With the 2023 GB4 season now firmly in the history books, it’s time to reflect on another thrilling year of competition, which saw Tom Mills claim the title.
We’re starting off with a bit of number crunching, as we work out the fastest drivers on average across the season based on ‘supertimes’ (full description at end of article) from each event. Did your favourite driver make the top-five? Read on below…
5. Josh Irfan, Elite Motorsport
The single-seater debutant made a strong impression during his three GB4 rounds in 2023, as he showed great potential at Oulton Park, Donington Park and Brands Hatch. A first ever single-seater podium came at the opening round in Cheshire, and he was a regular top-five contender in qualifying too.
4. Liam McNeilly, Fox Motorsport
McNeilly made the step up from Ginetta Juniors to slicks and wings with Fox Motorsport, and is the highest contender on this list to have not raced a single-seater machine prior to the start of the season. Beginning the campaign, he was on average around 0.7% away from the fastest driver as he and the team adapted to their new venture, but he showed excellent progression to end the year as the second fastest contender on the grid, working out at around half a second of improvement per lap compared to his rivals throughout the season.
3. Colin Queen, Fortec Motorsport
The inaugural winner of the GB4 Shoot Out showed why he won that competition, using his speed to be a constant figure towards the sharp end of the pack. At the season opener, he was 0.78% away from the fastest outright driver, but set the fastest lap of any contender at the season ending event at Donington Park. His speed allowed Queen to claim 10 podiums throughout the year, and he moves up to GB3 with Fortec in 2024, aiming to challenge at the sharp end once again.
2. Cooper Webster, Evans GP
With lots of single-seater seat time under his belt already, albeit with more powerful machinery, Webster was expected to be a challenger this season, and he delivered on that all season long. An almost constant presence inside the top three, arguably his best weekend came at Snetterton when he was 0.3% faster than the field on average, winning two races. Another highlight was at the Donington season finale, when he won all three races. Based on raw pace, Webster was inside the top-three at six of the seven events this season.
1. Tom Mills, KMR Sport
With a full year of GB4 experience behind him, Mills was the driver to beat in 2023, as he powered to the title a round early. Despite close battles with most of the drivers on this list, Mills was able to make that experience count as he combined excellent pace and almost metronomic consistency to maintain his presence at the sharp end of the grid throughout. In his six events, Mills was only beaten on raw pace at Snetterton, but was on top everywhere else. Having done all he can to prove his worth in GB4, Mills now hopes to move up the ladder to continue showing this sort of speed.
Honorary mentions
A shout out to Theo Micouris, who made his single-seater debut at the Donington Park finale, and was immediately in the mix, proving the fifth fastest driver on average during the event, while Thomas Lee and Dylan Hotchin were the biggest improvers throughout the season, edging 3.766% and 1.716% closer to the pace respectively.
The figures:
Irfan
Season average: 100.865% (three rounds)
McNeilly
First half average (rounds 1-4): 100.874%
Second half average (rounds 5-7): 100.201%
Season average: 100.586%
Queen
First half average: 100.403%
Second half average: 100.210%
Season average: 100.320%
Webster
First half average: 100.330%
Second half average: 100.270%
Season average: 100.304%
Mills
First half average: 100.091%
Second half average (2 events): 100%
Season average: 100.060%
Fastest times at each event:
Oulton Park: Tom Mills, 1m34.592s (qualifying)
Silverstone: Tom Mills, 2m01.240s (qualifying)
Donington Park: Mills, 1m27.250s (qualifying)
Snetterton: Cooper Webster, 1m45.875s (qualifying)
Silverstone: Tom Mills, 2m00.775s (qualifying
Brands Hatch: Tom Mills, 1m24.773s (race two)
Donington Park: Colin Queen, 1m28.613s (race three)
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.
