Amongst a grid of 21 drivers at GB3’s 2024 season opener, John Bennett and McKenzy Cresswell stood out from the rest: they were entering their third full-time campaigns in the series. Bennett was victorious in race two at Oulton Park, whilst Cresswell enjoyed a podium finish in the same contest, but there’s more to come from the pair as they aim to enable a move to FIA F3 with their results this year. 

By George Brabner

Before round one, Bennett and Cresswell were favourites for podiums having excelled throughout official pre-season testing. Both drivers needed to deliver as they entered a make-or-break season – as spending three years in an F3 regional series such as GB3 is extremely rare and makes championship-winning results imperative.

Bennett, who was making his debut with JHR Developments, had a strong weekend in particular. He lined up second for races one and two and traded the top spots with Louis Sharp, finishing behind the Rodin Motorsport driver in race one but ahead in rain-soaked race two.

That placed him third in the standings, 16 positions higher than this time 12 months ago with an extra 52 points under his belt, showing right off the bat that last year was not representative of his ability.

“There is pressure, there is an expectation that I should be at the front as a third-year driver,” Bennett told Feeder Series. “To start the season with a podium and a win, it shows that I can do it, so there should be no reason why I can’t continue these results into Silverstone.”

Meanwhile Cresswell, who was entering his second consecutive campaign with Elite Motorsport, took a third-place finish in race two at what the Briton told Feeder Series was “probably [Elite’s] weakest circuit.” Unlike Bennett, Cresswell was a championship contender in 2023, finishing fourth in the standings after an almost pointless round one “blew that championship campaign off the rails” and left him playing catch up. 

An FIA F3 seat was tantalisingly close over the winter, having talked to “a number of teams” until “a sponsor pulled out” and he “just couldn’t quite get the budget in time” to secure his graduation. As a result, Cresswell’s pressure is not so much to prove his ability after a disappointing year like Bennett but to show that his name should remain at the forefront of talks for an F3 seat in 2025. 

“The pressure is always on but especially now given I’ve got the experience for it now. So I think [the title] is definitely possible. We’ve got a good package, I think we just need to make sure that we’re executing every time we go out in the car, don’t have any bad weekends like Oulton Park last year. 

“So I think there’s definitely a lot of pressure this year, but that’s how it is, that’s the sport, I have to deal with it,” he said.

Cresswell’s internal consistency

Cresswell showed he and Elite could deliver championship-winning performances against the powerhouses of Hitech and Rodin Carlin last year by scoring six podiums in eight races between round five and round seven.

From a performance standpoint, it therefore made sense for Cresswell to stay with the team that he already knew so well for his last hurrah in GB3, which has granted him a unique edge over Bennett.

“I know all the faces around here. John’s got people to meet, new people to make connections with, whereas I’ve already had a year in it. It’s definitely an advantage and I’m pleased to be working with the people I’m working with. 

“I’m quite confident in the group I’ve got around me and I feel that we can definitely work well together and achieve some big results. I’m hoping for big things,” he said.

With the addition of the Hungaroring to GB3’s calendar, Cresswell’s 2024 campaign is not a direct repeat of 2023. Testing at the new venue is strictly controlled and drivers will only get two days of running before round four, making car knowledge and experience vital. 

Cresswell therefore believes that his decision to stay with Elite will pay dividends once again further into the season despite having never visited the Hungarian circuit.

“Luckily, the engineers have got some experience around that track so they’ll be able to relay some of that on to the drivers,” he said. “But it’s a complete unknown. Nobody’s been there, GB3’s never been there, so I think it’ll be very interesting to see where it all shakes out.

“But I think we’ve got the potential to be quick anywhere we go. And even here [at Oulton Park], which is a track we didn’t expect to be fighting for the win at, I think the pace we showed yesterday as well – we didn’t really maximise quali. We could have been even higher up – but I think we’ve got a strong baseline. We just need to fine-tune it.”

The mentality behind Bennett’s swap

Whilst Cresswell has set his sights on maximising the familiar tools that are beneath him, the key for Bennett’s third year in GB3 is a team change. After finishing eighth with Elite in his debut campaign, moving to the better-established Rodin Carlin team for the 2023 season was a logical step forward. 

However, as the outfit struggled financially, contended with conflict at the head of its leadership and question marks were raised over the maintenance of its cars, Bennett’s sophomore campaign produced little to celebrate, leading him towards reigning teams’ champions JHR for a second chance to prove his worth. 

“That’s why we’re coming back for a third year, for redemption. I can’t afford to have another mediocre year if I want to keep moving up in single-seaters. The aim has to be the championship. P5 just wouldn’t cut it for this year.

“We think we have a point to prove and the results last year don’t reflect where I should be as a driver. So yeah, we’ll just put it all out there this year and see where it goes,” he explained.

Bennett had no option but to bounce back straight away in 2024, and with a win to his name after round one, the fear that this season would be a dangerous repeat of last has subsided.

“You look at a team’s results from the outside, you kind of see who looks strong, but then a move doesn’t always work out. Look at my move in my first year with Elite to Carlin in the second – looking at it on paper, it almost looks like a no-brainer, but then the results were actually worse. 

“So, you know, nothing was guaranteed moving to JHR, that it would fix all my issues. But I think after this first round, it’s stopped any worries and it shows that it’s a strong pairing.

“I’m new to the team. How we work together should only get stronger throughout the season, so we can only improve.”

Strong competition

During round one, select members of GB3’s rookie field arguably outshone Bennett and Cresswell in the fight for top honours. Amongst the top five in the standings, there are three debutants – Sharp, Ugo Ugochukwu and Will Macintyre – all of whom are established winners at F4 level. 

Meanwhile, more is expected from series returnees such as Jarrod Waberski and Tymek Kucharzyk – seventh and ninth respectively – who are predicted to move forward in the coming races. 

But in the bigger picture of Bennett and Cresswell’s third-year assaults, they can’t afford to just match their competition as the season unfolds, particularly the less experienced GB3 drivers.

“I mean, there’s a lot of good drivers in the championship,” Bennett said, “GB3 is always mega-competitive. I mean, we’ll see as the season progresses. Some teams are stronger at other tracks.

“I think, off the top of my head, it’ll really be Louis Sharp, Cresswell and probably Tymek, they’re some of the strongest drivers in the championship. And obviously, you’ve got Ugo, but he’s only doing a half-season, Will Macintyre. I mean, there’s tons of talent across the grid. I just keep my head down and keep trying to be as fast as I can and see where that gets me by the end.”

As the top ten gain experience and find their stride, round two at Silverstone will simultaneously kick off a slew of visits to four Grand Prix venues which could see the dynamic at the front swap as the low-speed layout of Oulton Park is left behind. 

Cresswell took his first win in GB3 at Silverstone last year and believes that the upcoming tracks are all venues that “the team always goes well at,” certain that he “can definitely go and fight for the higher-up positions at Silverstone, Spa and those types of places.” 

Hitech is also known for its pace at Spa-Francorchamps, reinforced by Alex Dunne’s back-to-back wins in the Ardennes last year, but Cresswell laid out his thoughts on GB3’s ever-growing competitiveness – which only increases the pressure – with no room for misconception.

“I want to beat the lot of them. It’s that simple. I don’t care who it is, I want to beat them all,” he said.

Keeping a level head

As expectations mount, neither Bennett nor Cresswell can afford to make ‘rookie’ mistakes. Rewind to Silverstone last year when Bennett lost his first GB3 victory through an incident with Dunne whilst battling on a drying track or when Cresswell spun one round later at Spa-Francorchamps whilst fighting Dunne for second on lap one: these are errors that can’t be repeated.

“There were a couple of instances last year where sometimes I was just trying to push a little bit harder for something that wasn’t really there,” Cresswell said, who has already proven himself but now must turn the deadly combination of consistency and pace that he showed flashes of in 2023 into the norm.

“There’s been quite a few things thrown my way in the last couple of months. But it’s something that I need to take on as a person and demonstrate that I am strong enough to still keep performing even where there are things going on outside the track which aren’t ideal. 

“I’m just trying to maintain focus on what I need to do, which is do the job on track. So I think I’m pretty pleased with how that’s gone so far, and we had a strong pre-season, strong end to last year, so I think we’ve got every right to be confident heading into the next couple of rounds.”

Header photo credit: Artie C Photo