GB3 crowned its eighth different winner of 2023 at Silverstone, as McKenzy Cresswell reigned supreme in race two. Currently sixth in the championship standings, the Elite Motorsport driver leaves the home of the British Grand Prix looking to carry his winning momentum into the final three rounds of the season despite a difficult start to the year.

By George Brabner

Cresswell’s season got off to a rocky start at the hands of a mechanical failure in qualifying at Oulton Park. Back on the pace at GB3’s first visit to the Silverstone Circuit, he came within touching distance of first place during round two, and again at Circuit de-Spa Francorchamps.

Bouncing back from a challenging weekend at Snetterton, Cresswell qualified second for the opening two contests of round five, the Silverstone Circuit once again providing him with a chance of glory. Unable to match the pace of Matthew Rees in race one, he jumped the double pole-sitter off the line in race two before leading the Welshman all the way to the chequered flag to claim his maiden GB3 victory.

“I was waiting a long time for this and, I knew that coming into the weekend that we would be strong, and so it was just kind of making sure on Thursday, Friday that we got the car setup down to where it needed to be. And then just putting it all together in the races, which we managed to do really well,” Cresswell told Feeder Series shortly after the podium ceremony.

“We were lacking a little bit of pace to win yesterday [on Saturday] but we worked hard overnight and obviously found a lot of bits in the car that we wanted to work on. So I’m really pleased for the team as well… It’s a really good feeling.”

Able to execute

After topping multiple days of official testing in the early stages of 2023, it was clear second-year driver Cresswell was one to watch when the GB3 season got into gear.

But, five rounds into the season, and although sixth in the championship standings, there are multiple moments where you can’t help but think, ‘What could have been?’ for Cresswell, such as his spin whilst fighting for the lead of race one at Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps, his tangle with David Morales in race three at Snetterton or his aforementioned near-pointless season opener.

“The pace we’ve shown this year is good enough to match anyone on the field but it’s just not really materialised yet,” Cresswell explained. “[It’s been] a little bit underwhelming to be honest because [we were] really fast in pre-season testing, really fast just in general, but it’s just not really worked out the way we want to.”

But, even when not in the top three, the Briton has been consistently in and around the top five, the region where Fortec Motorsport’s Max Esterson claims finishing is ‘all you have to do’ for a ‘good shot at the championship.’

56 points adrift from standings leader Voisin with nine remaining races, reaching the top three in the championship may not be off the cards.

“We haven’t got as many wins as we were hoping for, but I think this win has turned it around and [we’re] heading to Brands Hatch next which has been a good circuit for me in the past so I’m hoping to score some big points there as well. I’m aiming for top five, maybe top three [in the championship].”

Confidence in the team

Opting to make the switch from Chris Dittmann Racing to Elite Motorsport for his all-important GB3 return, Cresswell has been the strongest of the team’s trio throughout 2023. He has significantly out-scored the less experienced Ayato Iwasaki and Oliver Stewart – currently 18th and 19th in the championships standings respectively – and continued to do so across round five at a circuit Cresswell believes to be not only well-matched to himself but also the car underneath him.

“I really like high-speed corners and the car really suits it as well because the car’s very balanced so it’s easy to carry the minimum speed through Maggotts, Becketts and Copse, so I think that’s really paid into our hands and that’s the sector that we’ve been fast in all week. I think it’s a circuit that we go well at and I think that kind of corner really suits our car,” he explained.

Keen to sing the praises of his team, Cresswell believes Elite Motorsport is capable of providing him with a car fit to fight against the likes of Rodin Carlin and Hitech Pulse-Eight for the remainder of the 2023 season.

“They’ve done an amazing job and there’s no reason that we can’t be fighting with big boys. They’ve done an amazing job and I’m just really thankful that I’ve got so many good people around me to support me,” he said.

“I’ve got a very experienced engineer – multiple actually – and I think we’ve definitely got the tools to be able to fight in the front in every circuit we go to… We’ve done a little bit of testing at Brands [Hatch] and Zandvoort, not very much, but we know that we can be fast there, so I think we’re going to be quite at the front for this.”

Opening doors for the future

It’s clear that Cresswell’s performances in the GB3 Championship prior to the midway point in the season did not go unnoticed outside of the British GT paddock, having picked up a sporadic two-round drive with PHM Racing in FIA F3.

He claimed a best finish of 17th position across four outings, but after arriving at a competitive session after just 45 minutes of highly-interrupted practice with a team that was, at that stage, yet to score a point in the series, results were not Cresswell’s focus.

“I like to think I did quite a good job of it, given how little running I got. Why we did it was just to try and get myself on the map, get some exposure, and that’s what we did. So I’m feeling confident that hopefully, we can get on the grid next year, but you have to raise a lot, a lot of money for it. So once this season ends, the real work begins with finding the money for it. But that’s the next step, hopefully.”

Meanwhile, a taster of the international stage and the on-track workings of FIA F3 were also of high value.

“It was incredible. It was a really good experience. The atmosphere is just so different to a British GT meeting, so it was really nice to see all the fans and all the exposure that you get.

“The racing was kind of on another side as well, because it’s a very different car, very different style of racing. It’s a lot about management, whereas this [GB3] is pretty much just full-out the whole race, so it took some getting used to, but it was a really fun experience, and I’m looking forward to doing more of it next year.”

Taking for the here and now

Cresswell now finds himself in a rare position where he has climbed to a higher rung of the junior category ladder only to then descend again mid-season. It’s the situation Esterson finds himself in, and one Michael Shin will later be in having become the third 2023 GB3 driver to progress to FIA F3.

Potentially disruptive, swapping between two varying environments can have its advantages and disadvantages, but Creswell believes it was positive for his own development despite making the start of round five of the GB3 season more difficult.

“I tend to get on top of things quite quickly when I get in a new car or a new circuit – it’s something that kind of played to my strengths. But, if you watch my onboard on the first session on Thursday, it wasn’t brilliant, but I got back into it eventually,” he explained.

“The racing… it’s a very different style, but I got a lot of laps in a very powerful car. So it was good for me to sort of test my fitness for one, and test my ability in sort of new conditions. Both the races [at the Red Bull Ring] sort of rained midway through, so it really tested me as a driver, but it’s definitely put me in good stead [for the rest of the GB3 season].”

Header photo credit: Artie C Photo