How Carlin's next American hope took the long road to glory

The record books will show that Kaylen Frederick was the star of the season on his way to victory in the 2020 BRDC British Formula 3 Championship. The American, returning with Carlin for his sophomore season in the category, claimed more wins (nine), poles (eight) and fastest laps (12) than any other driver. Perhaps the most startling statistic of all is that he led 120 laps, while the next best was his main title rival Kush Maini, with just 36.

Yet as Frederick lined up on pole for the 24th and final race of the season at Silverstone, he still needed to finish the race to be sure of the title. He duly did that with an emphatic drive and victory, but the fact that the title went down to the dying moments of the campaign, despite his seeming dominance, belied the ups and downs of a turbulent 2020.

"I knew we were quick; it was the rest of the stuff we needed to get right," admits Frederick, who hopes to follow in the footsteps of illustrious Carlin alumni Josef Newgarden and Colton Herta in years to come.

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"I haven't had this much up-front running in quite a long time. It's a different mentality going into a race starting from pole versus the middle of the field. Trying to adopt that mindset was the trickiest part."

While Frederick did win two races in 2019, his speed and performances were inconsistent, meaning he finished ninth in the standings while team-mate Clement Novalak won the title. Greater preparation and commitment in 2020, including the decision to live in the UK rather than commute to each race from the States, taken even before the coronavirus pandemic escalated, meant he started the season with a double victory at Oulton Park. He'd actually taken a hat-trick of wins on the road, but his opening-race success was voided after a false start.

Even a mechanical problem at Donington Park, which cost him the chance of grabbing a brace of wins, failed to stop him increasing his points advantage over the weekend, and he headed into the third round of the season at Brands Hatch with a 29-point lead in the standings. But an innocuous error in qualifying, when he slid off the circuit at Druids on a damp track, would have far-reaching consequences.

As conditions improved throughout the session, Frederick found himself starting at the back of the grid for races one and three. Contact with Piers Prior in both those races (for which the pair were disqualified in the latter) and a best result of 11th all weekend meant his healthy lead in the standings had turned into a hefty deficit of 49 points.

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The man to benefit from Frederick's downturn was Maini, the Indian returning to British F3 after taking third in the standings in 2018 before moving on to the Formula Renault Eurocup last year. He joined Hitech GP for its maiden season in the category, with Maini only getting the call to compete in the opening round days before.

With no firm commitment that he would see out the season, four podiums from the opening seven races was a steady if unspectacular start, and by the time of Maini's first win, in the third round at Brands, he had already launched himself to the top of the standings.

Frederick was in a class of his own on the Silverstone Grand Prix layout, lapping as much as one second quicker than his nearest challenger

On the series' second of three visits to Donington, Maini set down a marker in the final race of the weekend by lunging up the inside of Frederick at the Old Hairpin on the opening lap before going on to take his second win of the season. With three events left and a 54-point lead in the standings, Maini was in the driving seat, but a lack of wet running pre-season would prove his and the team's undoing.

"Hitech is one of the best teams I've worked with, but any team in the world if you don't let them test in the wet in a new championship, the first time you're driving in the wet in a race [you will struggle]," he says.

At the Snetterton quadruple header, held mostly in atrocious conditions, Maini languished outside the top 10 nearly all weekend, and a win in the drying reversed-grid race was his and Hitech's last victory of the season.

With Frederick scoring a win and two further podiums at Snetterton, the gap between the two title protagonists was reduced to just nine points. Frederick went on to score a brace of wins on the final visit to Donington, as a tyre gamble failed to pay off for Maini, meaning the championship lead swung back in the Floridian's favour with three races remaining.

Frederick was in a class of his own on the Silverstone Grand Prix layout, lapping as much as one second quicker than his nearest challenger after firmly shutting the door on Maini at the start of the first race. And while the pair made contact several times in the second race, their wet-weather tyres quickly losing grip on a dry surface, Frederick made sure of the title in the final encounter.

Heading into that final round, Louis Foster was still in contention. The British F4 graduate had made an immediate impact with Double R Racing by taking a double pole at the opening round at Oulton. A maiden British F3 victory followed next time out at Donington, before a reversed-grid win (again at Donington) and a sublime success in the wet at Snetterton left him just 21 points off the top spot.

But a nightmare final two weekends put paid to any title hopes, and cost him third overall in the standings to Douglas Motorsport's Ulysse De Pauw. The Belgian recorded two wins as well as a further eight podiums and was left to lead the charge for Douglas after team-mate Kiern Jewiss withdrew mid-season.

Jewiss, the 2018 British F4 champion and a McLaren Autosport BRDC Award finalist that year, finished fourth in the British F3 standings in 2019, so hopes were high. He won the opening race of the season at Oulton Park - albeit only after Frederick was penalised for a jumped start post-race - but after four events he was sixth in the standings, and he parted ways with Douglas.

Another alumnus from last season to return was Ayrton Simmons, who competed in one round apiece with Chris Dittmann Racing (with which he took two victories) and JHR Developments after starting the season in Euroformula Open. There were also reversed-grid race winners in the forms of Piers Prior (Lanan Racing), Nazim Azman (Carlin) and Benjamin Pederson (Double R).

But the season belonged to Frederick, even if "I just made it a bit harder for ourselves" with his Brands faux pas.