The GB3 Championship was revitalised in 2025, with a stunning new car in the form of the Tatuus MSV GB3-025 and a bumper crop of new drivers determined to make their way up to F1. The international calendar of events featured some stunning racing and some standout performances, with one driver in particular demonstrating that he should be on the hot list for any F1 team's future line-up!
We've done our usual end of year number crunching to analyse the season, and created a series of 'supertimes' (see description below) to establish the quickest six drivers of the season. So let's reveal this year's speedy six!
6. Keanu Al Azhari, Hitech TGR
A superb first season outside of F4 for the Emirati driver, who was a constant threat towards the sharp end of the pack. Keanu threatened a title challenge when he took a well deserved victory during the second Silverstone round, with that performance part of a run where he was inside the top-three on outright raw pace across two consecutive events. That run at the Hungaroring and Silverstone netted four podiums from six races, including his win, and while his campaign fell away slightly after that with a couple of retirements, the Alpine F1 junior was still very much one to keep an eye on!
5. Noah Lisle, JHR Developments
The Australian driver started his season in fine style with a pair of second place finishes at Silverstone, where he was the third quickest driver across the entire event. He was second fastest overall at Monza, and was properly in the mix elsewhere as he led the challenge of the JHR Developments team. Further podiums at Silverstone and Donington Park weren't quite enough to put him inside the top-six in the end of year standings, which his pace suggests would have been deserved. Has been spotted testing GB3 machinery during the winter, and could be a strong bet for a title challenge in 2026.
4. Gianmarco Pradel, Rodin Motorsport
The second of several Australians on this list, Pradel was another to enjoy a particularly rapid mid-season run. He was second fastest outright at Spa-Francorchamps, and third quickest at the Hungaroring as he scorched to a maiden win and then his fourth podium of the season immediately afterwards. A second win came at Silverstone as well as four further podiums, but he just missed out on a spot in the championship top-three, despite a podium treble at Monza. An impressive season-long performance considering he had not raced on several of the circuits visited this year, and a promising future beckons!
3. Patrick Heuzenroeder, Xcel Motorsport
A massive improvement for yet another Australian driver in this year's super six! Patrick was ranked 12th on last year's list, so it's clear he made a major step forward in 2025, as he claimed the runner-up spot in the championship standings. Heuzenroeder was the third fastest driver on raw pace at Zandvoort, an event where he claimed his breakthrough victory, and then crucially was back inside the top-three for the season-ending events at Donington Park (where he was the second quickest driver) and Monza. Competing for series newcomers Xcel Motorsport, Heuzenroeder's pace ensured he was at the sharp end all season, and led the team's charge with absolute professionalism.
2. Deagen Fairclough, Hitech TGR
This year's top Brit, reigning British F4 champion Deagen Fairclough had a challenging first season at GB3 level, but was inside the top-three on pace at half of this year's events. He was closest to the pace at Zandvoort, just 0.1% away from the quickest driver as he claimed a podium double, and was second quickest again at the second Silverstone event, despite an eventful weekend. Inside the top-three again at Brands Hatch and Donington Park, he was just outside that position at Monza, but that didn't seem to matter too much as he finally clinched a first victory and another podium to secure third place in the final championship standings. Another to have been spotted in GB3 machinery during the winter, Fairclough has shown he has the pace to mount a serious title bid in 2026.
1. Alex Ninovic, Rodin Motorsport
Quite simply the most dominant champion in GB3 history, Ninovic was the outright fastest driver at six of this year's eight events, including each of the final five events! No wonder then, that he claimed a remarkable nine race wins from the 24 races, and was the clear winner of the Jack Cavill Pole Position Cup with 10 pole positions! Indeed Ninovic was only outside the top-two on outright pace one, at Spa, and even then he was fourth quickest, and still claimed a win anyway... On average, Ninovic was around 0.3s clear of the field based on percentages, with that figure boosted somewhat by stunning performances in qualifying at Brands Hatch, where he was half a second clear, and by his race pace at Donington, where he won with a margin of over 11 seconds (reduced to one second in the final results with a time penalty). His race laps there were quicker than his qualifying efforts, and set him up to win the title a full round early. What a season!
Honorable mentions
Hillspeed's Freddie Slater was another standout performer in 2025, across his three events his average pace was at 100.264%, putting him just behind Ninovic, and was the outright quickest driver at the Silverstone opener. Slater's Hillspeed teammate Kanato Le was the quickest driver across the Spa-Francorchamps weekend, while Hitech's Nikita Johnson broke into the outright top-three at Spa also.
The supertimes demonstrate it was another hugely close season, with the top-14 drivers covered by less than a second on average, despite Ninovic's superiority at the front!
The figures:
Al Azhari
First half average (rounds 1-4): 100.567%
Second half average (rounds 5-7): 101.025%
Season average: 100.796%
Lisle
First half average: 100.558%
Second half average: 100.944%
Season average: 100.751%
Pradel
First half average: 100.408%
Second half average: 100.961%
Season average: 100.684%
Heuzenroeder
First half average: 100.588%
Second half average: 100.516%
Season average: 100.552%
Fairclough
First half average: 100.513%
Second half average: 100.508%
Season average: 100.510%
Ninovic
First half average: 100.239%
Second half average: 100%
Season average: 100.184%
Fastest times at each event
Silverstone: Freddie Slater, 1m51.647s (qualifying two)
Zandvoort: Alex Ninovic, 1m29.894s (qualifying two)
Spa-Francorchamps: Kanato Le, 2m13.740 (qualifying two)
Hungaroring: Alex Ninovic, 1m37.445s (qualifying two)
Silverstone: Alex Ninovic, 1m52.508s (qualifying two)
Brands Hatch GP: Alex Ninovic, 1m17.660s (qualifying two)
Donington Park: Alex Ninovic, 1m23.823s (race two)
Monza: Alex Ninovic, 1m43.406s (qualifying two)
Criteria
Only the drivers who completed a significant portion of the season have been included in the calculations; we’ve taken six of the eight 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 Zandvoort) one percent is equivalent to just under a second of lap time.