The Grand Prix World Series entered its third season of competition off the back of a hugely successful season two which saw multiple race winners and an intense battle for the championship that went down to the wire.
Scott Dixon of Simtek entered the season as the reigning League 1 champion having claimed his maiden title at the final round of Season 2, while Super Aguri was the reigning teams' champion.
16 races formed the calendar in a season that started off in Asia before heading to Europe and finished in the Americas. After Round 8 there was a Mid-Season Test in which each team was able to evaluate a new driver alongside its reserve driver.
At the end of the season, the bottom three teams from League 1 - AGS, Midland Racing, and Forti Corse - were demoted into League 2 for Season 4 while the top three teams in League 2 - Fondmetal, MasterCard Lola, and Force India - were promoted into League 1.
Scott Dixon wrapped up his second Grand Prix World Series drivers' title in League 1 while Minardi took home its first teams' title. Fondmetal beat MasterCard Lola to the League 2 teams' title in one of the most closely-fought championship battles in Grand Prix World Series history, while Marcus Ericsson topped Pascal Wehrlein and Tatiana Calderon in the battle for the League 2 drivers' title.
Following the conclusion of the season, the Grand Prix World Series will introduce the annual Macau Grand Prix as an end-of-season non-championship race, which will see the top 13 teams across both leagues qualify for the prestigious event and go all out for glory in a race which will have power and reliability equalised for the closest possible race.
Marco Wittmann was hit with a one-race ban for taking Kamui Kobayashi out of the Sepang Grand Prix. His seat at Prost for the Yeongam Grand Prix was taken by reserve driver Nicolas Prost.
Juan Manuel Correa also received a one-race ban following his part in Colton Herta's retirement from the Sepang Grand Prix. Rio Haryanto filled the vacant seat at Midland Racing in Yeongam.
Marcus Armstrong was banned from the Yeongam Grand Prix after he punted Sergio Sette Camara out of the Sepang Grand Prix, with Jaime Alguersuari taking his seat at Scuderia Coloni. Following an impressive drive to P4, Alguersuari was handed Armstrong's seat full-time.
Will Power received a two-race ban for multiple incidents at the Yeongam Grand Prix. Leyton House replaced the Australian with reserve driver Sebastien Buemi.
AGS took the decision to demote Tom Cruise to reserve driver after the opening two rounds and promoted Alex Palou into the vacant race seat.
Ahead of the Sentul Grand Prix, Minardi swapped reserve driver Nyck de Vries into Jean-Eric Vergne's race seat.
Susie Wolff was moved into a race seat at MasterCard Lola for the Sentul and Fuji Grands Prix in order to evaluate her performance in place of Sebastien Ogier.
Christian Lundgaard was hit with a one-race ban after taking Mike Conway out of the Sentul Grand Prix. Marcus Armstrong returned to a race seat in his place.
Sebastien Loeb also received a race ban from Sentul, with RAM Racing giving Gary Paffett his race debut.
Antonio Giovinazzi replaced Nicholas Latifi at BAR for the Fuji Grand Prix after the Canadian was banned due to wiping out the AGS of Alex Palou during the Sentul Grand Prix.
Rial took the decision to evaluate reserve driver Dan Ticktum in Oliver Turvey's race seat for the Fuji Grand Prix and the Kyalami Grand Prix.
After running out of patience with Kazuki Nakajima, Onyx Grand Prix demoted his to the reserve role and put Daniil Kvyat in his seat for Kyalami.
Leyton House shook up its driver line-up after Will Power returned from his two-race ban, putting the Australian back into a race seat while Sebastien Buemi took over Helio Castroneves' car.
Midland Racing elected to do a double driver change ahead of the Kyalami Grand Prix, replacing both Marino Sato and Juan Manuel Correa with Felipe Nasr and Naoki Yamamoto.
MasterCard Lola replaced Susie Wolff with Mick Schumacher for the Kyalami Grand Prix, giving the German his debut.
Zakspeed rested Sam Bird for the Kyalami Grand Prix, with reserve driver Oliver Rowland making his return to a race seat in his place.
Daniel Juncadella picked up a race ban at the Kyalami Grand Prix. His place at Arrows was filled by reserve driver Adrian Quaife-Hobbs.
Daniil Kvyat was handed a two-race ban at the Istanbul Grand Prix for separate incidents involving Nyck de Vries and Alex Lynn. Onyx Grand Prix gave Antonio Fuoco his return to the Grand Prix World Series in Kvyat's place.
Also receiving a race ban at Istanbul was Alex Palou, with the MasterCard Lola team agreeing to loan reserve driver Sebastien Ogier to AGS to fill the vacant seat.
Naoki Yamamoto was handed a two-race ban after taking both AGS drivers out of the Misano Grand Prix. Midland Racing's reserve driver Rio Haryanto stepped in for the second time as Yamamoto's replacement, and was eventually handed a full-time drive for the rest of the season.
Paul di Resta was banned from the Brands Hatch Grand Prix after taking Sebastien Bourdais out of the Dijon-Bourgogne Grand Prix. Oliver Bearman will make his GPWS debut with Super Aguri in di Resta's place.
Championship contender Sebastien Buemi also collected a race ban for Brands Hatch for his part in Robin Frijns' retirement in Dijon-Bourgogne. Leyton House reserve driver Helio Castroneves will be back in action as his replacement.
Nicholas Latifi picked up his second race ban of the season for shoving the HRT of Adrian Sutil into retirement at Dijon-Bourgogne. Antonio Giovinazzi was called upon again to fill the vacant seat.
Driver changes following the mid-season test:
Owing to inconsistent form, Arrows took the decision to replace Daniel Juncadella with Adrian Quaife-Hobbs. After two further rounds, Juncadella returned to the race seat.
Forti Corse swapped one Indian driver for another as Jehan Daruvala impressed enough in the test to take Mahaveer Raghunathan's seat for the rest of the season.
After topping the League 1 test for Minardi, Jean-Eric Vergne went out on loan to the Prost team where he replaced Artem Markelov.
Having impressed in the test, HRT handed Nick Yelloly his Grand Prix World Series debut in place of Adrian Sutil.
DAMS-Vaillante underwent a complete change to its driver line-up, with Mirko Bortolotti and Nelson Piquet Jr. replacing Simona de Silvestro and Theo Pourchaire for the rest of the season.
Jose Maria Lopez made his return to the Grand Prix World Series in time for the Hockenheim Grand Prix, joining the Manor team in place of Kamui Kobayashi who was demoted to the reserve role.
In a surprise move, Simtek moved Stoffel Vandoorne down to the reserve role from Hockenheim onwards and replaced the Belgian with Luke Browning.
Sean Gelael was banned from the Hockenheim Grand Prix, giving BAR reserve driver Antonio Giovinazzi another race at the team.
Following the Hockenheim Grand Prix, Manor returned Kamui Kobayashi to his race seat and moved Jose Maria Lopez into Romain Grosjean's seat for the rest of the season.
After giving Rio Haryanto a handful of races, Midland Racing put Naoki Yamamoto back in the car ahead of the Pannonia Grand Prix.
Alex Palou was handed his second race ban of the season at the Valencia Grand Prix, with AGS handing new reserve driver Zak O'Sullivan his Grand Prix World Series debut.
Lucas di Grassi was dropped from his race seat ahead of the Buenos Aires Grand Prix as Sam Bird made his return to a race seat at Zakspeed.
Following a string of disappointing results, Jehan Daruvala was dropped by Forti Corse with Swiss racer Louis Deletraz stepping in for his GPWS debut at the Buenos Aires Grand Prix.
After picking up a back of the grid penalty, Oliver Rowland was replaced for the Curitiba Grand Prix in a tactical move by Zakspeed to avoid starting from the back.
Rowland's replacement Sam Bird was disqualified from the Curitiba Grand Prix and collected a race ban, resulting in Rowland returning for the San Carlos Grand Prix and serving his back of the grid penalty anyway.
Jack Aitken was also handed a race ban for San Carlos, with Force India reserve Jerome d'Ambrosio making his race return in his place.
Antonio Felix da Costa was hit with a race ban following the San Carlos Grand Prix, meaning he will not be in action for the season finale. Minardi recalled reserve driver Jean-Eric Vergne from Prost to fill the vacated seat.
Prost was offered a loan of Romain Grosjean from Manor to replace the Minardi-bound Jean-Eric Vergne, which was accepted.
Midland Racing gave Rio Haryanto a final outing of the season at the Laguna Seca Grand Prix, replacing Naoki Yamamoto.
Pacific Grand Prix gave reserve driver Pietro Fittipaldi a chance to prove himself at the season finale in place of Sergio Sette Camara.
Results and standings[]
Grands Prix[]
Round
Grand Prix
League
Pole position
Fastest lap
Winning driver
Winning constructor
1
Sepang Grand Prix
1
Scott Dixon
Scott Dixon
Scott Dixon
Simtek
2
Marcus Ericsson
Jake Dennis
Brendon Hartley
Pacific Grand Prix
2
Yeongam Grand Prix
1
Antonio Felix da Costa
Antonio Felix da Costa
Antonio Felix da Costa
Minardi
2
Tatiana Calderon
Kimiya Sato
Tatiana Calderon
MasterCard Lola
3
Sentul Grand Prix
1
Helio Castroneves
Antonio Felix da Costa
Sebastien Buemi
Leyton House
2
Jaime Alguersuari
Jaime Alguersuari
Marcus Ericsson
Fondmetal
4
Fuji Grand Prix
1
Nyck de Vries
Romain Grosjean
Nyck de Vries
Minardi
2
Gary Paffett
Kimiya Sato
Kimiya Sato
Dome
5
Kyalami Grand Prix
1
Scott Dixon
Scott Dixon
Sebastien Buemi
Leyton House
2
Pascal Wehrlein
Marcus Ericsson
Marcus Ericsson
Fondmetal
6
Istanbul Grand Prix
1
Antonio Felix da Costa
Robin Frijns
Antonio Felix da Costa
Minardi
2
Pascal Wehrlein
Pascal Wehrlein
Pascal Wehrlein
Fondmetal
7
Misano Grand Prix
1
Nyck de Vries
Antonio Felix da Costa
Scott Dixon
Simtek
2
Mick Schumacher
Mick Schumacher
Pascal Wehrlein
Fondmetal
8
Dijon-Bourgogne Grand Prix
1
Nyck de Vries
Scott Dixon
Pato O'Ward
Arrows
2
Marcus Ericsson
Marcus Ericsson
Mick Schumacher
MasterCard Lola
9
Brands Hatch Grand Prix
1
Nyck de Vries
Nyck de Vries
Nyck de Vries
Minardi
2
Marcus Ericsson
Mick Schumacher
Marcus Ericsson
Fondmetal
10
Hockenheim Grand Prix
1
Nyck de Vries
Nyck de Vries
Pato O'Ward
Arrows
2
Mick Schumacher
Mick Schumacher
Mick Schumacher
MasterCard Lola
11
Pannonia Grand Prix
1
Antonio Felix da Costa
Antonio Felix da Costa
Antonio Felix da Costa
Minardi
2
Marcus Ericsson
Pascal Wehrlein
Tatiana Calderon
MasterCard Lola
12
Valencia Grand Prix
1
Nyck de Vries
Antonio Felix da Costa
Antonio Felix da Costa
Minardi
2
Marcus Ericsson
Marcus Ericsson
Pascal Wehrlein
Fondmetal
13
Buenos Aires Grand Prix
1
Jose Maria Lopez
Will Power
Antonio Felix da Costa
Minardi
2
Mick Schumacher
Mick Schumacher
Tatiana Calderon
MasterCard Lola
14
Curitiba Grand Prix
1
Jose Maria Lopez
Jose Maria Lopez
Scott Dixon
Simtek
2
Pascal Wehrlein
Pascal Wehrlein
Marcus Ericsson
Fondmetal
15
San Carlos Grand Prix
1
Kamui Kobayashi
Kamui Kobayashi
Nyck de Vries
Minardi
2
Marcus Ericsson
Marcus Ericsson
Marcus Ericsson
Fondmetal
16
Laguna Seca Grand Prix
1
Kamui Kobayashi
Kamui Kobayashi
Jose Maria Lopez
Manor
2
Pascal Wehrlein
Marcus Ericsson
Raffaele Marciello
Force India
NC
Macau Grand Prix
N/A
Sebastien Buemi
Marcus Ericsson
Marcus Ericsson
Fondmetal
Scoring system[]
Position
1st
2nd
3rd
4th
5th
6th
7th
8th
9th
10th
PP
FL
Points
25
18
15
12
10
8
6
4
2
1
1
1
Bold indicates pole position
Italics indicates fastest lap
R indicates driver retired from Grand Prix
D indicates driver disqualified from Grand Prix
Cars must be classified to receive points
In the event of tied points, the driver with the most wins will take priority. If they are still tied, it then goes down to most second places, most third places and so on until a result is declared. In the highly unlikely event of a complete tie, the cars will share the position.