Formula Scout’s Class of 2022

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Every year, some of junior single-seaters’ top drivers are handed professional opportunities. Some lead to long-term careers in sportscars, while others try out the more cut-throat world of F1 and IndyCar

In addition to annually ranking the top 50 drivers in junior single-seater racing since 2011, Formula Scout also recognises the achievements of the very best of those who ‘graduate’ into the world of professional racing each year.

Logan Sargeant was the only driver to make it to Formula 1 at the start of 2023, joining Williams for a season in which he scored a single point but did enough to retain his seat for a second year, and during summer AlphaTauri called up Sargeant’s former Formula 2 and Formula 3 rival Liam Lawson to substitute for the injured Daniel Ricciardo.

IndyCar had five rookies who contested more than just the Indianapolis 500. Last year’s Indy Nxt runner-up Sting Ray Robb joined Dale Coyne Racing, and in a car co-run by Rick Ware Racing he took a best finish of 12th and came 23rd in the points. Benjamin Pedersen only came fifth in the 2022 Indy Nxt season but also earned an IndyCar graduation with AJ Foyt Racing. He finished no higher than 15th, leaving him 27th in the standings.

Joining the grid for the final two races of the season with Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing was F2 graduate Juri Vips, who had been out of racing for several months after his F1 dreams ended in summer 2022 with the use of racial slur on a livestream. It was difficult to judge how well Vips did with his last-minute call-up, but RLLR has “a long-term plan” for him.

Esports star Cem Bolukbasi had a brief junior single-seater career, coming ninth in the Formula Regional Asian Championship and fifth in a part-time Euroformula campaign in which he claimed two wins in 2021, then racing part-time in F2 last year, but that was enough to get him a seat on the Super Formula grid with TGM Grand Prix for 2023.

Qualifying 20th for his debut at Fuji Speedway suggested he might be out of his depth, but it only took 10 laps for him to get into the top 10 and he eventually finished eighth. His qualifying form didn’t improve, with 14th being his best starting position, but he did score points with a ninth place at Suzuka and he came 18th in the standings.

FRegional Japanese Championship race-winner Riki Okusa was his team-mate for the last two rounds, while FRAC and FRegional Americas champion Raoul Hyman stepped up with B-MAX Racing but could do no better than 18th in qualifying and 15th in races over the season.

Andretti Global had to call upon their reserve driver David Beckmann for the Jakarta E-Prix, and the F2 graduate finished 16th on his Formula E debut.

There were plenty of ex-junior single-seater racers who found success in LMP2 prototypes. Jota Sports’s Oliver Rasmussen did two FIA F3 Championship rounds alongside his World Endurance Championship programme last year, but for 2023 was able to focus solely on sportscars and he came sixth in the standings. He won his class in the Monza Six Hours.

Euroformula graduate Filip Ugran was 10th in the standings with Prema, and Alpine driver Olli Caldwell came 18th.

Marino Sato bounced back from four underwhelming years in F2 by joining United Autosports in the European Le Mans Series. He won three of the six races and was championship runner-up. Two places behind was Duqueine Team’s Nico Pino, who won the season opener, finished second in the next race but then didn’t visit the podium again.

David Schumacher drove in the DTM and FIA F3 in 2022, and swapped the latter for the GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup this year. He drove a Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo to 17th in the standings there, topping the Gold Cup classification at the Nurburgring, and to 25th in the DTM.

Nicola Marinangeli came sixth in International GT Open in a AF Corse-run Ferrari, and team-mate Conrad Laursen was seventh in ELMS’ GTE class.

As none of these names could make the cut, here is Formula Scout’s Class of 2022… Key Wins (W), poles (P), fastest laps (FL)

10. Calan Williams AUSTRALIA 23y/o
9th in GTWC Europe Sprint Cup (29th in GTWCE [Gold Cup champion])   2022: 23rd in F2   2021: 19th in FIA F3 Championship

Williams made the podium more times this year than he did in his last five years in single-seater racing.

A fourth place was his best finish from two seasons in Euroformula, and a sprint race podium at Paul Ricard was one of only three times in which he scored points in two FIA F3 Championship campaigns. It took just three races to earn a top-four finish when he stepped up to F2 last year, but did not score again after that and came 23rd in the standings.

Despite that lack of success, he was picked up crack GT racing team WRT for 2023 to drive one of their BMW M4 GT3s in GTWCE. He shared his car with Niklas Krutten, and the pair were entered into the Gold Cup classification.

They came ninth overall in GTWCE’s Sprint Cup, making the podium in the season finale at Zandvoort, and claimed the Gold Cup crown with four wins from the 10 races.

Jean-Baptiste Simmenauer joined them in the car for the Endurance Cup, and their best result was 12th overall in the Monza Three Hours. That equated to being the third best Gold Cup entry, and despite finishing in a lower position they were Gold Cup runners-up in the Spa 24 Hours and third in the Nurburgring Three Hours. That led to them being fifth in the Gold Cup’s Endurance standings, and combined with the Sprint results meant Krutten and Williams were 29th overall in GTWCE and the Gold Cup champions.

9. Alex Quinn BRITAIN 23/o
10th in IMSA LMP2 (2 FL)   2022: 17th in USF2000 (3 W, 2 FL)   2021: 9th in FRegional European Championship

Quinn actually graduated from British F4 to sportscars back in 2018, competing in British GT’s GT4 class and failing to score in his six races.

He then returned to single-seaters, coming fourth in the 2020 Formula Renault Eurocup with a win an a pole then moving across to the FRegional European Championship the year after and starting the season with two podiums in the first four races but later going on a long points-free run and ending up ninth the standings.

Last year he only made one race outing, but did an impressive job in his USF2000 cameo on Indianapolis Motor Speedway’s road course as he won all three races and set the fastest lap in two of them. It was enough to come 17th in the points table.

This year he stayed in America to join PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports in IMSA’s LMP2 class. It proved to be an inspired move from the off, with Quinn being in the class’s pole-winning car for the Daytona 24 Hours and Sebring 12 Hours. He was seventh and fourth in class respectively at the end of those two races, and less than seven seconds off victory at Sebring.

He finished third in his next two outings in the Six Hours of the Glen and Petit Le Mans, although the latter event didn’t quite go to plan. Although his car started on overall pole, both Quinn and his team-mate spun while at the wheel. Quinn’s mistake cost them the LMP2 lead.

8. Logan Sargeant UNITED STATES 22y/o
21st in F1   2022: 4th in F2 (2 W, 2 P)   2021: 7th in FIA Formula 3 (1 W), 19th in ELMS (1 P), 6th in Le Mans Cup – GT3 (2 W, 2 P, 3 FL)

Sargeant’s two wins and two poles in his sole F2 season helped him come fourth in the standings, and earn a Williams F1 seat for 2023. Was it too soon?

He became the first American to race in F1 for over seven years, just as the world championship added a third race in the USA to its schedule, ticking a box several other teams in the paddock had tried but failed to.

Sargeant was thoroughly bettered by his team-mate Alex Albon, being outqualified by him at every single event and scoring one point to Albon’s 27. Fittingly Sargeant’s best results came on home soil, as he took his sole point in the United States Grand Prix and his best starting position was sixth in the Las Vegas Grand Prix. The only other time he reached Q3 was at the Dutch Grand Prix, where he qualified 10th.

Sargeant’s worse form tended to be on sprint weekends, with less practice time before qualifying, and he finished no higher than 16th in a sprint race.

In Japan he suffered a qualifying crash that required Williams to rebuild his car to enable him to race, and he only lasted a few laps before a lock-up and another crash. This time he kept going before the damage eventually led him to retire. The next event was the Qatar Grand Prix, where he failed to set a flying lap in sprint qualifying, spun out after two laps of the sprint race then retired from the grand prix itself due to heatstroke. It wasn’t a great end to the year, but ultimately he did enough to earn a second season with Williams.

7. Kakunoshin Ohta JAPAN 24y/o
7th in SF (1 W), 14th in Super GT   2022: 2nd in SF Lights (4 W, 6 P, 7 FL), 8th in Super GT300, Super Taikyu – ST-Z champion (2 W, 3 P, 3 FL)   2021: 14th in FRJC, 5th in Japanese Formula 4 (1 FL), 3rd in Super Taikyu – ST-Z

Ohta took two wins from three Japanese Formula 4 seasons, which didn’t suggest his single-seater career would amount to much, but he did make the podium in French F4 and FRJC cameos.

Then last year he stepped up to Super Formula Lights with Toda Racing and everything changed. The one-car entry was the winner of four races and six pole positions, with other impressive stats including seven fastest laps and 12 podiums. Ohta ended up being championship runner-up, and was only a few points short of becoming champion.

He stepped up to SF for 2023 with Dandelion Racing, and initially found the step up difficult. In the first four races, Ohta qualified no higher than 17th and finished no higher than 15th. But then his form started to improve, rapidly.

At Sportsland SUGO he qualified ninth, but finished 15th again, then at Fuji Speedway (the first track on the schedule he was visiting for a second time in his rookie season) he qualified third – just 0.268 seconds off pole – and finished sixth. He was 1.5s off fourth place at the chequered flag.

Ohta was even closer to the pace at Twin Ring Motegi, qualifying on the front row, then in the double-header Suzuka finale he was fourth in qualifying for race one and made the front row again for race two.

In race one he rose to second on the opening lap, then lost a spot on lap two and was still in third when the race was red flagged due to a huge crash. Half points were awarded, but Ohta earned a ‘proper’ podium in race two by snatching the lead on lap one then holding off Lawson throughout to win. The result put him seventh in the standings, a position nobody would have expected pre-season.

Having raced in Super GT300 last year and won the title in Super Taikyu’s GT4 class, Ohta was also promoted to Super GT’s top GT500 class for 2023 and he took one podium en route to 14th in the points.

=5. Linus Lundqvist SWEDEN 24y/o
31st in IndyCar (2 FL), 13th in Porsche Carrera Cup Scandinavia   2022: Indy Nxt champion (5 W, 7 P, 3 FL)   2021: 3rd in Indy Nxt (3 W, 3 P, 2 FL)

Sometimes waiting a little longer for your debut at single-seaters’ top level can prove more effective than stepping up straight after winning a second-tier title. F2 champion Oscar Piastri had to remain patient for a whole year, while 2022 Indy Nxt champion Lundqvist got to make his IndyCar debut this August rather than need to wait until 2024.

For a long time Indy Nxt had a prize money system that guaranteed the champion at least three IndyCar starts, including the Indy 500, the next year. But when IndyCar’s owner Penske Entertainment took over Indy Nxt in 2022, it reduced the size of the champion’s prize pot. Lundqvist couldn’t make the step up with the money he had.

He won three races as an Indy Nxt rookie in 2021, then romped to the 2022 title with five wins and six poles. Andretti Autosport gave him an IndyCar test at the end of his first season, then he had to wait until April of this year for another as Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing ran him on the Texas oval. Ed Carpenter Racing provided further seat time at Sebring in June, then at the end of July he got called up to race as Meyer Shank Racing needed a substitute for the injured Simon Pagenaud.

Just like Piastri, Lundqvist stunned a paddock with his adaptation and his reward is spending next year in a team he could win races with.

Lundqvist qualified 11th for his debut in Nashville, then ran as high as third and set the fastest lap in the race before crashing out. Negotiations with multiple teams about a 2024 seat began shortly after.

MSR called up Lundqvist two more times. He started and finished 12th on the IMS road course, then on the Gateway oval took another fastest lap. Only two other drivers got multiple fastest laps this year. Four days after that performance, Chip Ganassi Racing announced it had signed Lundqvist to race full-time next season.

=5. Robert Shwartzman RUSSIA/ISRAEL 24y/o
8th in GTWCE Endurance Cup (1 W, 1 P) (19th in GTWCE)   2022: no racing   2021: 2nd in F2 (2 W, 3 FL)

Shwartzman came fourth and second in his two F2 seasons, earning him sixth place in Formula Scout’s Top 50 in both years.

After that Ferrari promoted its junior to an F1 test role for 2022, then to being their reserve driver for 2023. He was also given a race programme for this year, joining AF Corse’s line-up in the GTWCE Endurance Cup.

The sportscar newcomer quickly got up to pace in his Ferrari 296 GT3 and contributed to the success of the car he co-drove with the far more experienced Nicklas Nielsen and Alessio Rovera. They finished eighth in the Monza 3H, seventh in the Paul Ricard 1000 Kilometres and then won the season-ending Barcelona Three Hours to come eighth in the standings. Despite missing all of the sprint rounds, they still came 19th overall in GTWCE.

Shwartzman was a valued member of Ferrari’s F1 squad too, and he drove in free practice at two grands prix. He then contested the WEC’s rookie test in Ferrari’s hypercar and topped the times, and is expected to race an additional third entry next season.

Away from his Ferrari work, Shwartzman took up two opportunities this year that may suggest he still has an eye on racing single-seaters even if he can’t find a way into F1. He did an IndyCar test with Ganassi and set a strong impression on the team, and drove for DS Penske in FE’s rookie test and also its more recent pre-season test.

4. Jake Hughes BRITAIN 29y/o
12th in FE (2 P)   2022: 16th in F2   2021: 18th in F2

After several seasons acting as reference driver first in FIA F3 then in F2, Jake Hughes finally earned a well-deserved drive in a professional series like FE.

McLaren took over Mercedes’ works team in the championship and promoted Hughes from development and reserve driver to a race seat.

The Briton was a rookie in terms of competing, but knew the team and the car well thanks to his involvement in previous years, and took advantage of it. He caused a sensation in the early rounds, where he impressed with his pace. He was third, second and first in the first three qualifying sessions, with his pole position coming in Riyadh, but dropped to fifth, eighth and fifth in the races as his McLaren powertrain was less competitive in the longer distance.

Hughes struggled to replicate his blistering pace of the opening rounds as the season progressed, but still scored points at several events. He was back on pole on the most famous street circuit of them all, Monaco, but the podium escaped him once again as he finished in fifth.

As a rookie, he edged his more experienced team-mate Rene Rast, and definitely proved he belongs in the world championship. Given teams know his skills for technical development as well as results on track, he could well become one of FE’s main contenders in the years to come.

3. Marcus Armstrong NEW ZEALAND 23y/o
20th in IndyCar, 18th in Macau GP   2022: 13th in F2 (3 W)   2021: 13th in F2 (1 W)

On reflection it’s puzzling that Armstrong was 13th in all three of his F2 seasons, despite winning four races and driving for three top teams. He made the podium in two of his first four races, but that strong form then deserted him in his rookie year.

When title-winning IndyCar team Ganassi signed Armstrong for 2023 to drive on a part-time deal, with his schedule omitting all of IndyCar’s oval races, nobody thought that the Kiwi didn’t deserve it but the question was raised on how difficult would it be to measure his progress as a driver by starting his career at single-seater’s top level in one of the very top teams rather than proving himself at a smaller squad.

Armstrong qualified 13th and finished 11th on his debut, then in his next appearance came eighth in the Long Beach Grand Prix. There were four more top-10 finishes and no DNFs from his 12 starts, enough to beat three full-timers to IndyCar’s ‘Rookie of the Year’ honours. His scoring rate was strong enough to put him 13th in the standings had he done the whole campaign, ahead of several big-name drivers.

A trend that continued from his junior single-seater career was underperforming in qualifying, although this year his average finishing position was only very slightly higher than his starting average. He’ll need to improve in 2024, since Ganassi has given him a full-time ride and he’ll have two less experienced drivers as team-mates.

2. Liam Lawson NEW ZEALAND 21y/o
2nd in SF (3 W, 1 P, 2 FL), 20th in F1   2022: 3rd in F2 (4 W, 3 FL)   2021: 2nd in DTM (3 W, 4 P, 1 FL), 9th in F2 (1 W, 1 P, 2 FL)

Lawson impressed in his maiden season racing GT cars in DTM back in 2021, becoming vice-champion in a campaign he juggled with what was also his first F2 season.

In 2022, the Red Bull junior focused on F2 and finished third ahead of Carlin team-mate Sargent. However, those achievements and proving himself as a quick adapter were not enough to earn a F1 seat, and he had to content himself with a spot on the SF grid with Team Mugen alongside F1 reserve driver duties.

Like he had done several times in the past, the New Zealander won on his debut in the series from third on the grid, then was demoted from third to fifth because of a penalty in the second race of the season-opening double-header at Fuji.

Lawson took his inevitable first win in round three at Autopolis and then another in round five at Fuji, which left him one point off championship leader Ritomo Miyata with three races to go.

An unfortunate race at Motegi, where he finished 13th after an incident at the start, put him on the back foot heading into Suzuka’s double-header finale. The title decider marked the first time he started on pole, but finishing second in the race also meant he finished second in the championship, eight points behind Miyata.

Between the last two rounds, he made his F1 debut with Red Bull’s second F1 team AlphaTauri. Daniel Riccardo injured himself in the second practice session at the Dutch GP, and Lawson was in the car for FP3 and excelled straightaway. He finished 13th in the latest of late call-ups, and stayed for four more grands prix, always matching the pace of his team-mate Yuki Tsunoda both in qualifying and races. If there was a standout event, then it has to be the Singapore Grand Prix as Lawson got through to Q3 – beating Tsunoda and Red Bull’s two drivers – and scored his first F1 points by finishing ninth in the race.

Unless something changes massively, Lawson will spend 2024 back on the sidelines as reserve driver to Red Bull’s two teams and hoping he can finally have a very much deserved spot on the grid in 2025.

1. Oscar Piastri AUSTRALIA 22y/o
9th in F1 (1 P, 1 W, 2 FL)   2022: no racing   2021: F2 champion (6 W, 5 P, 6 FL)

Although he graduated from F2 in 2021 as a dominant champion, it was not until 2023 that Piastri landed a professional race seat, which makes him eligible for this list.

It is true that Piastri arrived in F1 having completed an extensive testing programme as an Alpine junior. However, the challenges posed by the pinnacle of motorsport should not be underestimated and especially in Piastri’s case, as he came in amid a team change and a legal battle for his services.

His season was in crescendo. The Australian did not have the dream start other McLaren F1 rookies enjoyed in the past, partly due to the struggles of a car that was not born well. But as it ramped up, Piastri also raised his level to become a regular in the fight for top positions.

In the second half of the year, he matched his rapid team-mate Lando Norris over one lap, outqualifying him on several occasions. Norris still had the upper hand in races though, where Piastri usually fell a bit behind. If he closes that gap in 2024, the battle within the Woking stable will be extremely tight.

In the flyaway leg of the season, Piastri reached the podium in Japan and Qatar, the highlights of a formidable rookie F1 campaign. If his drive at Suzuka had been excellent, then his performance at Losail was on another level. He made the most of his testing experience at the Qatari circuit as well as a strong car to claim pole in the sprint shootout and win the sprint race on Saturday. Then on Sunday he rose from sixth on the grid to second place for what is his best career result to date.

Written by Alejandro Alonso Lopez and Ida Wood