2023 GB3 Championship

2023 GB3 Championship

Drivers' Champion:
Callum Voisin
Teams' Champion:
JHR Developments

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2022

Next

2024

Feeder series:
GB4 Championship

The 2023 GB3 Championship was a motor racing championship for open wheel, formula racing cars held across Europe. The 2023 season was the eighth organised by the British Racing Drivers' Club in the United Kingdom, and the third season under the GB3 moniker after rebranding from the BRDC British Formula 3 Championship in mid-2021. The championship featured a mix of professional motor racing teams and privately funded drivers. The season was run over eight triple-header rounds and started on 8 April at Oulton Park.

Rodin Carlin driver Callum Voisin won the Drivers' Championship ahead of Alex Dunne at the final race of the season. JHR Developments, the team of third-placed driver Joseph Loake, won the Teams' Championship.

Loake was named as the winner of the Aston Martin Autosport BRDC Young Driver of the Year Award in December, and will receive a test drive with the Aston Martin F1 team, £200,000, plus full membership of the BRDC.

Teams and drivers

All teams were British-registered.

Team	No.	Driver	Rounds
Arden VRD	2	Nico Christodoulou	All
	3	Noah Ping	All
	4	James Hedley	All
JHR Developments	5	Matthew Rees	All
	77	David Morales	All
	84	Joseph Loake	All
Douglas Motorsport	7	Tymek Kucharczyk	All
	11	Lucas Staico	1–7
	32	Shawn Rashid	1–7
Chris Dittmann Racing	9	Zak Taylor	1–7
	18	Arthur Rogeon	All
	78	Jack Sherwood	7
Elite Motorsport	14	Patrick Heuzenroeder	7–8
	15	Ayato Iwasaki	1–6
	16	McKenzy Cresswell	All
	17	Oliver Stewart	All
Fortec Motorsports	20	Jarrod Waberski	All
	41	Edward Pearson	All
	42	Max Esterson	All
Hitech Pulse-Eight	21	Souta Arao	All
	22	Alex Dunne	All
	23	Michael Shin	1–4, 6–8
Rodin Carlin	27	John Bennett	All
	35	Callum Voisin	All
	43	Costa Toparis	All
Hillspeed	39	Gerrard Xie	All
	99	Daniel Mavlyutov	All
Source:

Race calendar and results

The provisional calendar was announced on 15 October 2022. For the first time in series history, two events were held outside the United Kingdom. This also meant that the GB3 Championship became an FIA-certified international series.

Round		Circuit	Date	Supporting	Map of circuit locations
1	R1	Oulton Park (International Circuit, Cheshire)	8 April	British GT Championship	Oulton Park Silverstone Spa Snetterton Brands Hatch Zandvoort Donington
	R2		10 April
	R3
2	R4	Silverstone Circuit (Grand Prix Circuit, Northamptonshire)	6 May	British GT Championship
	R5		7 May
	R6
3	R7	Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps (Spa, Belgium)	3 June	Spa Euro Race: Supercar Challenge Prototype Challenge
	R8
	R9		4 June
4	R10	Snetterton Circuit (300 Circuit, Norfolk)	17 June	British GT Championship
	R11		18 June
	R12
5	R13	Silverstone Circuit (Grand Prix Circuit, Northamptonshire)	29 July	Main event
	R14		30 July
	R15
6	R16	Brands Hatch (Grand Prix Circuit, Kent)	9 September	British GT Championship
	R17		10 September
	R18
7	R19	Circuit Zandvoort (Zandvoort, Netherlands)	14 October	GT World Challenge Europe
	R20
	R21		15 October
8	R22	Donington Park (Grand Prix Circuit, Leicestershire)	21 October	British GT Championship
	R23		22 October
	R24

Race results

Round		Circuit	Pole position	Fastest lap	Winning driver	Winning team
1	R1	Oulton Park (International Circuit, Cheshire)	Joseph Loake	Joseph Loake	Joseph Loake	JHR Developments
	R2		Joseph Loake	Callum Voisin	James Hedley	Arden VRD
	R3			Oliver Stewart	Daniel Mavlyutov	Hillspeed
2	R4	Silverstone Circuit (Grand Prix Circuit, Northamptonshire)	John Bennett	Joseph Loake	Joseph Loake	JHR Developments
	R5		John Bennett	Matthew Rees	Joseph Loake	JHR Developments
	R6			Tymek Kucharczyk	Noah Ping	Arden VRD
3	R7	Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps (Spa, Belgium)	Callum Voisin	Alex Dunne	Alex Dunne	Hitech Pulse-Eight
	R8		Callum Voisin	Alex Dunne	Alex Dunne	Hitech Pulse-Eight
	R9			Max Esterson	Oliver Stewart	Elite Motorsport
4	R10	Snetterton Circuit (300 Circuit, Norfolk)	Matthew Rees	Alex Dunne	James Hedley	Arden VRD
	R11		Callum Voisin	Alex Dunne	Noah Ping	Arden VRD
	R12			Souta Arao	Daniel Mavlyutov	Hillspeed
5	R13	Silverstone Circuit (Grand Prix Circuit, Northamptonshire)	Matthew Rees	Matthew Rees	Matthew Rees	JHR Developments
	R14		Matthew Rees	McKenzy Cresswell	McKenzy Cresswell	Elite Motorsport
	R15			race cancelled due to adverse weather conditions
6	R16	Brands Hatch (Grand Prix Circuit, Kent)	Joseph Loake	Joseph Loake	Joseph Loake	JHR Developments
	R17		Callum Voisin	McKenzy Cresswell	Callum Voisin	Rodin Carlin
	R18			Nico Christodoulou	Daniel Mavlyutov	Hillspeed
7	R19	Circuit Zandvoort (Zandvoort, Netherlands)	Alex Dunne	Alex Dunne	Alex Dunne	Hitech Pulse-Eight
	R20		McKenzy Cresswell	Alex Dunne	Alex Dunne	Hitech Pulse-Eight
	R21			Tymek Kucharczyk	Daniel Mavlyutov	Hillspeed
8	R22	Donington Park (Grand Prix Circuit, Leicestershire)	Callum Voisin	Alex Dunne	Callum Voisin	Rodin Carlin
	R23		Callum Voisin	Alex Dunne	Alex Dunne	Hitech Pulse-Eight
	R24			Gerrard Xie	Gerrard Xie	Hillspeed

Season report

First half

The 2023 GB3 Championship opened up at Oulton Park with JHR's Joseph Loake taking a pair of pole positions. The first race saw him retain his lead and hold off teammate Matthew Rees. The race was red-flagged and ended two laps before the end after a safety car restart ended in a multi-car crash, handing JHR a 1-2 ahead of Carlin's Callum Voisin. The second race began with a rain shower that delayed proceedings, but Arden's James Hedley was on the move when it started, climbing from fourth to second and pressuring Loake to take the lead. Voisin was also able to move past Loake into second, but was unable to catch up to Hedley. Hillspeed's Daniel Mavlyutov was on reverse-grid pole position for the final race. The race never really got going after a crash right at the start, with only three minutes of running under green flag conditions. Mavlyutov was therefore largely unchallenged by Elite's Ayato Iwasaki and Fortec's Edward Pearson behind him. Loake finished twelfth to take a five-point championship lead ahead of Hedley.

Up next was the season's first stop at Silverstone. Douglas Motorsport's Tymek Kucharczyk took both pole positions but was disqualified, allowing Carlin's John Bennett to inherit them. In a very wet first race, Loake took the lead at the start, but Bennett repassed him and led until the end. This move was later judged to have happened off track, so Bennett was handed a one-place penalty, gifting the win to Loake, with Rees third. The second race was also decided in the steward's office: Rees came first but had jumped the start, while second-placed man Bennett was penalized for a collision with Hitech's Alex Dunne. This saw Loake inherit another win, ahead of Elite's McKenzy Cresswell and Voisin. Race three saw Arden's Noah Ping take the lead from Iwasaki at the start. He won the race as behind him Voisin and Elite's Oliver Stewart both earned track limit penalties, allowing Arden's Nico Christodoulou and CDR's Arthur Rogeon on the podium. Loake's two off-track wins saw him extend his championship lead to 31 points, with Voisin now second.

The first race abroad followed a month later at Spa with Voisin claiming double pole positions. At the start of race one, Dunne in second fought off Cresswell until the latter spun. At the next restart, Dunne was free to attack Voisin, take the lead and control the race to take his maiden win, while Kucharczyk came third. The same protagonists fought for the second race, with Cresswell initially claiming the lead. Once again though Dunne was the fastest and took the lead, with him and Voisin both moving back past Cresswell as the top three were in a league of their own. Stewart had pole position for the reverse-grid race three. He initially lost the lead to Mavlyutov after a slow start, but the latter ran wide to allow Stewart back through. Loake took second and pressured Stewart all race, but was unable to steal the win, while Fortec's Jarrod Waberski completed the podium. Voisin's pair of second places saw him close the gap to Loake just two points after the latter struggled for pace all weekend.

The first half of the season ended back in Britain at Snetterton, where Rees and Voisin shared pole positions. Hedley started the first race in fourth, but was already leading after turn one. Rees tried all race to get back past, but could not pressure Hedley into a mistake. Voisin and Dunne had a similar battle over third, with the Brit coming out ahead. He was able to hold on to his lead at the start of race three, before colliding with Kucharczyk and retiring. This saw the latter drop to third, allowing Ping and Dunne through. Kucharczyk was eventually disqualified for his collision with Voisin, promoting Hedley onto the podium. The reversed grid race three saw Mavlyutov start in front. The front of the field was rather calm, with the title contenders battling further down the order. This allowed Mavlyutov to manage his lead to win ahead of Rogeon and Douglas Motorsport's Lucas Staico. Voisin's race two retirement and another weekend away from the front of the field for Loake allowed Dunne to take a six-point championship lead.

Second half

Round five saw the series return to Silverstone, and Rees took both pole positions. He clearly was the fastest man in race one, pulling away from his pole position and building a gap to the field. He took an unchallenged maiden win four seconds ahead of Cresswell, who had Voisin in his mirrors all race, but the latter did not attempt a move for second place. Cresswell took the lead of the second race on the first lap into Copse. He then had to manage a safety car restart, but did so untroubled to lead away to become the second maiden winner of the weekend. Rees had to be content with second, while Kucharczyk completed the podium. Rain then struck the circuit ahead of the third race. The race was started behind the safety car, but red flags for the conditions were waved after three laps. The race was then abandoned and declared cancelled. Voisin was the only one of the three main championship challengers to appear on the podium all weekend. His reward was a narrow one-point lead over Dunne heading into the summer break.

Tymek Kucharczyk's (Douglas Motorsport) and Jarrod Waberski's (Fortec Motorsports) cars damaged after a shunt during the opening lap of the third race at Brands Hatch.

Brands Hatch came next, with Loake and Voisin on pole position for the two races. The pair began the first race one and two, while championship contender Dunne was spun around by Rees and was forced to retire. Loake led Voisin through two safety car periods and subsequent restarts to win, while Cresswell came home third. The top two were reversed for the start of race two, and Loake challenged Voisin for the lead for half a lap before the latter came out on top. He managed his gap from then on to take his first win of the season, while Cresswell came third again to take his fourth podium in a row. Ping's reverse grid pole position for race three was handed to Mavlyutov after a penalty for the former. The race began with multiple crashes down the order that took out six cars and involved title challenger Loake, who had to pit. Mavlyutov led Christodoulou and Staico home to win. Voisin's win together with Dunne's retirement saw his championship advantage grow to 14 points, with Loake second and Dunne a further 27 points adrift.

The penultimate round of the season saw the championship's debut at Zandvoort and Dunne and Cresswell on pole position. The Irishman converted his pole position into the lead in race one. He dominated the race to finish six seconds clear of Cresswell, with Loake in third closing up to Voisin in the standings. In race two, it was Dunne who started second, but he made quick work of Cresswell to again take the lead. He led until the end to make it two wins out of two and move within six points of Voisin, while this time Christodoulou completed the podium. The reversed-grid third race was once again won by Mavlyutov after Elite's polesitter, debutant Patrick Heuzenroeder, crashed into turn three. The race had almost no running under green flag conditions and also ended under safety car after extensive damage to the barriers. Dunne's double win lifted him right back into championship contention, with the top three separated by only 17 points going into the final weekend.

The final weekend of the championship, dubbed the "Donington Decider", saw Voisin stake his claim to the title early on with a double pole position. The first race was held in damp conditions, with Voisin leading lights-to-flag ahead of Rees and Dunne to extend his standings advantage to 28 points. The race was disrupted by two safety car periods, one of them caused by Cresswell, who lost his mathematical chance for the title. This left three drivers in contention, and this number was reduced to only two when Dunne passed Voisin in race two. He won, with Fortec's Max Esterson third, to prolong the fight for the title to the final race. Loake came tenth and eighth in these two races and dropped out of contention. The final race was won by Hillspeed's Gerrard Xie, who came from third on the grid, in front of Pearson and Heuzenroeder. While Dunne finished ninth, three places ahead of Voisin, and also took one more point for overtaking during the race, he could not turn around the 22-point deficit and so Voisin won the championship.

Voisin only won two races, while Dunne and Loake won five races each, but was on the podium eleven times through the season, a feat that Dunne and Loake only managed seven and eight times respectively. All three title contenders had phases where they looked the fastest, with Loake starting the championship extremely strong and Dunne shining in the rounds abroad, but Voisin was close to the top throughout the year and never looked completely out of touch even when he lacked the pace. Loake and Dunne offered up a good fight that went down to the wire and offered good advertising for the championship, which had its strongest year yet, with a regular 25-car grid that only dropped lower than that on two occasions.

Championship standings

Scoring system

Points were awarded to the top 20 classified finishers in races one and two, with the third race awarding points to only the top 15. Race three, which had its grid formed by reversing the qualifying order, awarded extra points for positions gained from the drivers' respective starting positions.

Races	Position, points per race
	1st	2nd	3rd	4th	5th	6th	7th	8th	9th	10th	11th	12th	13th	14th	15th	16th	17th	18th	19th	20th
Races 1 & 2	35	29	24	21	19	17	15	13	12	11	10	9	8	7	6	5	4	3	2	1
Race 3	20	17	15	13	11	10	9	8	7	6	5	4	3	2	1

Notes

• ^{1 2 3} refers to positions gained and thus extra points earned during race three.

Drivers' championship

Pos Driver OUL SIL1 SPA SNE SIL2 BRH ZAN DON Pts R1 R2 R3 R4 R5 R6 R7 R8 R9 R10 R11 R12 R13 R14 R15 R16 R17 R18 R19 R20 R21 R22 R23 R24 1 Callum Voisin 3 2 Ret 6 3 48 2 2 1015 3 Ret 1112 3 5 C 2 1 149 7 6 510 1 2 1210 484 2 Alex Dunne 6 13 109 4 Ret 612 1 1 618 4 2 129 5 6 C Ret 4 118 1 1 168 3 1 911 466 3 Joseph Loake 1 3 1213 1 1 20 9 10 210 6 22 108 6 4 C 1 2 159 3 5 138 10 8 Ret 417 4 McKenzy Cresswell 20 18 Ret 5 2 58 7 3 1112 9 5 Ret 2 1 C 3 3 166 2 2 1112 Ret 5 610 390 5 Matthew Rees 2 11 1410 3 7 23 Ret 9 Ret 2 4 186 1 2 C 6 5 128 6 7 145 2 4 138 370 6 James Hedley 4 1 1110 9 20 104 8 6 46 1 3 136 11 11 C 4 8 138 Ret 4 Ret 4 6 117 347 7 Tymek Kucharczyk 5 8 137 14 9 815 3 5 715 5 DSQ Ret 4 3 C 5 7 Ret 12 10 18 9 7 Ret 296 8 Nico Christodoulou 11 10 18 Ret 15 27 12 8 163 Ret 9 89 7 8 C 13 13 25 4 3 193 8 12 47 261 9 Jarrod Waberski 9 DNS 510 10 5 21 19 11 36 15 12 4 22 7 C 10 6 Ret 8 24 89 7 9 76 239 10 John Bennett 19 9 Ret 2 4 118 15 12 95 10 11 20 18 14 C 7 16 108 10 14 75 11 15 18 217 11 Max Esterson 7 4 Ret 13 8 22 6 Ret 21 20 16 169 10 9 C 11 11 Ret 13 13 92 6 3 89 215 12 Noah Ping 12 Ret 7 12 12 13 Ret 21 19 7 1 146 9 10 C 16 21 51 16 12 24 19 11 16 204 13 David Morales 8 Ret 97 11 Ret Ret 4 14 156 14 13 21 14 22 C Ret 10 73 14 11 45 12 10 10 178 14 Zak Taylor 15 12 17 7 Ret 13 20† 20 Ret 11 7 94 8 12 C 9 9 89 11 23 103 153 15 Costa Toparis 22 7 68 8 6 143 10 13 12 21 6 151 20 15 C 17 12 17 17 15 20 15 16 Ret 151 16 Oliver Stewart 14 19 16 15 19 7 18 15 1 13 Ret 73 12 DNS C 19 15 95 9 8 122 Ret 21 54 150 17 Souta Arao Ret 6 157 Ret Ret WD 13 Ret 132 8 10 22 13 18 C DNS 14 Ret 5 9 173 5 13 154 146 18 Michael Shin 10 5 49 20 11 19 16 Ret Ret 12 8 19 8 17 67 Ret 18 1510 16 20 17 144 19 Edward Pearson 16 16 3 18 21 12 11 7 18 18 15 51 19 19 C 14 Ret 4 Ret 17 Ret 14 17 2 134 20 Gerrard Xie 21 DNS 83 17 14 175 5 4 143 17 17 17 17 17 C 15 20 Ret 18 19 Ret 17 19 12 128 21 Arthur Rogeon 18 20 Ret 21 10 32 Ret 17 20 16 21 2 16 13 C 12 Ret Ret 15 16 37 13 Ret 14 123 22 Daniel Mavlyutov Ret 15 1 19 13 183 Ret 22 17 24 18 1 21 21 C 20 19 1 19 21 11 20 14 19 116 23 Lucas Staico 23 17 Ret 16 18 159 14 16 52 22 19 3 15 16 C 18 18 32 WD WD WD 98 24 Ayato Iwasaki 13 14 26 22 17 9 17 18 8 19 14 62 WD WD C WD WD WD 85 25 Shawn Rashid 17 Ret Ret 23 16 164 Ret 19 Ret 23 20 23 Ret 20 C 21 Ret Ret DNS 20 6 28 26 Patrick Heuzenroeder 21 22 Ret 18 18 3 21 27 Jack Sherwood 20 Ret 22 1 Pos Driver R1 R2 R3 R4 R5 R6 R7 R8 R9 R10 R11 R12 R13 R14 R15 R16 R17 R18 R19 R20 R21 R22 R23 R24 Pts OUL SIL1 SPA SNE SIL2 BRH ZAN DON

Colour Result Gold Winner Silver Second place Bronze Third place Green Points finish Blue Non-points finish Non-classified finish (NC) Purple Retired (Ret) Red Did not qualify (DNQ) Did not pre-qualify (DNPQ) Black Disqualified (DSQ) White Did not start (DNS) Withdrew (WD) Race cancelled (C) Blank Did not practice (DNP) Did not arrive (DNA) Excluded (EX) Bold – Pole Italics – Fastest Lap

Teams' championship

Each team counted its two best results of every race.

Pos	Team	OUL			SIL1			SPA			SNE			SIL2			BRH			ZAN			DON			Pts
		R1	R2	R3	R4	R5	R6	R7	R8	R9	R10	R11	R12	R13	R14	R15	R16	R17	R18	R19	R20	R21	R22	R23	R24
1	JHR Developments	1	3	1213	1	1	20	4	9	210	2	4	108	1	2	C	1	2	73	3	5	45	2	4	10	844
		2	11	97	3	7	23	9	10	156	6	13	186	6	4	C	6	5	128	6	7	138	10	8	138
2	Rodin Carlin	3	2	68	2	3	48	2	2	1015	3	6	1112	3	5	C	2	1	108	7	6	510	1	2	1210	750
		19	7	Ret	6	4	118	10	12	95	10	11	151	18	14	C	7	12	149	10	14	75	11	15	18
3	Arden VRD	4	1	1110	9	12	13	8	6	46	1	1	89	7	8	C	4	8	25	4	3	24	4	6	47	716
		11	10	7	12	15	27	12	8	163	7	3	136	9	10	C	13	13	51	16	4	193	8	11	117
4	Hitech Pulse-Eight	6	5	49	4	11	612	1	1	618	4	2	129	5	6	C	8	4	67	1	1	1510	3	1	911	699
		10	6	109	20	Ret	19	13	Ret	132	8	8	19	13	18	C	Ret	14	118	5	9	168	5	13	154
5	Elite Motorsport	13	14	26	5	2	58	7	3	1	9	5	62	2	1	C	3	3	95	2	2	1112	18	5	3	603
		14	18	16	15	17	7	17	15	1112	13	14	73	12	DNS	C	19	15	166	9	8	122	Ret	18	66
6	Fortec Motorsports	7	4	510	10	5	12	6	7	36	15	12	4	10	7	C	10	6	4	8	13	89	6	3	2	528
		9	16	3	13	8	21	11	11	18	18	15	51	19	9	C	11	11	Ret	13	17	92	7	9	76
7	Douglas Motorsport	5	8	137	14	9	815	3	5	715	5	19	3	4	3	C	5	7	32	12	10	6	9	7	Ret	412
		17	17	Ret	16	16	159	14	16	52	22	20	23	15	16	C	18	18	Ret	DNS	20	18
8	Chris Dittmann Racing	15	12	17	7	10	32	20†	17	20	11	7	2	8	12	C	9	9	89	11	16	37	13	Ret	14	276
		18	20	Ret	21	Ret	13	Ret	20	Ret	16	21	94	16	13	C	12	Ret	Ret	15	23	103
9	Hillspeed	21	15	1	17	13	175	5	4	143	17	17	1	17	17	C	15	19	1	18	19	11	17	14	1	244
		Ret	DNS	83	19	14	183	Ret	22	17	24	18	17	21	21	C	20	20	Ret	19	21	Ret	20	19	19
Pos	Team	R1	R2	R3	R4	R5	R6	R7	R8	R9	R10	R11	R12	R13	R14	R15	R16	R17	R18	R19	R20	R21	R22	R23	R24	Pts
		OUL			SIL1			SPA			SNE			SIL2			BRH			ZAN			DON

External links

• Official website