Jann Mardenborough
Unlike most of the other nominees in this category, Jann Mardenborough was not a title contender and didn?t even win a race. But he was not racing in an entry-level category – he was racing in the FIA F3 European Championship. A winner of the Nissan GT Academy competition for gamers in 2011, he spent last year racing a GT3 specification Nissan. In preparation for racing a high-downforce Le Mans Prototype in 2013, he tested with Carlin?s F3 squad over the winter and impressed.
He then took part in the Toyota Racing Series in New Zealand in January and February. He finished the five-round campaign in tenth overall, as the best single-seater rookie and the best of the five drivers entered by the ETEC outfit. He finished sixth on four occasions and even qualified on the front row at round four at Hampton Downs, missing out on pole position to GP3 champion Mitch Evans by just 0.052 seconds.
It?s safe to say that he found the going tougher in European F3 with Carlin, scoring points on just four occasions with a best of seventh at the Norisring. When the majority of the field had F3 experience and only two rookies scored podiums, his performances were respectable even if results were hard to come by. He twice qualified eighth at Brands Hatch as top rookie, and seventh at Spielberg.
In the more forgivable British F3, he finished second in the wet at Spa-Francorchamps and finished sixth in the final standings ? a more than respectable result for a single-seater newcomer. He finished in the top ten in both Formula Renault 3.5 and GP3 testing at the end of the year ? two series that would likely be kinder on his lack of experience in 2014.
Peter Allen