Photo: Formula Motorsport Ltd
Taylor Barnard ended last month with his first Formula 3 podium and then his first win, and this week made it into the Aston Martin Autosport BRDC Award longlist.
The upward career momentum would not have been possible without the support of PHM Racing, who started backing Barnard after his part-time and budget-testing Formula 4 programme in 2021.
Barnard drove for PHM in F4 last year and amassed six wins across three full series, then stepped up to Formula Regional at the start of 2023 and came second in the Middle East’s championship.
During that campaign, PHM announced that Barnard would then be moving up to FIA F3 with their backing and he was later signed as one of Jenzer Motorsport’s drivers. He currently lies 13th in the standings, four places ahead of team-mate Nikita Bedrin who has two podiums and also has been taken by PHM from F4 through to FRME and then into F3 with Jenzer.
“I really like the idea of what they are doing with drivers, taking them from where they were to where they are now,” Barnard said of PHM’s programme.
“They have supported me so much from where I came from to where I am now. It’s not an influence, but I really like what they’re doing. They’ve helped me so much and it’s another thing like my dad – if it was not for them, I would not be where I am today, so a big thanks to them.
“I got a message from Roland Rehfeld [PHM’s sporting director] and he got in contact with me about driving in 2021, but I didn’t have the money to go and drive for him. Then the year after they were doing the F4 UAE championship and they were rebranded as PHM, so there was a bit more extra money and he wanted to me to be one of their drivers.
“We did the championship and it was just a bit of a test for me, I guess to see if I was good enough or not. Then, we did the European season in Italian and German F4 and it was just up and up and up from there.
“I came from nowhere; I had no results in 2021. Then, in my first actual race weekend with PHM I won, so I can’t thank them enough for what they’ve done. I definitely think what they do to help me and how they’ve made me grow as a driver, I don’t really know how to put it into words and you cannot really put it on a scale.”