After a season-long butting of heads between experienced series returnees and a set of rookies looking to stamp their authority on the single-seater world, Callum Voisin enters this weekend’s GB3 title decider with a 13-point lead over rookie Joseph Loake and a further four-point advantage over Irish superstar Alex Dunne. Distant challengers McKenzy Cresswell and Matthew Rees retain an outside chance of glory with over 100 points still on offer, but it’s Voisin, Loake and Dunne who are the true championship contenders.

By George Brabner

Six famed European venues have been the stage for a clash of characters at the front of the GB3 field so far in 2023. 

Formula 4 graduates Dunne and Loake have slowly surpassed pre-season title favourites Cresswell, Rees, Max Esterson and John Bennett as the races have been ticked off, but after seven rounds, neither driver has been able to totally overhaul second-year driver Voisin, the majority championship leader this year.

The title fight has ebbed and flowed since the season opener at Oulton Park, with momentum swinging between the top three almost round-by-round, but round seven at Zandvoort represented a moment of convergence.

Back-to-back victories for Dunne launched him back into championship contention after falling away at Brands Hatch, setting up a three-way showdown at Donington Park.

Voisin leading on paper

A permanent member of the title debate since the winter, Voisin enters the season finale with a narrow championship lead. 

Key to his success this season has been consistency rather than flash performances. Just one victory has materialised for the British-Swiss driver in the last 20 races, in wild contrast to Loake and Dunne’s combined eight wins and two less than he had scored in his rookie season, but regular top-five finishes have given him the overall edge in the marathon that is a seven-month campaign. 

Typically level-headed, Voisin has predominantly been more reserved in his on-track conduct than his championship challengers, and only two retirements have come his way, neither of which incidents he has been deemed at fault for. Paired with stable front-running pace, Voisin has developed into a reliable figure for top results.

But, does his less fiery demeanour leave him more vulnerable in a gloves-off season finale?

“I don’t feel like I have more to lose. At the end of the day, they have to outscore me to win. I just need to keep doing what I usually do,” he told Feeder Series.

“I always have faith in my team and I’m sure we’ll have more than enough [to beat Loake and Dunne]. Obviously, sometimes things can happen out of your control, but that is motorsport.”

Despite leading the championship, Voisin is without positive momentum at the moment. Having acquired significant diffuser damage in the early parts of qualifying at Zandvoort, he was on the back foot from the very beginning of the round and subsequently went on to finish a weekend without a podium for the first time in 2023.

However, with Dunne throwing down the gauntlet at the front of the field rather than Loake, his championship lead was shaved down by just a single point come the end of race three, a lucky escape after the prospects of a late-season disaster loomed on the Saturday morning.

But, it meant that what Loake had dubbed “a two-horse race” to the finale after Brands Hatch had suddenly become a three-way affair.

“Very happy to come away with the championship lead considering the weekend we had,” Voisin said. “Now, having a three-horse race for the title will certainly be exciting, and it will go down to the wire. However, I’m confident I can beat them both at Donington.”

A dependable figure who proved he can perform under potentially championship-deciding pressure just one weekend ago, Voisin is certainly a title favourite at Donington Park.

Can Loake end the season as he started it?

Bouncing back from a turbulent sophomore British F4 campaign, Loake took pole position and race victory on debut at Oulton Park and collected another two victories in round two to sign off a dream opening chapter to his season.

He entered the first of the year’s two fly-away events with the championship lead, but a string of difficult races between Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps and Silverstone left the driver from Macclesfield behind both Voisin and Dunne. 

Trading victories with the former at Brands Hatch and claiming two top-five finishes in the Netherlands sees him now within 15 points of the lead going into the finale.

“Of course, the aim is to end the weekend as champions. I think myself and JHR are more than capable of this, and I am looking forward to going head to head against Callum and Alex,” Loake said.

“A three-way fight is harder than a two-way fight, but the best thing we can do is focus on ourselves and make sure we get everything right from our side.”

Perhaps experiencing the highest highs and the lowest lows of the top three, Loake’s performances have been more varied than Voisin’s, experiencing extreme peaks at Oulton Park and Brands Hatch but struggling at Spa-Francorchamps and Snetterton.

However, the JHR Developments driver has frequently proven his supreme confidence and wheel-to-wheel flare, arguably becoming the championship leader’s most consistent challenger throughout the 2023 season. 

Only recently did Loake and Voisin come to blows too, rubbing wheels and almost colliding at Zandvoort in race two. You can guarantee that Loake won’t go down without a fight, especially as the title fight reaches its climax.

“I think it’s fairly natural for a title fight to spice up towards the end of a season. It was very clear that Callum overstepped the line [last weekend], but at the end of the day we want to beat each other, and we’re trying to do everything we can to do that,” he said.

“Donington has always been a very strong circuit for me and the team in general, so I think the main goal has to be to put ourselves on pole and score as many points we can over the weekend. Callum has quite a big margin to myself and Alex, but all it takes is one mistake from him, and we’re right back in it.”

Dunne’s rollercoaster ride

Reigning British F4 champion Dunne embarks on a trip to Donington Park marginally behind Loake. However, such a position is a notable achievement. Having dominated at Zandvoort, he made crucial inroads of 25 points on championship leader Voisin, launching him back into the title fight after his hopes of a second single-seater championship in two years looked to be fading away a month earlier.

“Our pace has always been strong, but sometimes it just hasn’t fallen our way. As long as we can hit the ground running and get everything right in testing, I don’t see why we won’t be able to do the same again [at Donington as Zandvoort],” Dunne said.

When the Hitech Pulse-Eight driver has been at the front this season, he has really excelled. With a pair of victories at Spa-Francorchamps and Zandvoort and a subsequent record-breaking points haul for his efforts in Belgium, Dunne has, quite simply, been a cut above the rest at specific moments in his maiden GB3 campaign.

But, he has been unable to replicate his performances at every single round, maybe more comfortable on the circuits of mainland Europe that he experienced in Italian F4 one year ago than on British tracks.

“I’ve always felt we should be running at the front, just a few things haven’t really gone our way this year. My approach to the weekend hasn’t changed, I’ll just try to do the best I can and see what happens,” Dunne explained.

If it wasn’t for a race-ending collision with Rees at Brands Hatch or even a retirement at Silverstone in May caused by an incident with Bennett whilst fighting for victory, Dunne could be leading the championship going into the season finale. But, similar arguments could be made in favour of Voisin and Loake, who both have had their fair share of misfortune also through no real fault of their own.

With Zandvoort’s mighty showing fresh in the minds of his championship rivals, Dunne is still the driver who needs his momentum to be stopped most desperately by Voisin and Loake.

“I want to win the championship, so I will try to do the best I can and the rest will fall into place.”

With an outside chance

Elite Motorsport’s Cresswell and Loake’s JHR Developments teammate Rees both also remain in the championship fight heading to Donington Park but are only likely to pose a threat to the top three if they trip over each other.

Fourth in the standings, Cresswell is at a 55-point deficit to Voisin with 105 still up for grabs. The Briton has only taken one race victory this year, but having been on the podium in every non-reverse-grid race since July, he has been the most complete driver during the second half of the season. 

Now convincingly clear of the scrap between Rees, Arden VRD’s James Hedley and Douglas Motorsport’s Tymek Kucharczyk, he can set his sights purely on a top-three finish.

Had it not been for an almost pointless season opener for Cresswell after he was left stranded outside the top twenty in qualifying by a technical failure, the title fight could look very different after seven rounds.

Fellow sophomore Rees is also still within mathematical contention for the championship but will require an almighty upset at the front of the field and a flawless performance if he wants to gain 97 points on Voisin in three races. Having reaped the rewards of JHR Development’s upturn in pace this season just like his teammate, Rees has scored four podiums and one race victory, but inconsistency has left him out of realistic title contention.

Nevertheless, his 309 points combined with Loake’s 393 and David Morales’ 152 mean JHR enter the season finale with a healthy lead in the team’s championship over Rodin Carlin.

What championship victory could mean

The GB3 Championship’s presence is growing, poising itself to launch multiple drivers into FIA Formula 3 next season, attract a new team for 2024, and produce an increasingly multinational grid. 

Underpinning its recent success, GB3’s past two champions Luke Browning and Zak O’Sullivan were both picked up by the Williams Driver Academy since their title glory in the UK, with Browning also winning the Aston Martin Autosport BRDC Young Driver Award last year and an F1 test with the Silverstone-based team.

Keen to follow in Browning’s steps, both Voisin and Loake have reached the final stage of the award’s 2023 rendition alongside Red Bull’s F4 protégé Arvid Lindblad. For Loake particularly, whose next steps are budget-strung, the £200,000 cash prize that the award offers paired with GB3 title glory is his “best opportunity and best chance of getting to F3”, the key next step on the single-seater ladder.

What is certain is that whoever comes out on top this weekend, whether it be second-year ace Voisin, surprise superstar Loake, or Ireland’s next Formula 1 hopeful Dunne, the champion will be sure to attract the attention of the powers sitting at the head of the single-seater ladder.

Header photo credit: Artie C Photo