Hugh Barter dropped out of the junior single-seater spotlight after vacating his Campos Formula 3 seat during the 2023 season. Following a surprise appearance in Indian F4 last year, he now competes in the Ultimate Cup European Series’ Hoosier Formula Cup and serves as the Lola Yamaha Abt Formula E Team’s simulator driver. Feeder Series caught up with the Australian-Japanese driver at last month’s London E-Prix. 

By Seb Tirado

Barter joined the F3 grid after finishing as the runner-up in both French F4 and Spanish F4 in 2022. He scored 10 wins and four further podiums in the former and six wins and seven further podiums in the latter. 

His F3 campaign, however, was a difficult affair. Whilst teammates Pepe Martí and Christian Mansell regularly found themselves in the points, Barter needed more than half the season to bag his first points, which came from an eighth-place finish in the Spielberg feature race. After finishing a season-best sixth at the Spa sprint race, he was replaced ahead of the final round by Joshua Dufek because of budget issues.

That year, Barter also had his first experience in Formula E machinery. He participated in the Berlin rookie test with Maserati and finished 16th in the overall classification with a best time of 1:06.310, set during the afternoon session.

“My first thoughts were that it’s definitely unique,” he said about the rookie test. “It’s not like any environment I’ve personally worked in so far in my career, or back then at least. 

“It’s not like a junior feeder series where you only have one engineer with you and maybe a data engineer. You have multiple people trying to help you out, so you feel really immersed in the professionalism of the series.”

Even during his time away from full-time racing, Barter was not far from the Formula E fold. Fellow Australian Mark Preston, motorsport director at Lola Cars and a former F1 engineer and designer, had been in contact with Barter for most of 2024 to detail his plans for bringing the marque into Formula E. Abt Sportsline eventually operated the entry whilst Yamaha and Lola jointly manufactured the powertrain.

“Obviously, me being half Japanese and the team being Yamaha and Lola, he thought it was a good connection,” Barter explained. “They said, ‘Come to the sim’, so I did a couple days in the sim. Eventually, that led to me being the sim driver for them and doing the rookie test.”

Barter was partnered with Williams F3 junior Alessandro Giusti at this year’s rookie test and was one of 16 participants to have raced in single-seaters in the past year. He finished seventh in the overall classification, ahead of Giusti, again setting his best time in the afternoon session with a 0:58.023.

All of this came about despite the fact that Barter had enjoyed little time in single-seater machinery since the premature end to his F3 campaign. After spending 12 months out of a race seat, Barter returned to single-seaters when he was invited by Indian F4’s organisers to compete in the first two rounds with Godspeed Kochi. He took all three pole positions and won three of the five races he entered.

“When you’re out of the seat for that long, you kind of just take anything that comes up,” he said. “Because of that, it was a good opportunity to keep my skills sharp, so when opportunities like the Berlin rookie test do come up, you’ve not been out of a seat for two years or 18 months.

“I’ve kept in good nick, let’s say! I’m thankful for opportunities like that because it’s a good chance to just keep yourself on your toes.”

Now, Barter competes in the Formula Regional-level Hoosier Formula Cup with Winfield Racing and currently leads the drivers’ standings on 240 points, 24 ahead of closest rival Nano López. He has finished on the podium in all nine races so far, winning seven of them. The 19-year-old did not race or test the Tatuus F3 T-318 during his second year of F4 or before moving up to F3.

Despite his dominant form, Barter is unsure that he can finish the Hoosier Formula Cup season and secure the title.

“It’s [a] round-by-round thing at the moment, so we’ll see,” he explained. “I can’t really comment on it, but like I said, it’s a good way for me to stay in the car and keep my skills sharp.”

Looking ahead to the future, Barter is hopeful of remaining in his role at Lola Yamaha Abt next season and is open to whatever other opportunities come to him.

“There’s a good relationship going on at the moment,” he said. “I enjoy working in this paddock and with the people here. But in saying that, if an opportunity arises to go back to Formula 3 or Formula 2 or whatever it is, of course I would like to race.

“The dream is to make a professional career out of motorsport. Where it is, I’m not too fussed. We’ll just have to see.”

Header photo credit: Formula E