It’s time to draw the curtains on a thrilling 2023 in junior single-seaters, one that saw more than 35 drivers crowned champions in series from F2 to national F4 and at every level in between. Feeder Series looks back at all of the 2023 champions’ title campaigns in our final article (and e-book) of the year…

By Perceval Wolff, Finjo Muschlien and Michael McClure

Hall of Fame e-book produced by Michael McClure and Jordy van de Bunt

FIA Formula 2 Championship: Théo Pourchaire

After finishing as the F2 runner-up last year, Sauber Academy prodigy Pourchaire was widely considered the favourite for this year’s title. The youngest F2 race winner in history had been a title contender in F3 and a frontrunner in his first two full F2 seasons, but he had not claimed a championship title since winning the ADAC F4 crown back in 2019.

The 20-year-old Frenchman started his third full F2 season with a dominant win at Bahrain that, surprisingly, proved his only race victory in 2023. But his consistency throughout the whole season helped him take the title at the final race after a tense season-long battle with Frederik Vesti. The ART Grand Prix driver may not always have been the fastest, but he appeared the most well rounded, turning prior weak points such as race starts into strengths.

Despite a title-winning campaign, Pourchaire will not step up to an F1 race seat for 2024 but will remain Sauber F1’s reserve driver next year. He will, however, be racing in Super Formula in 2024 with Team Impul and will hope to follow in the footsteps of Stoffel Vandoorne and Pierre Gasly, who used Super Formula as a springboard to enter F1 after winning the second-tier title.

FIA Formula 3 Championship: Gabriel Bortoleto

Sixth in his sophomore FRECA season last year, Fernando Alonso protégé Bortoleto hoped to be in the fight for wins with Trident as an F3 rookie. But with an impressive 45-point gap over his nearest rival, the 19-year-old was simply in a league of his own this year in F3.

Bortoleto set the tone for his season with two feature race wins at the start of the year, then followed that with a level of consistency none of his rivals had. Having been mathematically assured of the title after qualifying in Monza, he made several impressive moves during the whole weekend, showing everyone that he was not only an efficient championship manager but also among the best wheel-to-wheel racers on this year’s grid.

The Brazilian driver was announced as a McLaren junior after the F3 season ended. He will be one of the most keenly anticipated rookies on next year’s F2 grid as he joins frontrunners Invicta Racing.

Super Formula: Ritomo Miyata

After finishing 10th in the series in 2021 and fourth in 2022, 24-year-old Miyata went into his third full season of Super Formula with high hopes but no race wins to speak of yet.

The Toyota-backed TOM’S driver was involved in a close three-way championship fight against the series’ top rookie Liam Lawson and two-time defending champion Tomoki Nojiri. The championship wasn’t decided until the final race of the season at Suzuka, where Miyata finished second and third and thus secured the title by eight points over Lawson. And while Lawson and Nojiri took three wins each to his two wins, Miyata took six podiums and finished all nine races within the top five, illustrating the role his consistent results played in his title campaign.

Miyata will make a big change in course for 2024 as he joins Rodin Carlin in F2 alongside Zane Maloney. Although the step might be unusual, the professional racing experience Miyata brings from Super Formula and Super GT, which he also won in 2023, will boost his chances of success.

Alongside his duties in single-seaters, Miyata will also compete in the LMP2 class of the European Le Mans Series for Cool Racing.

Super Formula Lights: Iori Kimura

“If I were a person in charge at Honda, I would have fired a driver like this,” Kimura said about his rookie season with B-Max Racing in Super Formula Lights in 2022. He finished third, mind, and scored three wins and six further podiums, but he nevertheless considered his performances underwhelming.

Having moved closer to the B-Max factory and made several more changes to his private life and his approach to racing, the Russian-Japanese racer turned the tables in 2023, winning the drivers’ championship following an intense championship fight against rivals Hibiki Taira and Syun Koide.

Kimura took four wins in the first eight races, with three of the four wins coming from his opening-round hat-trick at Autopolis. Despite that early momentum, the Honda junior lay second in the championship for the majority of the season as Taira established a lead. But by winning two of the final three races as Taira had a difficult weekend, Kimura bounced back just in time to secure the championship.

For 2024, the 24-year-old will step up to Super Formula with B-Max.

Formula Regional European Championship by Alpine: Andrea Kimi Antonelli

After winning Italian F4 and ADAC F4 in 2022 and Formula Regional Middle East in the winter of 2023, Antonelli brought confidence to his European Formula Regional campaign. Consistency was once again key for the Mercedes junior, who finished outside the top six only twice – once at Imola because a mechanical failure forced him to retire, and once at Zandvoort because of a post-race penalty.

As in the Middle East, the 17-year-old Prema driver had to wait a bit before taking his first victory. It finally came following a battle with Tim Tramnitz in the tragic Spa race that later saw fellow driver Dilano van ’t Hoff lose his life in an accident. Wins at four of the next five rounds followed for Antonelli, who eked out a gap over early-season leader Martinius Stenshorne to seal the title with a round to spare.

That championship victory came at Zandvoort after one of the most impressive drives of the year in junior single-seaters. Starting eighth in damp conditions, Antonelli made his way to first in four minutes and stretched out the gap to 12 seconds as the rain worsened. And even on what was probably his worst weekend of the year at Hockenheim the week after, he made a decisive move on Nikhil Bohra in the final lap to give Prema the teams’ title.

For 2024, Antonelli will skip F3 and move directly to F2, sticking with Prema – a leap of a rare magnitude in junior single-seaters, but one that will bring even more attention to the Italian prodigy next season.

Euroformula Open: Noel León

After finishing 23rd in FRECA in 2022 with only three points, León lost his membership to the Red Bull Junior Team and decided to step sideways to Euroformula Open with Team Motopark for 2023. This move, from FRECA to Euroformula Open, has been proven to help drivers recover from setbacks, as shown by 2022 champion Oliver Goethe’s turnaround in form and subsequent success in F3 after a trying FRECA season in 2021.

Euroformula Open’s biggest weakness was its low entry numbers, which declined from a consistent 10 at the start of the year to single digits by the end. But León nevertheless had to face several promising talents, meaning winning the title would not be easy. Having taken seven wins and nine more podiums across 24 races, León won the championship with an 87-point gap to his closest rival Cian Shields. The fifth round at Spielberg, where he took two wins and a second-place finish, was the highlight of his season.

Following the main season in Europe, León participated in the F3 World Cup at Macau with Van Amersfoort Racing, finishing 18th after going off at Lisboa during the race. He will complete a full season of F3 with the team next year, following a path similar to that of Goethe.

Eurocup-3: Esteban Masson

Following a disappointing FRECA season in 2022 that yielded only one point, 2021 French F4 champion Masson took the gamble to join Eurocup-3, a new series at the Formula Regional level, with Campos Racing.

With eight wins in sixteen races and impressive performances such as a double win at Zandvoort, Masson managed to clinch the title in the final race, defeating MP Motorsport drivers Mari Boya – who also competed in F3 this year – and Sebastian Øgaard. Moreover, the French-Canadian driver also appeared in six FRECA rounds, taking his and new team Saintéloc’s maiden podium in the series at his home race in Le Castellet.

Even if a FIA F3 move with Campos was on the cards at some point, budget issues seem to have prevented this. Instead, the 19-year-old will switch to endurance racing, piloting a Lexus for Akkodis ASP in the LMGT3 category in the World Endurance Championship. He had already made a successful WEC debut at the 8 Hours of Bahrain the weekend before the Eurocup-3 finale in November.

GB3 Championship: Callum Voisin

After finishing fourth in his debut GB3 season in 2022, Swiss-British racer Voisin went into his second full season of GB3 with Rodin Carlin as the highest-placed returning driver and a favourite for the drivers’ title.

Voisin held a one-point lead over Alex Dunne after the fifth round of the year, though he had yet to win a race. That changed the following round at Brands Hatch, where he took the first of his two race wins in 2023. A second victory at the final round in Donington Park inched him ever closer to the title, but it was his nine additional podiums and consistent points finishes rather than his peak performances that secured him the championship.

The 17-year-old’s closest rivals, rookies Dunne and Joseph Loake, both took more victories than him, with five for the Hitech GP driver and four for the JHR Developments driver. Voisin’s two-win total was also one less than the three he took in his debut season, but he scored one more pole position this time around as he claimed the Jack Cavill Pole Position Cup for the second year in succession.

Voisin hasn’t announced his 2024 plans yet. A promotion to F3 with Rodin Carlin seems all but certain, though he did test a Eurocup-3 car for Campos for two days at Barcelona in December.

GB4 Championship: Tom Mills

Entering his second season of GB4 with family-owned team KMR Sport, Mills was one of the favourites for this year’s championship.

Aiming to improve on his debut single-seater season in 2022, Mills kicked off the season at Oulton Park with second-, first- and sixth-place finishes. He then won nine of the next 13 races and finished in the top four in the remaining four races to leave his competition with virtually no chance to catch up.

The highlight of Mills’ season was his four-race winning streak in his last two final rounds, after which he secured the title by coming seventh in the reverse-grid race three – ironically his worst finish of the year. He then did not compete in the final round of the season at Donington Park but appeared anyway to receive the champion’s regalia.

His 2024 plans are not confirmed yet, but given his budget limitations, a step away from single-seaters to GT4 racing seems to be Mills’ most realistic option.

Indy NXT: Christian Rasmussen

Rasmussen, the 2020 USF2000 and 2021 Indy Pro 2000 champion, made the step up to Indy Lights in 2022. Having taken two wins and finished sixth in his rookie season, the Danish racer went into his second season of the renamed Indy NXT as a favourite to become champion.

Making the switch from Andretti to HMD Motorsports, Rasmussen lagged behind upstart rookie Nolan Siegel in the initial rounds but clawed back the gap as his teammate hit mid-season trouble. After winning in Barber in April, Rasmussen took four more wins in the second half of the season, including a commanding victory to secure the championship at the season finale in Laguna Seca. Three more podiums and consistent top 10 finishes with only one retirement further solidified his challenge.

For 2024, the 23-year-old will step up to the top class of American single-seater racing as he joins Ed Carpenter Racing in IndyCar for the road and street course races and the Indianapolis 500.

Rasmussen will also race in the 24 Hours of Daytona in January with LMP2 team Era Motorsport, with whom he has made several appearances since 2022 and finished on the class podium twice. His upgrade from a silver to a gold FIA driver categorisation after the Indy NXT season, however, means that he cannot complete the IMSA Endurance Cup for the team as he did last year.

USF Pro 2000 Championship: Myles Rowe

After finishing second in his second USF2000 season, American racer Rowe stepped up to the rebranded USF Pro 2000 this year, continuing with Pabst Racing and receiving support once more from Force Indy after losing the backing for 2022.

Rowe started the season off with a win and a third-place finish in St Petersburg on his debut weekend in the series. He then went on to win both races the following round at Sebring to establish an early grip on the championship and took two more wins later in the year at Mid-Ohio and Toronto. Three more podiums that he secured at Road America and Portland helped him to the title.

By finishing inside the top ten in every race except two and taking five wins over the year, Rowe had a 64-point gap to his closest rival Kiko Porto and had the distinction of being the only driver to take consecutive race wins.

In 2024, 23-year-old Rowe will move to Indy NXT and race for HMD Motorsports with Force Indy.

USF2000 Championship: Simon Sikes

Sikes entered his first full season of USF2000 in 2023 having never completed a campaign in prior years.

Making the switch from Legacy Autosport to Pabst Racing, the 23-year-old kicked off the season with two wins and three more podiums from the opening three rounds. These results put him in the early championship conversation with 15-year-old Nikita Johnson and reigning F4 US champion Lochie Hughes.

But soon, Sikes’ rivals couldn’t challenge him anymore. After finishing third at the Indianapolis Raceway Park oval, the American took a win in each of the final four rounds along with four more podium finishes, which put him 103 points clear of runner-up Johnson by season’s end.

As was announced in November, Sikes will step up to the USF Pro 2000 Championship for 2024, remaining with Pabst Racing.

USF Juniors: Nicolas Giaffone

Having finished fifth with three wins in Brazilian F4 in 2022, Giaffone went stateside to take on USF Juniors.

The Brazilian-Luxembourgish rookie joined DEForce Racing and made a strong first impression by winning the second race of the first round at Sebring. That strength soon turned into domination. He took five more wins across the next six races at Barber Motorsport Park, Virginia International Raceway and Mid-Ohio and secured himself a comfortable championship lead over his teammate and closest rival, Quinn Armstrong.

Even if his performances tailed off towards the end of the season as Armstrong, Jack Jeffers and Jimmie Lockhart shined, Giaffone’s season total of six race wins and five more podiums was enough for him to secure the title by 65 points over Armstrong.

In 2024, Giaffone will step up the USF ladder, remaining with DEForce Racing to compete in the USF 2000 Championship.

F1 Academy: Marta García

For the first season of the all-female F1-supported F4 series, García was considered one of the biggest favourites for the title. She had three years of previous experience in Formula Regional machinery in previous all-female championship W Series. Moreover, she was the only previous race winner from the series moving to F1 Academy, having taken a win at the Norisring en route to fourth in 2019.

With a total of seven wins and at least one podium in every round, the 23-year-old from Spain was the most dominant driver in F1 Academy. While her last visit to the Circuit of The Americas in 2021 ended in her withdrawal owing to anxiety, this time around was a much happier occasion. She secured the title with two races to go thanks to her third consecutive victory in race one of the weekend.

Becuase of her F1 Academy championship win, she earned herself a fully funded seat in FRECA next year in a fourth Prema car. With that, she will also compete in a mixed-gender series for the first time in single-seaters since her 2017 Spanish F4 campaign, her sole season as part of the Renault Sport Academy.

Italian Formula 4 Championship: Kacper Sztuka

A season that started as a nightmare turned into a dream for Sztuka, who executed perhaps the most remarkable championship comeback in all of junior single-seaters this year in Italian F4. The 17-year-old Polish driver entered his third F4 season and his second with US Racing, though the big story before the season began was that he had earned backing from Polish national oil giant Orlen, which sponsored the country’s one and only F1 driver, Robert Kubica.

Sztuka was not only a nine-time race winner but also the only non-Prema driver to have won a race in the series in 2023. Despite an impressive run of bad luck and mechanical failures at the start of the year, the Pole turned the narrative around in the second half of the season with eight wins in nine races. Having been 113.5 points behind Arvid Lindblad with three rounds to go, he managed to win with a 35-point gap over Ugo Ugochukwu and 51.5 over Lindblad.

These results impressed several F1 teams, especially Red Bull, which signed Sztuka to its junior team in November. For his first season in the Red Bull colours next year, he is expected to step up to F3 with MP Motorsport.

Euro 4 Championship: Ugo Ugochukwu

Third in British F4 in his rookie season and a multiple podium finisher in his two-round Italian F4 cameo last year, McLaren junior Ugochukwu was a favourite to win the 2023 Italian F4 season. He finished third in F4 UAE over the winter and second in Italian F4, but it was his campaign in the new ACI–run Euro 4 series that ultimately brought the 16-year-old his maiden title in cars.

The American had a great start to life in the series, taking two wins and a second-place finish in the opening round at Mugello. That gave him a 20-point lead in the standings, but a difficult weekend at Monza in which he finished fourth, seventh and 21st saw him drop behind Arvid Lindblad in the points.

At the Barcelona round, which awarded double points in each race, Lindblad still led after race one as Ugochukwu finished fourth. Wharton then took a slim two-point advantage by winning race two from Ugochukwu, but the American finally swung things back his way with a lights-to-flag victory in the last race. It was the perfect end to his F4 career, one in which he finished half the races on the podium.

Despite having partaken in F3 post-season testing and shown strong pace on his debut at the F3 Macau Grand Prix with Trident, Ugochukwu will not jump so high for 2024, instead joining Prema in FRECA.

British Formula 4 Championship: Louis Sharp

After finishing fourth in British F4 in 2022, 16-year-old Sharp went into this year as the series’ highest-placed returning driver.

Remaining part of the Rodin Carlin team, Sharp started the season with two wins in the opening round at Donington Park, the latter of which he took despite having started 20th. His impressive charge to make up 19 places in 20 minutes of racing impressed many in the paddock, as did his two wins from pole at Croft.

Throughout the season, Sharp had to hold off the advances of Hitech GP driver William Macintyre, who took only two wins but scored eight second places across the year. The pair traded places several times atop the standings and were separated by only one point entering the season finale at Brands Hatch, where Sharp took two poles and a further victory to secure the title by 13 points.

Sharp’s plans for the 2024 season haven’t been announced yet. His participation in the F3 post-season test with Rodin Carlin suggests that a promotion is a possibility, but his slim budget means that GB3 or Eurocup-3 campaigns with the team may be more feasible.

French Formula 4 Championship: Evan Giltaire

One of the brightest stars leaving karting at the end of 2022, Giltaire was tipped by many as the main favourite for French F4 this year despite his inexperience in single-seaters.

After winning his first race and scoring his first two pole positions at his maiden round, the 17-year-old Frenchman faced strong opposition from returning driver Enzo Peugeot, who won seven races in the middle part of the season. One of those, his victory in race three at Misano in July, was particularly controversial because of a supposed off-track overtake on Giltaire for the race lead on the final lap. Peugeot lost the win but then gained it back in early October after an appeal, resulting in a 14-point swing in the points just days before the season finale.

Despite the controversy, Giltaire took the title in style at Paul Ricard, overcoming the 28-point deficit to Peugeot with a double win and a fourth-place finish that put him four points clear of his rival. Just a week after his title, Giltaire made his FRECA debut with ART GP, and he is set to race the full season with them next year.

Spanish Formula 4 Championship: Théophile Naël

At the start of the year, very few people would have predicted that the Spanish F4 champion would come from neither MP Motorsport nor Campos Racing. But after joining single-seaters in July 2022 with Saintéloc Racing, Naël and his team were ready to challenge expectations in their first full season in F4.

The 16-year-old Frenchman got off to a slower start as MP’s Pedro Clerot and the Campos trio of Matteo de Palo, Enzo Deligny and Christian Ho all took wins before he did. But once Naël finally reached the top step for the first time in the third race at Aragón, he was unstoppable. He collected eight wins and 14 podiums across the season, and even two non-scores in the final two rounds and a final-round sweep from Ho couldn’t stop him from taking a dominant title.

After a chaotic but promising winter season in F4 UAE, Naël showed substantial progress throughout the main season with few mistakes. He will step up to FRECA in 2024, sticking with Saintéloc Racing after some encouraging showings in winter testing with the series’ newest team.

Formula Winter Series: Kacper Sztuka

Sztuka kicked off his third season of F4 by participating in the first three rounds of the newly founded Formula Winter Series in Spain. The 17-year-old US Racing driver secured both pole positions for the season opener at Jerez before converting each one into victory.

A second-place finish behind Matteo de Palo in the first race at Valencia followed, but then he ended his campaign on a high with three more wins from the next three races at Valencia and Navarra. Despite not participating in the final round at Barcelona, Sztuka won the title by 35 points over his closest rival Gianmarco Pradel and amassed nearly maximum points from the races he did contest.

Following his participation in FWS, Sztuka went into his third season of Italian F4 and ended the year by winning that championship too and joining the Red Bull Junior Team.

Formula 4 CEZ: Ethan Ischer

Following a difficult first season in Italian F4 in 2022 with a best race result of 15th, Ischer remained with Jenzer Motorsport and joined the F4 CEZ championship in 2023 to improve himself in a less competitive environment. The Czech-run championship began as ACCR F4 but was renamed after earning FIA certification in May.

Taking two wins from the opening two races at Budapest, the 16-year-old proved right away that this change in environment was beneficial for him. He took eight wins to title rival and teammate Reno Francot’s three, but the Dutchman’s perfect record of podiums kept him in the hunt until the last minute – and then a few.

Francot was briefly declared the champion after crossing the line first in the final race of the year at the new Balaton Park Circuit in Hungary. However, a five-second post-race penalty for contact on the penultimate lap with Michael Sauter dropped him to third and allowed his Swiss teammate to win the title.

Ischer also took part in the final two rounds of the Formula Winter Series, taking a best result of fifth, and in a second full season of Italian F4, in which he once again failed to score. His 2024 plans haven’t been announced yet.

Danish Formula 4 Championship: Mikkel Gaarde Pedersen

Entering his rookie season, Pedersen teamed up with BAR to participate full-time in the Danish F4 Championship, which combined entries with Formula Nordic for three of its six rounds.

The 15-year-old kicked off the season by taking two wins and a third-place finish in the opening round at Padborg Park. Four more wins and four more podiums followed over the course of the season. Despite being put on the back foot by a crash in the first race of the final round at Jyllandsringen, he was able to beat his closest rival Magnus Pedersen, who finished just four points behind him after winning two of the last three races.

Champion Pedersen will join Drivex in Spanish F4 in 2024, as was revealed in December. This move comes on the heels of his involvement with the team during the post-season tests.

Formula Nordic: Linus Granfors

Swedish racer Granfors, the brother of 2022 GB3 runner-up Joel Granfors, entered his second season of Formula Nordic with family-owned team Granforce Racing aiming to secure the driver’s championship after finishing third in 2022.

Granfors had a season of utter dominance, winning the first 12 races in Formula Nordic to secure the crown with two full rounds to spare. His winning streak was also the longest of any driver in the junior single-seater world in 2023. He then missed the Rudskogen round before returning for the season finale at Jyllandsringen, where he took another series victory before finishing second and fifth.

The finale was one of three rounds held in combination with Danish F4 with the intention of boosting grid numbers and competitiveness without shaking up the points standings. Granfors’ most notable accomplishment came in the second of these rounds at Karlskoga, where he took an outright victory by nearly 12 seconds as his Danish F4 counterparts struggled in lapped traffic.

Granfors’ 2024 plans haven’t been confirmed yet, but a step away from single-seaters to the Swedish Touring Car Championship seems to be his probable path.

Formula Regional Middle East Championship: Andrea Kimi Antonelli

Despite being a rookie and missing part of last year’s post-season testing because of an injury, Mercedes protégé and reigning Italian and ADAC F4 champion Antonelli had high expectations for 2023, beginning with his campaign in Formula Regional Middle East. And once again, he exceeded them.

His solid first two rounds with three second-place finishes put him in the championship fight from day one, and he even led the points after the first round by achieving a level of consistency few others could. But after his maiden Formula Regional win in the second Kuwait round, the Mumbai Falcons driver quickly opened the gap in the standings on his rivals, and by the time of his third and final win in race one in Dubai, victory looked all but assured given his 54-point gap over the rest of the field.

Taylor Barnard of PHM Racing clawed back some of that gap with two podiums in the rest of that weekend, but non-scores in the first two races of the final round for both championship protagonists effectively froze the 34-point gap between them. Despite the scrappy Yas Marina weekend, the Italian took the title with a race to spare, beating several F3 drivers and some of his future rivals in FRECA.

Formula 4 UAE Championship: James Wharton

Having rather remarkably finished fifth in all three of F4 UAE, ADAC F4 and Italian F4 last year, Ferrari junior Wharton was expected to contend for championships in his second year in the category.

Wharton may not always have been the fastest driver across the five-round, one-month season, but he was the most consistent of the frontrunners, taking 11 podiums from 15 races. Prema’s Ugo Ugochukwu established an early advantage with four wins in the first seven races before Wharton’s Mumbai Falcons teammate Tuukka Taponen took four of the next five wins. Wharton had won two of the races in the meantime, however, and held a six-point lead entering the season finale off the back of six consecutive podiums. He won the first two races at Yas Marina before a pivotal opening-lap clash with Taponen took both of them out of the final race and handed the Australian the title.

Wharton’s Italian F4 season was then more difficult, with a final result of fourth behind teammates Ugochukwu and Arvid Lindblad. He did have some impressive performances, such as in Spa-Francorchamps, where he took a double win. His Euro 4 campaign went more favourably, and he finished second after Ugochukwu overhauled him in the final race.

The 17-year-old is now set to step up to FRECA, still with Prema Racing. As was announced in December, however, he will no longer be part of the Ferrari Driver Academy after three years with the programme.

Formula Regional Americas Championship: Callum Hedge

In 2023, Hedge, one of New Zealand’s most promising motorsport talents, returned to full-time racing in single-seaters for the first time since 2019. Having started the season off in New Zealand by winning three races and finishing second overall in the Formula Regional Oceania Championship, Hedge headed stateside to race in Formula Regional Americas with Crosslink Kiwi Motorsport.

His return to single-seaters turned out to be the right move, as the 20-year-old won 13 out of 18 races in FR Americas with a run of seven wins in a row to end the first half of the season. On top of that, Hedge finished on the podium another three times. His closest rivals, teammates Ryan Shehan and Cooper Becklin, were more than 100 points behind him.

Hedge found form outside of single-seaters too, winning the Porsche Carrera Cup Australia title despite missing the Bathurst round to compete in FR Americas’ VIR round. In 2024, Hedge will make the step to Indy NXT with this year’s champions HMD Motorsports, declining the Honda-funded Super Formula ride he earned as a result of his FR Americas title win.

Formula 4 United States Championship: Patrick Woods-Toth

For the third consecutive year, F4 US crowned a champion from outside the US. This year, it was Canadian racer and single-seater debutant Woods-Toth of Crosslink Kiwi Motorsport who took the title.

By taking three podiums on his debut weekend at NOLA, Woods-Toth was in the championship fight from the season’s early stages, but when he took his first two wins in the second round at Road America, he solidified his status as the favourite.

The Canadian dominated the series and won the championship by 82.5 points over his closest rival, teammate Titus Sherlock. With four wins and 10 more podiums from 18 races, Woods-Toth led a campaign predicated on consistency, particularly towards the end of the season. By winning the drivers’ championship, Woods-Toth has secured a prize package that also contains a scholarship to compete in the 2024 Formula Regional Americas Championship. However, the 20-year-old’s 2024 plans haven’t been officially announced yet, and he is known to have a slimmer budget than many at this level.

Brazilian Formula 4 Championship: Vinícius Tessaro

Having finished third in 2022, Tessaro continued racing in Brazilian F4 with Cavaleiro Sports, aiming to secure his first wins as well as the drivers’ championship in 2023.

The 16-year-old took two wins in the opening round at F1 circuit Interlagos and began to build a gap to his rivals as he took another win and a third-place finish at the second round, again at Interlagos. Continuing to win at least one race in every round except the penultimate one on the Brazilian Grand Prix weekend, Tessaro won the championship by 17 points over Matheus Comparatto, taking a total of six race wins and three more podiums.

Having reached the peak of Brazilian junior single-seaters, Tessaro will head stateside to the USF Juniors Championship for 2024. He will join DEForce Racing, the team that took his 2022 teammate Nicolas Giaffone to this year’s championship.

NACAM Formula 4 Championship: Pedro Juan Moreno

For the second year in a row, the NACAM F4 drivers’ championship was won by a Colombian driver, and this year’s champion Moreno took the championship with a whole round to spare.

The Ram Racing driver took two wins from his first round of the season at Mexico City, though Cristian “Conejo” Cantú held the championship lead leaving the round after winning race three and taking two more podiums. Moreno then tied Cantú with a win in race three at Querétaro, the first victory in a streak of eight races that gave him a nearly unassailable 80-point championship lead.

The 16-year-old rookie made himself truly unbeatable following the third race of the penultimate round, when he secured the championship with a third-place finish. He then skipped the final round, held alongside the Mexican Grand Prix, to participate in the Ferrari Scouting World Finals at Fiorano, aiming to secure a place in the Ferrari Driver Academy for the 2024 season. René Lammers ultimately won the finals but did not join the academy, and Moreno’s future plans are not known.

Formula Regional Japanese Championship: Sota Ogawa

Ogawa, last year’s Formula Regional Japan runner-up, returned to the series with Bionic Jack Racing this year aiming to win the drivers’ championship. His performances en route to the title were still impressive, though championship rival Liam Sceats, the only other driver to complete the full season, kept him honest for much of the year, particularly at the end of the season.

With four wins, seven second-place finishes and one third-place finish in 2023, 24-year-old Ogawa beat Sceats by consistently finishing in the top four. That might seem easy to do with two full-time entries, but both drivers faced regular competition from a panoply of part-time and one-off entrants, who combined to win nine of the 16 races in 2023.

In a guest start in rival series Super Formula Lights’ season finale, Ogawa faced a more difficult challenge, taking a best result of seventh in the second race of the weekend but failing to score any points. His 2024 plans are unknown at this stage.

Japanese Formula 4 Championship: Rikuto Kobayashi

In his second season of Japanese F4, Toyota junior Kobayashi was involved in a four-way title fight that wasn’t decided until he crossed the finish line first in the final race of the year.

Having started off the season with a win and a third-place finish in the first round at Fuji, Kobayashi had the advantage over his competition in the season’s early stages. However, the TGR-DC Racing School driver lost the championship lead to Yusuke Mitsui following the fifth round after being involved in incidents and struggling for pace.

However, by finishing all the final four races of the season on the podium, two of them on the top step, Kobayashi returned to top of the table by the end of the year as Mitsui struggled to keep his momentum up. Jin Nakamura posed a late threat and got within five points of Kobayashi before the final race, but Kobayashi beat him by 1.26 seconds at the line to deny him the title.

Kobayashi’s plans for 2024 are not confirmed yet, but it is expected that he will remain a Toyota junior.

Chinese Formula 4 Championship: Tiago Rodrigues

Teaming up with Champ Motorsport for his debut season in Chinese F4, Macanese racer Rodrigues started his single-seater career by taking a podium finish in the third race of the first round at Zhuhai.

Rodrigues took his first three wins in the series and four out of four possible podiums in the second round at Ningbo, which gave him the momentum he needed to fight for the championship. He took four of four podiums at Pingtan and three of four at Zhuhai before securing the championship in the final race of the season as Liu Kaishun of Hong Kong made a late charge for the title. Rodrigues became the third Macanese champion in Chinese F4 history, following in the footsteps of Macau Grand Prix winners Charles Leong and Andy Chang.

Alongside his season in China, Rodrigues participated in the opening F4 SEA round at Zhuzhou and the Macau non-championship, non-points invitational round with Asia Racing Team. He took three podiums in the former, enough for fifth in the overall standings, and finished sixth in the latter.

He is thought to be eyeing another year in F4 in 2024 beginning with an F4 UAE campaign.

Formula 4 South East Asia Championship: Jack Beeton

Beeton stepped up to F4 machinery this year, though it wasn’t until the end of the year that he tasted success. The 16-year-old Australian spent the main season with Van Amersfoort Racing, finishing 23rd in both F4 UAE and Italian F4 and 15th in Euro 4, before joining AGI Sport for the relaunch of F4 SEA at the end of the year.

After a dominant double win at Zhuzhou, the All Road Management driver took top-five finishes in all of the remaining races, three of which were also podiums. Only two other drivers, China’s Kevin Xiao and Wang Zhongwei, completed the full season, but Beeton still impressed in performances against part-timers Doriane Pin and Hadrien David, both known commodities in motorsport. He won the title by a comfortable 48-point margin over the Frenchwoman.

The Australian’s 2024 plans haven’t been announced yet.

Indian Formula 4 Championship: Cooper Webster

Indian F4 finally took place in 2023 after a year’s waiting, and Webster was the biggest star driver from abroad. The Red Bull Racing esports driver had already finished third in S5000 in Australia in 2022 and went on to do so again in 2023 in addition to finishing as the runner-up in GB4, his first European single-seater campaign.

Euro 4 third-place finisher Akshay Bohra drew first blood in Indian F4 with two poles and a win on debut, but Webster went on to dominate the season. The 20-year-old Australian took eight wins from fifteen races and ended with a margin of 62.5 points over Rajeev Rishon and 71.5 points over Bohra. Webster’s title win came exclusively from races on Madras International Circuit as the landfall of Cyclone Michaung near Chennai midway through the season caused several calendar changes.

He has already announced that he will move up the single-seater ladder next year by joining Versa Evans GP in Eurocup-3.

Formula Regional Oceania Championship: Charlie Wurz

Wurz has proven that he can be remembered for more than just having a surname made famous in motorsport by his father, former F1 driver Alexander Wurz. Solid on-track performances in 2022, exemplified by winning the F4 UAE Championship, set the young Austrian up for a promising second full season in single-seater racing this year.

For 2023, Wurz made the step up from F4 to Formula Regional machinery, beginning with Formula Regional Oceania over the winter. Racing with M2 Competition, the 18-year-old won four races in total and made three more appearances on the podium. His fight for the title with this year’s Formula Regional Americas champion, Callum Hedge, went until the final race of the season. In comparison to Hedge, Wurz was more consistent over the season, and finishing every race inside the top eight helped him secure the title.

Wurz’s European Formula Regional campaign was comparatively underwhelming, with just one points finish for ART Grand Prix. A mid-season switch to Euroformula Open with Motopark satellite team CryptoTower Racing yielded a win and four more podiums, and he also comfortably outclassed his Jenzer Motorsport teammates at the F3 Macau Grand Prix in November. For 2024, Wurz is expected to remain with Jenzer for a full season of F3.

S5000 Australian Drivers’ Championship: Aaron Cameron

Taking on his first full season in the S5000 Australian Drivers’ Championship after finishing fifth in a partial 2022 campaign, Cameron again teamed up with Garry Rogers Motorsport. The 2021 S5000 Tasman Series champion kicked off the season by taking a podium finish along with two top-six finishes in the season opener at Symmons Plains Raceway. His next two podium finishes followed at the third round at Winton Motor Raceway, which was the last round contested by double S5000 champion Joey Mawson, who won seven out of the first nine races.

Before round four at Sydney Motorsport Park, Mawson was suspended by Motorsport Australia for failing a drug test, opening the door for the rest of the field. With James Golding and Cooper Webster ahead of him in the standings also missing the round because of unrelated clashes, Cameron seized the chance – and eventually the championship crown.

The 23-year-old won all three races at Sydney, finished second in the first two races and came first in the main event at Tailem Bend, and won all three races again in the final round at Adelaide. That amounted to seven wins and five more podiums over the course of the season, which was enough to seal the championship. With his hat-trick at Adelaide, Cameron also won the S5000 Tasman Series for the second time and became the first driver to win both championships in the same year since Simon Wills did so in 1999.

Cameron’s plans for 2024 haven’t been announced yet.

Australian Formula Open: Trent Grubel

Australian Formula Open, known until this year as Australian Formula 3, saw the championship decided in the final race of the season as Tim Macrow Racing’s Grubel fended off a late surge from rival Ryan How.

Grubel, the 2022 runner-up, started the season by winning the first five races in the opening two rounds at Winton and Sydney. How then won the next three races at the third round at Tailem Bend. The pair shared all race wins across the season, but their oscillations in momentum meant that the championship wasn’t decided until the final race.

Having taken a total of eight race wins and seven more podium finishes in the first 16 races, Grubel entered the 17th and final race with a 14-point lead over How with 21 still on offer. How took his third victory of the weekend and the fastest lap, but Grubel’s fourth-place finish was enough to secure him the title by just three points.

Grubel’s 2024 plans haven’t been announced yet.

See you in 2024!

Header photo collage created by Jordy van de Bunt featuring photos from Artie C Photo, Australian Formula Open, B-Max Racing Team, British F4, Diederik van der Laan / Dutch Photo Agency, Eurocup-3, Euroformula Open, F4 CEZ, F4 UAE, FIA F4 China, Formula Nordic, Formula Regional Middle East Championship, Formula Regional Oceania Championship, French F4, Gavin Baker Photography, Jakob Ebrey Photography, James Black, Japanese F4, Macau Grand Prix Organizing Committee, Masahide Kamio / Norihiko Suzuki, Massimo Bettiol PH, Marcelo Machado Melo / Vicar, Media by Amber, Nida Anis, the Red Bull Content Pool, S5000 Australian Drivers’ Championship and Valentin Team TOM’S.