GB4: MSV’s little brother single-seater contest makes its debut in 2022 with a Taylor-made championship

This year the GB3 championship got a little brother, as organiser MotorSport Vision launched GB4 to offer, just below GB3, an affordable UK first-rung single-seater category.

“British F4 and international F4 series are very good championships,” MSV boss Jonathan Palmer tells Motorsport News, “but it comes at a price and a season is £300,000-350,000, it’s a lot money to raise for one year’s racing. GB4 is designed to fit a different niche, to complement British F4, at about half the price.”

Quickly after GB4’s launch no fewer than 10 teams planned entries. Twelve cars raced in Snetterton’s curtain-raiser, and turnout slipped into single figures for a couple of meetings.

GB4 though ended the season on the up, with 14 for Donington Park’s finale plus Fox Motorsport announced it’s joining next year with a minimum twocar entry, stating GB4 will prepare its Ginetta Junior graduates for GT racing.

“GB4 is rapidly gaining popularity now,” Palmer reckons, “it’s its first year and it’s done the job that we want it to.

“Starting anything from scratch, it’s always hard work. There’s understandable uncertainty about what it’s going to do and ‘ is it going to continue?’ But people can see very clearly now that it’s got a great future and it will be much stronger next year.”

Competing Fortec team boss Ollie Dutton agrees. “I’ve loved it, having two championships [with GB3] on a weekend works really well for us,” he tells MN.

“There’s a lot of interest in it. We’re looking forward to having a bigger grid next year. With the Ginettas coming onto this package it seems that the Juniors being here are part of it, and the racecraft is just exciting to watch.”

And GB4’s inaugural year found a worthy champion; one that GB4 was designed to assist. Fortec’s Nikolas Taylor prior to this season had scant racing experience – his background was largely in sim sessions – and was struggling to find a Formula 4-level race series within his budget. GB4 was ideal.

Taylor was usually the fastest – nine wins, nine poles and 10 fastest laps underline that – but self admittedly made mistakes born of inexperience.

His talent though is undeniable.

“The pace has always been there from the first time we got in a car at Snetterton in a Mygale F4,” Dutton notes, “we just weren’t too sure how he would get on with the racecraft because he’s never raced. And to be fair some of the moves, if we flash back to Oulton Park when he went round the outside at the last corner, you wouldn’t think he’s not been karting and really been out there racing close-wheel championships.

“There’s been some mistakes that he’ll learn from, it was hard to put him in a mindset of winning a championship rather than trying to win every race. But he’s matured so much this year, he’s got a good head on his shoulders.

“He’s a racer and he’s going to go off and do great things.” Taylor hopes, budget willing, to progress to GB3 for 2023.