Formula Scout Top 50 Drivers of 2023: 50-41

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Kicking off Formula Scout’s annual end-of-year ranking of the best performers in the junior single-seater ranks

50. Noel Leon

New entry • Mexican went from FREC flop to Euroformula champion

After winning two Formula 4 titles in North America, Leon relocated his career to Europe for the step up to Formula Regional last year and absolutely flopped. So to make another step up the ladder in 2023, and to go from scoring three points to 394 of them, was quite the turnaround.

Euroformula champions are usually dominant, and Leon won seven races. You would have to go back to 2015 to find a champion who ‘only’ won six, and Leon’s title campaign was the least convincing of the last eight years given the quality and size of his opposition and of course the fact he was driving for the dominant Motopark team.

Leon’s seven wins came at six different tracks, and were venues he had been anonymous at in FRegional, but he was the first champion since 2013 to not have an unbeaten weekend where he won every race. The Red Bull Ring was the only track he took two wins at. But his other stats were impressive, with five poles out of eight, 11 fastest laps and 16 podiums. While his season-long competition was limited, other capable drivers stepped in and out of his team and he remained consistently at the front.

He ended the year with a side step to Formula 3 with Van Amersfoort Racing for the Macau Grand Prix. Leon finished 19th, and will stay with the team for the 2024 FIA F3 Championship.

49. Mari Boya

New entry • Fought for Eurocup-3 crown while finding his feet in F3 

Boya was Spanish F4 runner-up back in 2020, and has since been trying to make an impact in FRegional. He was failing at doing so until this year, when he joined MP Motorsport for the Middle East championship, Eurocup-3 and also FIA F3.

Although the Prema-run entries were the dominant force in FRME, Boya put himself in a position to win when things went wrong for them and his two victories lifted him to fifth in the standings. Could he improve on that form in the new FRegional-based Eurocup-3 series which Prema was absent from?

The answer was yes, and Boya started the season in style with two poles and a win. A further four wins followed over the year, including a Monza double, but he missed round two due to it clashing with his FIA F3 campaign. Even so he went into the deciding round only one point off the lead, though he eventually trailed the champion by 30.

Boya was the weakest driver in MP’s F3 line-up, but also the least experienced, and his first points unsurprisingly came on home soil in Spain. He scored three other times, including a sprint race podium at Monza, to come 17th in the standings. His most impressive F3 weekend came at the Macau GP, where he qualified 10th and finished the main race in fourth.

48. Nikita Johnson

New entry • Youngster a winner on two levels of the Indy ladder

Johnson made his F4 debut aged 13 in 2021, and since then has amassed plenty of experience, wins and a title in single-seaters. Last year he raced part-time in USF2000 and made the podium.

He came into this season still only 14 years old, but the Velocity Racing Development driver, who was recently signed to the Infinity Sports Management stable that includes many motorsport stars, was more than ready for this level of racing. In fact, he finished third and then took a maiden win in the St. Petersburg season opener.

• Feature: Why Johnson raced in two IndyCar support series in one weekend

No further victories followed, but two poles at Indianapolis Motor Speedway and podiums at four tracks meant he was championship runner-up, behind a driver more than seven years his senior.

Towards the end of the campaign he even doubled up in the third-tier USF Pro 2000 series with VRD as a one-car entry and had similar success. He made the podium on debut and was victorious on his second start at Circuit of the Americas to become the series’ youngest ever winner, then at Portland took two fastest laps, a second place and another win to come 17th in the standings.

His scoring rate was strong enough to have made him champion, and he will be in USFP2000 full-time next year.

47. Kiko Porto

Re-entry (44th in 2021) • USFP2000 runner-up made big gains as a series sophomore

 

Porto tends to take two seasons to master a category, as proven by his title-challenging sophomore USFP2000 campaign.

It was his fifth year with DEForce Racing, and although at one point he was as low as fifth in the standings for much of the season it looked like he would be championship runner-up. Three podiums in the first four races was a strong start, then he claimed his first pole at IMS.

Second places at Road America and Mid-Ohio helped bring him back up to second in the points, but he briefly dropped back down to third in Toronto. But then after over a year of waiting, Porto took his second USFP2000 win at COTA, following it up with his second pole and another podium finish to remain a title contender heading into the final round at Portland.

He won race one there, but lost the title in race two. At least he had more racing to look forward to, as he stepped up to Indy Nxt with Cape Motorsports.

46. Kas Haverkort

Down 3 • A double winner again and fourth overall in FREC

Haverkort scored less points than 2022 but rose one spot in the Formula Regional European Championship standings to fourth place. It was his third season there, and second with VAR, having not been given the chance he already deserved to graduate to F3.

The early signs were that Haverkort could be a title contender as he was the highest-placed returnee from last year and he took his third career FREC win in the opening round at Imola. He moved into the points lead by finishing third in the next race at Barcelona, then a second place at the Hungaroring meant he was still second in the standings after five races.

However, he failed to make the podium in the next 11 races, so was fifth in the points heading into the last two rounds. With the pressure on, Haverkort took pole and victory on home soil in race one at Zandvoort. He qualified second for a wet race two, but quickly had an off that dropped him to 21st. Then he qualified first and fourth for the two races of the Hockenheim finale, but another off meant he finished fifth in race one. Third place in race two earned him fourth in the championship by one point.

45. Marta Garcia

New entry • Winner of the inaugural F1 Academy title

Garcia was F1 Academy’s last signing, but landing a Prema seat meant she was immediately tipped as one of the favourites in the title fight. And she did not disappoint.

The Spaniard put to good use her wide experience in both Formula 4 and FRegional cars to become the first ever F1 Academy champion in quite dominant fashion. She rose to first in the standings with two race victories in round one at the Red Bull Ring and kept the lead until the end, adding five more wins to her tally.

She stepped on the podium another five times and claimed pole in five of 14 qualifying sessions throughout the year.

MP Motorsport’s Hamda Al Qubaisi closed in on her during the Zandvoort round, reducing her championship lead to five points, but Garcia reacted quickly to build her gap at the front to 36 points after the following event at Monza.

Garcia’s success earned her a fully-funded FREC seat with Prema for 2024. There she will have the chance to prove her abilities against some of the best up-and-coming drivers in the world after exclusively racing in female-only series since 2019.

44. Joseph Loake

New entry • Adapted quickly to GB3 and won an F1 test

GB3 was as competitive as ever this year, and Loake headed the title chase over the first three rounds. Two poles and a win at Oulton Park were followed by two victories at Silverstone (both after on-the-road winner John Bennett was penalised) and a second place at Spa-Francorchamps.

But only making the podium in two of the remaining five rounds (equating to three podiums in 14 races) meant in the final race weekend at Donington Park he dropped out of title contention and then to third in the standings.

Loake said he adapted far quicker to the GB3 car than the one he raced in British F4, and coming third in the championship still exceeded his pre-season expectations.

To cap his year off, at the start of this month Loake was named as winner of the Aston Martin Autosport BRDC Award, earning £200,000 and a Formula 1 test. That means he could now move on from GB3 rather than stay for a second season.

43. Callum Hedge

New entry • Sportscars and single-seaters were conquered by the Kiwi

Hedge succeeded Liam Lawson as New Zealand Formula Ford champion in 2018, then switched to sportscars and won the Toyota 86 title. Having conquered two different types of circuit racing in his home country, he attempted to do the same in Australia over the next five years.

Only one attempt was made at Australian FFord, and he came fourth in the standings, while Hedge finally won the country’s Porsche Carrera Cup championship this year. Alongside that campaign he made a proper return to single-seaters in FRegional, and made a big impact.

He started off in his domestic Oceania championship (formerly known as the Toyota Racing Series), and took pole, victory and fastest lap on his debut. In round two he took another win and pole, and made the podium in all three races, with another two podiums in each of the next two rounds.

Hedge headed into the final event 10 points off the top, and victory from pole in race one at Taupo put him in the points lead. But he was off the podium in the last two races, costing him the title. He made up for it in FRegional Americas, winning 13 races out of 18 to take the title and earn himself a scholarship to step up to the top level of single-seaters. But rather than race in Super Formula next year, Hedge will instead head to Indy Nxt.

42. Zane Maloney

Down 36 • Impressed on his day in a tough rookie F2 season

Maloney was the third best rookie in Formula 2 this year. Quite some way off the top two, but also far clear of the fourth best rookie in the points table.

He took four of Rodin Carlin’s nine podiums, and impressively all of them came in feature races. That made up for the fact that he only scored eight points from 12 sprint races, and had the season only consisted of those he would have been 17th rather than 10th in the standings. Every driver ahead of him in the championship won at least once, while two second places were Maloney’s best results.

In both instances where he was runner-up he thought he could have done better, which is natural given the Red Bull junior was a rookie still learning how to get the most out of not only the car but the style of racing at the front in F2. Maloney will stay with Carlin for 2024, and also be Andretti Global’s reserve driver in Formula E.

41. Christian Ho

New entry • Breakthrough talent in Spanish F4

As one would expect, Ho made a significant step forward in his second season of car racing, following an already strong end to his 2022 Spanish F4 campaign.

The Singaporean emerged as Campos Racing’s lead driver, especially in the season’s second half. In the process, he outscored highly regarded team-mates Noah Stromsted and rookie Enzo Deligny.

Ho stepped on to the podium in all but one of the last 10 races of the 21-race season. In fact, he won the last four, which enabled him to be championship runner-up, 23 points behind Sainteloc Racing’s Theophile Nael and 35 points clear of MP’s Valerio Rinicella in third.

Earlier in the year, Ho had taken a win in one of the 25-minute races and three podiums in the 30-minute encounters. He also proved to be fast over one timed lap, as he started from pole seven times.

In 2024, he will try to build on his success with Campos by stepping up to to Eurocup-3 with the team.