Weekly Debrief – These are the 2017 Single-Seater Champions!

Formula 3

In the world of Formula 3, Lando Norris is the new FIA European F3 champion after an amazing run in 2017. With the support of the McLaren F1 team, look for him in F2 next year and F1 soon enough. In the European-wide EuroFormula Open Championship, Harrison Scott sealed his championship with 10 wins overall after the Monza round and Enaam Ahmed sealed a dominant championship in the BRDC British Formula 3 Championship. Meanwhile over in Japan, Mitsunori Takaboshi beat Sho Tsuboi to a well-earned Japanese F3 title while Calan Williams is working hard to seal the Australian Formula 3 title with one round remaining. In the F3 Brazil Championship, both Guilherme Samaia in F3-A and Igor Fraga in F3-Light are working hard to win their respective divisions with one round remaining as well.

Formula Renault NEC

Over at the Formula Renault NEC, Venturi Formula E development driver Michael Benyahia took the title despite only being on the overall podium once all season. As he has proven, consistency and not outright wins can be just as effective in winning a title. Meanwhile in the Formula Renault Eurocup Sacha Fenestraz has been steadily increasing his lead as the series winds up at the end of October while Daniel Lu took home the championship honors in Asian Formula Renault.

Formula 4

Elsewhere in Europe the various F4 championships are on the verge of wrapping up with some exciting racing. In Germany, Juri Vips won the ADAC F4 championship while in Italy and France the championships are going down to the wire with Marcus Armstrong and Arthur Rougier leading the Italian and French championships respectively. In the UK Jamie Caroline capped off an incredible season with the Championship win while battles are still raging in the SMP and Spanish F4 championships.

Formula 4 is definitely turning out to be a success with the formula branching out beyond Europe and taking place in multiple regions around the world. In Australia, Will Brown won the Australian Formula 4 title while Ukyo Sasahara leads the Japanese Formula 4 title chase with 1 one round remaining. In China Charles Leong clinched the Chinese F4 Championship with one round remaining while over in Southeast Asia, that championship just kicked off in support of the Malaysian Grand Prix with one of the stranger race weekends in Formula 4 history. In the Americas, while the 2017-18 NACAAM F4 championship is just getting started and the F4 Sudamericana has 2 races to go in their championship, the US F4 Championship concluded an extremely successful second season with Kyle Kirkwood sealing the championship title with one round to go supporting F1 at the US Grand Prix.

Meanwhile in North America

In North America, a number of single-seater championships have wrapped up for 2017. The incredibly successful Mazda Road to Indy concluded all 3 of its series with Oliver Askew winning the USF2000 Championship, Victor Franzoni winning the Pro Mazda title and Kyle Kaiser winning the Indy Lights title, all at the penultimate round at Watkins Glen. In the Formula 2000 Championship series, Brandon Dixon is the 2017 champion while Peter Portante wrapped up the 2017 Atlantic championship while over on the West Coast Tom Hope leads the Pacific F2000 series with one round remaining.

F1600

With all these series, you would think that F1600 (or Formula Ford as some veterans still refer to it) would be the odd man out but that couldn’t be farther from the truth. F1600 is still an amazing training ground for young drivers and the racing is fantastic. In Britain, the BRSCC Formula Ford F1600 Championship continues to grow with Luke Williams leading the Pro Division while John Ferguson leads the Clubman. Over in their Northern Championship Joshua Smith won the Post89 title while Jaap Bliljleven won the Pre90 title. In North America, Matthew Cowley won the US-based 2017 F1600 Championship title while in Canada, Ben Hurst won the Ontario-based Toyo Tires F1600 Championship and Konrad Czaczyk won the Quebec-based Formula Tour 1600. In Australia, Max Vidau clinched the 2017 Australian Formula Ford Series while over in South Africa, Julian van der Watt clinched the 2017 Investchem Formula 1600 championship. In India, the MRF F1600 series is a closely fought battle between Ananth Shanmugam, Nayan Chatterjee and Anindith Reddy with a final round in Chennai yet to run while in New Zealand, Alex Hawley clinched the 2017 Formula First Manfeild Winter Series, a series closely related to F1600.

The interesting thing about a lot of these F1600 series is that they have various pathways to move up the motorsport ladder. A number of them allow the championship winner to qualify for the Mazda Road to Indy Scholarship Shootout which can propel them to the Mazda Road to Indy development program in the United States. Not only that but as Ben Hurst and Jonathan Kotyk have shown, they have both been selected as winners of their respective Team Canada and Team USA Scholarship programs with the prize being a spot in the prestigious Formula Ford Festival at the legendary Brands Hatch in the UK.

So that is the story so far on the global single-seater motorsport. If you are interested in any of these series make sure to check out Motorsport Prospects and our directory of teams and series where you can find information and contacts to help you plan your next steps in motorsport. Next week I will take a look at the champions of some non-single seater series.

Until then.

Mark