New season, updated academy rosters and exciting talents are all part of the F1 circus's appeal when we look at the Formula 2 and 3 grids for the year.
Here I'll take a look at who's where and who we could see featured in the Formula 1 Free Practice sessions during 2023.
Red Bull
F2 - Dennis Hauger, Ayumu Iwasa, Jak Crawford, Isack Hadjar, Enzo Fittipaldi, Zane Maloney
F3 - Sebastian Montoya
📸 Fresh faced French teenager, Isack Hadjar.
In F2 we see Norwegian Dennis Hauger compete for MP Motorsport, Japanese Ayumu Iwasa, a Honda Formula Dream driver racing for DAMS, American Jak Crawford and French teenager Isack Hadjar with Hitech Pulse-Eight, while Barbadian Zane Maloney and Enzo Fittipaldi are paired together at Carlin.
In F3, Sebastian Montoya, son of ex-Williams and McLaren hero Juan Pablo Montoya, will feature for Hitech's F3 team; having debuted in the series for Campos last year.
📸 Sebastian Montoya.
The most likely candidates to join Red Bull's squad for an FP1 session I'd say are Isack Hadjar, Ayumu Iwasa and Zane Maloney, while Dennis Hauger could be in with a shout, provided he shows good form.
Ferrari
F2 - Arthur Leclerc, Oliver Bearman
F3 - Dino Beganovic
📸 Young British driver Ollie Bearman.
Representing DAMS and PREMA respectively, Arthur Leclerc and Ollie Bearman have both graduated from F3, where they were PREMA teammates, to test themselves in F2.
Replacing one of them at PREMA in F3 is Formula Regional European champion, Swede Dino Beganovic who is hotly tipped to be in championship contention.
Depending on form, we could see one of these drivers in an FP1 session for Ferrari, but it's more likely that they'll run Robert Shwartzman in the Ferrari, while one of these drivers could run for Haas or Alfa Romeo who have Ferrari engines.
📸 Ferrari reserve Robert Shwartzman celebrating.
Mercedes
F2 - Frederik Vesti
F3 - Paul Aron
📸 F3 rookie Paul Aron.
With Frederik Vesti and Paul Aron Mercedes' only two drivers across both series', both featuring for PREMA in F2 and F3 respectively, their options look a little sparse, especially when you take into consideration the German outfit's reserve driver Mick Schumacher doesn't qualify for the 'rookie rule' meaning a team must use a driver with 2 or less F1 entries in an FP1 session.
📸 Schumacher is the reserve for Mercedes and McLaren.
For Mercedes' rookie sessions, I would expect Vesti to fill the role, but a lot later in the season, or at circuits top dogs Hamilton and Russell don't require as much practice on, so probably Abu Dhabi for sure, and somewhere like Barcelona or Hungary. Too soon for Aron.
Alpine
F2 - Jack Doohan, Victor Martins
F3 - Nikola Tsolov, Gabriele Mini, Sophia Floersch*
📸 Sophia Floersch has been added to the Alpine set up over the winter.
*part of the Rac(h)er programme.
Jack Doohan is featuring again with Virtuosi in F2, while 2022 F3 champion Victor Martins has graduated and will stay with ART Grand Prix.
📸 F3 champ Victor Martins will race in F2 this year.
In F3, Martins is replaced by exciting teenager Nikola Tsolov at ART, while Alpine have signed up Italian teenager Gabriele Mini who'll race with Hitech, and Sophia Floersch has returned to F3 for the first time since 2020, and she'll be with PHM Racing by Charouz, as she is backed by Alpine's Rac(h)er programme designed to promote women in racing.
Jack Doohan is Alpine's official reserve, so I'd expect to see him fulfill more than just the 2 required sessions. An on form, title challenging Victor Martins would be hard done by if he's on form and ignored.
📸 Australian up and comer Jack Doohan is Alpine's official reserve driver for 2023, could he make his F1 race debut this year?
McLaren
None.
McLaren only have one junior driver, Ugo Ugochukwu who races at F4 level so wouldn't be near this.
McLaren are able to borrow Mercedes' drivers for these sessions but as they have a rookie in the race seat in Oscar Piastri, making them 'exempt' from filling the rookie sessions as Piastri would be that rookie. If they're looking mix it up though, Vesti could indeed feature in papaya.
📸 Piastri won titles in 2019, 2020 and 2021 leading to his F1 debut this year.
Alfa Romeo
F2 - Theo Pourchaire
📸 Sauber junior Theo Pourchaire.
ART driver Theo Pourchaire is beginning his 3rd F2 season and has already featured in FP1 and is the only option in the Sauber Academy, although the team has access to the Ferrari juniors ans reserves too.
I'd expect Theo will again feature in FP1 this year.
📸 Pourchaire during a 2021 test in Hungary.
Aston Martin
None.
📸 Reigning F2 champion Drugovich, Aston Martin's reserve driver.
Like McLaren, Aston Martin have a Mercedes engine and therefore have access to the Brackley team's juniors. Although no drivers are featured in F2 or F3 for Aston Martin they do have reigning F2 champion Felipe Drugovich as their reserve.
I'd fully expect Drugovich will feature in both rookie sessions.
Haas
None.
📸 Fittipaldi stood in twice for Haas following Romain Grosjean's fireball crash in 2020.
Similar to Aston Martin, but with a Ferrari link rather than Mercedes, the American team will have access to the Ferrari drivers. They also have Brazilian-American driver Pietro Fittipaldi as a reserve, and he's got 2 races worth of experience.
Should Fittipaldi have to step in to cover Kevin Magnussen or Nico Hülkenberg at any stage of the season he'd be ineligible for the rookie sessions, in which case I'd expect Robert Shwartzman would step in.
📸 Robert Shwartzman has previously run FP1 for Haas.
Alpha Tauri
None.
📸 De Vries managed 9th on his F1 debut at Monza for Williams.
Shared with Red Bull, although Nyck De Vries as a rookie would fill the role, within the rookie rule, as he only raced once last year, with Williams at Monza.
Williams
F3 - Zak O’Sullivan, Franco Colapinto, Oliver Gray
📸 Logan Sargeant is the next rookie on this grid having impressed over the last two years.
With three drivers in F3, Williams have a little bit of variety in the type of driver they can watch this year. Zak O'Sullivan will be with PREMA, Franco Colapinto at MP Motorsport and Ollie Gray at Carlin.
It's hard to say if any of these will make their F1 debut, but like Aston Martin and McLaren, they have access to Mercedes' drivers. An F3 winning driver may have a chance.
📸 Exciting Argentine Franco Colapinto.
Logan Sargeant is the third rookie on the grid, so he again would be the driver to fill the rookie rule role.
Thanks for reading if you kept interest this long!
📸 Image credit: Williams Racing, Formula Motorsport Limited, Campos Racing, Ferrari.
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