Hugh Barter

Hugh Barter (飛雲・バーター) is an Australian-Japanese racing driver who last raced in the 2023 FIA Formula 3 Championship for Campos Racing.

He previously competed in both the Spanish F4 and French F4 Championship, finishing runner-up in French F4 in 2021 and 2022 respectively as well as in the 2022 F4 Spanish Championship.

He also competed in the Rotax Max Challenge Grand Finals on two occasions, where he achieved eighth and ninth places in 2016 and 2019 respectively.

Barter began racing in cars in 2021, having signed up for the French F4 Championship.

The first round at Nogaro brought immediate success, as the Australian took victory on Sunday, whilst the following event at Magny-Cours heralded a triple of podiums, bringing Barter into the championship fight.

However, the middle part of the season would not yield the strongest results, with just two podiums coming his way in the space of four rounds, which meant that Barter had lost a lot of ground to fellow contenders Esteban Masson and Macéo Capietto going into the season finale.

There, Barter showed some more goofd form, scoring a pair of podiums in the main races, and after a disqualification for Capietto, Barter inherited the win of the final race, which put him second in the standings.

For the 2022 season, Barter opted to remain in Formula 4, citing his lack of pole positions and their importance in higher-level championships, such as Formula Regional, as a main reason for him to stay in the category.

The Australian remained in French F4, whilst also competing for Campos Racing in the F4 Spanish Championship.

In the latter, Barter started his campaign out strongly, being victorious in the season opener at Portimão.

After this however, teammate Nikola Tsolov would become the dominant force within the championship, leading Barter to only take one podium from the subsequent two rounds.

He would experience a more successful weekend at Spa-Francorchamps, finishing second in all three races to Tsolov, cementing himself in second place overall.

At the next round in Aragón, Barter would add to his tally with two victories, as well as a third place in Race 2, before taking a hattrick of wins at Navarra, where he also took a pair of pole positions.

By this stage, Tsolov had been crowned as the champion, with Barter ending his season by scoring two further podiums at Barcelona, securing himself the runner-up spot.

In the latter championship, the Australian proved his experience within the category by taking pole position for and winning the main races in Nogaro, before following that up with a win at the tricky Pau Circuit, taking the overall lead which he extended with another podium in Race 3 on the same weekend.

Throughout the next four events, Barter would win seven races and take two more podiums in a dominant display at Lédenon, but he would be hindered from taking any points from the weekends at Spa and Valencia, as he had competed at those tracks during his Spanish F4 campaign, which meant that the Australian went into the season finale with a 32-point deficit to Alessandro Giusti.

An early retirement in Race 1 meant an end for Barter's title ambitions, as, despite taking another podium on Sunday, he finished second in the championship.

In late September 2022, Barter partook in the FIA Formula 3 post-season test with Campos Racing during the second and third days.

In January 2023, Campos announced that Barter had signed with the team for the full 2023 season.

Barter had a difficult season, having to wait until the fifth round at the Red Bull Ring to score points, placing eighth in the feature race.

He finished sixth in the Silverstone sprint race after a right gamble, and again finished sixth in the Spa sprint race having started on reverse pole.

Shortly before the Monza finale, it was announced that Barter would be unable to complete the season due to unspecified issues, and was replaced by FRECA racer Joshua Dufek.

After starting to race in karts at the age of six, Barter progressed into national competitions, where he came second in the Australian Kart Championship in 2019 and won the opening round of the 2020 season, prior to the season being abandoned due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

He placed 19th overall, with 14 points.

In April 2023, Barter participated in the Formula E Berlin rookie test with Maserati MSG Racing.

Barter was born in Nagoya to a Japanese mother and Australian father and grew up in Melbourne.

‡ The championship was cancelled after two rounds due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate points for the fastest lap of top ten finishers)