Red Bull wonderkid enters 2024 championship fight- F2/F3 Power Rankings

Dr. Helmut Marko from Red Bull Racing in Miami — Photo: © IMAGO

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F2/F3 Power Rankings - Red Bull wonderkid enters 2024 championship fight

Formula 2 and Formula 3 were incredibly tight in Barcelona, but the best talent rose to the top

Jim Kimberley

Tuesday 25 June 2024 12:57 Updated: 15:53

The calm before the storm is over for Formula 1's primary feeder series as F2 and F3 returned to action for a European triple-header.

F1's Canadian trip meant those in the junior ranks had three weekends off before Spain, but as we saw in Barcelona, the current professionalism levels in F2 and F3 are at an all-time high.

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Pole positions secured by thousandths and even tighter qualifying results than in the pinnacle of motorsport show the depth of talent in these championships.

Spain saw new faces on the podium and championship challenges continuing. Here are my best drivers from Barcelona.

Formula 2

Jak Crawford - A

You might call the Spanish weekend a coming-of-age round for American hopeful Jak Crawford, who took his first F2 Feature Race win in style.

Missing out on pole position by just 0.002s could've made for a perfect time in Barcelona, but he'll be delighted to have entered the title race with this result.

Securing P4 in the Sprint Race, too, before taking P1 from Paul Aron on Sunday (in the worst TV direction this year...) could see the teenager's season ramp up at just the right time.

Paul Aron - B

If the worst mistake Paul Aron will make in 2024 is to run wide at the final corner and still walk away from the weekend with a podium and a P4 finish, he deserves to win the championship.

He retains his unbelievable record of securing top-three classifications at every 2024 round, albeit helped by misfortune for Juan Manuel Correa in the Sprint Race, with Aron becoming the first driver to breach the 100-point marker.

There's still no win for the Estonian, but he finally has a pole position to his name, so you suspect a P1 finish is just around the corner.

Juan Manuel Correa - B-

DAMS fired on all cylinders in Barcelona, with a stunning double podium on Sunday for Crawford and Correa.

The P3 finish by the American-Ecuadorian racer in the Sprint Race was unfortunate to lose for track limit violations.

Irrespective, history corrected the injustice one day later with his super drive from P8.

The fact this result came five years to the day since his last F2 podium, shared with Anthoine Hubert of all people, is stranger than fiction, and will be one of motorsport's top feel-good stories of 2024.

Formula 3

Arvid Lindblad - A

Someone must remind the youngest driver in F3 2024 that he isn't meant to beat his older, more experienced teammates in his rookie season.

The 16-year-old Briton is the championship's first 2024 repeat winner and could become Red Bull's hottest prospect should he continue his incredible form this summer.

With Formula 3's season at its halfway point, Lindblad has a great shot of becoming the title winner should he continue the consistency he's already shown in 2024, following Oscar Piastri, Gabriel Bortoleto, and Robert Shwartzman as a rookie champion.

Christian Mansell - B+

The young Australian Christian Mansell has consecutive P2 finishes in Feature Race trim now and three second-best-of-the-day results in 2024, but still no P1.

Pole position is a tremendous result for him, representing his incredible strides since joining ART this year, so you get the impression a win is inevitable before the season concludes.

He's up there in the points table, and with the races coming thick and fast this summer, he could vault into the top positions soon enough.

Alex Dunne - B

Yes, it's 'only' a reverse grid podium finish for the Irish rookie, but Spain represented the most complete weekend of the McLaren-backed driver's 2024 season.

He made up positions in both races from his top-12 qualifying spot and made history by becoming the first driver to fly the tricolour flag on an F3 podium.

As someone who didn't expect to be on the grid just weeks before the season started, this was a stellar result that I hope will see him attract enough attention to secure a 2025 seat.