Written by Ollie Lewis, Edited by Vyas Ponnuri
It’s not often that a young driver makes such an impact on various junior and feeder series in a relatively short space of time. Yet, one driver has been starring across various feeder series in 2024.
Freddie Slater is a 16-year-old racing driver from the UK, and he has won every championship he has entered in the past four years.
Like many successful drivers nowadays, Slater’s winning ways began in karting. He began his racing career at the young age of five, taking his first championship by the time he was 12.
Slater took the Original Kart Junior (OKJ) championship in 2020, racing 125 cc direct-drive karts around the Portimão Karting Circuit, competing against others up to 15 years of age.
Just a year later, he competed in the OKJ ‘Champions of the Future’ championship, a series attracting major young karting talents. Slater ultimately won that championship as well, wrapping up the 2021 season with another OKJ championship in the European series.
In the latter half of 2022, Slater graduated to single-seaters and Ginetta race cars, competing in the 2022 Ginetta Junior Winter Series. Slater piloted the 1.8L Ginetta G40 over the winter months to become the youngest-ever driver to win the Ginetta Winter Trophy.
Slater’s stellar form continued into the 2023 season, competing again in the Ginetta Junior Trophy. Much like the Winter Trophy, Slater put on a dominating display throughout the season and won the championship without even attending the final two rounds.
Slater broke records during the season, securing 16 race wins and being over 200 points ahead of the nearest contenders.
2023 also marked Slater’s debut into single-seat racing, having had his first entry in British F4 with Double R Racing in August. Over the weekend, he secured fourth in his first race and set the fastest race lap in his third race.
In September 2023, Slater made his debut with Prema Racing in the second and third rounds of the Euro4 championship, taking pole for the first race at Monza.
Despite not being able to convert pole position into victory, it still demonstrated a statement of intent for Slater’s future career.
Slater commenced his first full season in Formula 4 in 2024 by entering both the Italian F4 championship and the Euro4 championship.
Before this, however, he had a stint with Mumbai Falcons in the F4 UAE championship. Once again, Slater took the championship after a competitive season. He withstood competition from teammate Kean Nakamura–Berta, who finished just four points behind the Briton.
The warm-up in the UAE F4 series had clearly helped, as Slater swept the Italian F4 championship by taking 13 wins. Highlights from the season included a clean sweep at the opening round at Mugello, winning the trio of races, and taking as many as seven consecutive wins.
The Euro4 championship was also particularly successful with Slater taking second overall. In the final race at Monza, The Prema racer’s championship hopes were lost after an off-track moment in race 3 forced him to retire prematurely. However, despite the unfortunate retirement, Slater still enjoyed a stellar season in Euro4.
Before finishing his F4 commitments, Slater began moving into Formula 3 style machinery in the GB3 championship finale at Donington. Slater had tested GB3s with Rodin the week prior but couldn’t compete earlier in the season as he simply didn’t meet the minimum age limit of 16.
Conditions were certainly not ideal, changing regularly in true Donington style. In round one of the weekend, Slater finished sixth.
In round two, however, Slater fought through the adverse conditions to finish third. Unfortunately, Slater was dropped by one place, having received a post race penalty for forcing Noah Ping off at the restart.
The third round ended with Slater in fifth, splitting championship contenders John Bennett and Louis Sharp.
Following Slater’s remarkable performances during the 2024 season, Prema Racing announced that he would be stepping up to the Formula Regional European Championship (FRECA) in 2025 donning their overalls.
As a result of his successes throughout the year, Slater was also nominated for the 2024 British Racing Driver’s Club (BRDC) Young Driver of the Year award, emerging as one of four finalists alongside big names such as Formula 2-bound Arvid Lindblad.
The 4 nominated drivers competed for a £200,000 reward and a test with the Aston Martin Formula One team in mid-October at the Silverstone Grand Prix Circuit. As part of the test, all four drivers were assessed in Formula 2, Ligier LMP3 and Aston Martin Vantage GT3 machinery.
The winner of the award is yet to be announced, but becoming a finalist is an impressive feat for all drivers involved.
Freddie Slater is certainly one to watch for the future, with his junior career successes rivalling those of Oscar Piastri and Kimi Antonelli. It will be fascinating to see how his racing career develops over the coming years.
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