Developing drivers in single-seaters involves multiple categories, not a single championship. One of the initial categories is British Formula 4, which sits early in the FIA Single Seater Pathway and gives drivers their first real single-seater experience before moving into more senior categories. The British championship was also part of the wider driver development process that produced Formula 1 champions in the past. It featured drivers like Senna, Irvine and Button and still draws new talent as drivers transition from karts to cars; the Virtuosi team’s participation in British F4 in 2022 was a step toward this category.
The team decided in October 2021, when Virtuosi officially stated it would compete in the 2022 British F4 championship. According to the team, the expansion plan had been on the table for several years. This decision came as Motorsport UK introduced changes to the championship. The team brought in two new Tatuus F4 T-421 cars, equipped with Abarth engines and halos. With this initiative, the Norfolk-based team entered the championship, where their drivers gained experience on British circuits.
The first season was a learning period rather than a championship campaign. Shin and Pearson represented Virtuosi in 2022, completing all 30 races. Shin scored one victory and one fastest lap, finishing 11th with 87 points, while Pearson finished 12th with 81. The team placed fifth in the Teams’ standings. The following year, Virtuosi expanded from two cars to three, signing Alibhai, Dedecker and Daryanani. Alibhai won at Knockhill and became the first South African to win a race in the current British F4 era. He finished eighth overall with 169 points, while Virtuosi ended the season sixth in the Teams’ Cup.
The year 2024 marked the first-ever title triumph for the team. Molnár, racing for the first time in his career in a formula single-seater, took the title of British F4 Rookie Cup in the season-ending round at Brands Hatch. He claimed eighth place in the Drivers’ Championship standings with 117.5 points, while Dodds and Fu claimed 16th and 18th positions, respectively. The Teams’ Cup ranking saw Virtuosi ranked fifth. Molnár’s rookie stats included five podium finishes, seven rookie wins and 22 rookie podiums in total in 30 races. Rookie Cup was still in doubt in the last round, when Molnár got ahead of Cui. The FIA also named Fairclough the overall 2024 champion and Hitech Pulse-Eight the winner of the Teams’ Cup.
Another end-of-season distinction followed Molnár’s result. He received the inaugural Jake Cook Memorial Award, introduced in 2024 and voted on by British F4 team managers. The award recognised progress, determination, and sportsmanship. It was named after Cook, who worked as an academy coach before he died in 2023. Virtuosi retained Molnár for the 2025 British F4 season. He subsequently finished third in the 2025 Drivers’ Championship with 277 points, taking two victories, three poles and five fastest laps. That later result falls outside the initial expansion period but provides further statistical evidence of the programme after its first Rookie Cup success.
The British F4 programme also gave Virtuosi a different role to drivers previously associated with its Formula 2 operation. Zhou raced for UNI-Virtuosi in 2019, 2020, and 2021. He finished third in the 2021 F2 championship before joining Alfa Romeo in 2022 as the first full-time Formula 1 driver from China. Doohan raced for Virtuosi in Formula 2 in 2022 and is currently fourth in the 2023 championship. He joined the Alpine Formula 1 programme and made his F1 race debut at the 2024 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. These are the  drivers’ individual results, but the form reflects the competitive record of a team that competed across different tiers of single-seater racing.
Bortoleto offers yet another example of a driver from the latter days of the organisation’s involvement in Formula 2 racing. The Brazilian driver made his Formula 2 debut in 2024 after winning the 2023 FIA Formula 3 Championship with two wins and six podium finishes. He then joined Invicta Racing, previously known as Virtuosi’s Formula 2 team, where he won the F2 Drivers’ Championship in 2024 before joining Sauber in Formula 1 in 2025.
Declan Lohan fits into this structure because he is one of Virtuosi’s founders, along with Andy Roche and Paul Devlin. The company was founded in 2012 by establishing a Formula 2 team and moved through the stages of Auto GP, Russian Time, UNI-Virtuosi, and British F4 until 2022. Even though the small-class team didn’t win a title right away, it added another level to the company. It delivered results, such as Molnár’s 2024 Rookie Cup. The Formula 2 record, meanwhile, included drivers who later reached Formula 1. Taken together, these programmes show how the organisation associated with Declan Martin Lohan developed from a Formula 2-focused operation into one with activity at an earlier stage of the single-seater ladder.
