Sandy Stuvik gambled on remaining in the EuroFormula Open for a second season, and was rewarded with a dominant display that took him to the title. The Thai driver was the one to beat all year long, and took eleven wins out of a possible sixteen.
That’s not to say that Stuvik had it all his own way, with his RP Motorsport team-mate Artur Janosz and Campos Racing’s Alex Palou both showing prestigious speed throughout 2014, with the three drivers sharing every win and every pole position on offer.
Sandy Stuvik was the dominant driver of 2014 (Credit: FOTOSPEEDY)
Stuvik was victorious at least once in every weekend during 2014 apart from at the Hungaroring, and took double victories at the Circuito de Jerez, Silverstone, Spa-Francorchamps and Monza. The Thai driver won the main championship with a few races to spare, and was also victorious in the Spanish Formula 3 Championship that ran at Portimao, Jerez and the Circuit de Catalunya.
Only twice did Stuvik fail to score points; a disappointing twelfth in race one at Portimao and a retirement due to a car issue in the second race at the Hungaroring, but his eleven wins, ten pole positions and five fastest laps showed just how dominant a year it was for the RP Motorsport driver.
Polish driver Janosz were able to finish second in the championship after a strong year, winning twice at Portimao and the Hungaroring, and taking eight other podium finishes, seven of which were for second place, with six of those as part of a 1-2 finishes with his RP Motorsport team-mate Stuvik.
Although unable to maintain a challenge to Stuvik for the title, he was one of the stars of the year, taking three pole positions and five fastest laps, and his consistency was enough to see him finish second in the championship.
Artur Janosz took two victories and the runners-up spot in the championship (Credit: FOTOSPEEDY)
In his first year in single seaters, Palou was victorious for Campos Racing in the opening race of the year at the Nurburgring, and was on course for at least a runners-up spot in the second race of the weekend before a car failure put paid to his chances, but from there on in, the Spaniard was a genuine challenger for wins and podiums, although he would only win twice more – at the Hungaroring in July and in the final race of the year at the Circuit de Catalunya.
His weekend in Monza cost him the chance of finishing second in the championship with a race one retirement and a nightmare race two where he finished a lapped sixteenth. He ended the year superbly in Barcelona, with a runners-up spot in race one followed by his third win of the year in race two. He only missed out on second place by a solitary point to Janosz, but got revenge in the Spanish F3 standings, beating the Polish driver 105 points to 91.
It was Alex Palou’s first year of car racing and he won three times (Credit: FOTOSPEEDY)
Of course, there were impressive results from other drivers, with Yu Kanamaru of Emilio de Villota Motorsport and Yarin Stern of Team West-Tec F3 both taking a number of podium finishes, while Konstantin Tereschenko, Andres Saravia, John Simonyan, Christopher Hoher and Cameron Twynham all took one podium finish each. In Twynham’s case, he was having a good season but quit after the rounds in Hungary when a move to the Formula Renault 3.5 Series materialised.
There were also a few one-off drivers in 2014 that came in and immediately impressed, none more so than GP3 Series rookie Nelson Mason, who only raced in the season finale in Catalunya and finished second in race two. Kevin Giovesi also raced just the once, this time at Monza, and took two fourth place finishes and a fastest lap.
But no one had an answer for Sandy Stuvik, the deserving 2014 EuroFormula Open champion.
