Just two weeks separate the GB3 Championship’s field of 20 confirmed drivers from the 2024 season opener at Oulton Park, with two of the winter’s three official tests complete. Feeder Series delves into some of the biggest storylines from the series’ most recent on-track running at Donington Park, having also been in the paddock on multiple occasions in recent weeks.

By George Brabner

Having propelled Callum Voisin, Alex Dunne, Joseph Loake and Max Esterson into full-time FIA Formula 3 seats over the winter, GB3 is set to continue its growth in 2024 with a revamped calendar and a new team in Ammonite Motorsport expected to join the grid. 

Of the 20 drivers who are currently confirmed to be competing at the season opener, nine are returning for their second or third series assaults, including 2023 title challenger McKenzy Cresswell, whilst 11 fresh faces look to make an impact on the UK’s premier single-seater championship, amongst them reigning British F4 champion Louis Sharp.

Third-year drivers on top

Now a third-year driver, Cresswell lead the way on day one of official testing at both Oulton Park and Donington Park, as he continues with Elite Motorsport for a second successive season.

Having been unable to graduate to F3 due to budget constraints, rather than a lack of offers, the Briton must deliver in 2024 to ensure he remains an attractive option for promotion in 12 months’ time. With the momentum of six podiums from seven races in the latter stages of 2023 behind him, he has started the new year in the best way possible.

With an equal amount of pressure on his shoulders is John Bennett, who usurped Cresswell at the sharp end at Oulton Park and is yet to leave the top five in any official test. Opting for a third campaign in GB3, he switches to reigning team’s champions JHR Developments following a disappointing sophomore season with Rodin Carlin, who were embroiled in their own turbulence behind the scenes

He emphasised to Feeder Series that this year “needs to be a strong one,” as he looks to make up for what was essentially a lost season in 2023, where the results table says he took a confusing step back compared to 2022.

Revitalised at JHR, Bennett is upbeat about what 2024 might hold as he inherits the position as team leader alongside two inexperienced British F4 graduates, Josh Irfan and Patrick Heuzenroeder.

“I’ve definitely got confidence back since I joined JHR, just seeing the results. Obviously, we haven’t gotten to the real stuff yet, but I think it’s a good indication that we should be up there. Definitely a lot stronger than we were at this point last year with Carlin,” he said.

“And then obviously, we’ve got Mike Epps, driver coach, in the team. He’s really good and has obviously got good results with [Joseph] Loake and [Matthew] Rees in the past. So I think were in a good position, and I’m happy with my teammates.”

GB3 announced in November that a third fly-away round would be added to the 2024 calendar, with a trip to the Hungaroring now scheduled between visits to Spa-Francorchamps and Zandvoort. For Bennett, racing at another track on the F3 calendar is a major plus.

“It’s huge. Coming back for a third year, some people say there’s not a huge amount to learn, but obviously, going to Hungary now is another track to add to my CV and another track to learn for F3, which is huge.”

Experience continues to reign supreme

The rest of the top ten has been predominantly populated by second-year drivers throughout pre-season testing so far. Hitech’s Tymek Kucharczyk and Gerrard Xie are both performing well as they switch to new teams, with Xie taking a notable step forward compared to 2023, where he was placed at Hilspeed as part of the Hitech Academy. 

Kucharczyk was one of the fastest drivers on raw pace in the early stages of 2023 with Douglas Motorsport, but incidents across the second half of the season meant he couldn’t fight amongst the top five in the standings. In 2024, with some of the best tools possible now at his disposal, as proven by Dunne last year, the Pole’s aim is clear.

“Obviously, Hitech is a very good team. I think it’s one of the best in this championship. I think they know what I am capable of, and I know what they’re capable of. Our goal is to win the championship,” he said.

He acknowledges that there is still room for improvement in his new team, but two third-place combined classification finishes across Oulton Park and Donington Park are definite confidence boosters.

“I think so far it’s not too bad because we’re always around the top three, which is the most important thing that shows we’re quick no matter what. There’s still a lot of things to improve on, a lot of things to finalise, but it’s good that even though sometimes we can struggle a bit we are still up there.”

With Cresswell consistently around the upper areas of testing results, one of his new teammates at Elite Motorsport for 2024, Jarrod Waberski, has also made steps forward as he enters his second season in GB3. 

The South African looks to leave the woes of his rookie season with Fortec Motorsport behind him, which Esterson shed some light on with Feeder Series last year, choosing to head to Elite and having tested with JHR multiple times early in the winter. Third place on day one at Oulton Park is the kind of result he will be looking to emulate come round one.

Elsewhere, VRD Racing by Arden, rebranded from Arden VRD over the off-season to represent VRD’s increased influence, has had a strong start to 2024. They are retaining Noah Ping for a second campaign, and he is finding his rhythm after the jump from America to Europe, signalled by two sixth places at Oulton Park. He will be joined season-long by fellow American Shawn Rashid, who took second on day one at Donington Park as he turns a new leaf departing Douglas Motorsport.

Exciting rookie challengers

GB3’s experienced faces have excelled across the first two official tests, but they are far from unchallenged. Rodin Motorsport’s Sharp has been the only driver to beat third-year competitors Cresswell and Bennett to the top of a combined classification, heading day two at Donington Park with a time only a tenth of a second slower than the series lap record.

Jumping up from British F4 with the title under his belt, the Kiwi has gotten right on the pace in testing, within the top five on all four official days. 

“After our success in F4 last year, I think that confidence does push us through to this year. Stepping into GB3, it’s a different challenge, but the pace has been okay so far. We’ve kind of been top five pretty much every session,” he told Feeder Series.

“I mean, if you look at the times at the front, everyone’s pretty experienced, so it’s going to be tough. Saying that, I still want to win, that is still my goal. Obviously, I do have to be realistic; I think this year’s just about learning how to drive a car with a bit more downforce and a bit more speed.”

Despite the changes in leadership over the winter at the Rodin Motorsport entity, Sharp said that “it’s completely the same,” working within the team, praising that “everyone is just as keen to get out and win” – a good omen for the squad that took Voisin to the title in 2023.

Will Macintyre, who also graduates from British F4 where he challenged Sharp last year, has been within the top ten on every day of official testing so far. Fifth on day two at Donington Park and ahead of his more experienced teammates marks an encouraging start to his GB3 career.

Two part-time rookies, Rodin’s Ugo Ugochukwu and VRD’s Nikita Johnson, have also notably been in the mix at official testing. Ugochukwu, who will be combining a four-round GB3 campaign with a full-time FRECA assault, finished fifth on day one at Oulton Park and second on day two, whilst Johnson took ninth and third at Donington Park as he prepares to join GB3 from round three fresh from a win in USF Pro 2000. 

However, of the 11 currently confirmed rookies, amongst them is only one full-time 2023 GB4 Championship driver. Colin Queen, who was fourth in GB4 last year, has opted to stay within the Fortec stable to graduate to GB3 but is yet to break into the top ten in official testing. There is still hope for another GB4 driver to join GB3, though, with Aditya Kulkarni, fifth last year, and 2022 champion Nikolas Taylor both testing with Hillspeed at Donington Park.

Silly season and seats to fill

Amongst the field of 20 entrants, only three drivers are returning to the series for a second campaign with the same team.

Joining Cresswell and Ping in that statistic is Ed Pearson, who finished day one at Oulton Park and day two at Donington Park inside the top ten, looking to improve on 19th place in the standings scored with Fortec in his rookie campaign.

The Briton said that he feels he has made significant jumps over the off-season, aided by starting work with the team’s number-one engineer last November. He has so far been consistently ahead of Queen, showing definitive progress.

Fortec still has one seat left to fill, though, and they are not alone. Douglas Motorsport hasn’t announced any of their drivers yet, although they ran 2023 Elite driver Oliver Stewart at a private test in February and Daniel Guinchard, who is looking to join the GB3 field but has budget issues to contend with, during official testing at Oulton Park.

Hillspeed and rookies Ammomite Motorsport also have three empty seats on their hands, with less than two weeks to go until round one. Hillspeed took on two Hitech Academy drivers last year and looked set to continue that trend in the early stages of the winter until their partnership with Hitech was brought to an end. Hitech has since moved their alignment to Chris Dittmann Racing, hence Hitech Academy drivers Flynn Jackes and Sebastian Murray’s signings with the Tewkesbury-based outfit, who themselves have another driver to announce.

A surprise from Pirelli

GB3’s ‘silly season’ is still to play out before Oulton Park, however, the teams have already had their own surprise to contend with courtesy of Pirelli. 

Feeder Series understands that the Italian tyre manufacturer moved the production of GB3’s compound from a factory in North America to Brazil over the winter, notifying teams of the change but not of any adjustment to the tyre itself. 

Once the tyre became available on February 1st – less than two months before the start of the season – it became apparent that it was not consistent with last year’s product. Visually, the tyre is noticeably different, and during testing, it was easy to tell who was running it and who wasn’t from the pitlane. 

But teams and drivers have given opposing opinions to Feeder Series on how significantly it could affect things on track and even what the differences are between the 2023 and 2024 tyre, potentially due to the unique  conditions over the winter and different run plans.

As one of the most experienced drivers on the grid, Bennett lent his insight into the change at Donington Park.

“To be honest, we haven’t found a huge difference between the old compound and the new compound. We’ve just heard that they might have a bit more deg, but we haven’t really felt that yet. 

“But maybe when it gets to hotter temperatures in the summer, going to Hungary, if that’s like 30 degrees, maybe we might see some fall off closer to in line with the FIA stuff. 

“So far, we haven’t really seen it will affect too much.”

Header photo credit: Jakob Ebrey Photography