The news has broken that Velocity Racing Development (VRD) will enter two cars in the GB4 Championship for the remainder of the season. The team is rooted in the North American junior ladder but keen on growing its European presence, and Feeder Series spoke to team boss Dan Mitchell to understand the move.

By George Brabner

Initially spurred by Nico Christodoulou’s jump to the UK, VRD has been slowly forging a trans-Atlantic driver development programme.

Although accustomed to success in F4 US and USF Juniors series back on home soil, VRD opted to bring American Noah Ping over to the GB3 Championship rather than place him in USF2000 for the 2023 season as originally planned.  

The Arden VRD team – a new-for-2023 joint effort between VRD and European single-seater powerhouse Arden Motorsport – reaped the rewards of this decision in GB3’s fourth round, but Ping’s acclimatisation wasn’t without its hitches.

“Noah’s been our first try and test bringing an actual American from an American series straight over to GB3. And at Oulton Park, it was tough, really tough, for him. He was like, ‘Oh my God, this is a bit much for me. Maybe I shouldn’t be here’. We were like, ‘No, no, no’. I knew he was a good talent, I knew he was fast and I knew that he was going to be there,” Mitchell told Feeder Series.

“You can ask him. He hates me because I’m like, ‘Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, you know there’s a lot of people here with a lot of experience. Just take your time. We’ll get there.’ And he didn’t like that. He’s like, ‘I want to be there now’, but I’m like, ‘Yeah, but you can’t buy experience, so we have to go through this process’.

“But the biggest question we asked was, how could we have prepared Noah better for this?”

A VRD–shaped gap

Whilst VRD is keen to leave a greater footprint in Europe through its GB3 partnership with Arden Motorsport, the team has encountered several factors which have historically inhibited a smooth intercontinental transition.

“You look at all the winter testing that everybody does and you think, ‘Well, this is pointless because it’s freezing cold [and] it’s raining hard.’ So how are we going to learn the tracks, learn the weekend procedure, learn the tyre compound and put these drivers in the best possible situation with them not doing British F4 or anything like that? They’re still going through the school system in the US. They’ve still got to finish off school.

“They’ve got all sorts of stuff going on and it’s really not fair of us to keep dragging them around countries to go racing when they could possibly finish US F4, USF Juniors or USF2000 and then head over when they’re 16 to GB3,” Mitchell explained.

However, a GB4 team opens the door for the fluid in-season conditioning of VRD’s school of young American drivers looking to find success in foreign competition.

“We have a few drivers in that situation right now, so we figured, ‘Listen, let’s get a GB4 team together, let’s get a couple of cars.’ It makes perfect sense. It’s cost-effective, and just let’s use it basically, as it might be that we just have different drivers in every weekend that use it as a test weekend,” Mitchell said.

“It’s a no-brainer to get going. Obviously, the success of the GB3 thing is going well now, so it’s the perfect time to implement this into our system and see what we can do.”

How the UK can push VRD forward

“My main aim is to develop drivers and bring them into Europe and try to take the stigma of US drivers away from Europe,” Mitchell told Feeder Series.

But why, then, stray far from VRD’s historical happy hunting ground?

“I wouldn’t say there’s the strength and depth [in the US] like we have in England. I’d say the top six are really good and the top six, seven, are really, really good drivers…. That next pack are a little bit behind the pack where we are in England.

“[In GB3], Noah Ping’s like, ‘My god, I’m two-tenths off and I’m sixth? What? I’d be P2 or P3 in the US.’ So that is something that we laugh about. But I think being able to race him in Europe, Noah Ping, he’s come on leaps and bounds, and he’s going to keep coming.

“[If] he goes home tomorrow, back to the US, to race, he’ll go back a ten times better driver. And that’s just half a season. We’re only halfway there. So I think that’s important that people see that.”

Fitting into an emerging European programme

Far from the somewhat self-contained USF Pro Championships ladder, a two-car GB4 team marks the second stage of VRD’s European expansion. Currently at the centre of the project are the GB3 Championship seats offered by the Arden VRD collaboration, but for VRD’s position in the continent as a whole, the GB4 Championship is a key piece of the puzzle.

“It just fits in that we can bring these young Americans over. They can come to a race with no pressure and just turn up and see what it’s like. … Even if I have six drivers, I can only run three, and there is definitely a market for American drivers [and] Canadian drivers to come over and race in GB3.

“It’s a case of fitting them in where we can fit them in, picking the right three that are going to compete and run at the front at all times.

“And then GB4, it’s just going to be that stepping stone. Say, ‘Hey! Come and do a race, see what it’s like,’ and I’ll be honest with you, they’re going to come over, do the race and be like, ‘Oh wow, this is next-level stuff. The GB3 stuff’s great. How do I get into that?’,” Mitchell explained.

“[It’s] our opportunity for the drivers to drive on the tyre, drive on the tracks, and see GB3 running, get that experience as well as being able to see what’s going on for the future, and then use that as our first step for our drivers into Europe and see where they can and can’t go from there.

“Hopefully, it’ll give them equal opportunity to the English and the European drivers, that they can get in early and understand the circuits and the tyres and the environment so they’re not left behind in the US.”

The plan in GB4

For the remaining three rounds of the GB4 season, Zack Ping will be a permanent fixture of VRD’s lineup. In his first full season of single-seaters, Ping was originally set to compete in USF Juniors this year before stepping up to fill his older brother’s vacant seat in USF2000, the second rung of the USF Pro Championships ladder.

Meanwhile, the second seat at VRD will be passed between multiple drivers. Erik Evans, who competed for VRD in F4 US and USF2000 in 2020 and 2021 before moving to GT4 competition in British GT, will race at Silverstone this weekend, and Nikita Johnson, currently third in the USF2000 Championship, will join Ping on at least one occasion later in the season.

“Two drivers for this season no problem. It could grow, who knows, but two [as a] minimum for the rest of the season. Next year we’ll be looking at two or three drivers again.

“Zack Ping will do the last three races. That deal’s done. That’s signed, sealed, delivered. He will, I think, do next season in GB4, so he’s got some work to do. We’ve got to figure out how to get him ready – he’s got relatively little experience.

“The second seat, we’ll see. Nikita Johnson for sure will jump in and do a race, maybe Brands GP. That will be interesting because he’s never been there,” Mitchell said.

“Ping’s going to be there or thereabouts. He’s right now building experience, so expectations are going to be high, but [the] reality is, he’s going to be there and then not there, there and then not there, and it’s going to be [about how we] manage that.

“Should Johnson jump in, I expect him to be there at the front every week. He’s on a different path,” Mitchell continued, referencing a racing schedule set to feature USF Pro 2000’s penultimate round at the Circuit of The Americas, USF2000’s season finale at Portland and then GB4’s Brands Hatch round in September. “He’s going to have a bit of a wild three weeks of three different types of car, never mind anything else that’s going on.”

Early birds

The GB4 Championship is still in its fledgling years, having been inaugurated at the beginning of the 2022 season. Only now are teams really getting to grips with the previous-generation Tatuus F4 car – something Tom Mills explained to Feeder Series at Silverstone.The grid has thus far not exceeded 15 cars, but VRD sees not only the series’ potential longevity but its strategic position in relation to GB3.

“It’s a really good opportunity. At the end of next year, I think the GB3 cars will be vacant – at least a chassis – so as soon as I found that out I was like, ‘Okay, deal. Let’s buy these GB4 cars’ because it puts me in a better position that when my GB3 cars are done with, I can instantly use them as GB4 cars and buy new GB3 cars.

“I think that’s the plan. Whether it’s a chassis or a new car, I don’t really know, but as soon as I heard that I’m going to have assets sat around doing nothing in a year and a half, I’m like, ‘Let’s just get into it now.’ Because if we’re in it and we’re successful, then at least we can have drivers that jump straight into our cars,” Mitchell said.

“I imagine GB4 in 2025 is going to be insane. I imagine it’s going to be really, really big, and I imagine there’s going to be like 25 cars on the grid. So I figured get into it now and utilise it for what we need to utilise it for and see where we’re at at that point. The aim is to be in it from now and forever.”

Header photo credit: Gavin Baker