Formula Scout Top 50 Drivers of 2023: 10-1

Find out which young drivers the Formula Scout writers ranked as the best performers of 2023 in the final part of our annual Top 50 countdown

10. Pepe Marti

New entry • Made big step forward to be F3 challenger

Following a difficult rookie FIA Formula 3 season in 2022, Marti was hesitant about whether he should change teams to continue improving as a driver. In the end, he and his management – which now includes Fernando Alonso – opted to remain with Campos Racing, and it turned out to the right choice.

The Spaniard kicked off the season with a sprint race win in the Bahrain season opener, then mastered the streets of Monte Carlo to win the sprint race there by over eight seconds. The stellar moment of his season came after that. On home soil at Barcelona and with Campos celebrating its 25th anniversary, he claimed pole position and comfortably won the feature race on Sunday with full grandstands cheering him on.

Also making the feature race podium at Silverstone, Marti was for some time the closest challenger to eventual champion Gabriel Bortoleto. At Spa-Francorchamps, he looked set for another strong weekend after he took his second pole of the year, but that would turn out to be a missed opportunity.

His performances earlier in the year had caught the attention of Helmut Marko and, freshly announced as a Red Bull junior, he took to the Monza track for the season finale determined to end the year as championship runner-up. It all went wrong and he ended up in fifth in the final standings, but that didn’t take the shine off his season. In 2024, he teams up again with Campos for his Formula 2 debut.

9. Martinius Stenshorne

New entry • Unexpected rookie star in Formula Regional Europe

Stenshorne was the surprise sensation of the season. Remarkably, his victory in the Formula Regional Europe opener at Imola was his maiden win in car racing. Yet he would make Andrea Kimi Antonelli work hard for the championship, maintaining his consistency and speed throughout the year. He was untouchable at the Hungaroring, topping his group in both qualifying sessions before taking maximum points in the races. Coming into the season, he had failed to win in almost 50 Formula 4 outings and his part campaign in FRegional Middle East gave no indication of what was to come.

With no seats free at Van Amersfoort Racing he found a berth at R-ace GP, an inspired move as the team continued its strong form from the second half of 2022. The quiet Norwegian immediately gelled with the team. Stenshorne’s qualifying lacked team-mate Tim Tramnitz’s consistency, in fact he was on average only the fifth-fastest qualifier, but his racecraft was impeccable.

His only significant on-track error came at the Red Bull Ring when he was penalised for attempting to regain places on the formation lap. Further wins at Mugello and the season finale at Hockenheim ensured second in the final standings.

For 2024 Nicolas Todt’s protege will step up to FIA F3 with Hitech, having impressed in the post-season tests, and could once again be a dark horse for championship honours.

8. Victor Martins

Down 6 • Was F2’s fastest driver after F3 graduation

Martins’ start to his first season in F2 wasn’t ideal. He was fast but most of the time failed to turn his speed into results. However, showing great maturity and capacity for analysis, he turned the tables.

Monaco started a streak of 12 consecutive races finishing in points scoring positions that is extended to 15 races if the abandoned no-points sprint race at Zandvoort – which he finished second – is considered.

Over the course of the year, he claimed three pole positions, a feature race victory and eight further podiums, and was fastest on average over one lap. Said win from pole at Silverstone was definitely the highlight of his year. Not even a time penalty could stop the Alpine junior that day.

In the end he was fifth in the standings, just 18 points behind third-placed Jack Doohan and the best rookie, as he cleared his fellow F3 graduate Ollie Bearman by 20 points.

Although it has not been announced yet, he is expected to return for a second season in F2 with ART Grand Prix in 2024 when he will hope to merge speed with consistency for a title challenge.

7. Jack Doohan

No change • Ended the year as F2’s form man after early troubles

Doohan spent the early rounds of a season that could have made his career fighting a car with “fundamental issues”. Nevertheless, he kept his head down getting ready for when it turned to be right.

Meanwhile, he made the most out of red flags in qualifying at Jeddah and finished second in the feature race from third on the grid, capitalising also on others’ mistakes.

By Monaco, the issues were sorted and he was regularly back in the big points. He claimed pole position and feature race victory at the Hungaroring and won again at Spa on Sunday. He was only 11th on the grid but brilliant driving and a perfect strategy lifted him to the top step of the podium. At that point, it even seemed like he could join the title fight having cut the distance to 38 points.

Such a feat did not materialise, but he repeated a pole and feature race victory at Yas Marina to snatch third place in the standings away from Ayumu Iwasa. With 96 points, he was the highest scorer in the last five rounds, having marked 22 points more than champion Theo Pourchaire, who was second best.

With no racing plans announced, being Alpine’s F1 reserve driver could be his only task in 2024.

6. Ollie Bearman

Down 3 • Teenaged F2 newcomer was brilliant at his best

In many ways Bearman and fellow Formula 2 rookie Martins shone more brightly than their more experienced team-mates, but it was Frederik Vesti and Theo Pourchaire who steadily accumulated the points to fight for the title. There were weekends when Bearman looked to be on a higher plane, notably his double win at Baku but also his unflustered control of the Barcelona and Monza feature races from the front.

On the downside, there were too many weekends when he wasn’t quite able to challenge, leaving him down in sixth in the final standings. On average, he was the sixth-fastest qualifier but what really hurt was being outside the all-important top 10 on three occasions. Unsurprisingly, there were occasional rookie driver errors but overall the 18-year-old adapted very strongly in just his fourth season in cars.

Talent spotters will often comment that it is not the average performance levels but the height of the peaks which mark out the very best. On this score, Bearman delivered. And when Haas called him up for free practice runs in the top tier he impressed the team and observers with his speed and professionalism.

He is now the undoubted pinnacle in the Ferrari Driver Academy’s roster of drivers and the comparison with Mercedes’ Antonelli in the same car in 2024 is mouth-watering. For Bearman the comparison across the garage will inevitably add pressure to the expectations for his sophomore year.

5. Christian Rasmussen

Up 42 • Completed set of IndyCar ladder titles to earn top-tier seat

Rasmussen has now won all three of IndyCar’s long-running support series, and earned himself an IndyCar seat with Ed Carpenter Racing for 2024.

He made a big improvement on the inconsistency of his rookie Indy Nxt season, taking five wins and three other podiums, as well as three poles. Due to the cancellation of qualifying he started two other races from the front, and in both instances won. That contributed to him leading more than three times as many laps as anyone else over the year.

His two most impressive wins were at Barber Motorsports Park, a lights-to-flag success from a pole earned in qualifying, and the Laguna Seca finale, where he was victorious by 17 seconds (in part due to his chasing title rival having a delaminating tyre) to secure the championship crown – that while driving “at 89%”.

After a rather different route to the top, the Dane joins friend and compatriot Christian Lundgaard in IndyCar next year and few would bet against him making a similar impact.

4. Theo Pourchaire

Up 6 • Honed maturity and consistency to lift F2 crown

Pourchaire was returning for a third F2 season with ART GP in 2023 having finished fifth and second in previous years. This time he had to win, and so he did.

The Sauber junior conquered the first feature race of the year at Bahrain, and then he never won again. Notwithstanding, he was consistent enough to be crowned champion at the end of the year.

He amassed a total of 10 podiums, seven of them in feature races. He became stronger as the season progressed, with double podiums at Silverstone and Spa. He had bad moments as well, especially at Jeddah and Zandvoort, where he did not score a single point.

Nevertheless, an evidently more mature Pourchaire reacted well to the setbacks and to the pressure. He took pole and another podium at Monza to enter the final round with a 25-point advantage that enabled him to take it almost easy.

He did not do enough to earn a F1 seat though and, still only 20, will now head to Super Formula with the Toyota-powered Team Impul in 2024.

3. Frederik Vesti

Up 22 • Stepped up and won six times to challenge for F2 title

Switching from ART GP to Prema for his sophomore F2 season did Vesti well. The Mercedes-AMG junior felt at home with the Italian team and working with engineer Pedro Matos once again got the best out of himself.

He won six times, yet it was not enough to beat Pourchaire to the title.

In the first half of the year Vesti was consistent, gaining from others’ mistakes. He was often the pacesetter as well, and starred on all types of circuits and in both dry and wet conditions. It is difficult to pick a highlight as all of his four race victories up to Silverstone had something special – though his Monaco feature race triumph over Pourchaire naturally stands out.

Up to that point, the title seemed to be his. However, points free feature races at Spa, Zandvoort and Monza put him on the back foot going into the last round. He was brilliant in Abu Dhabi winning the sprint race and finishing third in the feature race, but the gap was too big and he ended the year as runner-up, 11 points off first place.

It remains to be seen where Vesti will race next, but he’s proven that he’s a winner.

2. Gabriel Bortoleto

New entry • Unheralded rookie ran away with F3 title

It was veni vidi vici for Bortoleto in the 2023 FIA F3 championship. The protege of Fernando Alonso’s A14 Management firm didn’t put a foot wrong the whole year and that earned him the title – as well as the joint highest ever new entry with Max Verstappen in Formula Scout’s annual end-of-year ranking.

Making the most of the rapid Trident F3 package from the very start, the Formula Regional graduate inherited the win in the first feature race of the season after Gabriele Mini was penalised, then conquered the unfamiliar challenge of Melbourne’s Albert Park, winning on Sunday from pole to strengthen his championship lead.

After that, he knew it was all about scoring good points in every race until the end, and he accomplished that. In fact, he only failed to score points in the very first race of the year and at Spa, which means he finished 15 out of 18 races in the top 10. As a result, no one ever came close to challenge him for first place in the standings.

He made it to the podium four more times in second place, and was already champion after qualifying at Monza. Now signed by Emanuele Pirro as a McLaren F1 junior, he will contest the 2024 F2 campaign with Invicta Racing – previously known as Virtuosi.

1. Andrea Kimi Antonelli

Up 3 • Swept two FRegional championships ahead of F2 leap

The buzz around Andrea Kimi Antonelli reached a peak after rumours began to circulate of an almost unprecedented jump from FRegional directly to F2, by-passing FIA F3 completely, even provoking media interest from the F1 press. For those who have followed his path, as he tore through karting and the lower ranks of junior single-seaters, his performances have been no surprise.

Following on from his double title triumph in F4 in 2022, Antonelli again scooped two championship trophies, in both the Middle Eastern and European FRegional championships. After electronics issues struck at Imola, he finished in the points in all the remaining FREC races, although was subsequently penalised at Monza having won on the road.

His tally of five wins – with no doubles – was not necessarily remarkable, and was eventually matched by fellow rookie Stenshorne. But Antonelli avoided the pitfalls that have made FREC a challenge for newcomers previously, and like in F4 was completely dominant when he had the opportunity.

His victory in the rain and wind at Zandvoort was sublime, carving through from the fourth row to take the lead on the third lap, earning him the title with a round to spare. With that won, he had the presence of mind to snatch the teams’ title for Prema on the final tour at Hockenheim.

Antonelli’s backers at Mercedes have worked wonders to keep the spotlight off him so far, allowing him to develop at his own pace, nurturing the prodigious talent on their books. In F2, however, there will be no hiding place. With Prema and his father Marco adding to the support, he can deal with the pressure.

In a year when drivers in more senior categories showed their faults as often as their skills, Antonelli was consistently outstanding.

The Formula Scout Top 50 Drivers of 2023 has included contributions from Alejandro Alonso Lopez, Ida Wood, Peter Allen and Roger Gascoigne. Click here to view the rest of the list.