![\"Polesitter](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/pole-stiter-brad-benavides-aix.jpg\")
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Polesitter Brad Benavides, AIX Racing<\/p>\n
Photo by: Formula Motorsport Ltd<\/p>\n
Year: 2023
Highest championship ranking: 22nd in 2023
Races: 18
Poles: 0
Wins: 0
Podiums: 0
Points: 0
Best race result: 10th<\/p>\n
In 2023, Brad Benavides showed that graduating to F2 when you\u2019re already struggling at the lower levels may not be a great idea.<\/p>\n
Benavides was 21 when he moved to F2 with the unfancied PHM Racing<\/a> by Charouz outfit, having previously failed to score any points in Formula Renault Eurocup and the Formula Regional European Championship by Alpine, while his 2022 F3 campaign yielded just three in a sprint race.<\/p>\n It was therefore unsurprising that Benavides never qualified higher than 18th over nine qualifying sessions, failing to trouble the points-scoring positions \u2013 he ran a grand total of four laps in the top 10.<\/p>\n The Florida native, who also holds Spanish and Guatemalan nationalities, didn\u2019t see out the season. He switched to the Euroformula Open championship for 2024, taking the title with little competition \u2013 only three drivers competed in the full season. He\u2019s now back in F3, still with little success, although he did snatch shock pole positions at Spa-Francorchamps and Monza, as well as fourth place after leading most of the season-ending Italian race.<\/p>\n 9. Jake Rosenzweig Jake Rosenzweig<\/p>\n Photo by: GP2 Media Service<\/p>\n Years: 2012-2013 Jake Rosenzweig had plenty of experience when he joined GP2 with the Barwa Addax outfit in late 2012. The 23-year-old American had spent the previous three years in Formula Renault 3.5, also a direct feeder to F1 at the time, but never made it to the podium.<\/p>\n GP2 was slightly more competitive, and Rosenzweig never even scored a single point. His highlight was qualifying eighth in Monza \u2013 he otherwise never made the top 15 \u2013 but he retired from the feature race after four laps, when he was running sixth. At the time, feature race results formed the sprint race grid with the top eight reversed, so that was his only shot at a decent result.<\/p>\n The 2013 GP2 season transpired to be his last campaign as a racing driver, despite his wish for another year in the series; he opted not to maintain a social media presence, preferring to live in the comfort of anonymity.<\/p>\n Max Esterson, Jenzer Motorsport<\/p>\n Photo by: Simon Galloway \/ Motorsport Images<\/p>\n Years: 2024-2025 Unlike many of his peers, Max Esterson only started karting when he was 15, having previously shone on iRacing. He made his single-seater debut two years later, taking fifth in the F1600 Championship Series, before moving across the pond but staying in Formula Ford with Britain\u2019s own series, in which he took third.<\/p>\n A two-year stint in GB3 yielded a few podium finishes, including one victory, but Esterson struggled in F3 with Jenzer Motorsport, scoring points on just two occasions in 2024.<\/p>\n Unsurprisingly, the step up to F2 with Trident<\/a> has been tough too, despite Esterson taking part in the last two rounds of 2024 as preparation. The New York City native has qualified a highest of 14th this season, with his best race result 10th at the Red Bull Ring.<\/p>\n Esterson did briefly run second in the Jeddah feature race and third at the Red Bull Ring, but that was down to delaying his pitstops to the very last minute. Other than that, he has never actually troubled the points-scoring positions.<\/p>\n Esterson split with Trident by mutual consent after the Monza round.<\/p>\n 7. Conor Daly Conor Daly, Juncos Hollinger Racing<\/p>\n Photo by: Penske Entertainment<\/p>\n Years: 2013-2014 Son of Irish Formula 1 driver Derek, Conor Daly moved to GP2 full-time in 2014 after spending the previous two campaigns as a GP3 frontrunner with the renowned ART Grand Prix<\/a> squad \u2013 he took third place in the standings in 2013.<\/p>\n Daly had a first foray into GP2 with Hilmer Motorsport at the first round that same year, taking seventh in the Sepang sprint race, then moved to the series full-time in 2014 with the unfancied Lazarus outfit. Again, his only points finish was a seventh position in the Hungaroring sprint. He never qualified higher than 15th, and was generally outperformed by team-mate Nathanael Berthon<\/a>.<\/p>\n Since then, Daly has regularly raced in IndyCar, where he has however failed to win a race in 126 attempts, despite coming close on a few occasions.<\/p>\n Santino Ferrucci, Trident<\/p>\n Photo by: Joe Portlock \/ Motorsport Images<\/p>\n Years: 2017-2018 Santino Ferrucci has been a consistent midfield runner in nearly every series he has competed in. European F3, GP3, IndyCar\u2026 and F2, where he scored a handful of points over two short-lived campaigns with Trident.<\/p>\n What Ferrucci will be remembered for, as far as F1\u2019s feeder series is concerned, may not his performance on track but his shenanigans off the track.<\/p>\n His F2 career ended after a Silverstone round where he unsuccessfully requested a pro-Donald Trump livery for \u2013 political statements are prohibited on the cars.<\/p>\n Ferrucci collided with team-mate Arjun Maini<\/a> in the feature race, then pushed the Indian off the track in the sprint. He was summoned by the stewards but failed to attend the hearing and was disqualified from that contest.<\/p>\n The driver from Connecticut also hit Maini\u2019s car on purpose in the cool-down lap, with his own Trident team taking a stand against his \u201cunsportsmanlike and above all uncivilised behaviour\u201d both on track and in the paddock.<\/p>\n Ferrucci was banned from the following two rounds and got a \u20ac60,000 fine \u2013 plus another \u20ac6,000 for using his phone in his racing car. Yes, all of the above pertains to the very same race weekend.<\/p>\n A few months later, an Italian court ordered Ferrucci pay \u20ac502,000 to the Trident team over unfulfilled payments.<\/p>\n Juan Manuel Correa, Sauber Junior Team by Charouz<\/p>\n Photo by: Joe Portlock \/ Motorsport Images<\/p>\n Years: 2019, 2022-2024 Juan Manuel Correa\u2019s F2 story is sadly intertwined with Anthoine Hubert<\/a>\u2019s.<\/p>\n Correa graduated to F2 in 2019 with Charouz, after a GP3 campaign where he finished half the races in the points but none on the podium, though his Jenzer squad arguably was one of the more modest ones.<\/p>\n Reverse-grid sprint races treated Correa well with a couple of second places from the same position on the grid, but Correa was involved in Hubert\u2019s fatal accident at Spa-Francorchamps. The American-Ecuadorian was seriously injured and nearly lost his legs.<\/p>\n Yet, one year and a half later, he was back in F3, taking one podium finish over two seasons with ART. Then he moved back up to F2 with Van Amersfoort Racing<\/a> in 2023 and DAMS<\/a> in 2024. He was third in the Barcelona feature race last year, to everyone\u2019s delight.<\/p>\n In 2025, Correa competed in select IMSA and Indy NXT races.<\/p>\n Race winner Jak Crawford, DAMS Lucas Oil<\/p>\n Photo by: Formula Motorsport Ltd<\/p>\n Years: 2023-2025 Joining the Red Bull Junior Team in early 2020 after taking the runner-up spot in Mexico\u2019s F4 championship, then seventh place in USF2000, Jak Crawford impressed as he rose through the ranks, though he won no titles: second in ADAC F4, sixth in Italian F4, third in Euroformula Open, seventh in his sophomore FIA F3 season.<\/p>\n The Texan\u2019s first F2 campaign, with Hitech in 2023, yielded just 13th in the standings, but there were obvious glimpses of speed with five podiums \u2013 most of them in sprint races \u2013 including one win, and a pole position at Zandvoort.<\/p>\n Switching his allegiance from Red Bull to Aston Martin, a more experienced Crawford moved to DAMS for the next two seasons and became a consistent frontrunner \u2013 though maybe not consistent enough in 2023, when numerous points and podium finishes were tarnished by four feature-race retirements.<\/p>\n Crawford suffered a technical issue in Bahrain, was tagged into the wall in Monaco, collided with Rafael Villagomez<\/a> at Lusail and endured a braking problem in Abu Dhabi. However, he felt there was room for improvement in terms of set-up, with his average qualifying position a lowly 11th (Melbourne outlier excluded).<\/p>\n The DAMS driver\u2019s progress has been evident in 2025 with his qualifying average up to 8th, which has most often put him in a position to capitalise either in the feature race or in the sprint. There have been ups and downs still, but he has already scored more points than last year thanks to three wins, with the highlight his commanding victory in a wet Silverstone feature race.<\/p>\n Crawford currently lies fourth in the standings, but this wasn\u2019t enough to convince the new Cadillac F1 team to give him a chance.<\/p>\n Logan Sargeant, Carlin<\/p>\n Photo by: FIA Formula 2<\/p>\n Years: 2021-2022 Fort Lauderdale native Logan Sargeant<\/a> also pursued an European career from the get-go, finishing third in British F4 in 2017 \u2013 behind Oscar Piastri<\/a> \u2013 and fourth in the 2018 Formula Renault Eurocup; he was the second-best rookie behind Christian Lundgaard<\/a>, scoring nearly twice as many points as Piastri.<\/p>\n Sargeant had an underwhelming maiden FIA F3 campaign in 2019, scoring just five points with Carlin, but switched to Prema for 2020 and was involved in that season\u2019s remarkable three-way championship fight; however he retired from the title decider in a first-lap collision, missing out by four points against Piastri, with Theo Pourchaire<\/a> taking the runner-up spot by one point.<\/p>\n Sargeant\u2019s future looked bleak as he didn\u2019t have the necessary budget to graduate to F2. He spent another year in F3 with the modest Charouz outfit, but Williams took the Floridian under its wing and he had a first taste of F2 at Jeddah before taking on a full campaign in 2022, again with Carlin.<\/p>\n This was a success. Sargeant admittedly didn\u2019t challenge the experienced Felipe Drugovich<\/a> for the title \u2013 nobody did except Pourchaire \u2013 but beat Red Bull junior Ayumu Iwasa<\/a> to the \u2018top rookie\u2019 honours, impressing with two pole positions and two feature race wins.<\/p>\n This included a peculiar triumph at Red Bull Ring, where Sargeant didn\u2019t race a single lap within the top three but was declared the victor following many post-race penalties. His record could have been even better without a poor getaway from pole at Paul Ricard, followed by a technical issue at his pitstop.<\/p>\n Sargeant particularly impressed with his one-lap speed; his average qualifying position was sixth\u00a0\u2013 and even fifth when taking out a poor Jeddah outing. Only Drugovich and Jack Doohan<\/a>, both of them more experienced in F2, qualified better.<\/p>\n Williams gave Sargeant a chance in F1 in 2023, but let him go after a season and a half due to his lack of performance and his numerous crashes. The now-24-year-old took a year-long break from racing after the bruising experience took its toll, as he wanted to live a \u2018normal\u2019 life again.<\/p>\n Race winner Alexander Rossi, Racing Engineering<\/p>\n Photo by: GP2 Media Service<\/p>\n Years: 2013-2015 Alexander Rossi<\/a> was the most promising American talent on the road to F1 in the 2010s.<\/p>\n The Californian learned the ropes at the Skip Barber Racing School, then won the 2008 Formula BMW Americas championship \u2013 earning a maiden F1 test with the German brand \u2013 before moving across to Europe.<\/p>\n Rossi took a promising fourth place in the inaugural GP3 season, which was quite a remarkable result given his average qualifying result was 16th. This landed him a spot at Team Lotus (then set to become Caterham) as an F1 junior driver.<\/p>\n Rossi went on to finish third \u2013 and best rookie \u2013 in Formula Renault 3.5, then a feeder series to F1, but a switch to the new Arden Caterham outfit for 2012 failed to bear fruit, with just 11th place in the standings.<\/p>\n Caterham wanted Rossi to focus on being an F1 test driver in 2013, following Valtteri Bottas<\/a>\u2019 example after the Finn graduated to a Williams race seat that year.<\/p>\n However, due to Heikki Kovalainen<\/a>\u2019s return to the F1 team as a test driver and Ma Qinghua\u2019s sudden exit, Rossi was drafted into the Chinese racer\u2019s GP2 seat at short notice. He did well to finish ninth and best rookie again after missing the start of the season, taking a podium finish on debut, as well as a maiden pole and victory in Abu Dhabi.<\/p>\n Amid turmoil at Caterham, Rossi only took part in the first half of the 2014 GP2 season, deciding to leave the team when owner Tony Fernandes sold it. Results were more than underwhelming, with highs of eighth in qualifying and fifth in races.<\/p>\n Rossi swiftly found shelter at Marussia, where it was announced on Thursday ahead of the Belgian GP that he was going to race amid contractual issues for Max Chilton<\/a>; Chilton eventually got his seat back after FP1. Rossi got another call-up from Marussia for the Abu Dhabi round, but that time, the team didn\u2019t make it.<\/p>\n The Nevada City native was close to an IndyCar deal for 2015 but was handed an F1 lifeline by the Racing Engineering GP2 team. 2014 runner-up Stoffel Vandoorne<\/a> was completely untouchable that year, but Rossi scored points in 17 out of 21 races, only missing out in Hungary through a poor weekend and the second Bahrain round, where a feature-race collision ruined his chances.<\/p>\n One-lap pace still wasn\u2019t Rossi\u2019s forte. He qualified only four times in the top five, out of 11 rounds, but his racecraft made up for it \u2013 he won the Monza and Sochi feature races from eighth and third on the grid respectively.<\/p>\n Yet, his most impressive feat probably was his Monaco pole position by six tenths on a wet track, with victory eluding him due to a slow pitstop. When it came to beating Vandoorne in GP2, nothing less than perfection was acceptable.<\/p>\n Rossi went on to take part in five F1 grands prix with Manor (formerly Marussia), then became an IndyCar stalwart, taking a shock Indy 500 win as a rookie and finishing second in the 2018 championship.<\/p>\n 1. Scott Speed Scott Speed<\/p>\n Photo by: GP2 Media Service<\/p>\n Year: 2005 Back on the inaugural GP2 grid, Scott Speed was one of the more scrutinised drivers, with the Red Bull junior graduating to F1\u2019s new feeder series after winning the German and European Formula Renault 2000 championships.<\/p>\n However, that was an enormous jump to make \u2013 especially compared to, in no particular order, 2004 British F3 champion Nelson Piquet Jr and runner-up Adam Carroll; 2004 World Series by Nissan victor Heikki Kovalainen; Alexandre Premat, Nicolas Lapierre and Nico Rosberg<\/a>, all three in the top four of the F3 Euro Series in 2004; plus 2004 F1 drivers Gianmaria Bruni and Giorgio Pantano.<\/p>\n As it turned out, the season was overwhelmingly dominated by Rosberg and Kovalainen, but Speed was \u2018best of the rest\u2019 \u2013 by half a point over Premat.<\/p>\n Speed never won any races \u2013 he usually came up slightly short in feature races, most of the time between second and fifth, while never being in the key positions to prevail in the reverse-grid sprints.<\/p>\n The iSport driver took a remarkable pole position by nearly half a second at Barcelona, but lost out at the start and never recovered. His best chance of victory came in the Istanbul sprint, where he took the lead from fourth on the grid but switched to slicks too late on a drying track.<\/p>\n Speed earned a call-up to F1 for Toro Rosso\u2019s 2006 \u2018debut\u2019, but failed to score any points over 28 grands prix, getting sacked halfway through the 2007 campaign after reportedly falling out with team principal Franz Tost. His replacement? Sebastian Vettel<\/a>.<\/p>\n The Californian has now retired from racing, after mostly competing in various NASCAR and rallycross series following his F1 exit.<\/p>\n They briefly made it to F2\u2026 together<\/p>\n A rather strange coincidence was two US-based drivers making a one-off foray into F2 at the 2019 Red Bull Ring round.<\/p>\n Twenty-five-year-old Ryan Tveter, who had finished eighth and ninth in the previous two GP3 seasons with Trident, graduated to F2 for what turned out to be his last outing as a racing driver, standing in for Ralph Boschung<\/a> at the Italian outfit. He qualified 19th, 1.3s off the pace, and took 15th and 16th in the races.<\/p>\n Patricio O’Ward, MP Motorsport<\/p>\n Photo by: FIA Formula 2<\/p>\n A higher-profile youngster coming in that weekend was Pato O\u2019Ward, who had just joined the Red Bull Junior Team and got a chance to race for MP Motorsport<\/a> after Mahaveer Raghunathan<\/a> accumulated enough penalty points for a ban. The 20-year-old Mexican qualified 17th, just one tenth faster than Tveter, and raced to 19th and 14th. \u201cI got a proper ass-whipping today to be honest,\u201d he told Motorsport.com after the feature race. \u201cI don\u2019t know what to say. I\u2019ve never felt slower in my life.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n ![\"Jake](\"https:\/\/cdn-1.motorsport.com\/static\/img\/news\/jr.jpg\")
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Highest championship ranking: 28th in 2013
Races: 26
Poles: 0
Wins: 0
Podiums: 0
Points: 0
Best race result: 10th<\/p>\n![\"Max](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/max-esterson-jenzer-motorsport.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
Highest championship ranking: 21st in 2025 (provisional)
Races: 25
Poles: 0
Wins: 0
Podiums: 0
Points: 0
Best race result: 10th<\/p>\n
\n ![\"Conor](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/conor-daly-juncos-hollinger-ra.jpg\")
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Highest championship ranking: 26th in 2013 and 2014
Races: 20
Poles: 0
Wins: 0
Podiums: 0
Points: 4
Best race result: 7th<\/p>\n![\"Santino](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/santino-ferrucci-trident-1.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
Highest championship ranking: 19th in 2018
Races: 23
Poles: 0
Wins: 0
Podiums: 0
Points: 11
Best race result: 6th<\/p>\n![\"Juan](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/juan-manuel-correa-sauber-juni-1.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
Highest championship ranking: 26th in 2013 and 2014
Races: 68
Poles: 0
Wins: 0
Podiums: 3
Points: 80
Best race result: 2nd<\/p>\n![\"Race](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/race-winner-jak-crawford-dams-.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
Highest championship ranking: 4th in 2025 (provisional)
Races: 74
Poles: 2
Wins: 5
Podiums: 18
Points: 319<\/p>\n![\"Logan](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/logan-sargeant-carlin-1.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
Highest championship ranking: 4th in 2022
Races: 31
Poles: 2
Wins: 2
Podiums: 4
Points: 148<\/p>\n![\"Race](\"https:\/\/cdn-1.motorsport.com\/static\/img\/news\/ar.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
Highest championship ranking: 2nd in 2015
Races: 53
Poles: 2
Wins: 4
Podiums: 11
Points: 285.5<\/p>\n
\n ![\"Scott](\"https:\/\/cdn-1.motorsport.com\/static\/img\/news\/ss.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
Highest championship ranking: 3rd in 2005
Races: 23
Poles: 1
Wins: 0
Podiums: 5
Points: 67.5 (former points system)
Best race result: 2nd<\/p>\n![\"Patricio](\"https:\/\/cdn-1.motorsport.com\/static\/img\/news\/patricio-o-ward-mp-motorsport-.jpg\")
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