Gabriel Bortoleto won back-to-back Formula 2 and Formula 3 titles as a rookie before making the jump to F1 in 2025. Can anyone follow in his footsteps and become a rookie champion in either series? At an online press event after pre-season testing, Feeder Series spoke to some of the hottest new F2 and F3 prospects hoping to do so.

By Martin Lloyd and Daniele Spadi

When F2 and F3 hit the track in Melbourne next weekend for their season openers, more than half of each grid will comprise rookies.

This year, 12 F2 drivers will contest their first full seasons in the championship. Notably, eight of these drivers have already left their mark on the series by making at least one appearance in the final three rounds of 2024.

This includes the all-new Hitech duo of Luke Browning and Dino Beganovic, who raced for ART and DAMS respectively before switching to the Silverstone-based squad for 2025. Hitech are one of three teams to field two drivers without a full season of F2 experience.

“The biggest thing about Formula 2 is that experience is maybe the biggest factor,” Browning said. “You have guys that have done multiple years, maybe even three at this point or going into their third season. That experience is huge. 

“You look at, for example, [2022 F2 champion] Drugovich, who got to his third season and, for lack of a better word, dominated it. It’s very difficult to do that as a rookie. I think that’s what was so outstanding about, for example, Bortoleto’s season last year: the rate of progression.”

While Browning’s six prior race starts put him just above the threshold to qualify formally for rookie status, he still lacks F2 mileage relative to many of his rivals. Richard Verschoor, the most experienced driver on the grid, has made 102 starts since his debut in 2021, while third-year drivers Victor Martins, Jak Crawford and Kush Maini have made 54 each. Browning knows that he will be at an early disadvantage, but he remains ambitious in his targets for the new season.

“The plan for me and Dino,” he added, “[is] to not necessarily turn up and be the most ballistic straight away and the outright fastest. It’s [about] looking at it as an overview and seeing how much we can develop through the year.

“We want to win both titles. I think that’s clear from Paul’s performance last year and from having a driver line-up as strong as me and Dino coming into it. I think we’re one of the strongest on the grid and I think that should be the expectation.”

Prema Racing, something of an F2 juggernaut in previous years, are also looking to climb the standings after finishing only fifth last season. With their 2024 F2 line-up of Ollie Bearman and Andrea Kimi Antonelli both graduating to F1, they have promoted F3 runner-up Gabriele Minì, who raced at the Baku round last season in place of Bearman. He will partner fellow F3 graduate Sebastián Montoya, who raced for the team in F4 and FRegional between 2020 and 2022.

“We have two rookies,” Minì said, “but I don’t think that’s a major issue. Last year I had the opportunity to race in Baku and have Kimi as a teammate, so that was a very good opportunity to learn a lot straight away in a very short amount of time and pretty early on. 

“At the same time, I don’t think it’s a big issue because we always have the data from previous years. We have great engineers and personnel in the team who can teach us and can explain to us how everything has to be done.”

With the top eight from F3’s 2024 grid all leaving the championship, the third-tier series will feature at least 17 rookies on the starting grid in Melbourne.

Notably for them, the arrival of the new Dallara F3 car also mitigates the advantage of prior experience, meaning newcomers have a slight advantage compared to previous seasons.

Expectations are high for many of the new drivers, including Noah Strømsted. Having made a last-minute appearance with Campos at the 2024 season finale in Monza, the Danish driver now steps up full time with Trident, a team whose drivers have taken back-to-back championships in the past two seasons.

“[The goal] would be to fight for wins and, in the end, the championship together with Trident,” Strømsted said. “It is a very capable team. They won the [drivers’] championship the last two years.

“The pre-season test we had in Barcelona was very good. The car felt very good. They redid the balance. Everything they did over the winter and the preparation we did with the sim really helped a lot there.”

At Prema Racing, Brando Badoer and Ugo Ugochukwu have shared many on-track battles since their karting days and climbed the F4 and FRegional ranks together. Now the duo, both McLaren juniors, share the responsibility of bringing a fourth consecutive teams’ title to Prema Racing along with second-year driver Noel León.

“Me and Ugo have been racing together since karting, so we know each other pretty well,” Badoer told Feeder Series. “The approach stays the same. We have a good relationship; we work in Prema and in McLaren together. Of course, we are rivals on track, but we have a good relationship.”

Ugochukwu, the 2024 Macau Grand Prix winner, echoed Badoer’s thoughts.

“As Brando said, we’ve been racing for many years now together. At the end of the day, on track, it’s just a normal, normal rivalry like with anyone else. Overall, I think we’re working well together as a team, and then on track it’s everyone for themselves.”

Both Badoer and Ugochukwu have already battled on track in 2025 in FR Middle East. There, R-ace GP’s Ugochukwu edged out PHM Racing’s Badoer by 49 points after a 52-point swing in the final round.

They’re not alone in preparing for F3 with more FR mileage. Winter series have enjoyed higher uptake among drivers in recent years. They provide opportunities to gain mileage and valuable points towards an FIA Super Licence, as Campos F2 rookie and new FR Oceania champion Arvid Lindblad proved this winter.

Van Amersfoort Racing F3 rookie Théophile Naël may be further away from applying for a Super Licence, but he has still been a regular in the Middle East’s winter single-seater scene the past few years. Driving for Saintéloc Racing in the opening three rounds of the 2025 FR Middle East season, the 17-year-old scored points in all nine races, including three podium finishes along the way.

“It helped me a lot to do still some races, some starts, also to manage some tyre deg and as well in terms of physical [preparation],” the Frenchman said. “In that part it was very important for me to keep driving during the winter.”

Additional reporting by Calla Kra-Caskey and Tori Turner

Header photo credit: Dutch Photo Agency