With karting and junior single-seater racing seasons reaching their conclusions, the next generation of rising stars is already making plans for 2025 and, indeed, beyond.

The established final two feeder series steps on the pathway to a prized place on the coveted Formula 1 Grand Prix grid are now firmly established as the international FIA Formula 3 and FIA Formula 2 Championships, which run alongside selected Formula 1 races providing exciting young prospects their first taste of the big time.

To provide a cost-effective formula beneath F3 (where budgets now exceed £1m), in 2014 the FIA introduced F4, not as a global championship but rather for individual nations or regions to host their own championships with a common set of rules.

These similar specifications allow teams and drivers aged 15 and over to contest different F4 championships and, with FIA affiliation, champions receive Super Licence points helping them to progress through the single-seater ranks towards, their ultimate objective of, an F1 Super Licence.

Making life even easier and skills even more transferable, most of the major F4 championships now employ the same Tatuus F4-T421 chassis powered by a turbocharged Abarth engine, together offering impressive levels of performance with all the latest safety features.

It is a combination also employed by F1 Academy, the all-female feeder series,  that also encourages the growing number of young female racers to contest their own national F4 championships in parallel with a F1 Academy campaign. Abbi Pulling is a great example of this, having used outings in the British F4 Championship to sharpen her skills and dominate the 2024 F1 Academy.

The system has been a huge success with top F4 talents already making their mark in Formula 1. McLaren Racing driver Lando Norris was the first champion in the new FIA British F4 era back in 2015 and his team-mate Oscar Piastri was runner-up in the British F4 Championship in 2017, so it is no surprise that all three of next year’s F1 rookies have F4 successes prominent on their CVs.

Ollie Bearman won both ADAC (German) and Italian F4 Championships in 2020, as did fellow F1 rookie Kimi Antonelli in 2022, while Red Bull newcomer Liam Lawson was runner-up in 2018. BTW Alpine F1 Team’s new signing, Jack Doohan, is another to have contested a formative season in the British F4 series as, indeed, is Williams’ latest star Franco Colapinto, who won the Spanish F4 Championship in 2019.

With such a star-studded track record, F4 is clearly the most popular and well-proven stepping stone between top-level karting and FIA F3 – a must have on the CV of any aspiring Grand Prix driver.

The British series has other attractions, too. The 30-round championship enjoys live TV visibility and large crowds, running alongside the British Touring Car Championship, on the best of Britain’s tight and technical tracks, where drivers need develop their race craft to succeed.  The championship has also offered its winner a raft of career-enhancing prizes including a session on the Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One Team state-of-the-art F1 simulator, a year-long coaching programme with the Alpine Racing Human Performance Centre and a Grand Prix weekend embedded with McLaren Racing.

Moreover, in 2025 the British Championship will again visit Zandvoort Circuit, providing drivers the welcome opportunity to compete on a current mainland-Europe Formula 1 track.

As ever a leader in junior single-seater motorsport, the British system also offers young drivers two further options, either side of the internationally recognised FIA F4 Championship.

Those aged 15 years can opt for the MSV organised GB4 series, which exists as a stepping stone into F4 and beyond. The UK based GB4 championship will benefit from a new upgraded car for 2025, offering added safety and for the first time, the car will feature a halo for its 21 round UK-based championship.

While GB4 offers talented teenagers a pathway into F4, MSV also organises GB3 – a championship which provides an extra rung on the ladder bridging F4 and FIA F3, for drivers aged 16 years and older. It, too, sees an exciting new chassis from Italian constructor Tatuus being introduced for 2025 with F1 inspired aerodynamics including the adoption of DRS for the first time.

GB3 offers a more international outlook for drivers, with four of the eight round championship featuring tracks outside of the UK, including Zandvoort, Spa-Francorchamps, Hungaroring and Monza.

New Zealand driver Louis Sharp is one of a crop of international drivers plying their trade in the UK, however despite arriving in the UK with no experience of racing with wings and slick tyres and has just become the first driver ever to win both British F4 and GB3 titles back-to-back.

For Sharp it was the perfect pathway into FIA F3 and, hopefully, upwards to join all the current generation of standout F4 alumni now realising their dreams in F1: Norris, Lawson, Colapinto, Piastri, Doohan, Antonelli, Bearman and counting…