Ranking the top 10 drivers on F1's undercard in 2023

With fierce competition coming in both F2 and 3 from rookies and seasoned racers alike, junior series continued to produce some of the season’s most exciting racing in 2023.

F3 saw a stunning rookie season from Gabriel Bortoleto, who led from the off to capture Trident’s first drivers’ title of the modern era. The Brazilian topped the standings out of round one with a lead he would not relinquish before claiming the title by 45 points.

He won the opening two feature races of the season, taking a further four podiums to clinch the title despite entering the season as an underdog.

In F2, Theo Pourchaire clinched the crown after finishing as runner-up last season, pipping Frederik Vesti to the title in his third season in the series.

The ART driver faced stiff competition from his Prema rival, but ultimately was crowned in Abu Dhabi, winning by nine points.

With strong performances coming up and down the grid, here's our top 10 across the two junior categories on the bill.

10. Franco Colapinto

Fourth in F3

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Franco Colapinto vastly outperformed his team-mates in his second year in F3

The Argentinian started the year by following in the footsteps of his nation’s legendary Carlos Reutemann in being signed up to the Williams F1 team, and with a short hop from one Dutch F3 team to another – Van Amersfoort Racing to MP Motorsport.

He put in a solid sophomore season to finish just nine points shy of runner-up Zak O’Sullivan, and vastly outperformed his team-mates.

While Colapinto never qualified on the front row, it was consistency that proved key to his strong championship position, with 14 finishes in the top 10 from the 18 races.

Both his victories came in sprint races: the first at Silverstone a dominant display in mixed conditions from fourth on the grid; the second at Monza after fending off challenges. He was first on the road in another sprint – in Melbourne – only for all three MP cars to be excluded for a bodywork infringement.

He stepped up to F2 for the Abu Dhabi finale as a taster to his full-time graduation in 2024.

9. Paul Aron

Third in F3

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Paul Aron's rookie year in F3 ended with him inside the top three in the standings

For the fourth time in his five years of single-seater racing, the Estonian finished third in a championship with Prema Racing. It was a strong rookie F3 season on his step up from the Formula Regional European Championship with Alpine.

Some had expected team-mate and reigning FRECA champion Dino Beganovic to be the stronger of the two, but Aron beat him by three positions, scoring one race win along the way in the Red Bull Ring sprint. That was a dramatic and hard-earned success. He’d lost pole for the feature race thanks to exceeding track limits, and his final qualifying position of fourth converted to eighth on the reversed grid for the sprint, from where he battled to victory before triumphantly exclaiming: “They took away my pole, they cannot take away my win.”

Aron, who finished in the top five in 10 of the 18 races, went on a steady climb up the standings to lie second before the series finale at Monza. He was ultimately pipped to runner-up by team-mate Zak O’Sullivan, and has parted ways with the Mercedes F1 junior programme, but moves up to F2 next year with Hitech GP.

8. Ayumu Iwasa

Fourth in F2

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Iwasa continue to impress despite his relative inexperience

It was another strong campaign from the Japanese Red Bull and Honda protege, who continues to impress despite his relative inexperience. This was just his fourth full season in single-seaters and his second in F2, and this time Iwasa went one better than his 2022 final position of fifth.

His finest moments came on street courses, three wins going his way, in the Melbourne feature race, where he beat eventual champion Theo Pourchaire, and in the sprints in Jeddah and Monaco. After that Melbourne victory, Iwasa even led the points before Pourchaire and Frederik Vesti kicked their title charges into action.

Even so, he held third in the rankings for much of the rest of the season before late-season form man Jack Doohan demoted him. Now he will make what’s becoming something of a trademark Red Bull move to Super Formula in his native Japan for 2024 with Team Mugen.

7. Zak O’Sullivan

Second in F3

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Zak O'Sullivan scored the most wins of any driver in F3 in 2023

Nobody in F3 matched the British Williams F1 protege’s tally of four race wins; the problem was he added just one further podium to that, hence the distance to eventual champion and two-time race winner Gabriel Bortoleto. O’Sullivan had impressed during his rookie F3 season with Carlin despite the team’s struggles, and a move to Prema for 2023 removed any question marks over the environment to perform.

After a tough opening weekend in Bahrain, the 2021 Aston Martin Autosport BRDC Young Driver of the Year took his maiden series victory in the Melbourne sprint next time out. To this he added two successes in feature races, firstly at the Red Bull Ring, then a dominant display at the Hungaroring, where he cruised to a lights-to-flag victory ahead of team-mate Dino Beganovic.

The 2021 GB3 champion could have been in with a shot at the title were it not for a few tough weekends, including Silverstone and Spa. Since the F3 season finished, he has taken part in a Formula 1 FP1 session at Abu Dhabi with Williams before also completing the rookie test, and joined reigning champion team ART Grand Prix for a step up to F2 in 2024.

6. Victor Martins

Fifth in F2

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Victor Martins took top rookie honours in F2 in 2023

The Frenchman entered the season as the reigning F3 champion and remained with ART Grand Prix, with which he also claimed the 2020 Formula Renault Eurocup crown, for his step up. Given the closeness of last year’s F3 title battle, and with all six of the main contenders graduating to F2, the battle for top rookie this year was keenly anticipated, and it was Alpine junior Martins who earned it by 20 points over Ollie Bearman.

He showed searing speed too, with three pole positions to the two of champion team-mate Theo Pourchaire, and a chart-topping seven feature-race front-row starts to Pourchaire’s three. Unfortunately for him, that translated into just one race win, but what a victory it was. In the feature race at Silverstone, he had to overcome three safety car periods to eke out enough of a margin to overcome a five-second penalty.

Martins knows he’s good, and insisted that his season was “average”, but were it not for four retirements and an exclusion from fourth place in Baku he may well have challenged the top three in the standings. Surely he’ll be a championship favourite in 2024, for which he is expected to continue at ART.

5. Jack Doohan

Third in F2

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Doohan endured a frustrating second season in F2

It was a season of two halves for the Australian Alpine Academy member, who stayed on with Virtuosi Racing for his second F2 campaign. From the first 14 races he scored just one podium – a second place in the Jeddah feature race. After the opening six of the 13 events, he languished in 12th place in the points.

But if the championship had started in July, we’d now be feting Doohan as the king of F2 by 23 points over Victor Martins! Such was the miraculous turnaround over the final seven weekends…

That poor start was not down to him, but was due to a “fundamental issue” Virtuosi was experiencing with his car. Once that was fixed at Barcelona, the fightback began, and he leapfrogged Ayumu Iwasa for third in the final standings thanks to his third win of the season in the Abu Dhabi finale.

His first victory of 2023 at the Hungaroring had been flawless, and he repeated the feat seven days later at Spa from 11th on the grid. His Abu Dhabi success came despite juggling Alpine F1 FP1 duties that weekend. Doohan is not staying in F2 for a third season, and is weighing up his options as he continues to pursue his F1 dream.

4. Ollie Bearman

Sixth in F2

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Oliver Bearman starred in just his second year on the F1 support ladder and his first in F2

The exciting 18-year-old Essex talent shouldn’t even have been racing in F2 this season. But such was his startling progress in his rookie F3 campaign in 2022 that his Ferrari F1 mentors felt he had to step up. So he remained on board at Prema Racing and did it all over again.

Up until the final weekend in Abu Dhabi, Bearman had the highest number of feature race wins – three – only for it to be equalled by Jack Doohan. And his total tally of victories – four – was exceeded only by team-mate Frederik Vesti’s six. As well as that, he and fellow rookie Victor Martins led the pole positions table with three apiece.

The first of those came in Baku, where he took an astonishing clean sweep on the fearsome streets of the Azerbaijani capital: he also topped free practice and won both races, and scooped the fastest lap in the sprint race. Given that, it was a surprise that only two more wins came his way: a comfortable drive from pole at Barcelona, and a success at Monza via the turbulence of five safety cars.

He is expected to remain at Prema for another go at F2 in 2024; what price on it being him against Martins for the crown?

3. Theo Pourchaire

First in F2

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Theo Pourchaire took the F2 title in his third attempt, but it wasn't enough to make him the standout undercard performer of 2023

It was finally time for glory in 2023, and sure enough he took the F2 drivers’ title and provided the foundations for ART Grand Prix’s teams’ crown. After missing out to Felipe Drugovich last season, the Frenchman finally became champion at the third time of asking, pipping Frederik Vesti by 11 points in a final-round showdown.

It was a deserved championship for the Sauber junior, but you can’t help but wonder whether it should have come a year earlier or in more dominant fashion, such as we saw from Drugovich in his own third season. Pourchaire came away from the opening weekend in Bahrain with a feature race victory, and never stood on the top step of the podium again.

Instead, it was his consistency that paid off, with 10 podiums, seven of them in feature races, hence his finishing 16 points ahead of Jack Doohan and 23 clear of Vesti if you discard the sprints. Two second-place finishes at Spa, where Vesti faltered, proved pivotal in the title fight, while he narrowly missed out on a second victory in Melbourne’s third round. Like Ayumu Iwasa, he will head to Super Formula in 2024, racing for Team Impul.

2. Gabriel Bortoleto

First in F3

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Gabriel Bortoleto won the F3 title in his rookie season

It’s funny to think that this Brazilian was only the fourth-highest-ranked driver from the 2022 Formula Regional European Championship by Alpine to be transferring up to F3. But he’d looked the business in testing with Trident, and that translated once the season got under way.

Bortoleto blew those who’d beaten him in FRECA (Dino Beganovic, Gabriele Mini and Paul Aron) out of the water, laying the foundations with wins in the first two feature races of the season. In Bahrain, victory came after on-the-road winner Mini was penalised, and in Melbourne he withstood race-long pressure from Gregoire Saucy.

He was now established in the championship lead and, although no more wins went his way, he claimed four second places, and finished all but three races in the top 10. It all meant that when qualifying was done and dusted at the Monza finale, Bortoleto was champion because neither of his two title rivals had earned the bonus points for pole.

As did compatriot and good friend Felipe Drugovich in F2 the previous season, Bortoleto entered the year as the underdog and ended it a dominant champion. No wonder he was picked up as a McLaren F1 junior and will graduate to F2 with Virtuosi Racing.

1. Frederik Vesti

Second in F2

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Fred Vesti was arguably class of the field in F2 despite missing the title

The Dane arguably put in a season-long performance that deserved a crowning as the 2023 Formula 2 champion. A consummate victory from pole at the wheel of his Prema Racing car in the Monaco feature race in late May elevated him to the championship lead, and he held his advantage for five event weekends until Spa.

There, Vesti made a rookie error by crashing on the reconnaissance lap for the feature race, but that was not representative of the Mercedes F1 junior’s class for the remaining 25 races of his sophomore F2 season.

Following a tricky opening weekend in Bahrain, he went on to take a season-high of six wins, among 10 podiums, and never finished a race outside the top 10. Apart from Monaco, he won the feature race in Jeddah, and sprint successes came at Barcelona, Silverstone, Monza and Yas Marina, the last of those keeping him in the title hunt until the last day of the season.

Were it not for the freak incident at Zandvoort where both his rear wheels fall off, Vesti would likely have been crowned champion. He leaves F2 without a title, but put in a hell of a performance.

Photo by: Simon Galloway / Motorsport Images

A win from pole in Monaco set Vesti up for a proper title tilt ended by a freak incident in Zandvoort