Ranking the 10 best drivers from F1's junior series in 2022

Both Formula 2 and Formula 3 yielded fierce competition this season. Felipe Drugovich fended off Theo Pourchaire for the upper tier title while Victor Martins emerged victorious from a six-strong tussle heading into the season finale in F3.

Martins was always the favourite for the F3 title as the highest-placed returning driver from 2021, having finished fifth for MP Motorsport, and a move to ART made Martins’ chances even stronger. It was evident from the opening round that the Frenchman had his sights firmly set on the crown, winning the Bahrain feature race from third on the grid before taking another podium the following weekend in the Imola sprint race.

It was a six-horse race come the finale however, with just 25 points separating the contenders, and it ended, as ever in F3, in dramatic fashion. A red-flagged feature race caused much confusion, with penalties abound, but Martins came out on top after events he described as “just crazy”. Zane Maloney, who had benefitted from a late-season surge, won the race to finish runner-up, with Ollie Bearman in third.

The F2 season, meanwhile, bestowed a long and hard-fought battle for the title between pre-season favourite Pourchaire and surprise contender Drugovich. The former, long since touted as the next French Formula 1 hopeful, was gunning to take the title on his second attempt, having become the series’ youngest ever race winner in 2021. But those bets didn’t account for Drugovich, a third-year driver making his comeback with MP Motorsport – a team who had never won an F2 title.

The Brazilian had a promising start to the season, taking his first win of the year in the Jeddah sprint race to take the lead in the standings. Pourchaire fought back in Imola to kickstart their rivalry.

But Drugovich was too strong a contender for the ART driver, and heading into the Monza weekend with a 69-point lead, Drugovich was a champion in waiting. Watching from the pitlane after he was forced to retire from the sprint race, Drugovich observed as his rival’s luck went from bad to worse, with Pourchaire finishing the race last after contact and a penalty, and it was enough to seal him the title with three races remaining.

With many future F1 prospects impressing throughout 2022, here's our top 10 across the two junior categories on the bill.

Iwasa's rise has been rapid, and the Japanese ended the year with a victory

Photo by: Motorsport Images

10. Ayumu Iwasa

5th in F2

The Japanese had a solid start to his F2 career with DAMS, and finished in the top 10 in 20 of the 28 races (one of which he later lost). This included two wins and four other podiums on his way to fifth in the standings. His charge through the junior ranks has been rapid, spending just one season in French F4 (where he won the title), FIA F3 and now F2, while impressing Red Bull enough along the way to join their junior team.

It was a big improvement to go from a final position of 12th in F3 last year with Hitech to a top-five finish in F2, and he far outscored veteran team-mate Roy Nissany. Iwasa also secured two pole positions: his first came at the Hungaroring, although he ended up finishing third behind Theo Pourchaire and Enzo Fittipaldi; his second came in the finale in Abu Dhabi, where he held off champion Felipe Drugovich in an impressive defensive performance. Iwasa proved he means business, and he’ll be back at DAMS next year to build on these solid foundations.

Sargeant's impressive debut F2 year yielded a move upstairs with Williams in F1

Photo by: FIA Formula 2

9. Logan Sargeant

4th in F2

The American was another F2 rookie to put in an impressive season, with a strong campaign for Carlin. Sargeant was a top-liner in FIA F3 in 2020 and should have graduated then, but for 2021 could only put together a last-minute deal to stay in F3, where he had a disappointing year with Charouz. This season he started strongly with a double points finish in Bahrain.

He crashed in qualifying in Jeddah, but improved at Imola before a podium (almost two) at Barcelona. It wasn’t until Silverstone, around mid-season, that Sargeant took his first win, and he followed it up a week later with another victory at the Red Bull Ring, handed to him after Richard Verschoor’s disqualification.

He was on pole position next time out at Paul Ricard, but his momentum stalled when his engine died at his pitstop. That preceded a tricky run that included retirements in three of the next six races, including sliding out at Spa and a crash at Zandvoort while attempting a risky pass. But consistent results in the last few rounds helped Sargeant to fourth in the standings and, surely the best prize of all, a Formula 1 seat for 2023 with Williams.

Hadjar's first season in F3 yielded a tilt at the title

Photo by: Red Bull Content Pool

8. Isack Hadjar

4th in F3

On his graduation from Formula Regional, the Franco-Algerian looked a true F3 title contender until qualifying at the Monza finale, when a crash scuppered his chances of beating Victor Martins to the crown. It was a devastating finish to an impressive rookie season. Although he was fourth in the end, he had put in some brilliant performances with Hitech GP, and there’s a reason why Red Bull advisor Helmut Marko is so keen on him.

Hadjar made his mark with three wins and two additional podiums among a strong field. The first two victories came in sprint races – one at the Bahrain opener, and the other at Silverstone, where he lined up fourth and battled throughout before a stunning penultimate-lap pass on Martins secured the honours. A lights-to-flag win in a wet feature race at the Red Bull Ring gave him his second success in as many weekends, and at this point he was just one point from the summit. Then the tables turned.

He had a tough weekend at Spa to score just two points, kept himself in contention at Zandvoort, but then suffered his Monza disappointment. Nevertheless, he’ll head to F2 next year, almost certainly with Hitech.

Lawson enjoyed a much more consistent sophomore year in F2

Photo by: Red Bull Content Pool

7. Liam Lawson

3rd in F2

Lawson had a sophomore F2 season of consistent results, before his double podium at the Abu Dhabi finale vaulted him from seventh to third in the standings, just one point ahead of Carlin team-mate Sargeant. That hadn’t looked likely when the New Zealander qualified ninth, but he converted a reversed-grid front row to a win, and then charged to third in the feature race.

After a rookie F2 season with Hitech, Lawson had hoped for a stronger campaign with Carlin, but there were several occasions on which he shone. He especially proved a master of sprint races – all four of his wins came on Saturdays – but he wasn’t far off scoring victories in features either, with four podiums on Sundays.

His season almost became derailed with an “extremely frustrating” slump in the spring after some good results in the early races. But things improved in the second half of the year, with the Red Bull junior finishing in the top 10 in 11 of the final 13 races. At Red Bull’s behest, he’s now heading to Japan for Super Formula next season.

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Pourchaire dazzled with his Hungaroring win, but missed out on the F2 title

Photo by: DPPI

6. Theo Pourchaire

2nd in F2

Many expected the French youngster to win the F2 title after such a superb rookie season. While his campaign ended in disappointment, he still put in some brilliant drives to secure the runner-up spot in the standings.

The Sauber Academy driver remained with French squad ART Grand Prix, and started with victory in the year’s opening feature race in Bahrain to claim an early lead in the points. After a dreadful weekend in Jeddah, another feature victory came at Imola, propelling him back to the top of the standings.

He then went on a very consistent run of points scoring, including what Pourchaire described as an “incredible” home race at Paul Ricard. When he rounded off July with a feature race win at the Hungaroring, he was still properly applying pressure in the title race to Felipe Drugovich. But Pourchaire’s fortunes took a turn for the worse on the return from the summer break.

He had a difficult Spa weekend, a torrid round at Zandvoort, and then Drugovich was crowned at Monza. While a move to Super Formula looked on the cards for a while, it now appears that he’ll be bidding to be third time lucky with ART in F2. And he’s still only 19…

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Maloney brought the Barbadian flag to the top step of the podium three times in 2022

Photo by: Formula Motorsport Ltd

5. Zane Maloney

2nd in F3

He had speed right from the start on his graduation to F3 with Trident from Formula Regional – he secured pole in the second round at Imola – but it took a little while for the results to come for the Bajan. Then, once he’d scored his maiden podium with second place in the feature race at the Hungaroring, he put in some brilliant performances and was utterly unbeatable on Sundays. Maloney had been way down in 11th in the standings before that weekend.

Yet following three successive feature race victories in the season-ending Spa, Zandvoort and Monza rounds he snatched the runner-up spot in the championship, just five points adrift of title winner Victor Martins. That Spa win came after a high-speed crash with Oliver Goethe during Saturday’s sprint race, while his Monza weekend also included a charge from 11th to fourth in the sprint.

Maloney had made his F2 debut with Trident by the end of the season, but switched to Carlin – the team with which he won the 2019 British F4 crown – for the post-season tests. He has also been snapped up by the Red Bull junior programme and will be an F1 reserve in 2023.

Ferrari junior Bearman took eight podiums in 2022 - and was just seven points off title winner Martins

Photo by: Formula Motorsport Ltd

4. Ollie Bearman

3rd in F3

Beating your team-mates as a rookie is always welcome, especially when they’re both second-year drivers gunning for the title. That’s exactly what Bearman did at Prema Racing to finish third in FIA F3, comfortably ahead of Arthur Leclerc and Jak Crawford, who were sixth and seventh.

As the reigning Italian and German F4 champion, and newly recruited to the Ferrari Driver Academy, the Briton was expected to shine, but it’s fair to say that he surpassed expectations on what is traditionally a tricky step up the ladder. There was only one win, in the sprint race at Spa, but Bearman’s tally of eight podiums was better than anyone else’s.

He started the season with a second in Bahrain, but it wasn’t until his home race at Silverstone where Bearman began to feature as a regular contender at the front, and he was on the podium in five of the six remaining feature races. Without that red flag in the Monza feature race, he believes he could have had a shot at the title – not unlikely. The season was so good he’s moving up to F2 with Prema a year earlier than planned, at the age of just 17.

Martins took the F3 title, and looks set for a promotion to F2 with ART

Photo by: Dutch Photo Agency

3. Victor Martins

1st in F3

The Alpine Academy driver always looked like he would be F3 champion, even when he slipped behind fellow Frenchman Isack Hadjar mid-season. After a rookie F3 season with MP, Martins returned to ART, the team with which he’d claimed the 2020 Formula Renault Eurocup crown.

He began well, with victories in two of the first three feature races, in Bahrain and at Barcelona. From then on he never stood atop the podium, and it became a case of scoring points consistently before he staved off strong challenges from rookies Maloney, Bearman and Hadjar to take the title in the final race, although a red flag and several penalties meant he had to wait some time for that to be confirmed.

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Although he led from the outset, Martins by no means took the title for granted, especially given his struggles at rounds including the Hungaroring, where he finished sixth and 10th, and Spa, where he failed to score after a difficult qualifying that compromised both races. Given his struggles in the past – he was dropped by Alpine at the end of 2019 in favour of Oscar Piastri, to whom he’d narrowly lost the Renault Eurocup crown – he believes this makes his 2022 success even sweeter, and said it’s “even better compared to if I had an easy way to the title”.

He topped the post-season F2 test in Abu Dhabi running alongside Theo Pourchaire at ART; what price an intriguing intra-French team battle in 2023?

Doohan only finished sixth in the F2 standings, but that belies an impressive year

Photo by: Formula Motorsport Ltd

2. Jack Doohan

6th in F2

He finished sixth in the standings, but this isn’t representative of the skill shown by the Australian in his rookie F2 season with Virtuosi Racing. Not that Doohan himself regarded himself as a newcomer – he had, after all, competed in the final three F2 rounds of 2021 after finishing runner-up in F3.

He claimed pole for the opening feature race in Bahrain, only for contact with Theo Pourchaire to scupper his chances of a win. When the next two rounds passed off unsuccessfully, he says he mentally regrouped before the Barcelona weekend, where he finished second in the feature race for his maiden podium.

Doohan went on to take his first win in the sprint race at Silverstone, repeated the feat in Hungary, and then sealed his breakthrough feature race victory at Spa from fourth on the grid. At this stage he was fourth in the points, but he would never finish a feature race again.

Two of those three retirements came from other drivers’ mistakes, while Abu Dhabi ended in bitter disappointment when an incorrectly fitted wheel sidelined him after his pitstop. The Alpine Academy member remains at Virtuosi for 2023 and is almost certainly in with a shot at the title.

Who else but the champion? Drugovich was excellent in 2022, and earned his Aston Martin reserve drive

Photo by: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images

1. Felipe Drugovich

1st in F2

It was a totally dominant season from a well-deserving champion, and the Brazilian proved that a third year in F2 isn’t always a bad thing. Drugovich had claimed three wins with MP Motorsport in his rookie season of F2 in 2020, but a move for 2021 to Virtuosi didn’t go as well as it should have, and he was back with MP for this year. The Dutch squad had never finished higher than sixth in the teams’ championship in F2’s modern era, but has made canny recruitment to its technical staff and its lead pilot put it all into place this year.

Drugovich scored five wins (four of them in feature races), six additional podiums and four pole positions on his charge to the crown, over 100 points clear of the opposition. His first win came from pole at the second round in Jeddah, and then at Barcelona in May he achieved that very rare feat in F2/GP2 history of winning both races of the weekend, storming through the field from 10th on the grid on Sunday. His win the following weekend in Monaco is one Drugovich sees as a personal highlight of his season.

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He didn’t score another victory until early September at Zandvoort, but consistency was key to his success – while Pourchaire floundered, Drugovich flourished under pressure. Two podiums in Abu Dhabi were the perfect way to round off a brilliant campaign.

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Drugovich took a third and a fourth from Paul Ricard as he consistently tallied points towards his title tilt

Photo by: Dutch Photo Agency