Patrick Heuzenroeder has teamed up with reigning teams’ champions JHR Developments for his debut campaign in GB3, graduating from British F4 where he finished 19th in 2023. Having shown noticeable progress since his first season competing outside of Australia during round one, Feeder Series and select media spoke to Heuzenroder alongside ex-Formula 1 driver David Brabham, his new mentor.

By George Brabner

Heuzenroeder has raced through the motorsport ranks over the last six years. He started his career at 13 years old when he jumped into karts in Australia in 2019, before stepping up to the New South Wales Formula Ford Championship in 2022 where he finished third, two spots behind 2024 British F4 driver James Piszcyk. 

An almighty move across the globe to the UK was next on the cards for Heuzenroeder, graduating into British F4 – just like Piszcyk – with Argenti Motorsport. Whilst the season only yielded one podium finish, he proceeded to make his debut in GB3 at the end of the year, filling in for Ayato Iwasaki at Elite Motorsport for the final two rounds of 2023. 

Now competing in the series full-time with JHR, Heuzenroeder finished 11th in race one at Oulton Park and ninth in race two, before retiring from second place in reverse grid race three due to a technical issue. 

The Aussie told Feeder Series that his full-time GB3 debut “was quite a good base to go off” overall, although he “wasn’t overly satisfied” with his performance in qualifying in which he took 12th and tenth.

Nevertheless, a rain-soaked race three was a significant point of encouragement, having started from pole and then holding onto second place after the first lap at one of the most difficult venues on the calendar. 

“I showed good pace in race three in those torrential conditions,” Heuzenroeder explained to Feeder Series. “The DNF hurt in terms of the points position, but I think I showed that I can be running at the front. And I was comfortable where I was before we had the electrical issue. So it was a good weekend, I think. I was satisfied with it. 

“And Silverstone will be so much easier given I’ve now done that sort of race weekend. Everything from there will almost be, well, it’ll be more familiar, which will make it easier. But also, I mean, Oulton is one of those tracks! In those conditions, I think most things will feel down a level from there.”

An unlikely path

Before Heuzenroeder began his ascension to GB3, becoming a racing driver wasn’t his aim. Instead, he was a keen cricketer, playing in the third tier of Australian club competition up until he moved to British F4.

“I started when I was I think eight, seven or eight, and I wanted to play for Australia. That was my goal before I stepped into motorsport. 

“I was a wicketkeeper, a wicketkeeper batter. I played for North Sydney and played third grade men’s. I think I was 16 at the time when I was playing and then that was my last summer playing cricket and then motorsport took over. It was always there, but it took over,” he said.

Heuzenroeder is not from a motorsport-focused family, either: his mother plays in the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, his brother is an opera singer and his sister is a ballet dancer. Instead, the motorsport “bug” comes from his grandfather, who was “really into his historic cars and sports cars,” leading him to become the first person in his family to compete.

Despite the mixed influences, Heuzenroeder believes that his background plays to his advantage, applying familiar skills that he has learned elsewhere to the field of motorsport as he forges his own path in the UK.

“I think that level of competitiveness, for me at least, has always been there and that hard work has always been in the family, and it just happens that it’s motorsport. 

“I mean, it was cricket and now it’s motorsport, so I think that they [my family] have given me a really good foundation in terms of hard work, dedication, but also providing me opportunities. So I’m excited by being, I guess, the first in my family to explore racing by competing in it,” he told Feeder Series.

“I think that that level of adaptability [from cricket] in the car comes in handy, especially in England with the weather the way it is and the tracks that we get. But also I think the level of training I did, I did it at quite a high level, I think I bring that into racing, the commitment and dedication to practise and perfecting it because I am obsessed. 

“I was obsessed with cricket, I’m obsessed with racing and I think I can really merge the two to become a good racing driver.”

The lucky meeting

For 2024, Heunzenroeder has David Brabham, son of three-time F1 world champion Sir Jack Brabham and multiple-time 24 Hours of Le Mans winner in his own right, acting as his mentor. 

But his route to meeting the legend of Australian racing is unique, set in motion by a lucky encounter with Karun Chandhok, ex-F1 driver and current Sky Sports F1 pundit.

“I was on the train into London to do a little conference in Australia House [the Australian embassy in London], and it was quite a busy train ride, and Dad and I were going through our script and we mentioned Brands Hatch. 

“And then Karun Chandhok sat down in front of us, purely by chance, and he said, ‘Did you say something about Brands Hatch?’ And, poor guy, I stared at [him] for probably 15 seconds just to make sure it was him before asking!

“And then we had a chat on the train about all things racing and coming from overseas to race in the UK, and then at the end, he asked if I knew David Brabham because most people in Australia know everyone! But I said ‘No, I don’t,’ and he said ‘Well, I should put you in touch with him.’ So I gave him my card, and true to his word, he did, which was very nice,” Heuzenroeder explained.

Brabham said that his young countryman left a “good impression” on him and the Brabham Group business that he leads “straight away” after Chandhok’s introduction, leading towards the pair working together after the Christmas-New Year period. 

Currently, Brabham acts “from a slight distance,” aiming to complement the role of Mike Epps – an established driver coach from School of Send who works with Heuzenroeder via the JHR team. 

“He’s the one that goes through the data and the videos and I go into the room as well and sit and listen and watch,” Brabham said. “I don’t see myself in there taking control of the room. It’s his room. I sit back and listen and watch and I look for key things that I think would make a difference because generally, you can go into too much detail about this stuff.

“But generally, what comes to the surface are pretty obvious things through experienced eyes and you go, ‘Right, that’s what we need to focus on,’” he explained.

“I’m sort of picking little pieces where I go, okay, I’ve got time to then dedicate to Pat to improve this situation which I know is going to make a difference.”

Experience at the head

The “bank of experience” that Brabham lends to Heuzenroeder has been “great” for the JHR driver’s progression into the new season, feeding off what the motorsport veteran has learned over his illustrious sportscar and single-seater career – some of which Heuzenroeder evaluated that he “wouldn’t even think of in F3.”

On top of achieving three Le Mans victories, four Sebring 12 Hours wins and glory in the Spa 24 Hours, the Australian became British F3 champion in 1989, racing on all four of the English venues that GB3 will venture to in 2024. 

Whilst his triumph in the series “springboarded” him to F1, he can draw a lot of parallels between his career and Heuzenreoder’s, allowing him to bring more value to their dynamic.

“Relating to Patrick with his jump from where he was in British F4 to GB3, which is a big technical jump in terms of aero and the speed of the car, having been a driver also for 35 years, talking to a driver, looking at a situation, there’s a lot of what I see, me in my journey, through him, as such. 

“And of course, laying that on top of the experience that I’ve had either myself as a driver working with drivers, working with young drivers like I did when I ran the Motorsport UK young driver development programme,” Brabham told Feeder Series.

“And so that’s where I sort of come in and help Patrick – not just Patrick, but the team as well as a whole because, at the end of the day, we want the best for Patrick.”

Brabham is conscious that he has seen “lots of drivers in Pat’s situation” that are “doomed to fail” because they are rushed through the ranks too quickly, so he is working with Heuzenroeder and his father Phillip to act like a career advisor, staging the development of “the human being as well as the driver.”

As a result, Heuzenroeder’s rookie campaign in GB3 with JHR, which sees him lining up alongside experienced third-year driver John Bennett, is aimed to be the first of two, laying the foundations for a championship assault in 12 month’s time.

“It’s preparing me to then build a foundation to then really give, well, next year ago, but also the years to come,” Heuzenroeder explained. “But also, learning off David, learning off John, who’s going into his third year, it’s very useful to have. 

“And the team, they’re extremely experienced, so it just prepares me for 2025 to give GB3 a good crack at the championship.”

Header photo credit: Artie C Photo