On a day of a brand new era of car machinery making its racing debut, there would be further history on Saturday morning, as Santiago Ramos became the first driver from Mexico to win a race in the FIA Formula 3 championship.

Ramos converted his reverse grid pole into his maiden victory in a very strong showing as he demonstrated great speed, resilience and calmness behind the wheel. A great kick start to the celebrations for his team Van Amersfoort Racing, who this year are celebrating their 50th anniversary.

The Mexican driver, who is using the number 21, took victory from Hitech's McLaren development driver Martinius Stenshorne who finished second. The pair would be joined on the podium by rookie Roman Bilinski. The Polish driver finishing third on his Formula 3 debut in a sensational drive.

It was a race with so much action that finished behind the safety car. Only 22 of the 30 that started would see the chequered flag and complete every lap available to them.

On Saturday, it would be time to go racing, in a brand new era of FIA Formula 3, with a brand new piece of machinery the drivers would be using to race from 2025 onwards! This would be the first change of Formula 3 machinery, since the championship's formation in 2019.

Albert Park in Melbourne, Australia would be the venue to play host to this brand new era but it would also play host to the opening round of the 2025 FIA Formula 3 Championship. It would be time for racing action, following the free practice and qualifying on Friday and Saturday.

On Friday morning it would be the Trident of Rafael Camara, who would finish fastest in his first ever competitive Formula 3 session. The 2024 FRECA champion would also go and take pole position later on in the day, during his debut qualifying session.

It would be a qualifying session that would have two red flags, one for Brando Badoer who spun at turn 2 while Christian Ho would stop with a mechanical issue, which would bring the session to a close.

Badoer would be found to have been the direct cause of the red flag and was subsequently penalised as it is a breach of the Sporting Regulations of the FIA Formula 3 Championship. This would see him have his best lap time of the session deleted, which initially had him 19th. In the final classification, Badoer would end 28th - the lowest out of the classified drivers.

As for the Formula 3 sprint race, which would be the first race of the 2025 season but the first of two across the weekend, with the feature race to come on Sunday. The top 12 from qualifying would be reversed to form the starting grid.

Starting on the reverse grid pole would be Van Amersfoort's Santiago Ramos, who would be starting from the front of the field. Alongside Ramos would be the DAMS Lucas Oil of Matias Zagazeta, with DAMS having a great chance to get a great result on Formula 3 debut this weekend.

It would be time for the race and once all 30 drivers had made their way around the Albert Park Circuit on the formation lap, it would be time to go racing for the first time in 2025.

The lights would go out and pole sitter Ramos would get off the line well and hold off the challenge from Zagazeta, who was having to focus on the drivers behind him. It was a very bright start for Ramos who was clear of the challenges.

Meanwhile Zagazeta was having an intense battle between Roman Bilinski, Martinius Stenshorne and even Tasanapol Inthraphuvasak. 

Racing would be neutralised soon enough due to Trident's Charlie Wurz having a tangle with MP Motorsport's Tim Tramnitz on the opening lap. The Virtual Safety Car (VSC) would be deployed and this would give marshals the chance to move the broken Trident to a safe place.

Another tangle on the opening lap would be between the Rodin Motorsport of Louis Sharp and the Hitech of TGR at turn 11. The Stewards would see this the fault of Dufek and would hand him a 10-second time penalty for causing a collision.

Lap three and the race would be back underway with immediate action as Tramnitz would take fifth from Inthraphuvasak who was caught off guard by drivers in front of him.

Meanwhile drama between the ART cars and the Trident of Rafael Camara. Laurens Van Hoepen and James Wharton would both be significantly involved in the incident and they would be forced to retire as well as Camara.

The Safety Car (SC) would be introduced for the first time in 2025 with Van Hoepen and Camara on the circuit whereas Wharton managed to get his ART car back to the pits but it was in too poor of a position for him to continue the race.

Wharton would later receive a time penalty of 10 seconds whilst already being out of the race.

During the SC period, Tramnitz seemed to have a mechanical issue as he stopped on the entry of the pit lane on lap seven. He would then proceed to go through the pit lane and rejoin the track and do one more lap. The following lap he would pit again to retire the car.

However, he would return to the circuit many laps down, in the later parts of the race, to get some lap times set and get important data for Sunday's feature race.

End of lap eight and the safety car would enter the pits once again and the race would be back to green flag racing conditions. Ramos handled the restart well and would take control once again out front.

It would be a dramatic restart with Theophile Nael and Nikita Bedrin having a fascinating battle on the run down to turn three. 

A good restart lap from Ramos would see him being chased by Stenshorne but Ramos was doing enough to hold off the charging Norwegian, in what was some great driving from both talents trying to further their careers.

Lap 16 of 20 and the SC would be re-introduced with a clumsy accident between AIX's Javier Sagrera and MP Motorsport's Bruno Del Pino in what was a fairly big accident that required clearing up by the hardworking marshals.

Due to the little time left in the race, the first Formula 3 race of the 2025 campaign would finish behind the safety car, meaning FIA Formula 3 history was about to be made once again. 

For the first time in the modern FIA Formula 3 Championship, it would be a Mexican driver to take victory. Santiago Ramos for Van Amersfoort Racing, on the team's 50th year anniversary, would be the man to do it, in a deserving victory.

Ramos would take the victory ahead of Norwegian McLaren Development driver Martinius Stenshorne, who would have to settle for second.

Someone who had flown under the radar throughout was Roman Bilinski. The Polish driver kept his nose clean and finished third on his debut FIA Formula 3 race - a great achievement from the Rodin Motorsport driver.

Campos' Tasanapol Inthraphuvasak was fourth with Matias Zagazeta completing the top five in a great result for DAMS Lucas OIl. The first ever Formula 3 race for DAMS Lucas Oil and they secure a top five finish on debut.

Nikita Bedrin of AIX Racing was sixth ahead of Theophile Nael in seventh place. Nikola Tsolov, Callum Voisin and Noel Leon rounded off the top 10 finishers.

Formula 3 action would return on Sunday morning in Melbourne for the first feature race of the 2025 season.

Brandon Whiteside
​Writer - F1 Journal

Brazilian racer Rafael Camara took his maiden pole positions in Melbourne, on Friday, in his debut qualifying session of FIA Formula 3.

Camara, the reigning Formula Regional European Championship by Alpine champion (FRECA), is in his first ever weekend competing in the championship has taken pole position, after topping practice earlier on Friday.

The Ferrari Academy driver took pole in a Trident 1-2 ahead of new Mercedes junior driver Noah Stromsted, who missed out on pole by just over a tenth. On debut Theophile Nael qualified third for Van Amersfoort Racing, but will be under investigation after the session for his cooling box being attached as he left the pit lane during the session.

Qualifying in Melbourne signalled the first qualifying session in this new era of regulations for FIA Formula 3. In doing so, it is a historic day for the championship. However, the session itself was overshadowed by two red flags in the latter stages of proceedings.

One was for Brando Badoer, while a second was for Christian Ho. The session was confirmed to not be restarted with only two minutes and 36 seconds remaining. Race Control deemed there to be not enough time for any further flying laps to be recorded.

Following qualifying 12th, Van Amersfoort's Mexican driver, Santiago Ramos, will start Saturday's sprint race from pole position.

A brand new era of Formula 3 had entered 2025 with a brand new car, a brand new type of fuel, as well as brand new 16-inch tyres. FIA Formula 3 had gone through a massive transition and an entirely new era was awaiting to embark itself on the Albert Park Circuit.

Albert Park in Melbourne was the place where Formula 3 would embark on its first race weekend of the new era, with track action beginning on the Friday, which could only mean one thing on a Formula 3 weekend - qualifying day.

Earlier, on Friday morning in Melbourne, it was Trident rookie Rafael Camara who was fastest in his first ever Formula 3 session in a race weekend. It did not matter though for the reigning FRECA champion, who was fastest ahead of MP Motorsport's Tim Tramnitz.

Would he take pole position? He would certainly be hoping to, with it being his debut round and there would be no better way to conclude his first day on a Formula 3 race weekend.

The Formula 3 qualifying has not changed from 2024 to 2025 and the session would last 30 minutes, with all 30 drivers competing at once for the first championship points of the season, with two on the line.

At the end of the session, the top 12 would have the most significance. For Saturday's sprint race, the 12 are reversed, with the driver who qualified from 12 starting from reverse grid pole position.

The green light would be on at the end of the Albert Park pit lane and that would signify the start of the first ever qualifying session in the new era of FIA Formula 3.

Soon enough, the first lap times would start to be set and Roman Bilinski would set an early benchmark lap time for Rodin Motorsport. The Polish driver's time to beat was 1:36.125. The time would very much soon be beaten and that would be by the Mercedes junior driver - Noah Stromsted.

Stromsted would go to provisional pole, although it might have been his Trident teammate Camara had it not been for traffic in his way. The Brazilian would have to settle for third for the time being - behind Bilinski.

A third of the qualifying session was complete and it would be Stromsted still with the provisional pole lap time. Roman Bilinski, Martinius Stenshorne, Rafael Camara and Louis Sharp would be the provisional top five,

This would be until Nikita Bedrin would beat all of them and take provisional pole position for AIX Racing. A 1:35.873 for Bedrin and he would be now the driver to beat.

However, the track was ramping up and there were a vast amount of improvements coming in. Van Amersfoort's Theophile Nael would go to provisional pole position, as he beat Bedrin's lap by two tenths of a second.

Then it would be the turn of the rapid Brazilian Camara, who would go to provisional pole position, with a lap half a second faster than Nael's lap time that was fastest previously. With just under 10 minutes to go, it would be a Trident 1-2 as Stromsted improved to second place.

Just over five minutes remaining in the session and the red flag would be brought out for the first time due to Brando Badoer hitting the wall at turn 2 and spinning. This would bring a halt to proceedings, but this would be worse for Badoer.

Badoer seemed to make the red flag off his own accord, and under the Formula 3 rules, if you cause a red flag during qualifying, your personal best lap time is removed. Badoer would be investigated for the supposed offence after the session.

The clock would be paused so when the session restarted, there would be time for drivers to head out and get one more flying lap under their belts to try and improve their previous positions.

Nael was in a rush to leave the pits but maybe in too much of a rush as there was a cool box still remaining attached to his Formula 3 Van Amersfoort machine, where he would be instructed to try and get it back safely from his team. This would be investigated after the session

However, the session would be halted anyway as DAMS Lucas Oil's Christian Ho had come to a stop with an apparent technical issue on the approach to turn 3. However, just to be sure Stewards would investigate him for potentially being the cause of a red flag - after the session.

Following the second red flag, Race Control would confirm that the session would not be resumed and therefore that signified the end to the first qualifying session of the 2025 FIA Formula 3 Championship.

Therefore, it would be a first and maiden pole position for Rafael Camara of Trident. The reigning FRECA champion would take his maiden pole positon on his debut in the championship. 

A fantastic achievement for Camara, who finished ahead of his Mercedes junior Trident teammate Noah Stromsted, who was second in a 1-2 for the team. It will be a front row lockout for Trident for Sunday's feature race.

Theophile Nael is provisionally third but he and Van Amersfoort are under investigation after the session. Nikita Bedrin of AIX and Tim Tramnitz of MP Motorsport complete the top five in the provisional classification.

Charlie Wurz was the third Trident, making it all three of their cars in the top six, with his sixth place in qualifying. Campos' Tasanapol Inthraphuvasak was seventh ahead of the highest placed Prema, Ugo Ugochukwu, who was eighth. 

Martinius Stenshorne of Hitech and Roman Bilinski of Rodin Motorsport completed the top 10, after the pair finished ninth and 10th respectively.

DAMS Lucas Oil's first qualifying was marked by Matias Zagazeta finishing 11th, which provisionally is  a front row start for Saturday's sprint race. Santiago Ramos of Van Amersfoort is to start from reverse grid pole after qualifying 12th.

The sprint race is next in FIA Formula 3, which will take place on Saturday at Albert Park.

Brandon Whiteside
Writer - F1 Journal

Ferrari Academy driver Rafael Camara, driving for Trident, topped the first free practice session of the new Formula 3 era and season, on Friday morning in Australia.

Camara topped the time sheets at the Albert Park Circuit in Melbourne, in what was a very busy session, as teams and drivers were getting used to the machinery on its first ever race weekend in the championship.

The Brazilian driver was fastest ahead of MP Motorsport's Tim Tramnitz who was second, while Campos' Mari Boya completed the top three. Boya's Campos teammate Nikola Tsolov, and the Mercedes junior of Trident, Noah Stromsted, completed the top five.

Free Practice would end abruptly with five minutes remaining, due to a red flag which was caused by a mechanical issue to reigning GB3 champion Louis Sharp.

Friday in Melbourne signified the start of the first round of the 2025 campaign, a brand new era of FIA Formula 3, with the brand new machinery making its first appearance in this season of racing.

It would also be the first time the opening round would be held in Melbourne, in the FIA Formula 3 Championship's history.

The green light would be on at the end of the pit lane, following a three-minute delay to the start of the session. Free Practice would be underway with Javier Sagrera of AIX Racing the first car on circuit.

At the very start of the session, there would be a small Virtual Safety Car test (VSC) to give the drivers a practice simulation in case one is needed to be used across the racing action, on Saturday and Sunday.

Soon the green flags would be flying once again and the session would be underway. Drivers would begin to set lap times and after the first 10 minutes of the session had passed, it was Van Amersfoort Racing's Santiago Ramos who was provisionally fastest.

There were many drivers that were finding time out on circuit. This would include Rodin's New Zealander, Louis Sharp who would be the next to go quickest overall. However, with half an hour remaining it would be the Hitech of Joshua Dufek that would have the quickest time.

However, it would not be long before Dufek had his lap time dislodged. Formula Regional European Championship by Alpine (FRECA) reigning champion, Rafael Camara, would be the man to go fastest for the Trident team.

Trident, who had led Gabriel Bortoleto and Leonardo Fornaroli to the two most recent Formula 3 titles would be the home of Camara's 2025 Formula 3 campaign. Could the reigning FRECA champion become the next Formula 3 champion?

Well with 20 minutes remaining, Camara's time of 1:34.901 would be the time to beat. It was just seven thousandths of a second faster than the time of Mari Boya, in the Campos, who had improved to second.

Camara would be beaten though and it would be by the Red Bull junior of Tim Tramnitz. MP Motorsport had trusted Tramnitz with a second season of their machinery, and he would beat Camara's time to go fastest by nine thousandths.

Tramnitz would be top with 10 minutes to go but he would be beaten again by Camara, who was showing fine pace in that Trident machine.

However, with five minutes remaining, the session would be brought to a halt due to a red flag being waved. Sharp pulled to the side of the road with a mechanical issue on the approach to turn 3.

The session would not be resumed in time for there to be any additional running on circuit, which brought an abrupt end to the first free practice of the 2025 campaign.

At the end of the session, it would be Rafael Camara, who would sit fastest overall with a time of 1:34.652 - in his first FIA Formula 3 free practice session.

Camara's lap would be over two tenths clear of Tim Tramnitz, who would have his MP Motorsport car sitting in second place. Mari Boya completed the top three for Campos, with his teammate Nikola Tsolov in fourth. New Mercedes junior, Noah Stromsted, was fifth to make it two Trident cars in the top five.

Tasanapol Inthraphuvasak in the third Campos would end sixth, ahead of Hitech duo Joshua Dufek and Martinius Stenshorne, who were seventh and eighth respectively. MP Motorsport's Williams Academy star  Alessandro Giusti was ninth, with Santiago Ramos rounding off the top 10.

Formula 3 action would return on Friday afternoon local time for the first qualifying of the new era and of 2025.

Brandon Whiteside
Writer - F1 Journal

For the first time since September 2024, it is time to go racing this coming weekend in Australia, for the opening round of the 2025 FIA Formula 3 Championship.

Formula 3 has not been racing since that frantic Feature Race finale in Monza, which saw Leonardo Fornaroli take the title with a last lap, final corner overtake on Christian Mansell. The 30 drivers kick-starting the season in Melbourne will be hoping to follow in Fornaroli's footsteps.

It will be just the third time that FIA Formula 3 has made the trip to the infamous Albert Park Street Circuit, in Melbourne, Australia, after making its debut in 2023. However, it will be the first time that Formula 3 will have its opening round hosted down under.

New team DAMS Lucas Oil will be making their race debut this coming weekend, as the French outfit replace the outgoing Swiss team Jenzer Motorsport This is the start of a brand new era for Formula 3 with brand new machinery having its rookie season in 2025.

The opening round in Melbourne will be the opening round of a 10-round season, with the season finishing at Monza, in Italy, at the start of September. Throughout the season, there is bound to be unexpected action as is the norm.

Since FIA Formula 2 and FIA Formula 3 both arrived at Albert Park for the first time, in March 2023, it has become a fan favourite and a venue centred around drama on each of the Formula 2 and Formula 3 calendars.

The modernised layout of the Albert Park was first used in 2022, but it would take 12 months for either Formula 2 or Formula 3 to race there. It would just be the second time for FIA Formula 3 going racing in Albert Park, in 2024.

Overtakes, drama, maiden victories and even heated exchanges have all been part of the action at  Albert Park, in the two previous visits.

The most recent season in 2024 saw drama before qualifying had began in Melbourne, as during free practice, Nikola Tsolov vented his anger at Alex Dunne for getting in his way, while Tsolov was on a flying lap. Venting anger and frustration saw Tsolov hit Dunne out on circuit - putting Dunne out of free practice and bringing out a red flag.

When it boiled down to the qualifying at Albert Park, for round two of the 2024 season. Pole position on Friday down under would be Leonardo Fornaroli, who ended up becoming that year's Formula 3 champion.

Fornaroli would take pole position ahead of two Prema drivers, with Gabriele Mini ahead of Dino Beganovic, with the pair second and third respectively.

On Saturday's sprint race, Martinius Stenshorne took his maiden victory in Formula 3, and his only one to date, in action-packed race at Albert Park. This would be a win that contributed into McLaren welcoming him into their Driver Development Programme before the third round in Imola.

Stenshorne would take the victory ahead of Prema rookie Arvid Lindblad, who was second, with Laurens Van Hoepen in third for ART Grand Prix - making it an all-rookie podium, to show the excess in talent on the 2024 Formula 3 grid.

When attention turned to the feature race on Sunday, it would be another maiden victory but this time for Dino Beganovic, who took victory for the first time, in his second season of the championship.

Beganovic won ahead of pole sitter Fornaroli, who was second, with Mini third to complete the podium positions.

Formula 3 will have its new era embark on the Albert Park street circuit to kick start the first ever round of the new machinery. The circuit itself has 14 corners and a lap distance of 5.278km long.

DRS plays a role in FIA Formula 3 and around the circuit there are four zones in total - down into turns 1, 3, 9 and 11. This means plenty of chances for overtakes to be made and that is a great advertisement for a lot of action ahead.

Across the weekend, there will be 20 laps to come on Saturday's sprint race, with Sunday's feature race having 23 laps.

Now Formula 1 driver Gabriel Bortoleto has the lap record at Albert Park, with a 1.33.025 that he set in his maiden and only season of Formula 3 back in the 2023 campaign.

The first ever round of the Formula 3 Championship, in this new era of machinery, is to begin this coming weekend in Melbourne. With free practice starting the season off on Friday morning local time, which is Thursday evening for UK viewers.

Brandon Whiteside
Writer - F1 Journal

Friday morning rolled around and if learning the new FIA Formula 3 cars was not already difficult, the addition of wet weather might have just made their task that little bit more difficult at the Circuit Barcelona-Catalunya.

After a busy two days, where many laps had been completed as the teams and drivers were keen to learn this new FIA Formula 3 car ahead of the upcoming 2025 season, which will begin in March at Albert Park in Melbourne, Austrralia.

​The final day of pre-season testing would get underway with the third and final morning session. The green light would come on at the end of the pit lane and the session would be underway for three hours of track running.

No time would be wasted from many drivers across the field, as many wanted to use the challenging conditions as a learning curve, and to try and learn the limits to push to, when driving the new cars in anger in wet weather conditions.

Mexican driver, of Prema Racing, Noel Leon would head to the top of the time sheets in the first five minutes of play with Brando Badoer in second place, at what as looking like it was going to angle out at a Prema 1-2.

However, there were many drivers finding improvements to those times that were initially put together. The leaderboard would have a bit of a change by the end of the first 10 minutes the Trident of Noah Stromsted would be top with a 1:48.045.

Stromsted's time would be seven tenths clear of Campos' Mari Boya in second with MP Motorsport's Tim Tramnitz having elevated himself into the top three. Tasanapol Inthraphuvasak were also finding themselves in the top five.

There would continue to be a lot of on-track action in the first half an hour of the session and this would see changes to the time sheets too. Campos' Bulgarian Nikola Tsolov was top of the time sheets with a 1:44.761. Badoer improved to go second once again as Trident's Rafael Camara would elevate himself to the top three.

Track action would be halted for the time being though with the first red flag, of four across the morning session, being distributed by Race Control. This would be due to the Trident of Charlie Wurz, and the Austrian would lose a lot of on-track action for himself. However, he would return later on in the morning session, but it would be a lot of time lost for the Austrian driver.

Tsolov's time of a 1:44.761 would be improved to a 1:43.631 as he continued to be at the top of the time sheets, with seven tenths of a second being put between himself and Rodin Motorsport's Louis Sharp, who had moved up into second place.

Bruno Del Pino was the next driver to get caught out by the conditions on circuit and he too would bring out a red flag, causing more disruption to the circuit, that would have been dreaded by the teams and drivers. 

Sharp would be the third red flag as he remained second after the first hour of running, still being behind Tsolov. Martinius Stenshorne had moved himself up into third place, but both would continue to be behind Tsolov who was still fastest.

Rafael Camara would be the next driver to put himself into the top three of the session and just moments after the first hour had ticked over. The 2024 Formula Regional European Championship by Alpine (FRECA) champion Camara would be go second but Tsolov would be remaining strong at the top of the times.

Tsolov would still be the driver with the fastest time at the halfway point but it would be Noah Stromsted instead of Camara, that would be the Trident driver in second place. Camara would be in fourth, after Finnish rookie Tuukka Taponen put his ART third.

It was turning into a fantastic morning for Tsolov as he was still at the top of the times with his 1:43.631 and despite the latest challenge from Laurens Van Hoepen, he would still be over a tenth of a second clear at the top of the times.

However, in the first part of the final hour, of the morning session, ART's Van Hoepen would beat Tsolov's time and that would be the first time in over an our, since hislap time had been beaten. Van Hoepen laid down a lap of 1:43.623 and the Dutch driver had shown reat speed in tricky conditions.

There would be time to be found around the lap, as Van Hoepen himself did not stay top for all too long either. French Van Amersfoort Racing driver Theophile Nael would be the next driver to flex his driving talent and would go fastest overall. 

Nael would put over three tenths between himself and Van Hoepen with a 1:43.298 after the best second and final sector times of the session so far, and it would be a lap time that would see him in a great position.

Into the final 20 minutes and the top five would be Nael, Van Hoepen, Tsolov, Stromsted and Taponen. Many drivers had been having stints in the pit lane but many drivers were looking at the prospect of returning the circuit and going for some strong lap times if they could put them together.

The final 10 minutes and Camara would jump straight up to the top of the times, jumping above Theophile Nael, with a 1:43.158. The Brazilian driver would be clear by a tenth and he was showing his strongest pace of pre-season testing, it what was a wet Barcelona.

By the end of the session, Camara would not be beaten and the 2024 FRECA Champion would end the final morning session of 2025 pre-season testing, with the provisional fastest time. It would be a Trident 1-2 with Noah Stromsted in second place. Callum Voisin would end third for Rodin Motorsport.

The 30 drivers and 10 teams involved would break for lunch with them set to return for the final three hours of pre-season testing, in the afternoon session.
​

Brandon Whiteside
​Writer & X Contributor - F1 Journal

Red Bull junior driver and Bulgarian Nikola Tsolov was the star of the show as he topped day 2 of the 2025 FIA Formula 3 Championship pre-season testing, in Barcelona on Thursday.

Tsolov dominated the on-track action of Thursday with him topping both of the sessions on Thursday, in the morning and the evening. The best time set by Tsolov was in the morning session, despite him finishing top of both the morning and afternoon sessions.

This would be the second day of a three-day pre-season testing camp at the Circuit Barcelona-Catalunya with there being eagerness from the drivers and teams to get the best lap times and data possible to prepare them best for the regular racing season.

A 1:26.618 for Tsolov would see him fastest of the day overall for the Campos Racing team. Tsolov would finish top of the time sheets ahead of ART Grand Prix rookie Tuukka Taponen who was second, while the Trident of Noah Stromsted completed the top three.

​The 30 drivers participating in the pre-season testing, with the 10 teams involved, would be an opportunity for the drivers and teams to build up a partnership which would prepare them for challenging for top results, throughout the 2025 FIA Formula 3 Championship.
​

Thursday morning would see a return to track action for the brand new era of Formula 3 machinery after the opening day of pre-season testing on Wednesday, which was the first day of on-track action for the drivers in Formula 3 throughout 2025.

On Wednesday, it was Noel Leon with Prema who set the fastest time across the day, which would be a 1:27.711. It would be a lap time that would also see him top the afternoon session too ahead of MP Motorsport's Tim Tramnitz and Rodin's Louis Sharp, who would be second and third respectively in the overall classification.

Topping the morning session would be Rodin Motorsport's Callum Voisin, with a 1:27.959 in an all-Rodin top three with Roman Bilinski in second and Sharp would be in third.

It was a busy day 1 with 2054 laps completed and it was time for attention to be turned to day 2.

The first three-hour testing session of the day would begin on Thursday morning with the drivers and teams looking to develop their data further.

Also, for the drivers it was to get more of an adaptation with the modern FIA Formula 3 machinery. Most drivers were making a step up to an entirely new level of motorsport, while for returning drivers it would be a different car that they had been driving in Formula 3, in past seasons.

The green light would be on at the end of the pit lane at 09:00 local time and day 2 of pre-season testing was go, with three hours of on-track action ahead of the FIA Formula 3 Championship.

In the early stages, drivers were setting a few lap times but they were still building to what the pace was of the representative top lap times of Wednesday' session. Martinius Stenshorne of Hitech TGR would go to the top in the opening 10 minutes.

Stenshorne's time of 1:49.908 was almost certain to be beaten as it was 22 seconds behind the best lap time of Day 1 which was set in the afternoon by Mexican driver Noel Leon, of Prema Racing. 

The lap time from Stenshorne would be continuously beaten by many drivers in the first hour the order changing frequently due to drivers finding time and pace to improve their lap times and do better than their competitors.

With an hour gone in the session, it would be ART that were showing strong pace once again, like they had done throughout the opening day of testing. All three ART Grand Prix drivers were in the top 10 of the overall classification on Wednesday.

It would be a 1-2 at the end of the first hour, with Finnish rookie Tuukka Taponen going to the top of the time sheets with a 1:26.838, which would be the fastest time of pre-season testing so far. He was ahead of his teammate Laurens Van Hoepen by a good four tenths of a second.

Just like drivers found time throughout the first hour, they were set to find more time in the second hour.

Halfway through the second hour, and the midway point of the morning session of testing, there would be a change to the top of the times with Campos' Bulgarian racer Nikola Tsolov taking the top time.

Tsolov would jump above the ART of Taponen, and into first place with a 1:26.18, which would still be faster than an improved lap time from Taponen  which was at a 1:26.782. Over a tenth and a half the gap between the top two.

Van Hoepen remained third with also an improved lap time of 1:26.995 while Campos' Mari Boya and Rodin's Louis Sharp were the top five with exactly half of the session still remaining.

Soon enough it would be time for the majority of the drivers to be sat in the pit lane to review data with the Red Bull junior Tsolov still with the fastest time as there was just one hour remaining in the morning session. Almost half of the pre-season testing for the 2025 FIA Formula 3 season was complete.

The Trident cars would be out on circuit though entering the final hour and the team with the last two drivers' championships, had a point to prove after they finished 28th, 29th and 30th in the overall classification on day 1.

However, all three of their drivers, Charlie Wurz, Rafael Camara and Noah Stromsted would all make significant improvements into the top 10 positions. Stromsted would be the best of he and his teammates by leaping up into third place.

Stromsted would set a 1:26.938, which would be less than a tenth faster than the previous third place driver Van Hoepen. Camara and Wurz would put themselves into eighth and ninth place respectively.

There would be a red flag within the final hour after a yellow flag at turn eight. According to the timing pages, Nicola Lacorte came to a stop for DAMS Lucas Oil and had his final hour to the session ruined in a cruel way.

It would be a short pause in action and once the incident at turn 8 had been cleared, green flag conditions were upon testing again and the final 40 minutes would hopefully be enjoyed without disruption.

As time ticked down to the final 15 minutes of the session, Tsolov and Taponen were looking comfortable as the top two of the session and it was going to take some effort to beat them in the latter stages. 

Ultimately, no one could dislodge Nikola Tsolov by the time the chequered flag was waved from the Race Control tower, which signalled the end of the morning session of day 2 and the halfway point of pre-season testing - for 2025.

Tsolov was quickest with a 1:26.618 ahead of the ART Grand Prix of rookie Tuukka Taponen, who would finish the morning session in second place. Noah Stromsted for Trident would have a much better start to day 2 than day 1 and would finish third.

All Trident cars would be in the top 10 but it would be ART's Laurens Van Hoepen and Campos' Mari Boya who rounded off the top five. Rodin Motorsport duo Louis Sharp and Roman Bilinski were sixth and seventh. 

The two remaining Trident drivers Rafael Camara and Charlie Wurz would be eighth and ninth respectively while day 1 top man Noel Leon would complete the top 10 for Prema.

​Teams and drivers would break for a lunch break and would be returning for another three-hour session in the afternoon, where all 30 drivers and 10 teams would be looking to get in more lap times and more data.

After a lunch break, following the morning session, it would be time for the new pieces of FIA Formula 3 machinery to return to the track, to complete day 2 of pre-season testing for the 2025 Formula 3 season.

After Nikola Tsolov of Campos Racing topped the morning session, Campos would be hoping that their driver's pace would be something representative of their car's performance. They would have the opportunity to prove so in the day's afternoon session.

The green light would come on at the end of the pit lane and three hours of running at the Circuit Barcelona-Catalunya would be underway for the afternoon session, of day 2 of pre-season testing for the 2025 FIA Formula 3 Championship.

In the first 15 minutes of the session it would be Polish driver Roman Bilinski of Rodin Motorsport, who would leap to the top of the time sheets, ahead of Nikola Tsolov in the Campos Racing car.

Bilinski's time would be a 1:28.581, which would be over three tenths clear of Tsolov's time which was a 1:28.933. Callum Voisin, Bilinski's Rodin Motorsport teammate was a provisional third.

After the first hour, Tsolov would reclaim the top spot for the Campos team, and the Spanish outfit would cover the entire top three on home turf. Tasanapol Intrhaphuvasak would be in second place for Campos, with Spaniard Mari Boya in third.

Tsolov's time to beat was a 1:27.249, which was two tenths clear of Inthraphuvasak's time, who himself was nearly three tenths clear of Boys. Provisionally, Tim Tramnitz of MP Motorsport and Noah Stromsted of Trident were fourth and fifth respectively.

There would be a change to the top three throughout the second hour of the three-hour session on Thursday afternoon. The all-Campos top three would be disrupted by Hitech TGR's Martinius Stenshorne, as the Norwegian driver went third fastest with a 1:27.569.

The top five with an hour remaining of the session would be: Tsolov, Inthraphuvasak, Strenshorne, Boya and Tramnitz but there would still be plenty of time where there was a potential for the order to change near the top.

Many improvements would be made to the personal best lap times of many of the 30 drivers competing in the session but Nikola Tsolov would not need to as the chequered flag flew from the Race Control tower, which would signal the end of day 2 of pre-season testing in the 2025 FIA Formula 3 Championship.

Tsolov would have topped both sessions throughout the day on Thursday and would therefore finish top of the afternoon session. It would be a Campos 1-2 as Tasanapol Inthraphuvasak would be second and would round off the excellent afternoon for the team on home soil. 

The Campos duo of Tsolov and Inthraphuvasak would be joined in the top three by Red Bull junior and MP Motorsport driver Tim Tramnitz. Martinius Stenshorne of Hitech TGR and Laurens Van Hoepen of ART Grand Prix, would be fourth and fifth respectively and would complete the top five for the afternoon session.

At the end of the afternoon session, it would be sixth for Spaniard Mari Boya of Campos, who was ahead of MP Motorsport duo Alessandro Giusti and Bruno Del Pino that were seventh and eighth. Prema's Noel Leon was ninth while Gerrard Xie of Hitech TGR would complete the top 10.

Track action would return for the final day of pre-season testing on Friday as the build up to racing action, in the 2025 FIA Formula 3 Championship continues.

Brandon Whiteside
Writer & X Contributor - F1 Journal

To kick start a brand new era of machinery in FIA Formula 3, Prema Racing's Noel Leon was fastest in the opening day of pre-season testing on Wednesday.

Leon, in the afternoon, laid down the day's quickest lap time to kick start 2025 in the best possible way for the Prema Racing team. The Mexican racing driver set a 1:27.711 which was good enough to be the fastest time of the day - beating the morning session's top time of 1:27.959 set by Rodin Motorsport's Callum Voisin.

The opening day of pre-season testing brought about the first on-track action for the brand new FIA Formula 3 Championship cars that the teams and drivers will be learning to master in these upcoming test sessions ahead of the main season.

Leon was quickest on the day overall ahead of MP Motorsport's Tim Tramnitz and Rodin Motorsport's Louis Sharp, who completed the top three. Tramnitz and Sharp's afternoon times were their personal best laps and they would be good enough to have them finishing second and third in the overall classification.

This day one, on Wednesday, would be the start of the only pre-season testing for the 2025 FIA Formula 3 Championship. Wednesday being the start of a three-day test at a familiar circuit in the Circuit Barcelona-Catalunya, which is home to the Spanish round of the regular championship season.

Wednesday morning rolled around and it would be time for a new era of FIA Formula 3 to begin with the 2025 cars heading onto the track for the very first time, for pre-season testing at the Circuit Barcelona-Catalunya.

The 10 teams, including newcomers DAMS Lucas Oil who replaced Jenzer Motorsport on the grid, after Jenzer left the championship at the end of the 2024 campaign. 29 drivers out of the 30 would be confirmed to compete in the regular racing season of the 2025 FIA Formula 3 Championship.

The sole driver who was not confirmed for a space in the 2025 season, would be German racing driver Jonas Reid, who would be participating for AIX Racing and would e hoping to try and impress the team in trying to earn a seat for their 2025 lineup alongside Javier Sagrera and Nicola Marinangeli.
​

Pre-season testing for 2025 would get underway with a green light that had come on at the end of the pit lane to signal the beginning of the first three-hour session of the day and the first of the three-day test.

Drivers would head out onto the circuit and be looking to set lap times and get to grips with the new machinery as this would be the very first time that the FIA Formula 3 2025 car would be out on a race track.

ART Grand Prix had an impressive 2024 and after a disappointing 2023 they finished third in last season's standings with Christian Mansell, Nikola Tsolov and Laurens Van Hoepen. Staying for his second season, Van Hoepen would be accompanied by his rookie teammates Tuukka Taponen and James Wharton who had both had a race weekend of Formula 3 each.

Van Hoepen, Taponen and Wharton would make themselves the top three to beat with the ART showing strong pace in the early stages of testing with the experience of Van Hoepen leading his two rookie teammates.

With an hour to go, it would continue to be an all-ART top three with Van Hoepen top of the time sheets ahead of his teammates Taponen and Wharton, who were impressing in the opening session of pre-season testing.

There would be a change to the top five as new Portuguese racer Ivan Domingues would move himself up into fifth place, going ahead of Red Bull junior and Campos driver Nikola Tsolov. Domingues' teammate Theophile Nael would improve to ninth.

Four tenths would separate the two Van Amersfoort Racing teammates as Domingues would make an improvement on a second lap to extend the gap from two tenths to four to his teammate Nael. The improvement from Domingues would not improve the position of fifth.

With half an hour to go, all three of the ART drivers would still be sitting at the top of the time sheets with the time of 1:28.568 of Van Hoepen's being still good enough to be the fastest time. 

Boya, Inthraphuvasak, Del Pino, Lacorte, Zagazeta and Ho still had not set a lap time with the little time remaining of the three-hour morning session in Barcelona. They were all in the pit lane and it would be close as to whether they would get any lap times in.

There had been excitement to see Zagazeta, Lacorte and Ho as the new DAMS Lucas Oil team, who were replacing Jenzer Motorsport. The French outfit were still waiting on their first representative lap time with 20 minutes remaining.

With just 15 minutes of the session left, the pace of the ART team would be beaten by the pace of the Rodin Motorsport team as Polish driver Roman Bilinski jumped up to the top of the time sheets with a 1:28.150.

Bilinksi's teammate Louis Sharp would go second but both drivers would be beaten by their other Rodin Motorsport teammate Callum Voisin. The only non-rookie of Rodin Motorsport's 2025 lineup would go to the top with a 1:27.959. A great lap from Voisin!

Soon enough the session would run to a close and that excellent burst of pace from the Rodin Motorsport cars saw them make it an all-Rodin top three with the more experienced of the three, Callum Voisin, ending the session top of the time sheets ahead of his rookie teammates Roman Bilinski and Louis Sharp

Voisin's best lap time was a 1:27.959 where the Rodin cars finished first, second and third ahead of the ART drivers who were fourth, fifth and sixth - in the order of Laurens Van Hoepen, Tuukka Taponen and James Wharton.

In seventh place, of the morning session, would be to Van Amersfoort's Portuguese rookie Ivan Domingues, who was just ahead of Bulgarian Nikola Tsolov who ended the session in eighth. Prema's Noel Leon was ninth while Van Amersfoort's Theophile Nael completed the top 10.

The teams and drivers would take a break for lunch before returning for the day's afternoon pre-season testing session with Callum Voisin provisionally having the quickest time of the day so far.

After a break in Barcelona for lunch, it would be time for the first afternoon test of pre-season test as well as the second and final session of the opening day.

It had been a busy morning session and a special session in the history of the FIA Formula 3 Championship as a brand new era of machinery had entered a circuit for the very first time and was visible to viewing, with the 2025 drivers and teams getting a feel for the new car and the new challenges it presents. 

The green light would come on at the end of the pit lane and that would begin the three-hour session with 24 of the 30 drivers looking to continue their day's work.

While Mari Boya, Tasanapol Inthraphuvasak, Bruno Del Pino would look to set their first lap times of the pre-season testing for their respective teams, Campos and MP Motorsport. Also the brand new team on the block DAMS Lucas Oil would be looking for their first track action of the new era - with drivers Nicola Lacorte, Matias Zagazeta and Christian Ho.

Drivers would head out to set some lap times and get some important lap time daft for their engineers and their own respective developments to aid them for their competitive seasons in the main championship ahead of them.

After the first hour of the afternoon session, it would be the Prema driver Noel Leon who would go fastest overall and the Mexican driver was fastest from Louis Sharp in the Rodin Motorsport car by a tenth of a second. Nikola Tsolov was third for Campos Racing.

By this point, the DAMS Lucas Oil trio had made their mark on the Circuit Barcelona-Catalunya and the FIA Formula 3 Championship as they laid down some lap times and the three drivers would be 15th, 16th and 17th with Ho ahead Zagazeta and Lacorte.

There would be change to the top three within the second hour of the three-hour session and Tsolov would be bumped down to fourth by his Campos teammate Mari Boya, who won the feature race around this circuit in 2024.

Leon would still remain at the top from Sharp with Boya, Tsolov and Rodin's Roman Bilinski making up the top five. This would be the situation with the times as the clock ticked down to the final hour of the day's pre-season testing action.

Into the final half an hour and Leon would once again be holding top spot and would be holding the provisional fastest time of the afternoon session. Leon's time was a 1:27.711 which already was provisionally faster than the morning best time set by Callum Voisin.

Voisin's best time in the morning session was a 1:27.959, therefore Leon's time was already clear by two tenths with there being time still to improve on his personal best time which saw him top of the time sheets.

However, a major improvement would be the MP Motorsport driver Tim Tramnitz, who put himself up into second place above New Zealand racing driver Louis Sharp, relegating the Rodin driver to third.

Leon would remain at the top of the times with his lap time and the Prema driver would end up staying there and finishing fastest in the afternoon session. His lap time of a 1:27.711 meant it was also good enough to be the fastest time across the entire day.

The Mexican racer would top the day's times overall but would finish fastest in the afternoon ahead of MP Motorsport's Tim Tramnitz who was second ahead of Rodin Motorsport's Louis Sharp who completed the top three. Tramnitz and Sharp would join Leon in finishing in the top three overall.

Campos duo Mari Boya and Nikola Tsolov would finish fourth and fifth respectively in the afternoon session. This would be ahead of Rodin Motorsport's Roman Bilinski who was sixth with Laurens Van Hoepen who was seventh for ART. 

Van Hoepen was ahead of his ART teammate Tuukka Taponen who was eighth, ahead of Rodin's Callum Voisin who was ninth. The third ART driver of Australian James Wharton completed the top 10 of the afternoon session.

Action would return on Thursday for Day 2 of action of pre-season testing in the 2025 FIA Formula 3 Championship.

Brandon Whiteside
Writer & X Contributor - F1 Journal

The FIA Formula 3 Championship is set to kick off a brand new era in 2025, and the first track action is to get underway with pre-season testing in Barcelona over the next few days.

Formula 3 will be using a new car in its championships going forward which has never seen track action before, as the previous spec of machinery was used in the 2024 post-season testing. 

With 29 of the 30 drivers confirmed to be participating in the 2025 FIA Formula 3 Championship, heading into the three-day test in Barcelona and all will be hoping to impress their employers and to get to grips with their machinery ahead of the season opener in March.

While Jonas Reid testing for AIX Racing and without a confirmed seat for the 2025 campaign, he could use the pre-season testing as a chance to impress the team and potentially earn himself a drive in the 2025 FIA Formula 3 Championship season.

Pre-season testing in Barcelona will last over three days beginning on Wednesday February 19 and ending on Friday February 21, with a morning and afternoon session across each day. Therefore, six sessions in total with each session lasting three hours long.

The testing itself will take place at what is a familiar venue to the FIA Formula 3 Championship, the Circuit Barcelona-Catalunya, which has played host to many days of testing in the past but it has also hosted many racing rounds including the very first round in the championship's history back in 2019.

In Barcelona, was where Formula 3 last had on track action as it rounded out post-season testing, following an enthralling 2024 season which saw the championship celebrate its 100th race in the 2024 feature race at the circuit.

Circuit Barcelona-Catalunya is a circuit that the drivers will be familiar with and is one of 14 corners and it has a lap distance of 4.657km. Two DRS zones are also situated on the Circuit Barcelona-Catalunya which run into turns 1 and 10.

The race weekend lap record around the famous Spanish circuit was set by Josep 'Pepe' Maria Marti in 2023. Pepe Marti's time was a 1:27.587 and the now Formula 2 racer will be hoping that lap time will remain unbeaten throughout 2025 and beyond.

30 drivers across 10 teams will compete in the post-season testing that will commence on Wednesday morning and end on Friday afternoon. The driver lineup for the 2025 FIA Formula 3 Championship pre-season testing is as follows:

Prema Racing
  1. Brando Badoer (ITA)
  2. Noel Leon (MEX)
  3. Ugo Ugochukwu (USA)

Trident
  4. Noah Stromsted (DNK)
  5. Rafael Camara (BRA)
  6. Charlie Wurz (AUT)

ART Grand Prix
  7. Laurens Van Hoepen (NLD)
  8. Tuukka Taponen (FIN)
  9. James Wharton (AUS)

Campos Racing
  10. Mari Boya (ESP)
  11. Tasanapol Inthraphuvasak (THA)
  12. Nikola Tsolov (BGR)

Hitech TGR
  14. Martinius Stenshorne (NOR)
  15. Joshua Dufek (AUT)
  16. Gerrard Xie (CHN)

MP Motorsport
  17. Tim Tramnitz (GER)
  18. Bruno Del Pino (ESP)
  19. Alessandro Giusti (FRA)

Van Amersfoort Racing
  20. Theophile Nael (FRA)
  21. Santiago Ramos (MEX)
  22. Ivan Domingues (POR)

Rodin Motorsport
  23. Callum Voisin (GBR)
  24. Louis Sharp (NZL)
  25. Roman Bilinski (POL)

AIX Racing
  26. Javier Sagrera (ESP)
  27. Nicola Marinangeli (ITA)
  28. Jonas Reid (DEU)

DAMS Lucas Oil
  29. Nicola Lacorte (ITA)
  30. Matias Zagazeta (PER)
  31. Christian Ho (SGP)

Brandon Whiteside 
Writer & X Contributor - F1 Journal

FIA Formula 3 is raring to go in a brand new and exciting era of race car in 2025 with 10 teams and 30 drivers all raring to go ahead of the 10-round season.

It was a thrilling end to the season in 2024, which saw Leonardo Fornaroli take the title, with at the time the deciding pass coming on the final corner of the final lap of the season. Trident will be hoping to make it three drivers' champions in a row for 2025.

Meanwhile, Trident and the other eight teams will be looking to dislodge Prema's dominance at the top of the Teams' Standings, which includes new team DAMS Lucas Oil, who take the place of long serving Jenzer Motorsport.

The grid in 2025 is filled with experience, returning drivers as well as many rookies from various feeder series championships around Europe including GB3 and the Formula Regional European Championship (FRECA).

This piece is a preview of each of the 30 drivers on the 2025 Formula 3 grid and we will be previewing who they are and which teams they will be racing with from the start of the season. To begin this tour, we begin with the reigning Teams' champions Prema Racing.

To begin this 30 drivers preview is Italian racer Brando Badoer, who will gradute from the world of FRECA to compete with Prema for the 2025 FIA Formula 3 campaign.

The name Badoer will be familiar to many Formula One fans as Brando is the son of former Ferrari racing driver Luca Badoer who raced for the Scuderia back in 2009 alongside Kimi Raikkonen. 

Brando Badoer will take the number 1 car at Prema following his first full FRECA season in 2024, which saw him achieve seven podiums but no victories. The seven podiums were however strong enough for Badoer to finish fifth overall in the standings.

Badoer will make the step up to Formula 3 and has joined up to the team that have won all but one of the Teams' Championships in FIA Formula 3 since the championship was formed in 2019.

Next up at Prema is returning Mexican driver Noel Leon, who impressed enough in his rookie season at Van Amersfoort Racing (VAR) in 2024 and will be likewise hoping to impress his employees for 2025 - Prema Racing.

Leon, who's last championship title came in the 2023 Euroformula Open, before the Mexican driver made the step up to Formula 3 for 2024 with VAR as he partnered more experienced Formula 3 drivers in Sophia Floersch and Tommy Smith.

Across the season, Leon was largely the dominant driver out of his team as he racked up 79 points from the full 20 races to finish 10th in the final standings. This was considerably more than Floersch and Smith who scored a combined 12 points between them both throughout the full season.

Leon will now be at Prema for 2025, who will be looking to give their talented trio the best chance at championship title in this new era of car and regulations. The 20-year old will also be the most experienced driver in the team for the upcoming season.

To complete the lineup at Prema is American and McLaren Academy driver Ugo Ugochukwu who like Badoer graduates from the FRECA Championship to race in Formula 3 for the 2025 campaign.

Ugochukwu will be hoping to use the confidence gained from a dominant 2024 Macau Grand Prix in November, where he topped the qualifying while also taking victory in the qualifying race and Grand Prix itself.

The driver, who is part of the McLaren Devlopment Driver Programme, is familiar with the Prema Racing set up as he raced with the team in the 2024 FRECA Championship as he was teammate of James Wharton and eventual 2024 FRECA Champion Rafael Camara.

At just 17 years of age Ugochukwu will be using all the skills and development he has gained so far and will be hoping to make his mark on one of the biggest feeder series championships in world motorsport.

Driving car number four, which was the Trident car for 2024 champion Leonardo Fornaroli, is 2024 FRECA rookie champion Noah Stromsted, who will make the full time step up to Formula 3 for the 2025 campaign. Stromsted is also a new part of the Mercedes Driver Academy

Stromsted won the 2024 FRECA rookies' championship for RPM in a very competitive field, where he impressed and picked up four podiums and a pole position on route to being crowned rookies' championship in a highly competitive campaign.

The 17-year old has already made his Formula 3 racing debut as he raced for Campos in place of Oliver Goethe at Monza, who that weekend graduated to Formula 2 in order to replace former Formula 3 race winner Franco Colapinto. This would be a chain of events that would see Colapinto make his Formula 1 debut following the dismissal of Logan Sargeant by Williams.

Stromsted will be hoping he can become the third driver in successive seasons to drive for Trident and win the Formula 3 title. However, it won't be just him as his two teammates will be just as eager.

Coming into this year as the reigning and most recent FRECA championship, Brazilian racing driver Rafael Camara will be hoping to replicate his fellow countryman Gabriel Bortoleto and to become a Formula 1 driver for Brazil. 

More interestingly though, in relation to Formula 3, Camara will be taking the same car number with the same team that Bortoleto claimed the 2023 Formula 3 title with as he prepares for his rookie season of FIA Formula 3.

Camara, part of the Ferrari Driver Academy, needed his second season of FRECA to clinch the championship crown but is a driver that has been largely competitive throughout his feeder series career. In the 2024 FRECA title, he clinched the record for the most victories ever in the championship as he won the title with seven wins and 12 podiums, across the 20 races that season.

The Brazilian has finished in the top three of feeder series championships such as the Italian F4 Championship and the Formula Regional Middle East Championship. Camara will be hoping he can do the same in FIA Formula 3 and challenge for the title.

To complete the lineup at Trident, is the most experienced driver of the 2025 lineup, in the form of Austrian racer Charlie Wurz, who is the son of former Formula 1 racing driver Alex Wurz, who is also the current chairman of the Grand Prix Drivers' Association (GPDA)

Wurz will be returning for a second season following a development year and one of learning for the young Austrian. Wurz competed for Jenzer Motorsport with teammates Max Esterson and Matias Zagazeta.

The 19-year old finished 22nd in the overall standings at the end of the 2024 FIA Formula 3 campaign, just behind teammate Max Esterson and a few places clear of Zagazeta. Wurz managed to end a highest finishing position of fifth, which came in the Australian feature race.

Wurz will be aiming to deliver results like fifth more consistently in his second season to make progression further in his motorsport journey with perhaps setting his sights on Formula 2 for 2026.

From being the only rookie at ART in 2024, to becoming the only non-rookie for 2025, is the story for Dutch driver Laurens Van Hoepen who looks set to compete in his second season of FIA Formula 3 in the new era.

Van Hoepen came onto the Formula 3 scene in 2024 with ART, as he became teammates with Australian Christian Mansell and Bulgarian talent Nikola Tsolov. The Dutchman held his own reasonably well but would finish the lowest out of the three drivers but it would still be 13th in the final championship standings for him.

The 19-year old would achieve three podiums, one pole position and two fastest laps throughout the 2024 campaign but failed to register a race victory throughout the year despite coming close in Bahrain, during the very first race of the year.

2025 looks to be a big year ahead for Van Hoepen, who will be hoping to use the lessons learned in his rookie season of 2024 to kick on and achieve bigger and better results in his second season of the FIA Formula 3 Championship.

For the first of two rookies of the 2025 ART Grand Prix lineup, and Finland will see a full-time driver on the Formula 3 grid for the first time since William Alatalo in 2022, as Tuukka Taponen takes his seat in the number eight car.

Taponen comes into the championship after finishing third to fellow Ferrari Driver Academy member Rafael Camara in the 2024 FRECA season, where Taponen finished behind Camara and Camara's Prema teammate James Wharton. Wharton will now become Taponen's teammate with ART for 2025.

The 18-year old has already raced in the FIA Formula 3 Championship previously. This was one round of the championship at Spa Francorchamps in Belgium, in place of Nikola Tsolov who was serving a one-race ban.

Taponen will be looking to impress in his first full season of FIA Formula 3 as a rookie and building on his best finish of his only weekend so far which was 14th. The Finnish driver will be aiming to try and score his first points and maybe go even further in the new era.

To complete ART's driver is another rookie but someone who has already made their Formula 3 debut. The driver being Australia's James Wharton who becomes another graduate from the 2024 FRECA season. 

Like Taponen, Wharton has already raced in FIA Formula 3 and this was in a solo round as the Australian deputised at Hitech for Martinius Stenshorne, who similarly was serving a one-race ban at Silverstone.

The 18-year old from Bundoora, Victoria in Australia will be hoping to build on the lessons he learned in his only weekend of Formula 3 action. Wharton will also be looking to use the skills he showed in the 2024 FRECA campaign that saw him take four wins, five pole positions and 10 podiums.

Wharton will be one of two rookies in the 2025 ART lineup and will make it two FRECA 2024 graduates in the team as he partners up with Tuukka Taponen in being teammate of Formula 3 podium finisher Laurens Van Hoepen.

Over at Campos, set to endure his third full season of the FIA Formula 3 Championship is Spanish talent and Formula 3 race winner Mari Boya.

Boya will have his second successive season with the Campos Racing team following his best Formula 3 season to date, which came in 2024 as he partnered Oliver Goethe and Sebastian Montoya. Both of his teammates from 2024 have since graduated to Formula 2.

The 20-year old has picked up one victory over two full seasons of racing in the championship so far, which came on home soil for Boya at the Circuit Barcelona-Catalunya, in Spain. He has finished on the podium twice across two seasons and has had a highest championship finish of 15th, which came in 2024 with Campos/

Boya will be hoping to build on two seasons of devloping and learning and achieve much better success in the 2025 FIA Formula 3 Championship. He will be the joint most experienced driver at the team but will be hoping to have his best season to date in the championship.

To complete the Campos lineup for 2025 is another returning driver to the championship, in the form of Thai racing driver Tasanapol Inthraphuvasak. This makes Campos the only team in the championship to be without a rookie driver in 2025!

Inthraphuvasak returns to the team for his second season in the Formula 3 Championship, following his rookie season in the championship, in 2024 with AIX Racing as the Thai driver partnered up with Nikita Bedrin and Joshua Dufek.

The 18-year old achieved one points finish throughout the entire 20-race Formula 3 season as he finished second in an AIX Racing 1-2. This came in the Hungarian sprint race that also saw Inthraphuvasak make Formula 3 history becoming the first driver in FIA Formula 3 history to be from Thailand and finish on the podium.

Inthraphuvasak, with Campos Racing for 2025, will be hoping to find more consistent results like his second place in Budapest to progress further in his motorsport career and potentially aim towards the heights of Formula 2 for 2026.

Also returning to the championship for a third season and with just his second team, is Bulgarian racing driver Nikola Tsolov, who will be racing for Campos in the 2025 Formula 3 campaign.

Tsolov has previously raced for ART in his Formula 3 career, having two seasons with the French outfit in 2023 and 2024. Tsolov certainly has improved throughout the two seasons as he improved on his overall finishing position in 2024, compared to what he managed to achieve in 2023.

The Bulgarian racer made history in 2024 as he became the first driver in GP3 and FIA Formula 3 history to win a race in either championship showing great talent, which included around the streets of Monte Carlo. 

It will be a change of team for Tsolov following a change of driver academies. In November, Tsolov parted ways with the Alpine Academy to instead start his new journey at Campos Racing with the Red Bull Junior Team.

Moving onto Hitech and staying with the team for a second full season of FIA Formula 3 is Norwegian racer Martinius Stenshorne who is set to race for the team full time in the 2025 camapign.

Stenshorne impressed in his rookie season in a team that he shared with eventual championship challenger Luke Browning, who has now gone onto graduate to FIA Formula 2 and participate in a Formula 1 FP1 session.

The 18-year old joined the McLaren Driver Development Programme in April 2024, prior to that year's Formula 3 round in Imola and has been with the programme ever since. Stenshorne in the 2024 FIA Formula 3 campaign took his maiden win in Melbourne, Australia. 

Overall, Stenshorne took one additional podium and a fastest lap as he finished 18th in the overall standings with 38 points to his name. The Norwegian driver will be hoping to build on this and achieve good results on a consistent basis for 2025.

The second returning driver to the Championship out of Hitech TGR's 2025 lineup, is Austrian driver Joshua Dufek, who changes scene from his 2024 team of AIX Racing for the 2025 FIA Formula 3 campaign.

Dufek has had one year experience in the Formula 3 Championship, which came in the most recent Formula 3 Championship season of 2024. It's fair to say that in comparison to his AIX Racing teammates, Nikita Bedrin and Tasanapol Inthraphuvasak, Dufek failed to have the same results.

​While his teammates stood on the top two podium positions in 2024, Dufek failed to score a point and ended the 2024 Formula 3 campaign 28th in the overall standings, in comparison to Bedrin and Inthraphuvasak finishing 19th and 24th respectively.

Dufek will be hoping to use lessons learned to his advantage and develop his skills and racecraft to improve on his 2024 season and impress his employees at Hitech TGR that have chosen to put their faith in him.

To complete the 2025 Hitech TGR lineup, it will be the sole rookie of the team's lineup for the upcoming season. The rookie being Gerrard Xie, who makes the step up from the GB3 Championship, to continue his feeder series journey with Hitech.

Xie was in a highly competitive GB3 Championship in 2024 that saw him partner the likes of Will Macintyre and Tymek Kucharczyk at Hitech Grand Prix. Both Kucharczyk and Maxintyre finished in the top five of the championship, while Xie finished seventh.

The 18-year old will bring the Chinese flag onto the FIA Formula 3 grid, which will be the first time China has had a driver on the FIA Formula 3 Championship grid since Yifei Ye raced in 2019. Ye has since raced in World Endurance Championship.

Xie will hope to go and have the rise to the top like Ye did as he looks to embed himself in the Hitech TGR FIA Formula 3 team. He will have experience to learn from as he builds towards his rookie season of 2025.

At MP Motorsport, the team have retained one of their 2024 lineup for the 2025 Formula 3 lineup. Staying with MP Motorsport for a second successive season and his second season of Formula 3, is German driver Tim Tramnitz.

Tramnitz joined the Formula 3 grid in 2024 with MP Motorsport as part of an all-rookie lineup which included Kacper Sztuka and now Formula 2 driver Alex Dunne. Tramnitz immediately made people sit up and take notes with two top five finishes in the opening round in Bahrain, which included a maiden podium with a third-place finish in the feature race.

The 20-year old of the Red Bull junior team also saw his maiden Formula 3 win arrive in 2024 with it coming in the final sprint race of the season at Monza, in a double podium for the team as Tramnitz was joined by Irish teammate Dunne. 

Tramnitz will be the sole non-rookie driver at MP Motorsport for 2025 and will be the experienced driver within the team. Therefore, Tramnitz will be looking to show the lessons learned in 2024 and will be aiming to challenge at the front regularly in 2025. 

For the first of two rookies in the 2025 MP Motorsport lineup is Spanish driver Bruno Del Pino. After impressing his now employers in the 2024 post-season testing, on home soil, Del Pino will be hoping to repay the faith shown in his rookie campaign.

Del Pino will take the number 18 car and will be looking to impress the Formula 3 viewers after graduating from the Eurocup-3 championship that he finished third in at the end of the 2024 campaign.

The 18-year old has also competed in the Formula Regional Middle Eastern Championship in 2024, where he took 18 points from 15 races. This is in addition to finishing third in the Formula 4 Cup of the FIA Motorsport Games, where he represented Spain and took a bronze medal for his nation.

Del Pino will be hoping to impress and learn some valuable lessons throughout 2025 but like many of his competitors will be wanting to compete for some top results and show the championship what capabilities he has.

To complete MP Motorsport's 2025 lineup will be the second of two rookies. The driver to take the number 19 car will be French racer and Williams Academy star Alessandro Giusti, who will be making his debut in the 2025 Formula 3 Championship.

​Giusti will be another driver to make the graduation from the FRECA Championship to FIA Formula 3 and will be looking to impress on the championship as someone could be a potential future star while also making Williams Racing aware that he is a potential option for a future Formula 1 seat.

In his 2024 season of FRECA, Giusti accumulated two wins and seven podiums across the 20-race season as he went onto finish fourth in the final standings with 195 points - behind James Wharton, Tuukka Taponen and eventual champion Rafael Camara.

Giusti will have a competitive driver lineup to go up against at MP Motorsport and will be hoping he can make a good start on the big stage of competing in a support series to Formula 1.

Over at Van Amersfoort Racing, they have entrusted two rookies and a returning driver to kick off a brand new era in FIA Formula 3. First up is French rookie Theophile Nael who will be taking the number 20 car.

Nael will make the step up to the FIA Formula 3 Championship for his rookie campaign in the 2025 season, graduating from the FRECA Championship where he spent just his rookie season in the championship with Sainteloc Racing.

In his one and only campaign in FRECA, he would finish ninth in the overall standings with 81 points as he picked up one victory, one podium and one pole position. Nael has had success in previous feeder series categories, as in 2023, he won the Spanish F4 Championship.

Nael will depart the Sainteloc Racing family who have seen him through the entirety of his feeder series career so far as he leaves for bigger and better things in the Formula 3 Championship with Van Amersfoort.

Returning for his second season of FIA Formula 3 but having a change of team is Santiago Ramos, who joins Van Amersfoort Racing to complete their lineup in 2025. This comes after a year of learning and developing at Trident in his rookie campaign in 2024.

Ramos will continue his Formula 3 career after making the graduation to the championship for 2024 after completing his second season of FRECA in 2023, with the RPM team, after a rookie season mostly spent with KIC Motorsport in 2022.

The 21-year old failed to have the easiest of the rookie seasons in Formula 3 at Trident, as Ramos was partnered with now Formula 2 drivers Leonardo Fornaroli and Sami Meguetounif. Fornaroli won the title and Meguetounif won multiple races whilst Ramos finished 18th with one pole position and one podium.

Ramos will be the most experienced driver at Van Amersfoort in 2025 as he partners two rookies in Theophile Nael and Ivan Domingues. In addition, Ramos will become the third Mexican driver to race for the team in three consecutive seasons - following Rafael Villagomez and Noel Leon.

The second of two rookies that has been taken on by Van Amersfoort Racing in the 2025 Formula 3 campaign, is Portuguese racer Ivan Domingues who continues his journey with the Dutch outfit. 

Domingues is to become just the second Portuguese driver to race in FIA Formula 3, behind Zdenek Chovanec, as he enters the championship for his rookie campaign in 2025. The 18-year old will continue his journey with Van Amersfoort as he raced with the team in the 2024 FRECA season and the 2023 Italian F4 and Euro 4 campaigns.

In his 2024 campaign of FRECA, Domingues would finish 10th overall with 78 points with two podiums to his name, while his teammates that season, Brando Badoer and Pedro Clerot, who finished that season fifth and eighth respectively.

Domingues will be one of two rookies at Van Amersfoort to lead the team into a new Formula 3 era in 2025. He will join fellow 2024 FRECA graduate Theophile Nael as another rookie the Dutch team are entrusting with their machinery for this upcoming season.

Over at Rodin Motorsport and the only non-rookie driver of the three is returning to Rodin for a second season of FIA Formula 3. The driver being British talent Callum Voisin, who is to continue his Formula 3 journey with Rodin Motorsport.

Voisin has been within the Rodin Motorsport family for a while and just while he has been racing in the FIA Formula 3 Championship. He raced for them in 2022 and 2023 in the GB3 Championship when they were Carlin and Rodin Carlin respectively.

The 18-year old won the GB3 Championship in 2023 and following that successful GB3 campaign he would make the step up to the Formula 3 Championship. In his rookie season, Voisin achieved one victory, two podiums, one pole position and one fastest lap. 

His win was the first win for the Rodin/Carlin family in the FIA Formula 3 Championship ever and the team had been with the championship since it began in 2019. Therefore, Voisin was retained for the 2025 campaign and will partner two rookies for the season.

The first of two rookies in Rodin Motorsport's 2025 lineup, is the 2024 GB3 Champion Louis Sharp. The New Zealand racer will continue his feeder series racing journey with Rodin Motorsport, as he continues with the team into the 2025 Formula 3 campaign.

Sharp will make the step up with Rodin to Formula 3 from GB3 just like his now Formula 3 teammate Callum Voisin did in 2024 after winning the GB3 title the year previous. Sharp will be hoping to have a rookie season as good if not better than Voisin's

The 17-year old has quite the cabinet already as in 2023 he also won the British F4 Championship with Rodin. In his most recent crowning of championship glory in 2024, with the GB3 title, he won five races, took five pole positions and took 10 podiums as he won the championship with 478 points.

After winning the British F4 in 2023 and the GB3 Championship in 2024, Sharp will be hoping to go the next step by winning the Formula 3 Championship in 2025. It will be a tougher task though as he continues his journey with Rodin, as he partners Voisin and an additional rookie

To complete the lineup of Rodin Motorsport's team for the 2025 FIA Formula 3 campaign will be Polish-British driver Roman Bilinski, who will become one of two rookies alongside fellow Formula 3 newbie Louis Sharp.

Bilinski has had quite the roller coaster in recent times with an enforced period on the sidelines with injury disrupted his most recent FRECA campaigns of three in 2024. He was able to return for the final four rounds of the season and ended up 14th overall with 52 points.

The 20-year old had full seasons of FRECA in 2022 and 2023 and it was 2022 in Budapest, Hungary where he got his maiden podium with a third place finish. Most rcently in 2024, Bilinski was able to achieve some success by winning that year's Formula Regional Oceania Championship.

Bilinski will complete the lineup at Rodin Motorsport for 2025, which is set to be a youthful but exciting lineup for the team and for viewers and spectators of the FIA Formula 3 Championship. The Polish-British driver will have Louis Sharp and Callum Voisin as his teammates.

Over at AIX Racing, they are entrusting rookie Javier Sagrera with the job of kick starting the new era of Formula 3 off with the team and trying to give them the best possible start, with a brand new model of car to enter the championship from 2025

Sagrera has earned the seat after convincing his new employers in the post-season testing events in Jerez and Barcelona in the Autumn season. The Spanish driver will take the number 26 car after making the step up from the Eurocup-3 series.

The 21-year old impressed as he became the 2024 Eurocup-3 champion while racing for Dutch team MP Motorsport. Sagrera won four races from 16 and stood on the podium 10 times, across the season, on his way to championship glory.

Sagrera became the first driver to be announced to race for AIX Racing in 2025 and will be looking to start his Formula 3 career well in his rookie season. 

Becoming the second rookie to be announced for the 2025 FIA Formula 3 campaign would be Italian racing driver Nicola Marinangeli, who will make the step up to the championship for his rookie season in one of the biggest feeder series championships in world motorsport.

Marinangeli will make the step up to the FIA Formula 3 Championship for 2025, and became the second rookie after Javier Sagrera to be announced to be racing the team. The Italian racer will make the step up following time spent in the International GT Open.

Born in Foligno, Italy, Marinangeli has had previous open-wheel racing experience in feeder series racing, having previously competed in FRECA in the years 2020, 2021 and 2022. Marinangeli most recently finished third in the 2024 International GT Open.

Marinangeli will make the step up to FIA Formula 3 and will make the transition back into single-seaters and open-wheel racing machinery with it being interested to see how the 21-year old fare. 

Returning for a third full season in the FIA Formula 3 Championship, is race winner Nikita Bedrin, who continues with AIX Racing for a second successive season.

AIX Racing are the same team that were named PHM AIX Racing at the start of the 2024 season but changed their name at Imola to just AIX Racing. Bedrin spent his rookie season in 2023, with the Jenzer Motorsport team, that have now left the sport following 2024.

Bedrin has had a Formula 3 career so far that has never quite been able to see him challenge at the front on a consistent basis. He has picked up three podiums across two full seasons, with one win in 2024 at Hungary, with two third place finishes in 2023 - coming at  the Hungary and Belgium rounds. 

AIX Racing have announced Bedrin for the Melbourne round of the championship, with them leaving it until the last minute to announce their third and final driver. Whether Bedrin will compete beyond Melbourne remains to be seen.

Someone that the Alpine faithful will be keeping a close eye on this year, is Italian driver Nicola Lacorte, who is the first driver out of the brand new DAMS Lucas Oil team. The French willbe making their very first appearance in FIA Formula 3 this coming season.

DAMS will be taking over the Jenzer Motorsport team, and Lacorte will take the 29 car, which will be coated in his pink Alpine Academy livery. Lacorte will be his Formula 3 debut this season as he makes the step up from FRECA.

Lacorte had one full season with Trident, in the 2024 FRECA season, where he would score three points throughout the season and would end up 21st in the final standings, come the end of the season. However, he would be a rookie, and would finish 11th in the rookie standings, and he would be the only rookie competitor in the Trident team for 2024.

The 17-year old will embark on his and DAMS Lucas Oil's first season of FIA Formula 3 in the 2025 season, with him having two teammates to go up against.

After a first season at Jenzer in 2024, where he competed in his rookie season, Matias Zagazeta will be enduring a second season, with the team that are replacing Jenzer Motorsport in 2025 - DAMS Lucas Oil.

Zagazeta, who in 2024, became the first ever driver from Peru to compete in the FIA Formula 3 Championship or the GP3 Championship. In addition to this, he became the first points scorer and podium finisher at the Silverstone sprint race.

The Peruvian driver only picked up one points finish across the season in a Jenzer Motorsport team that finished 10th and bottom of the championship standings, but it was Zagazeta who finished lower of he and his teammates - Charlie Wurz and Max Esterson.

He will join up with the DAMS Lucas Oil team for his second full season. He will be on eof three drivers, partnering Nicola Lacorte and the final driver of the 2025 Formula 3 grid.

Last but not least in these driver profiles is Singapore racing driver and 2024 Eurocup-3 champion Christian Ho, who will complete DAMS' first ever lineup in the FIA Formula 3 Championship.

Ho is a driver that will be a trailblazer also in becoming the first driver from Singapore to compete in the FIA Formula 3 Championship, when he takes to the track in Melbourne for the opening round.

The Singaporean will graduate from the Eurocup-3 championship, where in his rookie season, he would take the championship title, with six victories and three other second place finishes to win the title by five points - ahead of Javier Sagrera.

​Ho completes DAMS Lucas Oil's lineup and he will partner up with Nicola Lacorte and Matias Zagazeta. He is also the final driver on this 2025 FIA Formula 3 Championship driver guide.

Brandon Whiteside
​Writer - F1 Journal

FIA Formula 3 on-track action concluded for the 2024 season after the second and final day of post-season testing at Barcelona on Wednesday.

This is the last piece of post-season testing to take place in the current era of machinery before a change sees an entirely new race car be brought forward for the 2025 season and beyond. The current machinery has been in use since the very start of the FIA Formula 3 Championship all the way back in 2019.

It is the second two-day test of post-season testing with the first one having concluded at Jerez just one week ago. In day one, Campos ran the show with Nikola Tsolov topping both the morning and afternoon sessions and they would continue their form by holding a 1-2 in the overall classification.

However, it would be Tsolov's teammate Mari Boya who would head the times and the overall classification with the best lap across the two days. Boya's lap of 1:27.209 was an extremely impressive lap and it did enough to narrowly beat Tsolov's time of 1:27.236.

It was an extremely close morning session with the top four being separated by less than a tenth, with Martinius Stenshorne of Hitech third and Trident's Rafael Camara placing fourth. This would reflect the overall classification as all 30 drivers competing saw their best lap times completed in the morning session - just like Tuesday's running.

Camara would be the highest placed rookie in fourth position in the overall classification.

Wednesday's testing would see a change to the lineup for the day over at Trident with Charlie Wurz being replaced by Chinese racer Ruiqi Liu, who has been competing in the Formula Regional European Championship by Alpine (FRECA) during the 2024. This would be Liu's first taste of Formula 3 machinery.

As for the afternoon session, Hitech's Martinius Stenshorne would be the driver to top the session with a 1:28.337 that was over 1.5 seconds clear of the field in the final three hours. Stenshorne was top in a Hitech Pulse-Eight 1-2 as Joshua Dufek would take second position. 

In the afternoon session there would be eight rookies in the top 10 with Theophile Nael the highest placed of them in third. Nael was ahead of Liu who put an impressive session together to end up in fourth.

​Prema's Ugo Ugochukwu completed the most laps out of anyone across the day with 100 in total.

Drivers would be ready for the final day of track action for the 2024 FIA Formula 3 season with day two of the final post-season test at Barcelona-Catalunya.

There would be a change of driver lienup that would be running across the 30 cars from day one to day two and the change would take place over at the Trident team. Austrian driver Charlie Wurz who competed in day one would be vacating his seat for day two for Formula Regional European Championship driver Ruiqi Liu.

Liu so far in 2024 has scored three points across 12 races and sits 21st in the drivers standings.

Drivers would waste no time in heading out onto the circuit and would go for some early flying lap times to try and get a feel for the circuit with the day's track temperature and winds. The lap times would chop and change a lot as many drivers were improving. 

Campos' Nikola Tsolov started off in the best possible way by sitting top after the first 15 minutes of the session. The Bulgarian driver part of the Alpine Academy dominated the first day as he topped both the morning and afternoon sessions. Therefore Tsolov was hoping to pick up from where he left off on day 1.

However, Tsolov with his early lap would not stay top for very long as Trident's Rafael Camara would set a new fastest lap of the session so far. Camara, who would have happy recent memories of the circuit as just a few weeks prior to this test, he claimed the Formula Regional European Championship by Alpine (FRECA) with a round to spare at the Circuit Barcelona-Catalunya.

Camara's lap would be a 1:27.306, and this would be a lap time that would be good enough to be the best lap time across both the current day's and Tuesday's tests. However, Camara's lap would be beaten and in a fairly short space of time.

Nikola Tsolov would be the driver to beat it with a 1:27.236. Having only participated in day two test at Jerez and the first day at Barcelona in comparison to many drivers who would have done three days worth of testing, Tsolov had finished top overall on both days he had participate in. 

A great record for Tsolov and with the fastest time he would be hoping to make it a third day to top overall. The Bulgarian driver would be beaten though by his Campos teammate Mari Boya but it would be through the narrowest of margins.

Boya's lap time of 1:27.209 would be good enough to see him top of the time sheets by 0.029 of a second. 

At the end of the first hour of running, the top five would be Boya and Tsolov first and second respectively, as it would be a Campos 1-2. Following on from them it would be Martinius Stenshorne in third for Hitech, while his Hitech teammate Joshua Dufek was fifth. Rafael Camara was fourth for Trident.

However, things could all change still in the morning session as there were two hours of running remaining. The top were though were all within a tenth of one another. Very closely contested at the top of the times with all 30 talents having the fastest lap times.

Drivers would continue to complete lap times and practice different setups, to help them get to grips with the Formula 3 machinery ahead of next season for the majority of the field. Boya's time though remained unchallenged heading into the final half an hour.

In the final 15 minutes, running would be halted as the red flag would be brought out due to Noel Leon encountering difficulties for Prema. Leon, who had been running in 10th signed for the team for the 2025 season on Monday. 

Him causing a red flag would have been the last thing he would have been hoping for in order to try and please his new employers. He would have been hoping for a better end to morning proceedings as opposed to this.

The session would resume but no further lap times would be set for the morning session and before long the chequered flag would be out for the few cars that had gone back out onto the circuit.

Therefore, Mari Boya had the top time in the morning session with a 1:27.209 ahead of his teammate Nikola Tsolov, who was second in another great showing across post-season testing. Martinius Stenshorne was third for Hitech with Rafael Camara in fourth for Trident.

The top four (Boya, Tsolov, Stenshorne and Camara) were separated by just less than a tenth giving extremely close representation. Joshua Dufek completed the top five for Hitech Pulse-Eight.

Teams and drivers would pause for an hour for lunch before returning for the final three hours of track time in the 2024 Formula 3 season.

After an hour lunch break, it was time to return to on track action for the final track action of the 2024 season and the final track action for this spec of Formula 3 car as there will be a new era of machinery starting from 2025.

Mari Boya had managed to set the quickest time of the two-day test provisionally, in the day's earlier session, which saw Campos take control of proceedings once again. The Spanish team were really showing their expertise around the Spanish circuits.

At 13:00 local time, the session begun with a group of cars heading out onto the circuit. Would it be another Campos flurry of dominance between Boya and Nikola Tsolov or would another driver and team take the top spot for the final Formula 3 session of 2024.

It would be a slow start with only a selection of drivers going for laps early on. Hitech's Martinius Stenshorne, who topped day one overall at Jerez would set the benchmark lap time. The Norwegian driver would go quickest overall with a 1:28.337.

The lap time from Stenshorne would be over a second off the best lap time from Boya in the morning session, which followed a similar path to how the timings went across the Tuesday test sessions.

Stenshorne would have a 1.5 second gap to his Hitech teammate Joshua Dufek who would be siting second as more drivers began to set lap times but they were not getting close to the time set by Stenshorne.

Theophile Nael would sit third for Van Amersfoort Racing ahead of debut driver Ruiqi Liu who was in a comofrtbale fourth position as the session time kept on ticking. Therefore, when the session reached the halfway point the top five were: Stenshorne, Dufek, Nael, Liu and John Bennett.

A few drivers would venture out on to the circuit but there lap times would not trouble those at the front. With half of the session completed in the afternoon, only 28 of the 30 drivers had set a representative lap with Jesse Carrasquedo and Javier Sagrera of AIX Racing without a lap time.

This would remain the case even as the clock would run down to one hour to go and there would be little to no action on the circuit with some drivers heading in and out of the pit lane after doing some laps.

Eventually, Sagrera and Carraquedo would set a representative lap time in the session and their lap times would impress and both drivers would take spaces inside the top 10. The two rookies would end up 10th and 11th, with Sagrera in 10th.

Time was ticking down and more drivers were out there setting laps as just 45 minutes of the 2024 Formula 3 post-season testing remained. Some drivers were improving on their personal best laps but sadly for them they were still short of Stenshorne's time of 1:28.337.

Some drivers would be improving but it was mainly just getting laps completed for the drivers and teams in the final half an hour of post-season testing for the 2024 Formula 3 season. Stenshorne was still leading the way as the majority of drivers were on circuit.

Soon enough time ended up running out and the chequered flag being waved from the race control tower signalled the end of Formula 3 for 2024 and the end of post-season testing in Barcelona.

As for the afternoon session, it was Hitech who made it a 1-2 as Martinius Stenshorne finished top and 1.5 seconds clear of his teammate Joshua Dufek in what was a good end to the post-season testing for the team.

Theophile Nael would take third for Van Amersfoort Racing in the afternoon running ahead of Trident debutant Ruiqi Liu and AIX Racing's Javier Sagrera who completed the top five. However, with their times being vastly slower than the ones set in the morning session, this would affect the overall classification at the end of day 2.

Overall, it was the morning times for every driver that were their best laps and therefore the morning classification is taken and used as the overall classification finishing order. Therefore, it would be a Campos 1-2 with Mari Boya finishing top of the overall order with his mroning lap of 1:27.209.

Boya, who won at the Circuit Barcelona-Catalunya in the racing season of FIA Formula 3 in 2024, managed to get his car to be the fastest at the end of day 2 and he has set the fastest time across the two-day test.

Overall on Wednesday it was Boya and Nikola Tsolov that were first and second for Campos in another splendid day of testing on home soil for the Spanish outfit. Hitech's Martinius Stenshorne, who topped the afternoon session, would end third with his morning time in the day's overall leaderboard.

Rafael Camara, the highest placed rookie, was fourth for Trident while Joshua Dufek of Hitech completed the top five. All three Campos drivers would make the top six as Thai driver Tasanapol Inthraphuvasak would make it in sixth place ahead of MP Motorsport duo Bruno Del Pino and Tim Tramnitz, who were seventh and eighth respectively.

Noah Stromsted of Trident and Noel Leon of Prema would complete the top 10 as 15th place Ugo Ugochukwu would complete the most laps throughout the day with 100 in total.

The end of post-season testing signals the end of the 2024 season for FIA Formula 3 and what a season it has been in terms of the action that has been produced, the title fight that we have had with Leonardo Fornaroli taking the title with that final corner last lap overtake at Monza.

Now we have had the post-season testing where the next crop of rising talents will be preparing themselves for a future drive in FIA Formula 3.

For a lot of the drivers this will be the their first experience of Formula 3 and for those who already have got seats for the 2025 season, this has been a glimmer of what they can produce and a vital learning experience alongside it too. After all, that is the whole point of feeder series racing, to prepare the drivers for the top categories in motorsport such as Formula 1.

Formula 3 will return to an entirely new era for 2025 and that is exciting for all involved and with a handful of new rookies already confirmed to be on the grid, next year promises to be one you will not want to miss.

Formula 3 also says goodbye to a long-serving team at GP3 and FIA F3 level. After 15 years in both GP3 and FIA Formula 3, Jenzer Motorsport will depart the series after a great service to both championships. In their time in the category, they have seen the likes of Taylor Barnard and most notably Yuki Tsunoda race for them and go onto Formula E and Formula 1 respectively.

The first round of the 2025 Formula 3 season will be at Albert Park, Melbourne as the championship begins in Australia for the very first time. The round will take place between March 14-16.

Pre-season venues and dates are still to be confirmed.

Brandon Whiteside
Writer - F1 Journal