Now in its third season under the GB3 Championship moniker, the UK’s premier single-seater championship is revelling in its largest grid in over 50 years – and arguably its most competitive yet. With the recent success of previous series champions and the recent debuts of two of its drivers in FIA Formula 3, Feeder Series analyses GB3’s current position on the junior category ladder.

By George Brabner

Prior to reaching FIA F3 – an essential step in the ascension towards the pinnacle of global motorsport – spending a season racing in a regional F3–level series is an option often undertaken by junior drivers on the verge of stardom.

Despite a handful of anomalous results – such as Oliver Bearman in his 2022 FIA F3 title fight – drivers graduating from a full-time regional Formula 3 drive tend to enjoy success at a much earlier stage in their FIA F3 campaigns than those fresh from Formula 4. Look no further than FIA F3 championship leader and multiple FRECA race winner Gabriel Bortoleto and his 119-point gap to Hugh Barter, the highest-placed FIA F3 driver without regional Formula 3 experience.

However, drivers are spoiled for choice at this intermediary stage in their careers in 2023.

FRECA is the interminable stepping stone to FIA F3, but the emerging Eurocup-3 championship threatens the series’ reign over Europe – and the ever-stronger GB3 Championship is entering a similar position.

Competition bolstering GB3’s status

Entering the 2023 season, the GB3 Championship, previously known as British F3, confirmed the largest grid in the series’ decade-long history. Courtesy of nine different teams, 25 cars have lined up at every round thus far to produce a gripping first half of the season.

The story of 2023 has been one of ups and downs for all involved at the front of the ever-changing championship race. Having taken advantage of Callum Voisin’s tangle with Tymek Kucharczyk at Snetterton, rookie Alex Dunne currently sits on top with a lead of six points over the Rodin Carlin driver, whilst Joseph Loake and James Hedley both remain within just one race victory of the leading Irishman.

Further driving GB3’s status upwards, the series has crowned seven different winners across the first four rounds.

“GB3 is probably the most successful single-seater championship – certainly in this country – but in Europe probably under Formula 3, alongside Italian Formula 4. We’ve got 25 cars in it at the moment, the racing is incredibly close [and] the cars are quick,” MSV Chief Executive Jonathan Palmer told Feeder Series.

Continuing appeal

GB3’s championship-contending rookies and their fight against the likes of second-year drivers Voisin, Hedley and Matthew Rees characterise GB3’s on-track competition.

But off track, the championship’s cost and the calendar’s balance of high-risk, high-reward British circuits and international Formula 1 Grand Prix venues – as well the series’ specially developed Tatuus chassis – are what ultimately combine for a package favoured by many young drivers.

People love the lightness, [the] nimbleness of the car, the normally aspirated engine

Jonathan Palmer

“Giles Butterfield – who runs the championship, really, who’s MSV’s Group Operation Manager – he and I work very closely with the teams to understand what they want,” Palmer explained.

“I think it’s the closeness of that relationship which is key so that we get the right balance between performance and cost, the calendar, the races, how it’s done, any reverse grids and all of that sort of stuff.

“And essentially from our point of view, keeping the price very very competitive. That’s key because a season of GB3 is no more than a season of British Formula 4 and it’s a lot quicker, and that’s one of the things that makes it so successful,” he said.

“At Spa, it was interesting to see that the GB3 cars were actually quicker than the FRECA cars and a lot quicker than the Euro-3 stuff.

“People love the lightness, [the] nimbleness of the car, the normally aspirated engine, and we’ve got some cracking teams in it. The teams are doing a great job.”

Labelled as ‘an amazing car to drive’ by Fortec Motorsport’s Jarrod Waberski and ‘the best possible way to learn’ by Douglas Motorsport’s Kucharczyk, GB3’s Tatuus MSV-022 chassis is key to the series’ popularity amongst drivers – especially in comparison to the poorly regarded Tatuus F3 T-318 car used in FRECA.

Markings of success

However, the ability to push drivers further up the junior category ladder is the one box that must be ticked to secure the position of GB3.

“The real bottom line of it is, how good of drivers is it producing and their champions? I think the answer to that was really underlined at the Spanish Grand Prix in the supporting Formula 3 [sprint] race: we had our 2021 champion Zak O’Sullivan winning, and P2 was the 2022 champion Luke Browning.”

O’Sullivan and Browning aren’t the only British F3 and GB3 graduates on the F3 grid, with 2020 champion Kaylen Frederick lining up for a third F3 season along with Christian Mansell, Roberto Faria and Tommy Smith, who are all contesting their first full season in the series. And two current GB3 drivers – McKenzy Cresswell, seventh in the standings, and Max Esterson, 14th – appeared alongside them at Silverstone for FIA F3 cameos.

This marked Cresswell’s second consecutive appearance in FIA F3, with the British driver having also competed for PHM Racing by Charouz in the Austria round. Esterson, who had tested with Van Amersfoort Racing in 2022, made his FIA F3 debut at Silverstone with Rodin Carlin and will return to the series in Hungary next weekend.

The gravity of an opportunity in FIA F3 mid-season shouldn’t be underestimated, both in personal driver development and the forging of links ahead of the 2024 season. Regardless of the outcomes of Cresswell and Esterson’s opportunities, the two drivers’ weekends in FIA F3 are clear proof of GB3’s growing presence on the junior ladder, as Palmer says.

“It doesn’t come as much better testimony than that of just how competitive GB3 is and, of course, what outstanding value it is too.”

Header photo credit: Rodin Carlin