Formula Scout Top 50 Drivers of 2023: 20-11

856

See which drivers charted from 20th to 11th in the penultimate part of our ranking of the most impressive performers in junior single-seater racing in 2023

20. Luke Browning

Up 7 • Harnessed F3 potential in Macau GP win

It was quite a season for Browning. From not having a seat early on in the year he went on to compete in FIA F3, test in Formula E with McLaren, become a Williams F1 junior, enjoy his Aston Martin Autosport BRDC Award prize of a day in the AMR21 F1 at Silverstone and top the world at Macau.

The Briton was extremely fast from the off in F3, but lacked consistency and results especially in the second half of the regular season. He was fifth in the feature race at Bahrain’s season opener then scored points in four of the next five races. Second place in the sprint race at Barcelona, where he opted for a conservative approach to bring the podium home, was his best result. After that, he scored just one more point, which left him down in 15th place at the end of the campaign.

But at Macau it all aligned and Browning completed a perfect weekend to conquer the Grand Prix and become the FIA F3 World Cup winner. He topped qualifying, then controlled the qualifying race and the main race fending off all the attacks from his rivals.

He will definitely be one to watch in 2024 as he returns for a second FIA F3 season again with Hitech GP.

19. Franco Colapinto

Up 1 • Stronger second F3 season secured F2 step

Colapinto returned to MP Motorsport for his sophomore FIA F3 season, and had high ambitions in doing so. The plan was clear: finish in the top three then step up to Formula 2 with the Dutch team. Half of it was accomplished, and he missed the other half by just two points.

The Williams F1 junior was indeed among the fastest drivers in 2023, yet he did not score either a pole position or a feature race win. His MP car never seemed to have the edge in pace it had at some rounds in 2022.

He opened the season with a sprint race podium in second place at Bahrain and closed it with a sprint race win at Monza. In between, he stepped on the podium of a feature race twice and won the sprint race at Silverstone as well. He was one of the most regular scorers, taking points in 14 of 18 races this year.

A disastrous race weekend at Melbourne cost him though. First he was disqualified for a technical infringement after winning the sprint race, then he crashed out of the feature race after Browning caused him a puncture. Also an accident not of his fault in the final race at Monza resulted in him dropping from second to fourth in the standings.

Nevertheless, he did grow a strong fanbase back at his home country Argentina and gathered support from investors, which might prove key in the next steps of his career.

18. Nolan Siegel

New entry • Top Indy Nxt rookie led outright after early success

Siegel only took one win from three USF2000 seasons, but claimed two victories from his sole USF Pro 2000 campaign and as an Indy Nxt rookie this year was twice a winner as well as being points leader halfway through the season.

The growth of the 19-year-old is evident in the results, and has been helped by racing in prototype sportscars alongside his single-seater exploits.

The Indy Nxt season began with two second places, but a bad qualifying restricted him to 13th at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. He bounced back at Detroit by leading race one then winning race two, and then won again at Road America to take the points lead. He threw away a top-five finish at Mid-Ohio by spinning, then became a chaser rather than the chased after a clash led to him retiring at Iowa Speedway.

Siegel seemed to find it harder to recapture his previous form after that, with one podium in the second half of the season and an end position of third in the standings. The HMD Motorsports driver will return for another go in 2024.

17. Myles Rowe

Up 24 • Convincing USF Pro 2000 champion

Five wins and 10 podiums in total was only enough for Myles Rowe to be runner-up in USF2000 last year, but five wins and nine podiums in USFP2000 this year made him champion and in convincing fashion.

The Force Indy-supported Pabst Racing driver built his campaign this year on consistency, and on a big early points lead as he won three of the first four races. His only retirement of the season came after that, but then he had a run of top-five finishes, wins from pole at Mid-Ohio and Toronto, and two podiums in the final round at Portland to end the year with a title-winning margin of 64 points.

Rowe, a protege of IndyCar champion Will Power, was improving his driving through the year even when he wasn’t bringing home the big results and he looks more than ready for the step up to Indy Nxt.

16. Theophile Nael

New entry • Took eight wins and Spanish F4 title with upstart outfit

Nael and his team Sainteloc Racing successfully built on what they began in 2022, and their work paid dividends at the end of the year.

They first took on United Arab Emirates Formula 4 in preparation for another season of Spanish F4. Nael scored points often, but never made it to the podium. Fourth place in the first race at Kuwait Motor Town was his best result.

At Spa-Francorchamps, he opened the Spanish campaign stepping on the podium in the shorter race two in third and finishing the longer races in seventh and sixth respectively. With a total of 26 points, it would be Nael’s worst weekend of the season.

He claimed his first victory in the last race of round two at Motorland Aragon, and other seven wins would follow until the end of the season. He was almost unbeatable in the following three rounds at Navarra, Jerez and Estoril, as he and his team found a sweet spot.

The Frenchman could have been crowned champion in the last race at Valencia with one round to spare. However, he stalled from pole position and celebrations had to wait as Christian Ho won the race while he was only 19th. He became champion with third place in the first race at Barcelona, and in 2024 he will step up to the Formula Regional European Championship with Sainteloc.

15. Gabriele Mini

No change • Up-and-down F3 season peaked with Monaco triumph

Another season, another case of ‘where did it all go wrong?’ for Mini in his first year of Formula 3. In the early rounds he looked like Gabriel Bortoleto’s closest challenger. In Bahrain he was unlucky to be the first to fall victim to increased grid positioning vigilance, an error compounded by a late safety car. Another podium in Australia was followed by a sublime performance in Monte Carlo, taking pole by over six-tenths, and nine-tenths ahead of the second-fastest in his group, and then flawlessly controlling the race from the front.

Having departed Monaco second in the standings, his season then disintegrated. He would score only another six points in the remaining six feature races, although he added a sprint race victory in Hungary. His race pace was strong but his qualifying, ironically a strength in FREC, was inconsistent with errors in Barcelona and the Red Bull Ring proving costly.

His Hitech team appeared to struggle from mid-season and while Mini had the edge on his team-mates, he was exposed to the usual midfield contact. He failed to even take the start in Belgium while a technical infringement in qualifying left him needing to fight from the back at Monza.

For 2024 Mini will return to Prema which took him to his last title in Italian F4 in 2020. Testing underlined the combination’s potential, followed by a strong weekend at Macau that culminated in third place.

14. Kacper Sztuka

New entry • Stormed to unlikely Italian F4 title with late win streak

As the Italian F4 field headed to Paul Ricard for the fifth round of the championship in mid-July, there was little indication that Sztuka was a title contender. Prema drivers occupied the top three slots in the standings with leader, Arvid Lindblad a comfortable 113 points ahead of the US Racing driver. Yes, Sztuka had dominated the inaugural Formula Winter Series, winning five of the six races he started, but against much weaker opposition than he faced in Italy.

Sztuka had won just twice in his previous two seasons in the category and, despite a win in the season opener the title seemed out of reach. Yet, a hat-trick in the heat of France set him up for an incredible run, where he failed to win just one of the last nine races to take the title by 28 points. Disappointingly perhaps, he gave up the chance of taking a double triumph by skipping the double-points finale of Euro 4 at Barcelona.

Sztuka’s perennial struggle to find a budget to progress appears to have been resolved with the support of Polish petroleum giant Orlen and the Red Bull Junior Team. He is expected to move to FIA F3, having joined MP Motorsport for the Imola post-season test, although his next move is still to be confirmed. And with his beloved Trinec ice hockey squad looking for a fifth successive Czech title, he can go into the winter with optimism.

13. Paul Aron

Up 10 • Third in only season of F3, and it could have been more

After three seasons in Formula Regional, Aron had to impress in 2023 as he made it to the F1 support paddock with Prema, and he did so straightaway.

The Estonian was one of the most consistent drivers of the FIA F3 grid, scoring points in 14 of 18 races and 10 of those in the top five. He also had the best qualifying average with 5.9, tied with champion Gabriel Bortoleto. However, he only made the podium on four occasions.

His sole victory in the sprint race at the Red Bull Ring was a great display of driving in wet conditions. From eighth on the grid, he soon moved up positions and eventually won after an extraordinairy battle with Pepe Marti and Gabriele Mini. The next day he made the greatest mistake of his season though, as contact while being too impatient trying to overtake Gregoire Saucy cost him a potential feature race win.

The feature race at Spa was another Aron masterclass in the wet. He opened a gap of almost 10 seconds at the lead only for the wrong strategy call of boxing for slicks to bring him down to eighth at the chequered flag. After that, an unfortunate Monza finale resulted in him being third in the championship instead of runner up.

Having parted ways with the Mercedes AMG F1 junior programme, he will drive in Formula 2 with Hitech in 2024.

12. Taylor Barnard

Up 38 • FRMEC runner-up then caused upsets in F3

With PHM Racing having rescued a career which appeared to be going nowhere, culminating in a close title fight with Andrea Kimi Antonelli in ADAC F4 in 2022, Barnard found himself on loan to Jenzer Motorsport’s FIA F3 squad for 2023 – the deal having been agreed before PHM found itself on the grid with the former Charouz entries.

Before the European season got underway, he took in a full FRegional campaign in the Middle East, again finishing runner-up to Antonelli but acquitting himself well in unfamiliar machinery with two victories.

His F3 season started slowly before a run of five points finishes looked like providing some momentum but were then followed by three disappointing weekends in the summer. But it was the last two events, at the classic venues of Spa-Francorchamps and Monza, which really propelled Barnard this high up the Top 50.

Under typical Ardennes rain, he was outstanding. An inspired team strategy call to stay out on wets in the feature race gave him and the hard-working Jenzer team a thoroughly deserved, and hugely popular, win. This was no fluke – he had gained nine places in the opening laps to run second, and then in the closing stages determinedly fought off a charging Christian Mansell.

Another brilliant weekend at Monza, in very different conditions, underlined his form, as a late safety car prevented another potential win. For his sophomore season in 2024, he has been recalled by PHM which will be looking to provide him with a shot at more wins.

11. Ayumu Iwasa

Down 6 • Took three wins and fourth in F2 points

A really strong end to his 2022 season left many wondering whether Iwasa would be a Formula 2 title contender in 2023. In fact, it looked like he was after the early rounds, but it became clear that his DAMS car was lacking for that.

The Red Bull junior kicked off the season in style with sprint race victories at Jeddah and Monaco. In between, he did even better as he won Melbourne’s feature race from pole position, making the most of a car that was the fastest around the Albert Park Circuit. That result propelled him to first in the standings, but it didn’t last long.

After that, DAMS seemed to progressively lose competitiveness, and race wins were out of reach. Notwithstanding, he still completed two strong recoveries in feature races at the Red Bull Ring and Monza to finish second, and also scored good points in some others. However, that was not enough to retain third place in the standings, which Virtuosi Racing’s Jack Doohan snatched away from him in the very last race at Yas Marina by just four points.

Next year, the Japanese will be racing on home soil as he enters Super Formula with Team Mugen just as several other Red Bull juniors have done in the past.