Next weekend, the British GB3 Championship kicks off its new season at Oulton Park. In this preview, you will get an overview of all the teams and their drivers, the race calendar, the pre-season tests and more.
In the 2024 season, ten teams will be competing with a maximum of four cars each. In addition to some returnees such as Cresswell or Kucharczyk, there will also be a lot of new faces on the grid this year. Although it is a British racing series, more than ten different nations are represented in the starting field this year.
VRD Racing by Arden
Noah Ping, Nikita Johnson, Shawn Rashid, James Hedley
VRD Racing and Arden Motorsport will continue to work together in 2024 under the new team name VRD Racing by Arden. Noah Ping is entering his second GB3 season this year. The 21-year-old American from Georgia already won two races last year and finished the championship in 12th place. Nikita Johnson is the next VRD driver from the USA to come to Great Britain. As the American from Saint Petersburg, Florida, will not turn 16 until May, he will miss the first two race weekends at Oulton Park and Silverstone. Last year, he finished runner-up in the USF 2000 Championship and won his first USF Pro 2000 races. In 2022, he also won the Yacademy Winter Series and finished third in the USF Juniors with three wins. The full time team is completed by Shawn Rashid, who, like Ping, will be contesting his second season in the racing series. With Douglas Motorsport, a sixth place in the reversed grid race three at Zandvoort was the best result so far for the 28-year-old from Atlanta, Georgia. Just this week it was also announced that James Hedley will contest the first two weekends at Oulton Park and Silverstone with the VRD Racing by Arden team. The 19-year-old Briton already contested the entire season with the team last year and finished the championship in sixth place with two race wins and another podium finish.
Rodin Motorsport
Louis Sharp, Arthur Rogeon, Ugo Ugochukwu
The Rodin Motorsport team, which won the drivers' title last year with Callum Voisin, will start the 2024 season with three new drivers. Louis Sharp is the reigning champion of the British F4 Championship. The 16-year-old New Zealander has won six races and finished on the podium a further eight times last year. This will be Arthur Rogeon's second season in the championship. The 17-year-old Frenchman competed with Chris Dittmann Racing in 2023 and has already finished on the podium three times. A second place in the reversed grid race three at Snetterton is his best result to date. The third driver in the team is Ugo Ugochukwu, who is taking the next step in his career after two years in Formula 4. The 16-year-old McLaren Junior won the inaugural Euro 4 Championship last year and finished runner-up in the Italian F4 Championship. The racing driver from New York City also finished third in the 2023 F4 UAE Championship and the 2022 British F4 Championship.
JHR Developments
Patrick Heuzenroeder, John Bennett, Josh Irfan
The reigning champions of the team championship are starting this year with three new drivers compared to 2023. Patrick Heuzenroeder is contesting his first full season in the GB3 Championship this year after two race weekends at the end of the season last year. The teenager from Sydney, Australia, mainly competed in the British F4 Championship in 2023 and finished third on the podium in the second race at Snetterton. He also finished third on the podium in the final GB3 race of the season. John Bennett is contesting his third season in the GB3 Championship in 2024. He has finished on the podium twice so far, but is still waiting for his first race win. A second place at the first Silverstone event in 2023 is the best result for the 20-year-old from Salisbury, England. The team is made up by Josh Irfan. The 16-year-old from London mainly competed in the British Formula 4 in 2023, where he won two races and finished the championship in twelfth place.
Elite Motorsport
McKenzy Cresswell, Jarrod Waberski, Hugo Schwarze
McKenzy Cresswell returns to Elite Motosport for his third GB3 season. The 18-year-old Englishman already celebrated one victory and a total of eight podium finishes with the team last year. He finished the championship in a strong fourth place. In 2021, he also finished third in the British F4 Championship with six wins and five further podium finishes. Jarrod Waberski raced with Fortec last year and is now entering his second GB3 season with Elite. The 18-year-old South African finished third on the podium in the third race at Spa-Francorchamps last year. In 2022, he finished the GB4 championship as runner-up with four wins and a total of 14 podium finishes. German racing driver Hugo Schwarze completes this year's Elite driver line-up. The 17-year-old from Cologne raced in the British Ginetta Junior Championship last year, where he won two races, finished on the podium a total of eleven times and ended the season as runner-up.
Hitech Pulse-Eight
William Macintyre, Tymek Kucharczyk, Gerrard Xie
The British F4 runner-up from the previous year moves up a level at Hitech GP. William Macintyre won two races with the team in 2023 and stood on the Formula 4 podium a further twelve times. The 16-year-old from Norfolk, England, was runner-up in the Ginetta Junior Championship in 2022 as well. Tymek Kucharczyk switches from Douglas Motorsport to Hitech for his second GB3 season. Last year, the 18-year-old Pole finished on the podium twice and ended the season in seventh place in the championship. In 2022, he finished third in the Spanish F4 Championship. The team is completed by Gerrard Xie. The 17-year-old from Shenzhen, China, competed for Chris Dittmann Racing last year and already won a race in the third race at the season finale at Donington Park. He won both the Chinese F4 Championship and the Asian Formula Renault Super Challenge in 2022. In preparation for the new season, he also competed in the Formula Regional Oceania, where he finished seventh in the championship with a race win.
Fortec Motorsports
Edward Pearson, Colin Queen
Fortec Motorsports sends two cars to the start at Oulton Park. Edward Pearson is entering his second GB3 season with the team. The 16-year-old from Dorking, England, finished on the podium twice last year in the reversed grid races at Oulton Park and Donington Park. His team-mate for this season, Colin Queen, moves up from GB4. The 18-year-old American from South Florida finished last year's championship in a strong fourth place with ten podium finishes and is contesting his first GB3 races this weekend.
Chris Dittmann Racing
Flynn Jackes, Sebastian Murray, Rishab Jain
The Chris Dittmann Racing team will once again start the new season with three drivers. Flynn Jackes returns to the racing series full-time after a first appearance in the British F3 Championship at the 2021 season finale. The Filipino-Australian driver has celebrated several successes in karting. Among other things, he was twice Mini-ROK Champion in the Philippines in 2012 and 2013. One of his team-mates this year is Sebastian Murray. The 16-year-old Scot, who lives in the United Arab Emirates, has mainly competed in Formula 4 to date. In 2023 and 2024, he took part in the F4 UAE Championship, where his best result was a fifth place this year. The third driver in the team is Rishab Jain. The 21-year-old racing driver from Singapore took part in the Indian F4 Championship last year, where he finished in the top five several times and ended the championship in seventh place.
Hillspeed
Aditya Kulkarni
It was announced today that Hillspeed, which took part in the official tests with three different drivers, will also be competing with one car on the Oulton Park Circuit. Last year, Indian racing driver Aditya Kulkarni mainly competed in GB4, where he finished the championship in fifth place with four podium finishes.
Douglas Motorsport
TBA
Douglas Motorsport still had three cars on the grid last year, but did not take part in the official test days at Donington Park or Silverstone. They spent two days testing with Daniel Guinchard at Oulton Park. But have not yet announced a driver for the season.
Ammonite Motorsport
TBA
The Ammonite Motorsport team had also announced that it would be taking part in the GB3 championship for the first time this year. The team is mainly known from Formula Ford, where they have already enjoyed several successes. However, they have not yet taken part in an official GB3 test day and have not announced a driver for the season.
As in previous years, 24 races will once again take place over eight weekends in 2024. Compared to last year, only the event at the Snetterton Circuit will be replaced by the Hungaroring. The racing series will also return to Zandvoort, but in midsummer rather than in the fall.
Round 1: Oulton Park, England, UK (30 March - 1 April)
Round 2: Silverstone, England, UK (27-28 April)
Round 3: Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps, Belgium (1-2 June)
Round 4: Hungaroring, Hungary (22-23 June)
Round 5: Circuit Zandvoort, Netherlands (13-14 July)
Round 6: Silverstone, England, UK (27-28 July)
Round 7: Donington Park, England, UK (7-8 September)
Round 8: Brands Hatch, England, UK (28-29 September)
The top 20 classified finishers in races one and two will receive points, while only the top 15 will be awarded points in the third race. Additionally, race three, where the grid is determined by reversing the top 12 qualifying order, will offer extra points for positions gained from the drivers starting positions. For 2024, drivers will be able to get a maximum of 12 points from a charge up the race three order, even if they pass 13 cars or more.
Race 1 & 2:
P1: 35, P2: 29, P3: 24, P4: 21, P5: 19, P6: 17, P7: 15, P8: 13, P9: 12, P10: 11, P11: 10, P12: 9, P13: 8, P14: 7, P15: 6, P16: 5, P17: 4, P18: 3, P19: 2, P20: 1
Race 3:
P1: 20, P2: 17, P3: 15, P4: 13, P5: 11, P6: 10, P7: 9, P8: 8, P9: 7, P10: 6, P11: 5, P12: 4, P13: 3, P14: 2, P15: 1
In preparation for the new season, several test sessions took place at Oulton Park, Silverstone and Donington Park. Here is a brief summary of what happened over the six days.
OULTON PARK:
On the first official pre-season test day at Oulton Park, McKenzy Cresswell set the fastest time with a lap time of 1m29.180s. Louis Sharp, Jarrod Waberski and John Bennett lined up just over a tenth of a second behind. On the second day, JHR Developments driver John Bennett managed to beat the best time by more than half a second. Ugo Ugochukwu, Tymek Kucharczyk, Louis Sharp, Gerrard Xie, Noah Ping and Jarrod Waberski were also faster than Cresswell on the previous day. With a total of 155 laps over both days, Hitech GP driver Xie was the busiest of them all.
Day 1 & 2 Combined - Overall Results:
P1: John Bennett - JHR / 1m28.569s
P2: Ugo Ugochukwu - Rodin / +0.398s
P3: Tymek Kucharczyk - Hitech / +0.474s
P4: Louis Sharp - Rodin / +0.535s
P5: Gerrard Xie - Hitech / +0.562s
P6: Noah Ping - VRD / +0.567s
P7: Jarrod Waberski - Elite / +0.580s
P8: McKenzy Cresswell - Elite / +0.621s
P9: William Macintyre - Hitech / +0.679s
P10: Josh Irfan - JHR / +0.712s
DONINGTON PARK:
Two days of testing took place at the Donington Park Circuit in mid-March. McKenzy Cresswell was also fastest here on the first day. However, New Zealander Louis Sharp was able to beat his 1m22.623s by almost two tenths of a second on the second day. His Rodin Motorsport team-mate on this day, Freddie Slater, was also faster than Cresswell on the second day. Slater is mainly racing with Prema in Formula 4 this year, but could make his GB3 debut at the end of the season when he is 16 years old. VRD Racing driver Nikita Johnson was fourth fastest, proving his speed and talent in the GB3 machinery for the first time.
Day 1 & 2 Combined - Overall Results:
P1: Louis Sharp - Rodin / 1m22.436s
P2: Freddie Slater - Rodin / +0.183s
P3: McKenzy Cresswell - Elite / +0.187s
P4: Nikita Johnson - VRD / +0.194s
P5: Shawn Rashid - VRD / +0.227s
P6: John Bennett - JHR / +0.231s
P7: Tymek Kucharczyk - Hitech / +0.324s
P8: William Macintyre - Hitech / +0.324s
P9: Gerrard Xie - Hitech /+0.329s
P10: Noah Ping - VRD / +0.368s
SILVERSTONE:
McKenzy Cresswell was unbeatable on both days of the last two test days at Silverstone just over a week ago. His lap time of 1m52.489s on the first day was also a new lap record. Second fastest over both days was JHR Developments driver Patrick Heuzenroeder with a gap of +0.354s. With Noah Ping and Jarrod Waberski, only two other drivers lost less than half a second to Elite Motorsport driver Cresswell. The busiest driver over both days was VRD Racing driver Shawn Rashid with a total of 99 laps.
Day 1 & 2 Combined - Overall Results:
P1: McKenzy Cresswell - Elite / 1m52.489s
P2: Patrick Heuzenroeder - JHR / +0.354s
P3: Noah Ping - VRD / +0.438s
P4: Jarrod Waberski - Elite / +0.466s
P5: Louis Sharp - Rodin / +0.552s
P6: James Hedley - VRD / +0.606s
P7: John Bennett - JHR / +0.615s
P8: Ugo Ugochukwu - Rodin / +0.628s
P9: Nikita Johnson - VRD / +0.737s
P10: William Macintyre - Hitech / +0.743s
As in the previous year, all races will be broadcast live on the MSV TV YouTube channel. There will also be a pre-race show for both the GB3 and GB4 races.
As I do in other series, I'm giving my personal prediction for the drivers and teams championships in the GB3 Championship this year.
Drivers Championship
P1: McKenzy Cresswell
P2: Ugo Ugochukwu
P3: Louis Sharp
P4: Tymek Kucharczyk
P5: William Macintyre
My favorite for the title this year is McKenzy Cresswell, who already won races last year and was a regular guest on the podium. However, his competition is also strong. In addition to the reigning Euro 4 champion Ugo Ugochukwu, I also see his Rodin team mate and reigning British F4 champion Louis Sharp in the fight for race wins. But I also have the two Hitech drivers Tymek Kucharczyk and William Macintyre high up on my list. And VRD drivers Nikita Johnson and Noah Ping could also be among the race winners and podium finishers this year. Of course, I also include their team-mate James Hedley, who could well become a title contender if he can get the budget together for the full season.
Teams Championship
P1: Rodin Motorsport
P2: Elite Motorsport
P3: Hitech Pulse-Eight
In the team championship, I expect a three-way battle for the title. In the end, Rodin Motorsport will narrowly prevail ahead of Elite and Hitech. I see VRD Racing by Arden in fourth place. Just ahead of JHR Developments, Fortec Motorsports and Chris Dittmann Racing.
written by Claudio Graf / 27th March 2024