From Ocon to Bottas - Every GP3 season ranked

The Formula 1-supporting GP3 Series, like the GP2 championship that became Formula 2, is now part of the FIA's remit under a new banner - Formula 3. The category will be very similar to its 2012-18 iteration, but the GP3 name has been consigned to the motorsport history books.

The third-tier series ran for nine seasons, during which ART Grand Prix become something of a category powerhouse with six drivers' champions and eight teams' titles. Only Carlin and Alex Lynn prevented it taking a clean sweep of the latter honour. GP3 may not have produced the same level of exciting, overtaking-filled races as GP2/F2, but 12 of its drivers - and six of its champions - have gone on to race in F1.

Here we present the full history of GP3, with each season ranked in order, from worst to best.

9. 2013 - Kvyat's dominant year

Charles Bradley

The 2013 season was all about one man: Daniil Kvyat. Then 19, Red Bull's Russian protege used GP3 as a springboard straight to F1 with Toro Rosso.

The arrival of the second-generation GP3 car coincided with a power hike to 400bhp, but nobody seemed to have told Pirelli that - and, as lap times at Barcelona tumbled by four seconds, the tyres fell to pieces on high-abrasion circuits. And the quality of racing was lacking, leading to GP3 calling on the services of Kimi Raikkonen for a mid-season crisis test that involved trying out new tyres and front wings.

That meant a very disjointed start to the season, and Kvyat also had some mechanical issues that hindered him badly. But it mattered not. He scored an amazing 76% of his points in the second half of the season, his first win not coming until Spa in late August - but he then rattled off double victories at Monza and Yas Marina to seal the title in style.

His opposition didn't really have its act together: Facu Regalia was consistent but not quick enough when it mattered, Conor Daly was very fast but just as inconsistent, Tio Ellinas looked an absolute superstar on some days, but couldn't seem to hold his bottle on others. Jack Harvey should have done far better, while Alexander Sims returned - first with Status and then Carlin, and proved his undoubted class every time.

The true underachiever of the season, however, was the other Red Bull-backed driver, Carlos Sainz Jr. He only really shone at Spa, with a brilliant pole position lap. But only two podiums and 10th in the points? C'mon man.

The 10 winners also included Aaro Vainio, who should have done better and was dropped for the finale by Koiranen GP in favour of the far more impressive Dean Stoneman.

8. 2018 - Hubert a cut above

Jack Benyon

The last ever season of the GP3 Series wasn't its greatest, but it did feature championship contending team-mates crashing, a driver/team switch and a late surge, predictions that ART Grand Prix would be derailed failing to come about, and even, at one point, the wrong software being loaded into the cars.

Anthoine Hubert took a huge step up in his second season in the championship, sealing the title with a race to spare. But he was pushed hard by surprise frontrunner and ART team-mate Nikita Mazepin - literally, in Austria, where the two touched and took each other out of the race. After that tensions were high. Although Mazepin claimed more wins than Hubert, consistency sent the title Hubert's way. ART took the teams' title for the eighth time out of nine seasons.

David Beckmann could have been a third realistic title challenger had he switched teams earlier. Joining Trident from Jenzer, Beckmann took three wins and four podiums and proved his epic pace, and what could have been if Trident had more impressive drivers in its car for the entirety of the season. Leo Pulcini at Campos also looked threatening, but a mid-season stumble owing to car issues, and a couple of small mistakes, meant he had to settle for fourth.

The race of the season came at Monza, where Jean Alesi's son Giuliano and Nelson Piquet's son Pedro fought - as Trident team-mates - for the victory in the wet. It had all the ingredients of a Monza classic, with slipstreaming and tows off the Parabolica and late lunges at Rettifilo. Piquet came out on top, while Jean and Nelson drew a tear and hugged as they watched from the pitwall.

Now the series gets a new(ish) car for 2019 as it becomes FIA Formula 3, with many more stories to write in its next chapter.

7. 2017 - Russell dominates in an ART attack

Alex Kalinauckas

The 2017 GP3 season was the real start of George Russell's rapid rise to Formula 1.

On the face of it, he annihilated the opposition, which was basically just his ART Grand Prix team-mates Jack Aitken and Nirei Fukuzumi. But, although Russell won the title with a round to spare, it was closer than it looked.

It was Aitken and Fukuzumi who initially occupied the limelight, as they battled for the race one win at Barcelona before Aitken dropped out with a sensor issue. Russell initially struggled to adapt to the GP3 car's hand-operated clutch and had to recover from poor starts in both races.

But, thanks to the large time gap between GP3's first and second rounds, he was able to get on top of that for the Austrian round and from then on Russell was the championship's dominant driver.

Poles and race-one wins at the Red Bull Ring, Silverstone and Spa carried his charge, while reliability dramas - mainly further sensor issues - struck all three title protagonists. It was Fukuzumi who suffered most, and the problems that prevented him from starting from pole in the sole Monza race hit him hardest.

Russell sealed the championship - his first at international level - with second and fourth places at Jerez, where his points advantage meant he could put a pair of powerful passes on Aitken. But he came out on top in a battle where all three title rivals were very close on pure pace.

The ART scrap captured the main attention for most of the year and it was only at the series finale in Abu Dhabi that Arden's Niko Kari stopped the team from sweeping every pole/race one win.

Russell, Aitken and Fukuzumi - plus Anthoine Hubert - fought memorable intra-ART battles across the season, particularly at Spa and Monza, with Arjun Maini, Raoul Hyman, Giuliano Alesi (with three wins), Alessio Lorandi and Dorian Boccolacci picking up the race two scraps.

This season marked the low point for GP3 entries, as just 22 drivers took to the track over the course of the year.

6. 2011 - Bottas lays the foundations

Glenn Freeman

At the halfway stage of the 2011 GP3 season, the eventual champion sat 10th in the standings with just four points finishes to his name from eight races. From there, Valtteri Bottas and ART Grand Prix went on a stunning run of form that turned a fiercely competitive season into a two-horse race between Bottas and team-mate James Calado.

There were 12 drivers who won races that year, but only Bottas and Rio Haryanto stood on the top step of the podium more than once. The quality of the drivers and teams was so high that, until ART hit its stride, it was almost impossible for anyone to string together strong weekends consecutively. The fact that Alexander Sims (eventually sixth in the points) and Mitch Evans (ninth) both had spells at the top of the standings early in the year before their challenges fell away says a lot about the strength in depth of a championship where a driver of Antonio Felix da Costa's quality finished 13th.

The year ultimately hinged on a mid-season test where ART transformed its fortunes, and both Bottas and Calado were praised for the role they both played in that. It wasn't all straightforward races from the front after that, though: Bottas finished on the podium from 11th at the Nurburgring, and Calado put in the charge of the season from 25th to third next time out in Hungary - a race Haryanto won from ninth on the grid.

So many drivers ended the year with 'what if' claims of title challenges, but that was a sign of how deep the field was with talent at that level, as GP3 strengthened its position over the F3 Euro Series during this time. It also meant that whoever won the championship had to be seriously good, which is a key factor in judging any season.

5. 2010 - GP3 Series genesis

Mark Glendenning

The ultimate yardstick when looking back at a junior category is the degree to which it helped to shape racing's future. By that measure, the inaugural GP3 season was a success: it kicked off a championship that would survive in a similar form for nearly a decade, and its grid featured names that have gone on to become stars of the present day.

From the perspective of a journalist who now covers US racing, the presence of a future IndyCar champion (Josef Newgarden), an Indianapolis 500 winner (Alexander Rossi) and an IndyCar rookie of the year (Robert Wickens) stand out, but there were also five future F1 drivers (Esteban Gutierrez, Jean-Eric Vergne, Roberto Merhi, Rio Haryanto, and Rossi).

An array of highly rated others, including Antonio Felix da Costa, Renger van der Zande and Dani Juncadella, have gone on to forge professional careers everywhere from IMSA to Formula E to the DTM. As a breeding ground for future talent, it did its job.

There were complaints about equipment parity, but there are always complaints about equipment parity - especially in the first year with a brand-new spec car. There were good races. There were surprises: case in point, inaugural race winner Pal Varhaug, who never finished another race higher than fifth in the next three years.

And there were moments of glorious farce, such as when Pablo Sanchez's spin during qualifying in Germany ultimately triggered 21 grid penalties for ignored yellows. Oliver Oakes, one of the culprits, later earned penalty 22 for ignoring a red flag as well. The penalty notifications papered an entire wall of GP2/GP3's expansive hospitality unit, and it took officials until the next morning to figure out the revised starting grid.

But above all, 2010 was a season of good times, and the start of good things for the series. It was fun to be a fly on the wall for it all.

4. 2016 - GP3's first Formula 1 champion?

Matt Beer

Will 2016 turn out to be the first GP3 season whose champion wins a Formula 1 title? You might be able to get good odds on that, if bookmakers were more attuned to third-tier single-seater racing.

Right now, you'd certainly pinpoint that season as the career turning point where Charles Leclerc went from 'highly-rated' to 'unstoppable'.

He secured the first car racing title that had eluded him in Formula Renault and Formula 3, and had the air of a champion all year - never really, really dominant, but his highs were always higher and his lows shallower than his rivals'.

In 2016 he became the man who would wipe the floor with his F2 rivals in '17 and then use a Sauber to earn a Ferrari seat. Pre-GP3, that trajectory wasn't the obvious outcome. After it, his course was set.

A 2019 F1 rival pushed him hardest: ART team-mate Alexander Albon, who won four races to Leclerc's three, and took the title fight to the final round.

Two future F1 drivers, one of them perhaps GP3's greatest graduate, and a title decider that ended with (separate) crashes for the main contenders... why is 2016 not regarded as GP3's halcyon? Because the savage tyre wear neutered too much of the competition.

The revamped car was designed to increase overtaking, but the field spent the first half of the year nursing the high-degradation Pirellis so gingerly in races that the action was often over after the first corner. Things got more gung-ho later, and Arden's eventual mastery of tyre tactics led to some topsy-turvy races as its drivers Jake Dennis and Jack Aitken surged forward.

But since those they were cruising past were often losing four seconds per lap owing to tyre degradation - in 40-minute junior single-seater races - it was hard not to feel that the package was out of kilter in this season. Not that anyone will remember that when celebrating Leclerc ending Ferrari's F1 title drought...

3. 2014 - Brits battle with Stoneman's late Lynn charge

Charles Bradley

This was a tale of two Brits. In the blue corner, Red Bull-backed Alex Lynn. In the red corner, plucky underdog Dean Stoneman.

Lynn pretty much bossed the season with Carlin, but somehow the title race went down to the final weekend - by which point Stoneman was performing all sorts of heroics. He spent most of the year with the Marussia-backed Manor team, but that outfit was forced out by the penultimate event at Sochi - where Stoneman jumped into the Koiranen GP car previously driven by Carmen Jorda. He immediately put it on pole by half a second.

Having beaten cancer, Stoneman proved again that he was an absolute fighter by surging from eighth to second in the standings in the final four races.

Stoneman took five wins to Lynn's three, and seven other drivers won during the season: Richie Stanaway, Jimmy Eriksson, Patric Niederhauser, Emil Bernstorff, Marvin Kirchhofer, Jann Mardenborough and Nick Yelloly.

None of the class of 2014 got within sniffing distance of a real F1 drive, though Alfonso Celis Jr made some unmemorable Friday morning practice outings with Force India. Meantime, this was the only year in GP3 history where ART didn't win the teams' championship - beaten to it by Carlin by 17 points.

What did prove remarkable though were the lucky escapes of Konstantin Tereschenko and Mitch Gilbert, who were able to walk away from huge shunts at Spa and Silverstone respectively. Gilbert in particular was most fortunate when the rollhoop of his car detached having backflipped and taken a most unusual rearwards impact - and his carbon helmet was worn through as he slid down the Hangar Straight on his head for hundreds of yards.

Tereschenko briefly appeared on Belgian Air Traffic Control radars, and even made it on to Sky News...

2. 2012 - Abt robbed by Ellinas, Evans wins

Valentin Khorounzhiy

In terms of GP3's status as an F1 feeder series, hindsight has rendered its 2012 season almost entirely irrelevant. Only a handful of the drivers on that grid would end up driving an F1 car, and none have managed to make a grand prix start.

Yet the Dallara GP3/10's swansong campaign is remembered as fondly as any other on this list. Its legacy was solidified by a wild four-way battle for the championship at a track as classic as they get.

Echoing the memorable concurrent F1 season, GP3 clocked in at 10 separate race winners - a figure that the reverse-grid format contributed to but was by no means key to.

Will Buller's sole race win was the most striking of the one-hit wonders: a brave decision to bolt on slicks at a wet Silverstone transformed 25th place on the grid into a scarcely believable win. Similarly, newcomers Patric Niederhauser and Tio Ellinas looked destined for greater things than they've achieved in racing since.

But in the end it was all about the Monza finale. Early kerb damage for Mitch Evans seemed to give the advantage to Antonio Felix da Costa and Aaro Vainio - but their title bids went south in the first race, thanks to a car failure and a yellow-flag penalty respectively.

Outside contender Daniel Abt ensured the second and final race was similarly heart-in-mouth. He nearly pulled off a double win to complete a hugely improbable title comeback, only to be denied by a penultimate-lap Ellinas overtake that made Evans champion.

Yes, their F1 dreams didn't come off, but Evans, Abt and da Costa have established themselves in Formula E instead, and their battles in the all-electric championship still occasionally bring to mind that marvellous Monza showdown.

1. 2015 - Ocon v Ghiotto: Winning isn't everything

Aaron Rook

The 2015 GP3 season was defined by one thing - consistency from its very highly rated title winner.

Although eventual champion Esteban Ocon was only able to secure one race win at the season-opener at Barcelona, he was able to finish on the second step of the podium a staggering nine times in succession.

Couple that with the fact he had a further four podium finishes throughout the season and it'd be hard to argue that Ocon was an undeserving champion. Try telling that to Luca Ghiotto, though.

Ghiotto was a revelation in 2015. The Italian, who had previously struggled to set the world alight in other junior categories, was mouth-wateringly fast at times.

He secured five race wins, five pole positions and nine fastest laps. But he finished 10 races outside the podium places (including one retirement), and that would ultimately cost him the championship.

Despite his inconsistency Ghiotto believed the wrong man took the crown.

"I think if you look at the numbers I probably deserved it more than him but he was good with his consistency, which is good for him," Ghiotto told Autosport back in 2015. "It's a bit strange to have five times more wins than him but to not have the championship trophy here at home."

The 2015 season was a classic tale of fine margins and it became clear early on that the championship would go down to the wire, and it did - Ocon only secured the title at the season finale in Abu Dhabi.

The focus on the Ocon/Ghiotto rivalry is not to say the rest of the field didn't produce moments of magic - far from it.

Ocon's team-mate Marvin Kirchhofer remained within touching distance of the frontrunners all year with five wins and three podiums, while Arden International drivers Emil Bernstorff and Kevin Ceccon took to the top step twice. Oscar Tunjo, Jimmy Eriksson and Alex Palou all enjoyed a win apiece too.