GB3 Champions 2016-21 – Where Are They Now?

The GB3 Championship enters a new era in 2022. It’s the first full season since its rebrand from the BRDC British Formula 3 Championship, and a new car will bring the series closer to traditional F3 looks and levels of performance.

Having started life as the BRDC Formula 4 Championship which crowned Jake Hughes, George Russell and Will Palmer, the series rebranded for the first time for 2016 and introduced a new car, the Tatuus F4-016. That would then be adapted for 2020 into the BF3-020, which lasted a further two years. It is this period from 2016 to 2021 we will be diving into here, as Britain’s premier single-seater series waves goodbye to one car and hello to the MSV-022.

2016 – Matheus Leist

The first BRDC British F3 Champion couldn’t have started his career much further from the likes of Silverstone and Donington Park.

Matheus Leist started karting in Brazil, finishing second in the 2013 Petrobras Karting Championship, then third in the 2014 Seletiva de Kart Petrobras.

Also in 2014, he finished second in Formula 3 Brazil Light, before competing in two races in the FIA Formula 3 European Championship.

A solid season in MSA Formula (now the F4 British Championship) brought a fifth-place finish, before Leist snatched the 2016 British F3 title away from Ricky Collard in the final race of the season. In a season which brought four wins and 11 podiums, a 52-point swing in the final round crowned him by 27 points.

A strong Indy Lights campaign with Carlin in their third year in the series brought a fourth-place finish overall and three wins.

He quickly graduated to the IndyCar Series with AJ Foyt Racing, but found things more difficult and finished P18 and P19 in the standings.

He then moved onto the 2020 IMSA Sportscar Championship with JDC Miller Motorsports, running in the DPi Class. He contested the Rolex 24 Hours of Daytona with the team, finishing fifth with Chris Miller, Juan Piedrahita and Tristan Vautier.

2017 – Enaam Ahmed

Enaam Ahmed‘s title-winning 2017 British F3 campaign was one of the most dominant in the Championship’s history.

The British driver took 13 wins and 18 podiums, running away with things ahead of Carlin team-mate James Pull.

His karting pedigree was equally impressive, with honours including the 2012 Super 1 National Comer Cadet Championship, second place in the 2012 MSA British Cadet Championship, third in the 2013 Super 1 National KFJ Championship, the 2014 CIK-FIA World KF-Junior title, the 2014 South Garda Winter Cup – KF3 title, the 2014 CIK-FIA European KF-Junior title, the 2014 WSK Champions Cup – KFJ title and the 2014 WSK Super Master Series – KFJ title.

No wonder, then, that he stepped into car racing in the 2015 SMP F4 Championship and won five races, with a further win and four podiums coming in the 2015 MSA Formula Championship.

2016 was a busy but positive year for Ahmed, bringing the British F3 Autumn Trophy, an eight-race Euroformula Open campaign, two wins and five podiums once the full British F3 season started.

The year after brought his British F3 title, his most recent to date. He had finished sixth in New Zealand’s Toyota Racing Series in the off-season, before storming to glory back in Britain.

He moved to Hitech GP for 2018, contesting the Macau Grand Prix in the FIA F3 World Cup before taking two wins and four podiums with the Silverstone outfit in the FIA F3 European Championship.

A truncated 2020 campaign saw him start six races in the FIA Formula 3 Championship with Carlin Buzz Racing, before finishing twelfth overall in the 2021 Indy Pro 2000 standings with RP Motorsport USA and Juncos Racing.

2018 – Linus Lundqvist

Sweden’s Linus Lundqvist took his first karting honours with the 2010 MKR Series Sweden Formula Micro title, then winning the MKR Series Sweden Formula Mini title the year after, alongside second place in the 2011 Juniorfestivalen – Formula Mini.

Third place in the 2013 Svenskt Mästerskap – KF3 with Ward Racing was his final top-three finish in a karting season, with a team he ran with for several seasons before graduating into cars for 2015.

A third-place campaign in Formula Renault 1.6 NEZ against the likes of future Toksport Fanatec GT World Challenge Europe driver Juuso Puhakka and IMSA and European Le Mans Series driver Laurents Hörr, alongside fifth in Formula Renault 1.6 Sweden was enough to move Lundqvist up the ladder and into a stellar 2016.

Winning the Formula Renault 1.6 NEZ title (renamed Formula STCC Nordic) at the second time of asking, also picking up the Svenskt Mästerskap for drivers under 26, he finished in the top two in all but two races, finishing third in one of those.

That led to a fifth-place finish in the F4 British Championship in 2017 with five wins and 11 podiums, alongside three British F3 races with Double R Racing,

2018 brought the British F3 title by 85 points over Nicolai Kjaergaard, still with Double R Racing, and two appearances in Porsche Carrera Cup Scandinavia.

He ran twice in Porsche Carrera Cup Scandinavia in 2019, again with Mtech Competition and took a fastest lap, before finishing fifth in Euroformula Open with Double R, taking two podiums and a pole position.

An appearance in the GTD class of the Rolex 24 Hours of Daytona in Precision Performance Motorsports‘ Lamborghini Huracan GT3, the prize for winning the Sunoco Whelen Challenge in British F3 signaled a move Stateside was on the cards.

It proved an inspired decision, as Lundqvist took the 2020 Formula Regional Americas Championship with Global Racing Group after 16 podiums in 17 races, finishing over 100 points ahead of David Malukas.

On the back of the FRAC title, a Honda scholarship for Indy Lights helped him to third in the 2021 standings with Global. Malukas reversed the order from the year before to finish second, on a grid featuring fellow GB3 alumni Benjamin Pedersen and Toby Sowery.

2019 – Clément Novalak

It would be fair to say Clément Novalak‘s consistency won him the 2019 British F3 title, winning just two races to top the standings ahead of Fortec Motorsport‘s Johnathan Hoggard.

His karting career kicked into gear in 2015, finishing second in the CIK-FIA World KF-Junior Championship won by fellow Carlin British F3 champion Ahmed a year earlier.

The French-Swiss driver won the WSK Super Master Series – KFJ that year, though, alongside solid showings elsewhere, including fifth in the South Garda Winter Cup and eighth in the WSK Champions Cup – KFJ.

2016 brought sixth place in the WSK Final Cup – OK, 15th in the CIK-FIA World Championship – OK, and fourth in the German Kart Championship, all with top outfit Tony Kart.

More honours came in 2017, with third in the Swedish Championship – OK and the WSK Super Master Series – OK.

A full Formula Renault Eurocup campaign followed in 2018, alongside a partial British F3 season with Carlin bringing a pole position, and two wins, four podiums, a pole and a fastest lap in that year’s Toyota Racing Series.

He then won the British F3 title with Carlin in his first full season, despite Hoggard winning seven races to Novalak’s two.

He graduated to FIA F3 with Carlin Buzz Racing for 2020, finishing 12th with two podiums. That was an impressive debut campaign after what’s proven to be a big step from British F3 in recent years, especially with Carlin finishing eighth in that year’s Teams Championship.

Early in the season, Novalak partnered Ahmed at Carlin, before the 2017 British F3 champion was replaced by Ben Barnicoat ahead of the British round at Silverstone.

Novalak’s other team-mate, who contested the full season, was another 2017 British F3 alumni in Cameron Das, who later went on to win the 2021 Euroformula Open title with Motopark.

Novalak moved to Trident for 2021, and his fortunes immediately improved. Impressive consistency again saw him overperform where his podium haul of four suggested he might finish, taking third behind Dennis Hauger and team-mate Jack Doohan.

His performance with the Italian team yielded a move to MP Motorsport to contest the final six races of the FIA Formula 2 Championship after the F3 season ended at the Sochi Autodrom in September.

That’s the highest level a British F3/GB3 champion from 2016 onwards has competed at to date, and he is set to race with MP for a full campaign in 2022.

2020 – Kaylen Frederick

Kaylen Frederick‘s karting career took place largely in the Florida Winter Tour, with a best finish of fifth in 2014.

In 2016 he made two appearances in the F2000 Championship Series and in the USF2000 Championship, alongside a full F1600 Championship Series season bringing a win, four podiums, two pole positions and two fastest laps in 15 races.

He made two F2000 appearances again in 2017, but got a podium and pole position, also taking five podiums in 14 USF2000 races on the way to fifth in the standings.

His first foray into European racing came with RP Motorsport in Euroformula Open in 2018, while he also competed in the F4 US Championship Hunter Yeany would win in 2020.

Another full USF2000 season brought four podiums and two pole positions, and the Maryland driver switched to British F3. He was immediately on the pace, taking two wins and four podiums in 2019.

The delayed 2020 season was his crowning moment, though, as he won nine races and took twelve podiums with Carlin, in a title battle with Kush Maini at British F3 newcomers Hitech GP.

Despite a disqualification and a non-finish in the third round at Brands Hatch, Frederick won four of the last six races, including Race 3 at a wet Silverstone, conditions in which Maini struggled all year. He eventually took the title by 51 points and moved up to FIA F3 with Carlin for 2021.

That was a difficult season for Frederick, who struggled for results in the early part of the year. He looked on for a podium at the Red Bull Ring, before outbraking himself and colliding with Juan Manuel Correa at Turn 3, sustaining a broken thumb. He missed the round at the Hungaroring and was replaced by 2013 BRDC F4 champion Jake Hughes.

Once he’d recovered, he contracted COVID-19 and had to miss another round at Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps. COVID prevented British F3 from racing in Belgium in 2020, so Frederick has yet to experience the track despite competing in championships which ordinarily would have given him two chances to do so.

Carlin have yet to announce their 2022 F3 line-up, though Frederick tested with Hitech on all three days of the post-season test at Circuit Ricardo Tormo, Valencia.

Team Principal Trevor Carlin told the FIA F3 website after the season that the team’s F3 project would go through “a bit of a restructure” for 2022.

“The drivers’ lack of experience doesn’t help, but to be fair, we started the year off reasonably well, and as the drivers got more experienced, we seemed to get worse and worse,” he said.

“At the end of the day, you can’t, and we won’t, lay the blame at the drivers’ door.

“We didn’t do a good enough job as a team – we need to pull our socks up and do a better job. I think it would be unfair to blame the drivers. If you give your drivers a fast car, they drive fast, it’s as simple as that.

“It was tough for Kaylen,” he said. “We were just starting to get on top of things, and it was going quite well, but then he was out for two rounds, which was a disaster.

“He lost a lot of momentum, especially with so few races this season. To lose two rounds was pretty tough on him – he was just starting to get on top of things, and you could see he was improving.”

2021 – Zak O’Sullivan

And so to the present day. Somewhere Carlin aren’t struggling is in British F4, and that’s where they looked for two of their GB3 drivers for 2021. Christian Mansell and Zak O’Sullivan stepped up, the latter missing out on the title by just four points to Luke Browning.

As it is, they’ve thrived in British F3/GB3 too, now having run four of the last five Drivers’ Champions, and having won the inaugural Teams’ Championship in 2021.

O’Sullivan enjoyed a largely-dominant season, winning seven races and taking 14 podiums to take the title by 154 points ahead of Ayrton Simmons.

He only won one championship in karting, though, that being the 2016 MSA Kartmasters British Grand Prix – IAME Cadet.

He finished second in the 2018 German Junior Kart Championship – OK-Junior, before successive second-place finishes in the 2019 Ginetta Junior Championship and the aforementioned 2020 F4 British Championship.

Things finally came good for O’Sullivan in 2021, as he won at Brands Hatch, Silverstone, twice on both visits to Donington and at Oulton Park.

Since wrapping up the championship in October, he has completed all three days of the post-season FIA F3 test with Carlin Buzz Racing, and undergone assessments for the Aston Martin Autosport BRDC Award with new Prema Racing and Ferrari Driver Academy recruit Oliver Bearman, 2020 ADAC F4 champion and Red Bull Junior Team member Jonny Edgar and 2021 Euroformula Open runner-up Louis Foster.

The Checkered Flag caught up with the last champion in the outgoing Tatuus chassis in December 2021.