The feeder series world crowned champions on five continents in more than 30 racing series in 2022. From rookie sensations who dominated championships to close-fought battles resolved only in the dying laps of their respective seasons, the last 12 months have produced drama, controversy, and historic title fights – and, of course, a fresh crop of champions.

By George Brabner

Check out the 2022 Feeder Series Hall of Fame in PDF format, also available as a downloadable e-book!

FIA Formula 2 Championship: Felipe Drugovich

Felipe Drugovich’s third Formula 2 campaign was a make-or-break season. He had moved to Virtuosi Racing in 2021 for his second year in the series, but after a disappointing campaign, he returned to MP Motorsport, the team with which he began his F2 career, for 2022.

Back at the Dutch outfit, Drugovich was a new man. His first victory came at Round 2 in Jeddah, where he dominated the feature race – a taste of what was to come. Barcelona showed Drugovich and MP Motorsport in their prime, the Brazilian joining an elite club of drivers by scoring a double victory. 

Just a round later on the streets of Monte Carlo, Drugovich endured a torrid sprint race that ended in retirement following a puncture on Lap 1. But on Sunday he turned it all around, taking victory from pole despite immense pressure from his title rival Théo Pourchaire. From then on, he was the most consistent scorer, tying up the title a weekend early at Monza, albeit from the pit lane.

Drugovich hasn’t yet announced any plans for a full-time race seat in 2023, but he will act as the reserve driver for Aston Martin in F1.

FIA Formula 3 Championship: Victor Martins

The 2022 season was one of the most competitive in FIA Formula 3 to date as the title fight went right down to the final laps of the dramatic Monza finale. Keeping the rookies at bay, second-year driver Victor Martins emerged on top by just five points.

Martins started his season with a bang, taking victory in the first feature race of the year in Bahrain and establishing an early championship lead. As the season progressed, it was clear he had tough competition in the rookie field. The likes of Isack Hadjar, Ollie Bearman and Zane Maloney all took the fight to the ART Grand Prix man.

Ultimately, Martins’ consistency and tendency to keep out of trouble helped him secure his title in a hugely up-and-down season. He looks set to continue with ART Grand Prix in F2 in 2023, having completed the post-season test with the team at Abu Dhabi in November.

W Series: Jamie Chadwick

Taking her third title on the bounce, W Series star Jamie Chadwick remained the championship’s dominant force in 2022.

Financial turmoil for the series saw the season draw to a close two races early, although Chadwick still finished the year with a 50-point advantage over the next closest driver, Beitske Visser. A double victory at Miami and wins at Catalunya, Silverstone and Paul Ricard proved that Chadwick was a cut above the rest. The eventual final two races of the year weren’t as smooth sailing for Chadwick, with second place in Hungary and a race-ending crash in Singapore.

For 2023, Chadwick will be making the move to the United States, joining Indy NXT with Andretti Autosport.

Super Formula: Tomoki Nojiri

Successfully defending his title, Tomoki Nojiri became the first driver since Tsugio Matsuda in 2007–08 to take back-to-back Super Formula championships.

Nojiri had built a comfortable lead over his nearest points rivals, Sacha Fenestraz and Ryō Hirakawa, coming into the final weekend at Suzuka. All he needed was a podium to tie up the title with a race to spare, and he did exactly that with a second-place finish, his seventh podium of the year. A day later, that number grew to eight with his second win of the 10-race season.

Nojiri’s consistency set him apart, as he took no finish lower than fourth across the season. For 2023, he will be staying in Super Formula with Team Mugen, racing alongside series rookie and F2 graduate Liam Lawson.

Super Formula Lights: Kazuto Kotaka

Kazuto Kotaka’s 2022 Super Formula Lights season was defined by his battle with Kakunoshin Ohta, the two drivers split by just six points at the end of the season.

Both Kotaka and Ohta had up-and-down starts to the year before they traded wins at the second race meeting of the season. However, a lull at Autopolis for Kotaka saw Ohta streak clear and leave the weekend with a 19-point gap. The pendulum swung back in Kotaka’s direction the next round at Sportsland Sugo, where the TOM’S driver took a triple victory.

Though he finished fourth in the final race of the season at Okayama while Ohta won, Kotaka emerged as champion with eight wins from 18 races.

In 2023, Kotaka will step up to Super Formula with Kondō Racing.

Formula Regional European Championship: Dino Beganovic

With 13 podiums in 20 races, Ferrari Driver Academy–backed Dino Beganovic had a remarkable FRECA season, beating his closest rival, Gabriele Minì, by an impressive 58 points. A mighty start to the year that saw him take eight podiums from eight races meant that even some non-scores in the latter half of the season didn’t put his lead under threat.

Part of a four-car Prema Racing squad that convincingly took the team’s championship, teammate Paul Aron challenged Beganovic and scored six wins but ultimately wound up third, whilst ART Grand Prix’s Minì also took three wins during the season.

Beganovic’s maiden FRECA victory was particularly impressive, as he took first place in the first race of the year at the Autodromo Nazionale Monza despite three safety car restarts and treacherous wet conditions. A dominant victory in Race 2 on the streets of Monaco in Round 3 was another race that Beganovic won’t forget in a hurry – a result that grew his already large championship lead. 

For 2023, Beganovic will be stepping up to FIA Formula 3, sticking with the dominant force that is Prema Racing.

Euroformula Open: Oliver Goethe

Following a difficult 2021 that saw him finish 23rd in FRECA, Oliver Goethe moved to Euroformula Open in 2022. It was precisely what he needed, and he took the championship by 57 points with 18 podiums in 26 races.

The 2022 season was challenging for Euroformula Open, with just seven drivers entering every round. However, that did not discredit Goethe’s accomplishments, such as his triple victory at the Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps and seven podiums from eight races, including a win at Pau, across the first three rounds. 

Goethe even proved his worth at a higher level by jumping ship to FIA Formula 3 for the Hungaroring and Spa-Francorchamps rounds to replace the injured Hunter Yeany at Campos Racing. He impressed in his two showings, including by taking fourth in the Spa feature race, and will climb to FIA F3 for the full 2023 season with Trident.

GB3 Championship: Luke Browning

GB3 in 2022 gave us a fantastic season-long battle between Fortec Motorsports’ Joel Granfors and Hitech’s Luke Browning. The pairing were seemingly inseparable at multiple points in the 24-race season.

From the championship lead, Browning was disqualified from qualifying at the series’ second visit to Silverstone in Round 6, which saw him leave the weekend needing to make up ground over Granfors if he wanted to snatch the title from the Swede’s hands. However, he made Brands Hatch and the season finale at Donington Park really count, outscoring Granfors in five of the six races to take the championship crown.

A drive for Browning in 2023 is yet to be confirmed, but he secured an extra £200,000 of potential funding in December 2022 by winning the Aston Martin Autosport BRDC Young Driver of the Year Award.

GB4 Championship: Nikolas Taylor

The GB4 Championship, a BRDC–run series aiming to act as an affordable feeder series to fellow British championship GB3, held its inaugural season in 2022. Fortec Motorsports’ Nikolas Taylor took the title over South Africa’s Jarrod Waberski.

The British-Malaysian driver was not the most mistake-free driver, with crashes while in the lead at Brands Hatch and in qualifying for the final round at Donington Park, but he was definitely one of the season’s fastest drivers. Taylor took nine wins from 24 races, by far the most of anyone on the grid, whilst also making up the most places out of any driver in each weekend’s reverse-grid races, in which each overtake granted extra points.

Taylor’s 2023 plans are yet to be announced.

Indy Lights: Linus Lundqvist

HMD driver Linus Lundqvist took the Indy Lights title by a comfortable 92 points after 14 races.

Lundqvist had some mightily impressive moments throughout the year, leading every lap of the Belle Isle double-header and taking victory by less than two tenths of a second in an unforgettable race finish at Barber Motorsports Park.

With Indy Lights taking drivers to road courses, street circuits and ovals, consistency over the year is not the easiest of feats, but nine podiums in 14 races made Lundqvist the class of the field. He wrapped up the title at Laguna Seca with a race to spare.

A 2023 IndyCar drive for Lundqvist is looking less and less likely, and he has instead looked to pursue a race seat in the IMSA SportsCar Championship. No move to either championship has yet been confirmed.

Indy Pro 2000 Championship: Louis Foster

Louis Foster had an impressive Indy Pro 2000 season, rounding out the year with seven wins and a further five podiums. The Englishman was also by far the top rookie, finishing the year 61 points ahead of Reece Gold and more than 100 points ahead of his closest rookie rival, Nolan Siegel.

Foster began the year with three podiums in four races – a strong start, although he didn’t truly control the championship until just before mid-season, following a win at Indianapolis Raceway Park. From there, Foster looked fully in control, taking a further five race victories and tying up the championship with two races to spare.

For the 2023 season, Foster will continue to rise up the newly rebranded IndyCar feeder series ladder, moving to Indy NXT with Andretti Autosport.

USF2000 Championship: Michael d’Orlando

The USF2000 Championship was hotly contested in 2022. Eventual champion Michael d’Orlando, Myles Rowe and Jace Denmark went back and forth all season long, with D’Orlando snatching the title in the final race of the year at Portland.

Both Rowe and Denmark went on long podium streaks at different points in the season. D’Orlando was less consistent, but heading into the season finale, the three drivers were split by only seven points. 

Opening-lap collisions between Rowe and Denmark in Race 2 and separate incidents in Turn 1 in Race 3 unravelled their championship hopes at the final hurdle. In the final race, D’Orlando went on to take a dramatic victory and with it the championship.

With the USF2000 title under his belt, D’Orlando earned a $406,925 scholarship to help him advance to Indy Pro 2000 for 2023 and take another step toward IndyCar. Exact plans are still to be confirmed.

USF Juniors: Mac Clark

The new first step on the IndyCar feeder series ladder, USF Juniors saw Canadian racer Mac Clark emerge victorious with a 24-point lead over Sam Corry.

Over the course of the 16-race season, Clark took five wins and finished outside of the podium places only three times, appearing as the dominant force multiple times in the season despite tough competition from behind. This was particularly true at Ozarks International Raceway and Barber Motorsports Park, which hosted Rounds 1 and 2 respectively. Clark took both pole positions and race wins at each event.

Having secured the USF Juniors title, Clark earned a scholarship worth more than $220,000 to take him up to USF2000, in which he will continue with DEForce Racing in 2023.

Italian Formula 4 Championship: Andrea Kimi Antonelli

Italian F4 in 2022 has become synonymous with the name of one young Italian: Andrea Kimi Antonelli. The Mercedes junior and Prema Racing driver took 13 wins over the course of the 20 races he started, with a seven-race-long victory streak stretching across the rounds at Spa-Francorchamps and Vallelunga defining his year.

The season opener at Imola didn’t go Antonelli’s way in terms of finishing positions, and he walked away with just one point. But that was the only major low point in his year. He finished the year on 362 points, with a healthy margin over Alex Dunne on 258, aiding Prema Racing in returning to the top of the teams’ championship.

Antonelli will stick with Prema in 2023 as he moves up to FRECA.

ADAC Formula 4 Championship: Andrea Kimi Antonelli

In what has turned out to be the final season of ADAC F4 for the time being, Andrea Kimi Antonelli was crowned champion after a year in the German F4 championship that was almost as impressive as his 2022 in the Italian series. 

Racing for Prema, Antonelli proved to be a near-unstoppable force. Though he and the Prema team missed the fifth round of the year at the Lausitzring, Antonelli won the title by 47 points over Taylor Barnard, with nine wins on the season.

A second-round sweep at the Hockenheimring illustrated his admirable consistency and raw pace in ADAC F4. Despite PHM Racing and Taylor Barnard’s late resurgence, such early results from Antonelli made his championship lead nearly untouchable heading into the final two rounds of the season.

British Formula 4 Championship: Alex Dunne

Hitech GP’s Alex Dunne was the name on everybody’s lips in the British F4 paddock in 2022. He ended the year with an impressive 11 wins to his name and a 69-point lead over second-placed Ollie Gray despite missing the final round of the year to contest the Italian F4 season finale so that he could secure second place in that championship.

Following a sixth-place finish in the 2022 F4 UAE Championship, in which he picked up two victories, Dunne started his British F4 season with a bang, taking two wins as well as a second place in the reverse-grid Race 2 – a position he secured by gaining seven places. That really set the tone of his season, and once he got into his groove, he was difficult to stop, producing a constant flow of podiums – 17 in total in the series – and top-five finishes. Only in two of the nine rounds that Dunne contested did the Irishman not take a victory.

In 2023, Dunne will stick with Hitech GP but will move up the British feeder series ladder and into GB3.

Spanish Formula 4 Championship: Nikola Tsolov

Spanish F4 in 2022 went firmly the way of Alpine Affiliate Nikola Tsolov. In a similar vein to Antonelli, the young Bulgarian only finished outside the podium positions three times in the series in 2022, at his peak taking eight wins in a row. 

Fellow Campos Racing driver Hugh Barter was his closest rival with six wins over the course of the 21-race season, albeit finishing 113 points behind Tsolov come the closing race. Nevertheless, the pair threw up some exciting moments, such as Tsolov’s last-lap pass for victory on Barter in the second race at Spa-Francorchamps, one of three weekends the Bulgarian driver swept in 2022. 

Barter took five of six wins at Aragon and Navarra after the summer break, but Tsolov’s consistent podium finishes meant it was too late for his Campos teammate to mount a serious challenge. 

For 2023, Alpine Academy driver Tsolov will be moving straight up to FIA F3 with ART Grand Prix, skipping FRECA.

French Formula 4 Championship: Alessandro Giusti

French F4 in 2022 was a story of two halves. The first portion of the season was dominated by Hugh Barter, whilst the second went firmly the way of eventual champion Alessandro Giusti.

Barter started strong, taking victory in the first race of the season before going on to claim a further four wins by the end of Round 3 at Magny-Cours. Despite picking up victories at both Spa-Francorchamps and Valencia’s Circuit Ricardo Tormo, he left the weekends without points because of the series’ rules that prevented drivers who had raced at circuits on the calendar earlier in 2022 from scoring in the respective French F4 events.

In the last three rounds of the season, Giusti had an upturn in pace, becoming arguably the class of the field. This was especially apparent in the qualifying sessions, in which he took all six of the final pole positions on offer. He secured the title with two races still to run.

For 2023, Giusti will be racing in FRECA with G4 Racing.

Danish Formula 4 Championship: Julius Dinesen

The battle for the title in Danish F4 was tight. Just five points split champion Julius Dinesen from Sebastian Gravlund come the end of the year. 

Gravlund started the year with a bang, taking a triple victory on the first of two visits to Padborg Park. From then on, Gravlund and Dinesen remained at the sharp end of the grid, but missing the second round of the year put Gravlund on the back foot. With four wins and a further nine podiums for Dinesen and only two victories for Gravlund in the final two rounds, Dinesen had done just enough to outscore his rival.

Dinesen’s 2023 plans are yet to be announced, but his sights are set on an Italian or Spanish F4 drive, as he confirmed on the Feeder Series Podcast.

Formula Regional Asian Championship: Arthur Leclerc

One of the first championships to run in 2022, the Formula Regional Asian Championship saw Arthur Leclerc fill his winter with four victories and a further five podium finishes to take the title and help his team, Mumbai Falcons, to their first teams’ championship.

Though he had already spent 2021 in FIA Formula 3 with Prema, Leclerc made the step down to FRAC with Prema-affiliated Mumbai Falcons before embarking on another more successful F3 campaign. He did not always appear the fastest over a single lap in FRAC; in fact, he only secured one pole across the five-round season. But his consistency and race pace secured him a 60-point advantage by the end of the season.

Having gone on to finish sixth in FIA F3 in 2022, Leclerc will jump up to Formula 2 in 2023, leaving Prema after three seasons with the team and making the switch to DAMS.

Formula 4 UAE Championship: Charlie Wurz

In his first full-time Formula 4 campaign, Charlie Wurz started 2022 exactly as he had hoped. Two wins and eight further podiums in the F4 UAE Championship, the support series to the Formula Regional Asian Championship, helped him beat fellow rookie Rafael Câmara to the title by 45 points.

Wurz didn’t rocket to the top as the delayed season began, taking eighth, seventh, second and sixth in the first four races at the Yas Marina Circuit. The next three rounds saw him consistently in and around the podium places, but with early victors James Wharton and Andrea Kimi Antonelli completing only partial campaigns, Câmara emerged as Wurz’s biggest championship rival with a late surge of pace. 

Wurz’s consistency paid off, though. As Câmara, who had missed the opening round after contracting COVID-19, retired from pole in the penultimate race of the season, Wurz was crowned champion.

Taking fourth- and seventh-place finishes in Italian and ADAC F4 in 2022, Wurz aims to move to FRECA in 2023 and looks likely to be running with ART Grand Prix in 2023, though that move has not been confirmed.

Formula Regional Americas Championship: Raoul Hyman

After spending two years away from racing, South African–British driver Raoul Hyman made his single-seater return in the FIA–certified Formula Regional Americas Championship, dominating the series with a perfect pole record and finishing outside of the podium places only twice.

Dylan Tavella was Hyman’s closest rival, though he ended the year 81 points back. It was really in qualifying where Hyman proved his worth, taking pole by more than one second at the season finale at COTA and winning races by margins as large as 51 seconds.

With the prize for winning the Honda-sponsored series being a seat in one of the manufacturer’s cars in Super Formula, Hyman will be making the switch to the premier Japanese single-seater series in 2023 with B-Max Racing.

Formula 4 United States Championship: Lochie Hughes

F4 US was characterised by the battle for the title between Lochie Hughes and Bryson Morris in 2022. By the time the chequered flag fell for the final time at the Circuit of The Americas in early November, the gap between the two drivers had opened up to 55 points, but that was by far the largest it had been all year long.

The two remained close at pretty much every other point in the year, trading wins and, with them, the championship lead. Despite the bizarre circumstances that saw Hughes find out he was the F4 US champion via a text message from one of his teammates after the second race of the final weekend, he had been a tough driver to beat all season long with supreme raw pace.

Lochie Hughes’ F4 US title put him back on the map after he took two years away from racing. In 2023, he’ll be continuing with Jay Howard Driver Development in USF2000.

Formula 4 Brazilian Championship: Pedro Clerot

Pedro Clerot was the star of the inaugural Brazilian F4 Championship. Taking 11 podiums in 18 races, Clerot wrapped up the title with a 63-point margin over Lucas Staico.

Clerot started the year with a bang. Two wins at Autódromo Velo Città, another two victories and a second place at Interlagos, and a win and a podium on the series’ second visit to the Autódromo José Carlos Pace put him in the driving seat of the championship. No single driver stood out from the far more even pack in the second half of the season, something partially down to the car draw rule implemented by the series promoter, Vicar.

After securing the 2022 Brazilian F4 title and competing in Italian F4 for two rounds, Clerot will be making a full-time move to Europe in 2023, contesting the Spanish F4 Championship with MP Motorsport.

F4 NACAM Championship: Juan Felipe Pedraza

Colombia’s Juan Felipe ‘Pipe’ Pedraza had a close rivalry with Julio Rejón when the F4 NACAM season commenced, trading wins with the Mexican driver at Autódromo de Querétaro and the first of four championship visits to the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez.

Rejón was hot out of the blocks, with three wins and three more podiums from the first six races to give him an early championship lead. However, a pivotal moment came at Puebla, when Rejón skipped the weekend to compete in the NASCAR Challenge Mexico and Pedraza took a triple victory, swinging the championship pendulum firmly in his favour.

With Rejón in the rear-view mirror as the season got into its second half, Pedraza established himself as the favourite, taking three wins and two second-place finishes in the final five races of the season to wrap up the title with a race to spare.

Pedraza’s 2023 plans are currently unconfirmed.

Formula Regional Japanese Championship: Miki Koyama

One of only two female champions in the feeder series world in 2022, Miki Koyama dominated the Formula Regional Japanese Championship, rounding out the year with a 100 per cent podium record and seven victories, including five that came consecutively.

Formula Regional Japan struggled with entrants this season, with a maximum of 12 drivers appearing at the series’ second visit to the Fuji International Speedway, where it raced in support of the World Endurance Championship’s 6 Hours of Fuji. Nevertheless, Koyama did everything she needed to do, dominating the field without any major slip-ups and securing the championship with a round to spare. Her five-race-long winning streak across the Okayama and Motegi rounds highlighted her relentless pace perfectly.

Koyama was also announced as a Toyota junior driver in 2022, and in a bid to secure a seat in the likes of Super GT or Super Formula, this title is exactly what she needs. However, her exact plans for 2023 are yet to be confirmed.

Japanese Formula 4 Championship: Syun Koide

A race winner in 2021, Syun Koide returned to the proving ground that is Japanese F4 in 2022, showcasing a fantastic upturn in pace since last year and becoming champion in impressive fashion.

The Honda Formula Dream Project driver started his 2022 campaign with a non-finish after contact on the very first turn of the first race. But that and a 26th-place finish due to a drive-through penalty he received for passing before the start-finish line on a safety car restart in Race 10 were the only two occasions that he finished outside of the top two. 

Nine victories, three second-place finishes and seven pole positions tell you everything you need to know about his second full season in Japanese F4.

For 2023, Koide will step up to both Super Formula Lights with Toda Racing and Super GT with Team UpGarage in the GT300 class.

Formula 4 Chinese Championship: Gerrard Xie

After a delayed start to the year, Chinese F4 got underway in August at the Ningbo International Circuit, where Gerrard Xie enjoyed a near-perfect weekend to set the tone for his 2022 season.

Xie took full points at every single round except at Ningbo, where after claiming pole position and three wins earlier in the weekend, he crashed out of the fourth and final race. This was the one moment that stopped Xie from earning 100 per cent of the points available to him in Chinese F4. He won nine of the next 10 races of the season to tie up the title four races early. 

It’s worth pointing out that he didn’t win the 69th running of the Macau Grand Prix, in which he lost out only to local driver Andy Chang, who took an impressive first Macau GP victory. However, as a guest in the series, Chang was not eligible to score points.

Xie’s plans for 2023 have not yet been announced.

Australian Formula 3 Championship: Noah Sands

Down under, Noah Sands became the 2022 Australian F3 Champion. With nine wins and only two race finishes not within the top three, Sands had a mightily impressive season. In the second half of the year, the Gilmour Racing driver came into his own after an early championship back-and-forth with Trent Grubel. 

Grubel controlled the championship after the first two rounds of the season, but after a huge engine failure in qualifying for Round 3, he was left unable to start any of the weekend’s races and could not get the parts to repair his Dallara F312/16’s engine imported to Australia. Gilmour Racing, which housed eventual champion Sands, threw him a lifeline before Round 4, and they struck a deal that meant Grubel would race with the team until the end of the season.

Though Grubel got a second chance, Sands simply produced better results in the following rounds, with a five-race win streak guaranteeing him the title.

Sands’ drive for 2023 has not been confirmed, but a strong showing in the S5000 Tasman Series that saw him finish the season sixth shows that a move to the main S5000 series may be on the cards.

S5000 Australian Drivers’ Championship: Joey Mawson

Taking his second S5000 championship in a row, Team BRM’s Joey Mawson took five victories and another three podiums to lead James Golding by 53 points come the end of the season.

There wasn’t one driver who particularly dominated the Australian S5000 series in 2022, with victories and podiums well spread over the top five – Mawson, Golding, Cooper Webster, Tim Macrow and Aaron Cameron. But Mawson consistently built his impressive lead thanks to two victories and a second place in the main event races, which in S5000 earn a driver 60 points for a victory compared to 30 for the first race and 20 for the second race of each weekend.

Third in the S5000 Tasman Series with Team BRM too, Mawson, the 2016 ADAC F4 champion, has had an impressive 2022, although his plans for 2023 are yet to be confirmed.

S5000 Tasman Series: Nathan Herne

Off the back of a seventh-place finish in a partial 2022 S5000 Australian Drivers’ Championship season and another seventh place in the 2021 S5000 Tasman Series, Nathan Herne emerged as the champion of the 2022 edition of the S5000 Tasman Series with four straight victories and one pole position in the six-round series.

Herne swept the opening weekend of the series at the Surfers Paradise Street Circuit, while 2022 S5000 Australian drivers’ champion Joey Mawson took a trio of second places. However, Herne’s dominant run quickly ended at Adelaide when he suffered from an overheating gearbox in Race 2, which saw him finish 11th as Mawson took his first win. This left the pair split by only one point entering the season finale.

On the third lap of the race, the pair made contact, sending Mawson out of the race. Incredibly, Herne continued with a damaged car to a 13th-place finish, helping him to the Tasman Series crown. Mawson received a 15-point penalty after the stewards judged that his moving under braking caused the championship-deciding collision.

Herne has set his sights on a full-season assault in the S5000 Australian Drivers’ Championship in 2023.

Formula Nordic: Philip Victorsson

Formula Nordic, Sweden’s only modern junior championship, could only attract six drivers in 2022. All five full-time entrants took at least one victory, which created some entertaining racing, but with nine wins to his name, Philip Victorsson emerged as champion.

In what was his third season in the series, Victorsson shone in 2022 because of his race pace. Though he only took one pole, the victories came thick and fast, especially at the start of the season. He won two races in Round 1 at Anderstorp, three a round later at Falkenberg and two more in Round 3 back at Anderstorp for a sweep of the first seven races. It quickly became clear that Victorsson would be very tough to overcome in the remaining rounds, but rookie challengers like Benjamin Fuglesang and Linus Granfors took both wins and pole positions.

Victorsson’s 2023 plans are yet to be announced, but he has recently been testing GB3 machinery with Fortec Motorsports, indicating that a move to the British series could be on the cards.

Formula Academy Finland: Aleksi Jalava

Aleski Jalava took seven class victories over the course of the 14-race Formula Academy Finland season, pipping fellow Tatuus F4 driver Iker Oikarinen to the Formula 4 title by just 21 points. Jussi Kuivakangas, driving a Dallara F308, took the overall Formula Open Finland title by 103 points over Jalava.

The Formula Academy Finland field was only five cars strong, but Jalava found tough competition in both Oikarinen and early leader Leevi Vappula throughout the season, with the three of them taking all 14 class victories and two outright wins. As Vappula faded away after the series changed tyre suppliers mid-season and Oikarinen suffered a costly retirement in the fourth race of the season, Jalava eked out a gap over Oikarinen with a run of four race wins from the sixth to ninth races of the year. They remained close in pace until the end of the year, and the points margin between them never grew larger than the 21-point gap on which they ended the season.

A drive for Jalava in 2023 is yet to be announced.

Header photo collage created by Michael McClure featuring photos from ACI Sport, ADAC F4 Championship, Danish F4, Diederik van der Laan / Dutch Photo Agency, Euroformula Open, F4 UAE Championship, Formula Motorsport Limited, Formula Regional Asian Championship, Gavin Baker Photography, Jakob Ebrey Photography, James Black / Penske Entertainment, Luca Bassani, Marc de Mattia / DPPI, Red Bull Media House, Super Formula, and W Series