Callum Voisin and Rodin Motorsport take their first victory in FIA Formula 3, in Belgium feature race as Prema becomes Team Champions! Formula 3 feature race report: Round 9 - Belgium

Prema Racing have been crowned Formula 3 teams champions in 2024, for a fifth time in FIA Formula 3 in a chaotic Formula 3 feature race at Spa Francorchamps on Sunday morning.

The feature race saw three safety cars and a lot of dramatic action as the teams champions were crowned in Italian outfit Prema Racing, who have won the Teams Standings with a round to spare. Also in the action-packed race, it would be a maiden Formula 3 victory for team and driver.

Callum Voisin of Rodin Motorsport, who started on pole position, managed the race brilliantly out front, with three safety car restarts to get right. He did just that and the young British rookie would take his maiden Formula 3 victory in Belgium, in the feature race. 

The victory for Voisin's team Rodin Motorsport, would also be their maiden win in FIA Formula 3, since the championship re-branded from GP3 in 2019. At that level, the Rodin outfit had failed to win in the previous 10 years as a team, but that long record was over and Alex Lynn was no longer the most recent winner for that team.

Voisin would take the win ahead of Sebastian Montoya for Campos, who would take his first podium of the 2024 season as the Colombian driver would take second place. Championship contender Leonardo Fornaroli would take third place in a great result for Trident.

Fornaroli with the podium takes over the championship round, heading into the season finale at Monza, at the end of August. Initial championship leader Gabriele Mini would fail to score in the feature race after spinning at turn 1.

How the Formula 3 feature race in Belgium unfolded

After an already fantastic and dramatic weekend of action it would be time for the feature race in Formula 3, to conclude round nine of 10 in the 2024 championship.

On Saturday morning, in the sprint race, it would be Prema's Dino Beganovic who would take victory for his second victory of the season and his Formula 3 career. It would be a Prema 1-2 with championship leader Gabriele Mini finishing in second place.

The great haul of points would give Prema a realistic chance of taking the Teams Championship with a round to spare. Noel Leon finished third for his fourth podium of the season, for Van Amersfoort Racing.

It would be time for racing on Sunday morning for the feature race with Callum Voisin, British driver of Rodin Motorsport starting from pole position. Voisin set a stunning lap in qualifying to take his maiden pole position in FIA Formula 3.

The Rodin Motorsport of Voisin would be on pole and joined on the front row by Irish racer Alex Dunne, of MP Motorsport who will start second on the grid. Voisin would look to be the first driver in FIA Formula 3 to win for the Rodin Motorsport team. Would the Brit be able to do it?

30 cars would be able to take to the grid on a damp Spa Francorchamp circuit, for the penultimate feature race of the season and the final one before the summer break in Belgium. All of the drivers would complete the formation lap and it would be time to go racing.

The light would go out and the race was underway and Voisin would get a good start off the line and he would take the lead of the race as a poor start from Alex Dunne would see him slip to fourth as Sebastian Montoya, who started fourth, would take second into turn 1 as Leonardo Fornaroli was third.

Drama further back at the start of the race would see Gabriele Mini in a spin at turn 1, after contact made with Oliver Goethe of Campos Racing and a nightmare for the championship leader with his two main rivals in top 10 positions.

There were cars struggling for grip though on the slippery track surface as Voisin and Montoya would go wide at Les Combes but they would maintain their positions. 

Start of the second lap and Voisin would lock up into the first corner, giving Montoya a great run on him down to Les Combes, the British driver would be under pressure. Voisin would maintain the lead and would be able to keep ahead of Montoya's Campos.

The safety car would be brought out as Martinius Stenshorne and Tuukka Taponen had collided after spinning in their own separate incidents and would be both out of the race. Stenshorne and Sophia Floersch would cause the first spin. 

At the end of lap 6, the broken Hitech of McLaren junior Stenshorne and the ART of Taponen would be cleared. There would be racing action again as at the start of lap 7 the race was back underway.

Voisin would get a good restart and he would keep the lead from Montoya's Campos with Leonardo Fornaroli in third. Fornaroli's teammate Sami Meguetounif would take fourth from Irish driver Alex Dunne. Racing would fail to be green flag conditions for long as a second safety car would be deployed.

Joseph Loake of Rodin Motorsport and Sophia Floersch of Van Amersfoort Racing would come together, with the Alpine Academy driver Floersch being beached in the gravel and being out of the race. This would cause a two lap stoppage of green flag racing and lap 1 the remaining drivers with going back racing again.

There would be not much green flag racing once again as Voisin made a good restart but Alex Dunne would drop to 10th with a small stint of no power. He would get the car back going at full speed but it would be a race-ruining moment for the McLaren junior.

The safety car would be out once again as two separate incident would occur at turns 8 and 9.. Firstly, in the context of the drivers championship, Christian Mansell and Arvid Lindblad would tangle, with the Red Bull junior of Lindblad being sent into the gravel in his Prema. A nightmare for the championship contender.

In a separate incident, Charlie Wurz would clip the tyre of Mari Boya in the Campos. Boa would lose the car and would find the barriers at turn 9. Thankfully he was okay but the safety car would once again be deployed, for the third time in the race. Wurz would pit for a front wing change but in doing so would speed in the pit lane. A five-second time penalty would be given,

The restart would get underway for the start of lap 14 out of 15 and there would be two laps of racing, at the end of the feature race in Belgium. Voisin would once again nail the restart ahead of Montoya in second place.

On the run to Les Combes, a great run from Noel Leon on Sami Meguetounif and the an Amersfoort of Leon would get ahead of Trident and the Mexican driver would be up into fourth place.

Onto the final lap, and the pressure would be being hounded on Callum Voisin by Montoya but the Rodin Motorsport driver in the lead would have all of the answers out in front. 

At the GP3 and Formula 3 level, it had been 10 years since the Rodin Motorsport outfift, formerly of Carlin, as Alex Lynn would be the winner for the team on that day. They had never managed to win in FIA Formula 3, since the championship re-brand in 2019. That was all to change.

Out front, Callum Voisin of Rodin Motorsport would manage everything in the race including three safety car restarts to perfect and out of the final few corners he would see the chequered flag first, from the race control tower.

Voisin would make a fantastic piece of history for himself and the team as the British rookie would come across the line for his maiden win in the FIA Formula 3 Championship but it would also be a maiden win in the FIA Formula 3 Championship for Rodin Motorsport in a memorable and historic day for the outfit.

British driver Voisin would also see off Sebastian Montoya of Campos Racing who would come across the line in second place, for his first podium of the season. Leonardo Fornaroli would take a crucial third place for Trident, as with Gabriele Mini out of the points, Fornaroli would take over the championship lead. 

Noel Leon would finish fourth for Van Amersfoort Racing in another splendid drive from the Mexican as Trident's Sami Meguetounif would complete the top five. Luke Browning would finish in sixth place for Hitech Pulse-Eight ahead of Max Esterson in seventh for Jenzer Motorsport. Santiago Ramos, Tim Tramnitz and Alex Dunne would complete the top 10.

With no points for ART, who had to score 27 points in the race to keep the championship fight alive in the Teams Standings, the Teams Championship would be decided. For the fifth time since the championship begun in 2019, Prema have become the Teams champions for 2024 in what has been such a brilliantly consistent season from them.

A great achievement from Prema, who despite neither of their three drivers scoring a point, they had been able to clinch the title with a race to spare.

After so much drama at Spa Francorchamps, Formula 3 has a very close championship fight for the drivers prize with one round to go, coming at the Monza circuit, in Italy, at the end of August.

2024 FIA Formula 3 Championship: Drivers standings heading into season finale

1. Leonardo Fornaroli  - 129
2. Gabriele Mini -           128
3. Luke Browning -         123
4. Arvid Lindblad -         113
5. Dino Beganovic -      100

Just 29 points separate the top five in the championship heading into the season finale of the 2024 championship at Monza in Italy with Leonardo Fornaroli having a one point adavantage over Gabriele Mini, who came into the Belgium round with the championship lead.

There will be over a month with no action for the summer break for the teams, drivers and media alike. The season finale will be between August 31 and September 02. In Monza at the end of August and the start of September, the 2024 FIA Formula 3 Championship will be decided.

Post-race time penalties:

• Christian Mansell (Car 23) would be given a 10-second penalty for causing a collision with Arvid Lindblad (Car 3)
• Jospeh Loake (Car 31) would be given a 10-second time penalty for causing a collision with Sophia Floersch (Car 21)
• Piotr Wisnicki (Car 30) and Nikita Bedrin (Car 27) would be handed a 10-second penalty each for leaving the track and gaining an advantage.
• Cian Shields (Car 16) would be handed a five-second time penalty for a safety car infringement

2024 FIA Formula 3 Championship: Round 9 - Belgium feature race final classification

Drivers highlighted in red, would end up and finish in those positions after post-race time penalties.

1. Callum Voisin (Great Britain, Rodin Motorsport)
2. Sebastian Montoya (Colombia, Campos Racing)
3. Leonardo Fornaroli (Italy, Trident)
4. Noel Leon (Mexico, Van Amersfoort Racing)
5. Sami Meguetounif (France, Trident)
6. Luke Browning (Great Britain, Hitech Pulse-Eight)
7. Max Esterson (United States, Jenzer Motorsport)
8. Santiago Ramos (Mexico, Trident)
9. Tim Tramnitz (Germany, MP Motorsport)
10. Alexander Dunne (Republic of Ireland, MP Motorsport)
11. Dino Beganovic (Sweden, Prema Racing)
12. Laurens Van Hoepen (Netherlands, ART Grand Prix)
13. Gabriele Mini (Italy, Prema Racing)
14. Joshua Dufek (Austria, AIX Racing)
15. Tasanapol Inthraphuvasak (Thailand, AIX Racing)
16. Tommy Smith (Australia, Van Amersfoort Racing)
17. Matias Zagazeta (Peru, Jenzer Motorsport)
18. Kacper Sztuka (Poland, MP Motorsport)
19. Oliver Goethe (Germany, Campos Racing)
20. Nikita Bedrin (Italy, AIX Racing)
21. Christian Mansell (Australia, ART Grand Prix)
22. Cian Shields (Great Britain, Hitech Pulse-Eight)
23. Charlie Wurz (Austria, Jenzer Motorsport)
24. Piotr Wisnicki (Poland, Rodin Motorsport)
25. Joseph Loake (Great Britain, Rodin Motorsport)
26. Arvid Lindblad (Great Britain, Prema Racing) DNF
27. Mari Boya (Spain, Campos Racing) DNF
28. Sophia Floersch (Germany, Van Amersfoort Racing) DNF
29. Martinius Stenshorne (Norway, Hitech Pulse-Eight) DNF
30. Tuukka Taponen (Finland, ART Grand Prix) DNF

Brandon Whiteside
​Writer - F1 Journal