The top karting stars not yet signed to F1 teams

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Karting is the training ground of most drivers before single-seaters, and Formula Scout follows all the major series to see which talents may eventually burst onto the car racing scene, and grab F1 teams’ attentions

Formula Scout had a busy time covering karting in 2024, and once again there were stories of drama, disaster and redemption. There was also lots of rain, which led to two CIK-FIA World Championship finals that left a lot of observers in disbelief.

After an ankle-destroying accident in 2023, Joe Turney bounced back this year to be the best karting driver in the world. However he ends 2024 without that on his CV after losing the OK final of the world championship due to a last-lap error. That it occurred on home soil, and in the trickiest conditions possible which he had been mastering until that point, made it all the more heart-breaking.

Ginetta Junior champion and OK kart newcomer Ethan Jeff-Hall passed him to win, and Formula Scout spoke to the top two extensively for a piece that can be read later in the new year. Turney is a factory Kart Republic driver with a difference, and the 23-year-old Briton is making the most of that status.

His 16-year-old compatriot Jeff-Hall is headed to British Formula 4 with Argenti Motorsport in 2025, and could compete there as a Formula 1 junior as he contested the Ferrari Driver Academy’s scouting world final this October and the winner is yet to be announced. In that he competed against 14-year-old Iacopo Martinese and Thibaut Ramaekers, who recently turned 15.

Martinese started off on home soil in Italy by coming eighth in the WSK Super Master Series for OK Junior karts, then was third in the CIK-FIA European Championship as he won round two but failed to score any points in the fourth and final event. He was 41st in the world championship, meaning he missed out on the final, but he did come eighth in the IAME Winter Cup for X30 Junior karts and in November he stepped up to OK karts and was sixth in the two-round WSK Final Cup.

Ramaekers, from Belgium, was one of Formula Scout’s top karters of 2023 due to his results on the junior scene and a starring OK cameo, and he spent all of this year in senior karting. He was up-and-down, and did incomplete campaigns, but was undoubtably one of the fastest drivers around with VDK Racing.

He was Champions of the Future runner-up on OK karts, winning one round but failing to score in the last round after running an illegal kart in the final, was third in the European championship despite again having a points-free round and getting nothing out of the season’s final race, won in a WSK SMS cameo to come 12th in the standings and was 13th in the world championship. Over on X30 karts he was 17th in the IAME Warriors Final and 22nd in the IAME Euro Series as a part-timer.

Some of the top karting talents headed into single-seaters before the end of the year, most notably Williams junior Sasha Bondarev who moved up to F4 with Prema. A growth spurt, which naturally increased his weight and changed his aerodynamic profile on the kart, made it hard for him to maintain the winning form he had shown at the start of 2024.

You can learn about the karters already with F1 teams guiding their careers in this feature, while Will Green has joined Williams’ ranks since then and Niklas Schaufler is already confirmed to be gaining Red Bull Junior Team membership in 2025. Formula Scout understands Taym Saleh’s Sauber backing concludes at the end of this year. You can also revisit all of our karting coverage on the website and social media.

Looking back on the year’s action, here are is a non-exclusive list of other names that stood out to Formula Scout in international karting during 2024 and, as it stands, are not yet F1 juniors:

Key

WSK: Champions Cup (CC), Euro Series (Euro), Final Cup (FC), Open Series (OS), Super Master Series (SMS), Super Cup (SC)
CIK-FIA: European championship (CIK European), World championship (CIK Worlds), World Cup (FIA WC), Karting Academy Trophy (FIA Academy Trophy)
Rotax Max Challenge: Euro Trophy, International Trophy (Int. Trophy), Grand Finals
IAME: Euro Series (Euro), Warriors Final (WF), Winter Cup (WC)
Champions of the Future (CotF)

Matthew Higgins WALES 19y/o
Rotax Snr Euro champion, Kartmasters British GP winner, 4th in Int. Trophy, 10th in Winter Cup, 27th in Grand Finals   OK 3rd in CIK Worlds, 25th in CotF, 47th in WSK FC   X30 Snr 4th in IAME WF

The son of Manx rally driver David, who won the USA’s national championship 10 times as well as the British championship, has tended to be more competitive on Rotax karts rather than OK chassis, and he followed up his fourth place in the 2023 Rotax Max Challenge Euro Trophy standings by taking the title this year.

Round one at Genk was his least competitive showing, going second fastest to local expert Vic Stevens in their qualifying group, then only getting one podium in the heats and finishing 22nd in the final following a clash with Mark Kimber.

He became the driver to beat following that. At Wackersdorf he took two wins and two second places in the heats and was second to Macauley Bishop in pre-final B, then a lap one pass earned him the lead in the final and he never gave it up.

At Franciacorta there was a starring set of drives from Thomas Bearman, but in the final it was experience that came to the fore as drivers ran wet tyres on a drying track. Higgins led at first after winning his pre-final, until a three-wide move on lap 10 put Turney ahead. Jayden Thien then got ahead with a two-in-one pass on lap 16, and when Turney tried diving past with a corner of the race to go but Higgins got by to win.

Night races at South Garda concluded the season, and Higgins was victorious in another final after Lewis Gilbert was disqualified for an illegal kart. He had already been crowned champion before Gilbert’s disqualification, and won two heats and pre-final A earlier in the weekend.

At the CIK-FIA World Championship he charged up the order to win three heats on-the-road, and set the fastest lap of the exceptionally tricky final en route to third place. In the RMC International Trophy he was consistently at the front in the heats, won his superheat and was fourth in the final. At home, he ran away with victory in the Kartmasters British Grand Prix.

Salim Hanna Hernandez COLOMBIA 15y/o
OK 3rd in WSK CC, 5th in WSK SMS, 10th in CotF, 12th in CIK European, 12th in WSK Euro, 20th in CIK Worlds   X30 Snr 50th in IAME WC

Prema launched a karting team last year to initially run F1 juniors, but it has expanded beyond that remit with its drivers. One of its most exciting is Hanna, who blossomed on the European scene at the very end of 2022 and has been growing since then.

Last year, his third on OK-J karts, was spent primarily with the crack Ricky Flynn Motorsport outfit but underwhelmed with fourth in the WSK SMS as the sole highlight. After joining Prema at year’s end he bagged top-six results in two WSK events.

For 2024 he stepped up to OK and the year began on an immediate high at the WSK Champions Cup, being atop the intermediate classification after the heats then winning his pre-final. He fell to seventh in the final, but recovered places and made the podium. In the WSK SMS he was fifth in the standings, the top rookie by some margin.

In CotF he had two dire weekends yet still made the top 10 in the points by finishing third in an exciting finale where he battled against Turney, and in the European championship he went points-free in the season opener then had a similar story of always being a top-10 threat but usually having a bunch of more experienced drivers, and F1 juniors, ahead.

His focus then switched to cars, doing two Italian F4 tests with Prema last month before making his single-seater racing debut with the team – under the guidance of Juan Pablo and Sebastian Montoya – in the United Arab Emirates-based Formula Trophy. A best finish of fourth from the seven-race series put him seventh in the standings.

Ean Eyckmans BELGIUM 16y/o
OK WSK SMS champion, 6th in WSK CC, 14th in WSK Euro, 23rd in CIK European, 27th in CotF, 46th in CIK Worlds

A penalty denied Eyckmans second-place in the WSK CC in January, and on the Italian circuits he was a force as he romped to the WSK SMS title. He was third in round one, won by the F4-bound Bondarev, and rain hit round two at Cremona but some warm-up laps dried the track for the OK final. Eyckmans had final pole after winning his pre-final but lost the lead on lap one. He reclaimed it a lap later, then lost it before his main rival went off and was unable to challenge Eyckmans again.

The top two colliding meant Eyckmans was second in round three at Franciacorta, and to wrap up the title at Sarno he won his pre-final and the final although only got one heat podium prior to that.

His ability to pick up points was a contrast to CotF, which kicked off at Valencia. He was fourth fastest in qualifying (an achievement that earns no points) and despite two podiums in the heats was outside of the top 15 in the intermediate classification and so scored nothing. A double penalty cost him fifth in his superheat, again meaning no points, then on a wet track in the final he charged up to third but another double penalty for last-lap contact knocked him back to fifth.

At Val d’Argenton being 0.33 seconds off the pace in qualifying put him 16th in his group, a starting point for another tricky weekend. He could get no higher than seventh in the heats (but was always moving up) and didn’t make the final, and it was identical problems at Slovak Karting Center and Kristianstad. There were more crashes too due to being mired in the midfield.

When his qualifying woes continued into the PF International finale, but the same applied to everyone on Birel ART karts, it was clear that the driver had not been fully to blame for the ongoing lack of pace. The European championship visited the same circuits, and so it was the same struggles away from Valencia where he led led laps and fought Turney hard. Switching to his former IndyCar-racing father Wim’s Eyckmans GP team for the world championship at PFI, but staying on a Birel ART kart, didn’t resolve his issues either and he was as competitive as his kart was.

Eyckmans then won the Richard Mille Young Talent Academy shootout, earning himself a paid-for Spanish F4 seat with MP Motorsport. The shootout was organised by the All Road Management firm led by Birel ART’s assistant director Nicolas Todt.

Scott Marsh ENGLAND 14y/o
OK-J 7th in CotF, 7th in CIK Worlds, 13th in CIK European, 27th in WSK SMS   Rotax Jr 5th in RMC Grand Finals, 26th in RMC Euro Trophy

Marsh came seventh in the CotF standings courtesy of a defensive masterclass in the final round at PFI, and outside of the soaking wet world championship finals at the track it was one of the more impressive displays of racing in karting this year.

He went points-free in the first two rounds, but the Mercedes-AMG juniors also performed badly with all the support possible, then he starred in racing conditions through the next three. He charged from 19th to fourth in the final in Slovakia, and won a heat and his superheat in Sweden before finishing third in the final after spending some time in the lead.

In the season finale he topped his qualifying group, claimed five heat podiums to be second in the intermediate classification, but was only ninth in his superheat as he lost ground on lap two and never recovered. However he learned for the final, which he started in sixth. He took the lead in a three-wide hairpin move on lap three, then lost it to Mercedes junior Kenzo Craigie in a double switchback move on lap six.

Marsh reclaimed the lead on lap 13, and it became a four-way lead fight again. There was a clash with Rocco Coronel, who was announced as a Red Bull junior three days later, and drivers began to trip over each other as Marsh bunched them up and kept them behind him until the end of the 19-lapper. Before the chasers got penalties, the top 10 existed as a lead pack.

The factory Tony Kart driver also utilised his knowledge of PFI to climb up to seventh in the world championship final, and circuit-specific deficiencies from CotF also occurred in the European championship. He could not credit the home advantage in the RMC Grand Finals, which took place at Sarno and he finished fifth in after winning his pre-final.

Christian Costoya SPAIN 14y/o
OK 2nd in WSK Euro, 5th in WSK FC   OK-J 2nd in CIK European, 5th in WSK SMS, 5th in WSK CC, 6th in CotF, 17th in WSK Euro, 25th in CIK Worlds

The All Road Management protege retained his status as a factory Parolin driver for his second season in junior karting, and made the most of it.

En route to being runner-up in the European championship he had an up-and-down time. He topped his qualifying group in rounds one and two, and finished fourth in the final of both after claiming five wins and three runner-up finishes in the heats, and second in his superheat at Val d’Argenton. He was the closest rival of Dries Van Langendonck, who was soon to become a McLaren junior.

However being 24th fastest in his qualifying group in Slovakia left Costoya having to go on a charge. He made up a combined 61 places in the heats and finished two in the top 10, and eighth in his superheat put him 26th on the final grid. This time he climbed 11 spots, but it was not enough to keep his title hopes alive.

At Kristianstad he bounced back in style, winning all but one of his heats (the other he was runner-up), taking a crushing superheat win and then being even more dominant in the final to return to second in the standings.

Costoya was also a frontrunner on the WSK scene in Italy, including when he stepped up to OK karts for three weekends. He was Euro Series runner-up despite missing the first round of two, as he improved with each heat then was second in the pre-final and final, and in the more hotly contested Final Cup he kicked things off by topping his qualifying group, getting two heat podiums and being 0.151s off the pre-final win before retiring from the final early on. A bad qualifying meant he needed to chase top-10 finishes in heats, which he succeeded in doing, then made the pre-final podium and was fourth in the final.

Filippo Sala ITALY 13y/o
OK-J Trofeo delle Industrie winner, 2nd in WSK FC, 3rd in WSK CC, 4th in CotF, 4th in WSK Euro, 5th in CIK European, 7th in WSK SMS, 50th in CIK Worlds

A star of mini karting in 2022, Sala was a consistent contender at the junior level in 2023 by being WSK SMS runner-up, making the Trofeo delle Industrie podium and the top five in several other high-level events and series. While 2024 didn’t lead to the expected step up in results, it was still no doubt impressive for a driver who only turned 13 in summer.

The Ricky Flynn Motorsport driver almost started the year on top form, going fastest in WSK CC qualifying and winning three heats before retiring on lap two of the fourth. Third place in his pre-final followed, despite getting into the lead mid-race, and he went from fifth to first in under two laps of the final but again got shuffled back to third.

It somewhat set the tone for the year as Sala had the pace to win but only in round one of the WSK FC in November did he actually top the podium in the final. In WSK SMS his worst results usually came in the finals, and in the wet second round he was fastest of all in qualifying, won four heats but moved down the order in the most important races.

It was similar in CotF. At round one he confidently topped his qualifying group, won four heats on the bounce, then faltered to two podiums and a retirement which also involved a penalty and lost spots later in the event. He finished the final in ninth.

He was quickest in qualifying again next time out, won two heats, his superheat and then from pole dropped as low as ninth again in the final before recovering two spots. Round three was very similar, except in the superheat he plummeted to 12th, and sank to 11th in the final. Round four was even worse, but more heat wins and finally a high-scoring result in the final earned him fourth in the standings. However at the same track, PFI, he didn’t make the world championship final a week later.

Sala came fifth in the European championship despite never finishing any of the rounds in a position higher than that, and less convincing displays put him third in both WSK Euro Series rounds and fourth in the points. When that all-important overall victory eventually came in the WSK FC, he followed it up with fourth in round two so missed out on the title.

Six more to watch…

Zac Drummond was fifth in CotF’s OK standings despite a points-free finale, and was the opposite to Sala in that he made the podium in both WSK FC finals but languished seventh in the standings. In round one the Scot qualified third then finished every race in fourth until the final, and was in the top three of every session in round two bar the pre-final.

Turkish star Iskender Zulfikari followed up a 2023 in which he claimed four major crowns in mini karting and one on ROK Junior karts with a year in which he focused on honing his craft on OK-J chassis. There were many tricky weekends, but he improved as the season went on and ended it with 10th in the World championship then third in the WSK FC.

Team-mate to Mercedes’ juniors at Prema was Noah Baglin, who had much OK-J success but lost the world championship at the very last corner in a collision with one of his team-mates. It was an unexpected non-finish he didn’t take well. Before that he was seventh in the European championship and eighth in CotF, and after it he bounced back to take the WSK FC crown.

Jayden Thien won the RMC Winter Cup and Belgian championship for Rotax Snr karts, came fourth in the Euro Trophy, third in the International Trophy and rose 17 places in the final to match that result in the Grand Finals. The Dutchman also made his shifter karting debut and entered the X30 Pro class of the USA’s SuperNationals event, finishing a non-shameful 14th. Closer to home, and back on Rotax karts, he also won the BNL Kick-Off and Series.

Denmark’s Casper Nissen was the champion of Rotax Jr karts in the RMC Euro Trophy,  and also came sixth in the Winter Cup and Grand Finals, while William Calleja won the WSK SMS and was WSK CC runner-up on Mini karts but languished down the order once he stepped up a class with RFM.

It could be argued that several of the names here should have appeared in the main list, and vice versa, since they were high achievers in some international competitions but also got outperformed in others.

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