The 2024 GB4 Championship is in the history books, with Linus Granfors becoming the first overseas driver to claim the championship title, powering to glory during the season finale at Brands Hatch in September.
We’ve done some number crunching to analyse the campaign, and created a series of ‘supertimes’ (see description below) to establish the quickest five drivers of the season. Did your favourite driver make the top-five? Read on…
5. Harry Burgoyne, KMR Sport
The young Scotsman made a big improvement in his second GB4 campaign, as he took the title battle all the way down to the final day of the season. He claimed his first ever single-seater podiums and wins, and was in sparkling form across the final two events, winning two of the last four races. His improvement was noticeable; based on supertimes, he was on average, over half a second closer to the absolute pace per weekend compared to his debut campaign in 2023.
4. Alisha Palmowski, Elite Motorsport
The Ginetta Junior graduate more than made her mark during her debut single-seater campaign. An instant impression was made at the Oulton Park season opener as she won the first race of the year, and was stunning at Snetterton as she took both pole positions on offer and two more wins. A constant presence at the front, she stood on the podium more times than any other driver this year, and claimed the runner-up spot in the championship.
3. Brandon McCaughan, KMR Sport
A tale of what might have been, the Irishman showed why he was the winner of last year’s GB4 Shootout for Formula Ford drivers with some outstanding performances in the first three events of the season. That included pole position and a win at Oulton Park, where he was the fastest driver of the event, and another win at Donington Park, which proved to be his last involvement in the series. A likely title challenger had he been able to stick around for the full campaign.
2. Linus Granfors, Fortec Motorsport
The champion was the outright fastest driver at four of the seven events, establishing a new series lap record at Silverstone, and a new qualifying benchmark at the Brands Hatch Grand Prix circuit, at the most important event of his career so far. The young Swede was also the driver to beat at Donington Park in May and again at Silverstone in July, as he cemented his place right at the head of the field. His speed was all the more impressive given that until this season, he’d never raced at any of the British circuits, and he’s surely one to watch as he ascends the motorsport ladder.
1. Lucas Blakeley, KMR Sport
Talk about making an impact… Blakeley had a point to prove when he returned to GB4 at the season mid-point at Snetterton, having contested selected events last year. The F1 eSports world champion demonstrated that not only is he a speed demon in the virtual world, but in real life too, positioning himself as the fastest driver during his comeback weekend and then at Donington Park late in the season. Though contesting four rounds means there’s less data to analyse compared to his main rivals, the fact he scored four wins and a total of nine podiums from the 12 races he contested proves he’d have been a title contender had he raced a full campaign.
The figures:
Burgoyne
First half average (rounds 1-4): 100.812%
Second half average (rounds 5-7): 100.663%
Season average: 100.749%
Palmowski
First half average: 100.565%
Second half average: 100.804%
Season average: 100.667%
McCaughan
Season average (three events): 100.369%
Granfors
First half average: 100.283%
Second half average: 100.296%
Season average: 100.260%
Blakeley
Season average (four events): 100.099%
Fastest times at each event:
Oulton Park: Brandon McCaughan, 1m35.419s (qualifying)
Silverstone: Linus Granfors, 2m00.896s (race one)
Donington Park: Linus Granfors, 1m28.381s (qualifying)
Snetterton: Lucas Blakeley, 1m48.383 (race one)
Silverstone: Linus Granfors, 2m00.540s (qualifying)
Donington Park: Lucas Blakeley, 1m29.285s (race three)
Brands Hatch: Linus Granfors, 1m24.291s (qualifying)
Criteria
Only the drivers who completed a significant portion of the season have been included in the calculations; we’ve taken three of the seven rounds as our minimum participation point.
What is a supertime?
From each race event, we’ve taken the fastest individual lap set by each driver and converted that into a percentage of the quickest outright effort from that event. This allows a greater spectrum of data to be analysed, and allows us to create a season-long average. The closer each driver is to 100%, the faster they were across the year as a whole. Around a 90-second lap, (similar to Donington Park and Brands Hatch) one percent is equivalent to just under a second of lap time.
