguarly charted amongst the pacesetters.
Should he have a good season this year and maybe do well in GP2, he of course enjoys the same backing as his older brother and could join him in making the F1 move in the near future.