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

FIA Formula 3 saw the first day of the final two-day post-season test of the 2024 season completed in Barcelona on Tuesday.

This would be the last piece of track action of any kind for the 2024 season and this would be the final event of which the current era's machinery will participate in with a new model of car and spec will be introduced from 2025 onwards.

The car spec that has lasted from the first season of 2019, through to 2024 will have its final day of action on Wednesday - for day two of the final post-season test.

Overall on day 1 at the Circuit Barcelona-Catalunya, the second Spanish venue for post-season testing, it was largely dominated by Bulgarian Nikola Tsolov of Campos Racing and Alpine Academy.

Tsolov topped both the morning and afternoon sessions on day one but it was his morning lap timed at 1:27.866 that was the best lap of the day while all the other drivers recorded their best lap times in the morning session.

In the event of this, the morning times would be the classification order that the drivers have ended up in. Therefore Tsolov would have top spot ahead of Prema's Noel Leon who would have had a spring in his step after signing with the Prema outfit for the 2025 Formula 3 season. 

There would be two Campos drivers inside the top three as Mari Boya would finish in third position. Trident's Rafael Camara would be the highest placed rookie in fourth while MP Motorsport's Tim Tramnitz completed the top five.

At the end of day one, it would be Joshua Dufek of Hitech Pulse-Eight who completed the most laps with 77 across the six hours of running. 
 

Just one week on from the start of the first post-season test at Jerez, it was time to do it all again for FIA Formula 3 as they were all set to go testing around the Circuit Barcelona-Catalunya for the morning session of day 1.

The Circuit Barcelona-Catalunya is a circuit that Formula 3 knows well, especially with holding mid-season testing and a round of racing across 2024. In addition, the circuit would also see the final action of the 2024 season on track and also the final piece of track action for the current era of car.

The current era of machinery that has been the Formula 3 car since the very first race, at Barcelona-Catalunya, back in 2019 will finish its running in the championship's history at the end of day 2 on Wednesday. A fitting final place for the car to bow out of track action in the formal championship.

Just like the previous week at Jerez, the test at Barcelona will be across two days and it will be a learning experience for teams and drivers as they strive to form new partnerships ahead of the new season or for some drivers it would be a case of trying to impress in the hope of getting a sear for the 2025 campaign.

At 09:00 local time, the morning session for day one would be underway with it being a slow start to the three-hour session. 

Campos were the only team to run within the first 30 minutes with Nikola Tsolov holding the top time from his teammates Mari Boya and Tasanapol Inthraphuvasak. The Spanish outfit, on home soil, looked strong in both days at Jerez and they were starting off well too in Barcelona.

However, soon after the three Campos drivers had set some lap times, Hitech Pulse-Eight sent their drivers out to try and get a feel for the track and to get some laps under their belts. The drivers at Hitech would be Joshua Dufek, Martinius Stenshorne and Gerrard Xie.

The Hitech drivers would also be joined by the three Van Amersfoort cars being driven by Theophile Nael, John Bennett and Ivan Domingues.

​With 45 minutes completed in the session the order had changed slightly although Alpine Academy driver Nikola Tsolov would remain fastest with his provisional quickest time of 1:27.866. Mari Boya would also remain second but taking third position would be Dufek.

McLaren Development Driver Martinius Stenshorne would move into fourth which would push Inthraphuvasak down to fifth. However, this was only the early stages of the day's six hours in total, so a lot could change before the overall classification.

As for the morning session, there would be just over two hours remaining but the track would have become increasingly busy with all drivers and teams having lap times on the board except the Trident team.

The top five with two hours remaining would still have the two Campos drivers (Tsolov and Boya) first and second respectively. German driver Tim Tramnitz would be third ahead of Prema's Ugo Ugochukwu and ART Grand Prix's James Wharton who were fourth and fifth.

As time progressed into the second hour of the morning session times were chopping and changing with Tsolov's time remaining firm and untouched at the top of the timing pages. Campos were maintaining a 1-2 with Boya in second. 

There would be a few yellow flag moments with drivers pushing limits and trying to impress their teams around a circuit most of them will know well.

During the second hour, there would be a red flag stoppage as Ivan Domingues would run into an issue out on circuit and this would suspend running while his Van Amersfoort Racing machine was cleared.

The session would be green once again with drivers heading out onto the circuits to get some more lap times on the board with all drivers having set times in the session.

With less than half an hour remaining, drivers kept on pumping in the lap times with Noel Leon breaking the Campos 1-2 for Prema by going second quickest but his best attempt woud not be good enough to take top spot from Tsolov. 

Formula Regional European Championship by Alpine champion (FRECA) Rafael Camara would go fourth for Trident after a slow session for the team as they left it fairly late within the first hour to get going.

There would be a few more lap times in the session but no one could ultimately beat Nikola Tsolov's early lap time of 1:27.866 and he would end the morning session of day one fastest overall.

Tsolov would be top ahead of Prema's Noel Leon who finished second with the second Campos of Mari Boya who completed the top three. Rafael Camara and Tim Tramnitz would complete the top five.

Teams, drivers and engineers would break for lunch with they to all return for the afternoon session.

After a lunch break, the paddock would return to testing action as the teams and drivers would be ready to conclude the penultimate track day of the 2024 Formula 3 season.

Nikola Tsolov was fastest in the morning session for Campos as the Bulgarian driver managed to set an impressive lap time in the early stages, which was good enough to see him end the session top overall. 

​Early on in the session, many drivers would take to the circuit for the start of the second three-hour session of the day with the likes of Hitech and Rodin being the first teams to put their drivers out onto the circuit.

Freddie Slater in the very early lap times would put his Rodin Motorsport car top of the time sheets but that wouldn't be for very long as McLaren Development junior Martinius Stenshorne would take top spot with a 1:29.018.

Stenshorne and Slater would be the top two after an hour with Hitech's Joshua Dufek in third. MP Motorsport duo Tim Tramnitz and Alessandro Giusti completed the top five. Times were not quite up to the level of times which had been set in the morning session. However, there was still plenty of time remaining for things to change .

Track action would go quiet for a short while but before long cars would have to re-emerge from the pit lane and back onto the 14-corner circuit. Stenshorne would be fastest ahead of Slater but would it stay that way?

At the halfway point, the order would see slight changes as Spanish driver of MP Motorsport, Bruno Del Pino would elevate himself above his MP teammate Tim Tramnitz and would go into third place. While also improving, Tramnitz would progress to fourth - pushing Joshua Dufek outside the top five.

The pair would both be knocked down a place though with Jenzer Motorsport's Matias Zagazeta getting promoted up to third in what would be Jenzer's final event in Formula 3 as they are leaving the series at the end of 2024. 

​Into the final hour and Stenshorne's time would be beaten by Trident driver and rookie Rafael Camara, who managed to go top around Circuit Barcelona-Catalunya just weeks after winning the FRECA title at that specific track.

Camara would come across the line with a 1:28.891 which was over a tenth faster than Stenshorne's time which had him top of the times previously. As more cars would be attempting fast laps the track began to improve and therefore so did the lap times with Camara's time being under threat.

Camara would not be beaten by his Trident teammate Charlie Wurz before the Austrian was dislodged by the Campos of Mari Boya, who won in the 2024 sprint race as part of the regular season. Boya would sit third ahead of Wurz in fourth.

Once again Campos were looking quick, just like they did one week ago in Jerez. Nikola Tsolov who had shown brilliant speed throughout post-season testing from his first appearance back in Jerez for day two.

After a fairly quiet session, he would find his groove and would fly up the timing pages to the very top and he would have the fastest time of the afternoon session provisionally as there was still time for things to potentially change,

A 1:28.370 would pull himself half a second clear of Camara's lap. It was a truly brilliant lap from the Bulgarian driver and he was set to end the day having topped both three-hour testing sessions across the day. A brilliant showing from the Alpine Academy driver.

The time would not be beaten and although there would be lap times throughout the remaining minutes of the session Tsolov would not be stopped and the afternoon session would end with him on top of the times although this would not be his best time recorded on the day.

Tsolov finished ahead of Camara who was second for Trident with Martinius Stenshorne ending up third by the end of the second session. Mari Boya and Charlie Wurz would complete the top five.

However, no afternoon times recorded by any of the 30 drivers were their personal bests of the session and therefore the morning finished order would be the order in the overall classification for day one running.

This would not change top spot as Tsolov would be fastest in both sessions. His time in the morning session which was a 1:27.866 was good enough to oversee any challengers. His closest competitor Noel Leon was second for Prema while Mari Boya in the second Campos completed the top three.

Rafael Camara ended up fourth overall for Trident and was the highest place rookie while the highest place MP Motorsport driver Tim Tramnitz was fifth. Ugo Ugochukwu was sixth for Prema ahead of Joshua Dufek who completed the most laps out of any driver across the day - 77 in total.

Noah Stromsted finished eighth for Trident ahead of Martinius Stenshorne in ninth. James Wharton completed the top 10 for ART.

After a fantastic day one of action at the Circuit Barcelona-Catalunya attention will turn to Wednesday as the final day of the Barcelona test will take place and it will also be the final piece of track action of the 2024 Formula 3 season and the last track action for this era of car.

Brandon Whiteside
Writer - F1 Journal

Formula 3 will return to action for one final time in 2024, as the championship says goodbye to its current era of machinery for the second post-season testing two-day test, which will take place over the coming week.

This will be the second and final two-day test as part of Formula 3 post-season testing to take the place in the space of the week. The two-day test will also be the second of the tests that will take place in Spain.

Following on from last week's test at the Jerez circuit, this week's test will take place at the familiar Circuit Barcelona-Catalunya, which has seen mid-season testing as well as a round of racing in 2024.

It will see all 30 cars participating with the all three cars from the 10 teams. This will also see the last piece of track action in 2024 and the last track event for Jenzer Motorsport in FIA Formula 3 as they are departing the championship after being in it from the very first season of the championship in 2019.

It was announced in between the two tests that DAMS will replace Jenzer Motorsport and will have a contracted space on the Formula 3 grid until the end of the 2027 season 

The Circuit Barcelona-Catalunya is one that the drivers and teams in FIA Formula 3 will be familiar with having used this circuit many times and to the drivers making the step up from the Formula Regional European Championship by Alpine (FRECA) series they have raced at the venue within the last month.

Trident driver Rafael Camara clinched the title in the round at this particular circuit while Australian driver of ART James Wharton won both races that weekend after starting from pole position in both.

The track itself is made up of 14 corners and has a lap distance of 4.657km. Campos driver Mari Boya took victory in the sprint race back in June as part of the regular championship campaign. After a strong testing performance at Jerez, he will be hoping to replicate his fast pace around a circuit, which holds his only Formula 3 win to date,

It will be a learning experience for all teams and drivers that will participate in the test ahead of next year and it will get a lot of next year's grid exprienced with machinery that is similar to the new era of car that will come in for next year. This will be the second generation of Formula 3 car.

​Below you will find the entry list and the session times for the post-season testing which will span over two days at Barcelona. These two days that will see testing take place will be Tuesday 15th October and Wednesday 16th.

The lineup will include Ruiqi Liu for the first time as he will participate on Wednesday in place of Charlie Wurz at Trident, while Niels Koolen departs AIX and will be replaced by Jose Carrasquedo who will participate for his third different team out of four days of testing.

Brandon Whiteside
Writer - F1 Journal

Formula 3 saw post-season testing at Jerez completed, on Wednesday as part of the two-day test at the venue to fully complete the 2024 championship.

This two-day test at Jerez is the first of two in the space of a week as Formula 3 will also have a two-day test at fellow Spanish circuit Barcelona-Catalunya between the 15th and 16th October.

The first saw a lot of track action with Hitech's McLaren development driver, Martinius Stenshorne, was quickest with there being a lot of laps completed and the track being busy throughout the day. However, as for day two, the, circuit saw rain have a baring on proceedings with this leaving many drivers staying put in their garages, particularly for the most part of the afternoon running.

However, the best laps in each session would be set in dry tyres and in dry conditions. Nikola Tsolov would have the top time overall, with his best lap being set in the morning session for Campos. Tsolov would put in an impressive performance after not competing on the first day.

Tsolov came in to replace Jesse Carrasquedo in the number 10 Campos car, after Carrasquedo would take the place of Theophile Nael at Van Amersfoort, who impressed on his only day of the test.

All best lap times for the drivers would be set in the morning session, with the overall classification ending up a Campos 1-2 as Spaniard Mari Boya would end up in second overall, for the second day in a row. Martinius Stenshorne rounded off the top three for Hitech after ending up top of day one.

Prema Racing's Noel Leon completed the most laps out of the field across the day with 85 overall. The Mexican driver finished 12th overall.

Following on from the first day of action at Jerez, which saw the 2019-2024 Formula 3 machinery get a run out on a circuit for one of the final times. However, action at Jerez wouldn't end with the first day's afternoon session, as a whole new day awaited the teams and drivers to get the driving experience which could prepare them for next season whether they are in Formula 3 or not.

Martinius Stenshorne ended day 1 fastest overall after his lap in the afternoon session saw him quickest of both the afternoon running but also the full day's lap times. Mari Boya was second while rookie John Bennett would take third.

However, it was time for day 2 as the sun was shining on the Jerez circuit and the drivers would have the opportunity to get out on circuit to impress their potential future employers. Running was an hour earlier for the morning session, so the light level was low in the early stages.

There would be a slight change to the 30 drivers participating from the first to the second day of testing. Theophile Nael, who impressed on the first day of testing at Van Amersfoort, would leave his seat. In his place would be Jesse Carrasquedo, who would leave Campos after day one with a finishing position of fourth overall.

In Carrasquedo's place would be the returning Nikola Tsolov, which would make it a very experienced lineup at Campos heading into the second and final day, at Jerez.

In the first hour of running, it was largely experience that was showing through with the Campos duo of Tsolov and Boya that were leading the way. Tsolov would show great speed and at the end of the first hour, the Alpine Academy driver would lead th way by just 0.023 of a second. 

Tsolov's lap was a 1:29.858, as Campos were looking to assert authority on the morning running once again, just like they did a day previous.

Following on from the first hour, there would be little to no action on circuit with most drivers spending large stints in the pit garages and there being little track action for over half of the session with the top five remaining as it was at 60 minutes.

Tsolov was first from Campos teammate Boya as the two, with day one star Martinius Stenshorne in third for Hitech. Trident's Noah Stromsted was fourth with Ugo Ugochukwu sitting in fifth for Prema 

On day one, only 29 cars ran in the morning session, with Noel Leon not getting a lap time in for Prema throughout them three hours. However, that would not be the case for Wednesday's running and all drivers would set a lap in the morning running.

As time flew on by, throughout the session, drivers would complete laps but no one would be able to challenge the top five as time whittled down into the final 10 minutes of the session.

Bulgarian Nikola Tsolov would hold the fastest time ahead of his Campos teammate Mari Boya, in a 1-2 for the Spanish outfit at the Spanish circuit. Tuesday's quickest driver Martinius Stenshorne was third for Hitech while Trident's Noah Stromsted and Prema's Ugo Ugochukwu completed the top five.

There would be a pause in the day's action for lunch and the drivers would return later on in the day for the afternoon session.

After an hour interval for lunch, it would be time for the second part of the second day of post-season at Jerez and there would be the threat of wet weather looming once again but it would be dry to begin with and therefore drivers did not waste much time in heading out onto the circuit.

Only 28 drivers would head out onto the circuit with any sort of immediacy as they recognised if they wanted some dry running on the Jerez circuit, they would have to be quick about it. Rafael Camara and Gerrard Xie were unable to get dry laps in early on and therefore would only be able to get wet laps and would have to use the wet compound tyre.

Due to the track condition, the times of drivers were not matching those ones set in the morning session. It was the Jenzer of Nicola Lacorte who went to the top of the timing sheets early on with a 1:31.584, which was over four tenths clear of Van Amersfoort's Brit, John Bennett who was second. 

At the halfway point, Lacorte and Bennett occupied the top two spots as the rest of the top five was made up of Jose Garfias of AIX Racing, Ivan Domingues of Van Amersfoort and Mari Boya who was once again up near the top of the times for Campos.

Drivers would end up having small stints on track in the wet weather conditions although they would not improve on lap times.

The wet weather would eventually see Gerrard Xie and Rafael Camara set lap times but they would be way off the lap times set by the other 28 in a far drier circuit condition. Xie in the Hitech would go 29th and Camara would go 30th.

As time would eventually tick down and before long the afternoon session would be over and the early lap of 1:31.584 from Nicola Lacorte was sitting top of the times and he had topped the afternoon session.

However, his lap was not an improvement on his best morning lap nor was it good enough to finish fastest overall on the second day. This would also be the case for John Bennett, who had impressed on both days but would finish the afternoon session in second. Jose Garfias would finish third for AIX.

Ivan Domingues, Bennett's Van Amersfoort Racing teammate, would finish fourth with Campos driver Mari Boya completing the top five.

At the end of the final day of the Jerez post-season test, Nikola Tsolov would have top honours from Mari Boya going off the morning times, as everyone's best lap time was in the morning session. Therefore, the finishing order of the 30 drivers who participated would be the classification for the day's testing.

Noel Leon of Prema would be the driver with the most laps completed as the Mexican driver completed 85 in total.

That is not the end of post-season testing overall for FIA Formula 3, as there is another two-day test to take place, which will be held at the Circuit Barcelona-Catalunya, which is a circuit that has been used for mid-season testing as well as on the racing calendar itself.

The entry list is yet to be confirmed by action will take place on Tuesday 15th and Wednesday 16th of October.

Brandon Whiteside
​Writer - F1 Journal

Formula 3 action returned for post season testing this week, for the first of two separate two-day tests, at two different venues in Spain to complete the 2024 championship, with the first day taking place at the Spanish Jerez circuit, on Tuesday.

This is the first piece of Formula 3 action on track since the dramatic season finale at Monza, which saw Italian driver Leonardo Fornaroli take the title from Gabriele Mini with a sensation last lap, last corner overtake on Christian Mansell.

Formula 3 will have two grouped tests at two different venues over the next seven days, with both venues being Spanish circuit. Each test will be a two-day test with the current one being at Jerez and next week's being at the Circuit Barcelona-Catalunya.

Day 1 would see a lot of track action unfold, with many drivers driving Formula 3 machinery for the very first time after stepping up from lower feeder series championships such as the Formula Regional European Championship by Alpine (FRECA), GB3, EuroFormula and Italian F4.

In the overall classification, McLaren junior and Hitech driver Martinius Stenshorne was fastest overall in the session with his afternoon time. He beat Mari Boya of Campos, who was second with Van Amersfoort driver John Bennett finishing third and being the highest placed rookie out of the field.

Out of the 30 drivers to compete, 29 drivers set their best lap times of the day in the afternoon with AIX Racing's Jose Garfias finishing 30th and last with his best time coming in the morning part of the day's testing.

​Brando Badoer of Prema completed the most laps out of anyone throughout the day with the Italian driver completing 72 in total.

Formula 3 action was back for the first time since September 1st, with the first of two post-season tests set to get underway at the Jerez circuit.  The post-season testing would see the final pieces of track action for the 2019-2024 Formula 3 machinery before a new era begins from the 2025 season onwards.

The post-season testing would be two different two-day tests across two weeks with drivers, who had been announced to compete in the 2025 Formula 3 season would take part and get some brand new experience in Formula 3 machinery.

This could be the case for some drivers, however some drivers would be returning to the championship with their same teams or in some cases new teams.The entry list for the Jerez testing would be announced on Monday, the day prior to the first test. There would be 32 drivers listed to take part across the two days.

The entry list would be largely guided by a flurry of driver announcements for the 2025 season that would be made the day prior or on the day of the first test. This would include the likes of FRECA champion Rafael Camara and GB3 champion Louis Sharp. 

The likes of Tuukka Taponen, Noah Stromsted and James Wharton would all be joining up from FRECA who had stand alone weekends in the 2024 season deputising for drivers at different points across the championship.

British talents like 2024 Italian F4 Champion Freddie Slater and GB3 runner-up John Bennett would be looking to impress in their hopes for a formula 3 seat in the future or maybe even a potential space on the 2025 grid, with still many seats available.

For some returning drivers it would be a chance to embed with their teams they have been with during the 2024 regular campaign or with their new teams.

On a sunny Tuesday morning, the drivers would take part in a three-hour session as it would be time to begin one of the final dances for the current 2024 Formula 3 machinery.

Ugo Ugochukwu would be someone who would get to grips with the circuit early on with many drivers trading places at the top of the time sheets and setting some lap times. Drivers would be understandably pushing the limits as they were in a mood to impress the teams that have stored faith in them and have given them a chance to show their worth on one of the most-viewed feeder series championships in world motorsport.

Times would continue to change throughout the three hours with 29 cars ending up participating in the session out of the 30-car grid. The Prema of Noel Leon would not make an appearance in the Tuesday morning session. There would be hope and optimism to see him appear in the afternoon.

Into the final 10 minutes and the track would once again get busy as drivers would begin to set fast laps. Bruno Del Pino, making his first appearance in a Formula 3 car with MP Motorsport, would find himself top of the times for a short stint before Freddie Slater, Louis Sharp and John Bennett were among drivers to go quicker. Sharp, Slater and Bennett have all competed in the GB3 Championship at some point in 2024, with Sharp going on to become champion.

Del Pino would go for another flying lap straight away and would put himself up into third place, but soon would drop again to fifth with his MP Motorsport teammate Alessandro Giusti and  Prema's Brando Badoer going. quicker.

Giusti would rise to fastest while Badoer would slot into third.

Giusti was top for the moment and had a time of 1:33.722 was over two tenths quicker than Freddie Slater in the Rodin Motorsport car, who was occupying second for the time being. Giusti, part of the Williams Academy, would not stay top for long as Bennett, Mari Boya, Christian Ho and Matias Zagazeta would all beat the lap set by the Frenchman.

Freddie Slater would then take his turn to fastest with a 1:32.870 but he would have his time at the top cut short by Prema's Ugochukwu who went fastest by over four tenths of a second. Meanwhile, there would still be no times on the board for Tim Tramnitz or Noel Leon. Leon would be heading out on circuit in the afternoon but had remained in the pits for the morning runs.

Into the final two minutes of the session, there would still be time for drivers to set lap improvements if they could find them. Spanish driver Mari Boya could as the Campos driver went quickest of anybody by over a tenth as Christian Ho of Jenzer would move up into a second place.

The chequered flag would soon be out and drivers who were on flying laps would be able to complete them in an attempt to try and improve. 

By the end of the session, Boya would regain top spot from Jesse Carrasquedo, who managed to go top right up until the last second.

Boya was fastest overall from Carrasquedo in a Campos 1-2, which was a great to post-season testing for the Spanish team that were testing on home soil - at the Jerez circuit. Jenzer Motorsport's Christian Ho would finish third.

Roman Bilinski of Rodin Motorsport and Theophile Nael of Van Amersfoort would end the morning fourth and fifth respectively, with Nael in fifth being a second of Boya's time.

The drivers would take a break for lunch and would return to the track in the afternoon for the second part of day 1 at Jerez, in the 2024 Formula 3 post-season testing.

After a lunch break for team members and drivers, it was time to complete the running with the afternoon session, which would go on for three hours just like the morning session had gone earlier on in the day.

Unlike the morning session, where only 29 of the 30 drivers had appeared, there would be 30 for the afternoon session as Prema's Noel Leon was able to get out onto the circuit for some track running in the Prema machinery that dominantly won the 2024 Teams' Championship.

The session would begin and in similar fashion to the morning session times would constantly be changing and people would be moving up and down in terms of positions due to the constant improvements many drivers were finding. 

Many drivers would end up having stints at the top of the times but with 45 minutes gone i the session, Theophile Nael of Van Amersfoort Racing was the driver who had top spot, with a time that was almost a tenth quicker than Noah Stromsted, who for the time being had second position.

Again the times continued to change and with 75 minutes of the session completed, Nael would eventually lose his first position as his lap time would be beaten by Singapore racer Christian Ho, who managed to put his Jenzer Motorsport car to the top of the time sheets with two lap times that were good enough to sit him top as he improved on his first la to stay fastest by even further.

Ho had been showing great pace throughout the day but would not stay at the top forever has halfway through the afternoon, ART driver Laurens Van Hoepen would go quickest overall with Martinius Stenshorne of Hitech finding his way into the top two as well. This would demote Ho to third for the time being.

Van Hoepen would sit fastest with a 1:31.032 with Stenshorne holding second position. However, there was still plenty of time to go for Stenshorne and others to beat the lap time of Laurens Van Hoepen.

With one hour remaining Van Hoepen (ART), Stenshorne (Hitech), Ho (Hitech), Noah Stromsted (Trident) and Ugo Ugochukwu (Prema) would be the top five with drivers pushing the limits and desperate to impress their teams or their potential teams in the future.

Laps and positions would keep being traded on the timing pages as with 10 minutes to go with a 1:13.906, British rookie John Bennett, who was driving for Van Amersfoort Racing would go quickest. Out of the 21 rookies that had entered for the test, he was the quickest with limited time remaining of Day 1 testing at Jerez.

Flying laps would continue to be pumped in by drivers as the clock ran down completely, which would signal the end of the session and all of the drivers wanting to show their potentials had worked hard across the day in order to put in their best possible performances.

At the end of the afternoon session, it was Martinius Stenshorne of the McLaren Development Driver Programme who would be fastest with a  lap time of 1:30.761. The lap was also good enough to be the fastest time overall, across the day.

Stenshorne would finish quickest ahead of Campos' Mari Boya, who would set his best time of the day in second place of the afternoon session, despite being fastest in the morning part of day one.

John Bennett was the highest place rookie in third as he finished ahead of Campos' Jesse Carrasquedo, who was fourth, while ART driver Laurens Van Hoepen who completed the top five.

These top five drivers also remained in their positions for the day's overall classification as the afternoon times were better for 29 out of the 30 drivers. All afternoon laps beat the best morning time set by Jose Garfias, who was 30th.

Brando Badoer, son of former F1 driver Luca Badoer, completed the most laps across the day with 72.

Day 2 of post-season testing at Jerez will get underway on Wednesday with another chance of learning and developing for these young drivers.

Brandon Whiteside
​Writer - F1 Journal

After an enthralling 2024 season, track action for the Formula 3 championship returns this coming week, for the first of two post-season two-day tests in Spain, at two different circuits.

Formula 3 heads to Jerez for the first of two tests across the next week, with another two-day test at Barcelona to come as post-season testing will be completed in the last track action for the current era's machinery.

New drivers to the championship, who have been confirmed for 2025 seats or are simply just gaining experience or are potentially putting themselves in the shop window for one will be all looking to make an impression and to get some experience under their belts.

Jenzer Motorsport will be competing in the post season testing which will be their last action in FIA Formula 3 for the near future as they are leaving the championship after participating as a Constructor since the inaugural Formula 3 Championship in 2019

First up, Formula 3 will be visiting the Jerez circuit on the first stop for their two venues of post-season testing and it is a circuit that has previously been used by Formula 1 for their pre-season testing in years gone by.

Jerez is situated in the south of Spain and is 10km away from the city Jerez de la Frontera, which is in the province of Cadiz. Therefore, even though it is October, temperatures will still be fairly warm so that could play a part in drivers learning about tyre management in FIA Formula 3.

The circuit variation they will be using is the Grand Prix circuit, and that is made up of 15 corners and has a lap distance of 4.428km, which is equal to 2.751 miles. Formula 3 has never raced at the circuit since its re-brand, but GP3 did use it in 2017 with FIA Formula 2.

There will be two days of running on Tuesday 8th October and Wednesday 9th October with 30 cars being used as per the 2024 grid with in total 32 drivers competing across both days. Below is a list of the drivers competing across the tests.

Drivers participating will be a mixture of drivers from GB3, Europcup-3 and Formula Regional European Championship as well as drivers who competed in the 2024 Formula 3 Championship regular season. Here is the list below:

Brandon Whiteside
​Writer - F1 Journal

Formula 3 have confirmed their post-season testing dates for October as the championship will visit two Spanish venues, which was announced on Monday.

At the start of September, the racing in the 2024 Formula 3 Championship concluded with Leonardo Fornaroli taking the title with a last lap overtake at the final corner at Monza, at the Italian Grand Prix weekend.

It was a fantastic season with so much competition and so much excitement with twists and turns from the first round in Bahrain to the 10th final round at Monza. It truly was a fantastic season with 12 different winners across the 20 races and 21 different podium finishers from the 30 full-time drivers.

However, as is usual Formula 3 will complete post-season testing which the drivers and teams will head to a specific circuit or circuits to complete some test sessions. This is a chance sometimes for drivers who will join up to the championship in 2025.

At the end of the 2023 season, the post-season testing was held at Imola in Italy, however, for 2024 the testing will take place in Spain over two weeks at different circuits. 

Each post-season test will be across two days at a particular circuit each, with the locations being Jerez and the Circuit Barcelona-Catalunya. The Circuit Barcelona-Catalunya is a circuit where they have already raced and completed mid-season testing in 2024 so it will be a circuit the teams and drivers know well and they will visit Jerez which is used in the Spanish F4 Championship.

The first test will be at Jerez and that will take place on October 8 (Tuesday) and October 9 and then the test at Barcelona will take place on October 14 (Monday) and October 15 (Tuesday) - almost one week later.

It will be an exciting time and opportunity to see what the future Formula 3 stars can do in their post-season testing and learn Formula 3 machinery and to try and earn a seat for the 2025 campaign.

Brandon Whiteside
Writer - F1 Journal

In a hugely dramatic title fight that went down to the final corner of the final lap, Leonardo Fornaroli took the FIA Formula 3 Championship on Sunday morning at Monza, in front of his home crowd.

It was a crazy title fight that was always set to be filled with drama but in the final race of the 2024 FIA Formula 3 Championship, but on the last lap into the final corner Fornaroli overtook Christian Mansell took third, which was crucially enough to take the championship.

Fornaroli would re-take the championship lead after coming into the final race with the lead of it, as he was contending for the title, throughout the race, with Gabriele Mini of Prema and Alpine Academy. It would have been heartbreaking for Mini to lose the championship, that close to the end, but it was the Trident of Fornaroli who came out victorious.

It would be four drivers who would initially come into the final race of the season, with a mathematical chance of winning the title as Fornaroli and Mini would be competing with two Brits in Luke Browning of Hitech and Arvid Lindblad, who is Prema teammates with Gabriele Mini.

For the race itself, it would be Fornaroli's Trident teammate Sami Meguetounif who would take a commanding victory after taking the lead from then race leader Alex Dunne. Meguetounif would finish ahead of Mini, who would take second but ultimately not enough to take the title as Fornaroli would complete the podium in third.

A truly fascinating season ended with the first Italian FIA Formula 3 champion and the first GP3/Formula 3 champion to win the title without winning a race.

It would be race day for the final time in 2024 in FIA Formula 3, on Sunday morning, with the feature race set to take place and set to be a championship decider.

After some thrilling action in the 2024 season with so many different twists and turns in the championship, the Formula 3 Championship was to be decided at Monza with four possible champions but it could only be one of them.

Leonardo Fornaroli, Gabriele Mini, Luke Browning and Arvid Lindblad. One of these drivers would take the crown but who would it be?

Heading into the feature race, Fornaroli would be in a strong position with a three-point lead and him starting from pole position, and to go with it he would take the extra championship points, to extend his championship lead to five points.

Fornaroli would start on pole and would be joined on the front row with Irish driver Alex Dunne, of MP Motorsport. Dunne would look to become the fourth different MP Motorsport driver to win at Monza, in Formula 3, over the past two seasons. Dunne's teammate, Tim Tramnitz, picked up his maiden Formula 3 win in the sprint race.

Not only would it be the final race of the season to a fantastic and enthralling season but it would also be the final race in the era of machinery, with after the sprint race on Saturday, the new generation of Formula 3 car would be unveiled for the 2025, 2026 and 2027 Formula 3 seasons.

The most winners in the season the most podiums in a season in the sixth season of Formula 3 with the formation lap complete. It was time to go racing for the final time in 2024 for the championship decider.

The lights would go out and the cars would roar off the grid as Fornaroli would get a near perfect start as he would cover off Alex Dunne into the first few corners but Dunne would maintain second from Gabriele Mini, who started in third. Meanwhile,

​Mari Boya would take evasive action by cutting across the first chicane and would rejoin the circuit, letting the drivers who he had jumped in front of re-overtake him. 

The field all made it through cleanly but Dunne would remain poised to try and take the lead. Although Dunne was out of the championship fight, he was still wanting to try and continue MP Motorsport's dominance around Monza and he would make a move for the lead. 

Down the inside of the final corner and the McLaren junior would take the lead of the race lead at the end of the first lap and Fornaroli would not put up too much of a strong defence as any contact could completely risk the championship.

Fornaroli would have his Trident teammate in the top four, in Sami Meguetounif and therefore he would be providing a headache for second in the championship Gabriele Mini. Down the inside into turn 1 and Meguetounif would take third from Mini and once again there would be one car between the top two in the championship.

Start of the third lap and Fornaroli would have a look around the outside of turn 1 on Dunne but would be to no prevail as the Italian driver would not wanting to risk it too much with a championship on the line.

Further back and there would be drama for one of the contenders in Luke Browning, who would spin at the Ascari chicane with many cars forcing to take evasive action because of the Williams Academy Hitech in the middle of the road and stationary. 

This would lead to contact between drivers with Matias Zagazeta, Cian Shields, Sophia Foersch and Piotr Wisnicki all involved on the exit of the chicane. This would see the safety car be brought out and therefore this would neutralise the pack.

Browning would not fully be out of the race as he would pit for a new front wing but his chances of a title had slid away and he would have so much to do. He would have to rely on some serious drama for Fornaroli and Mini.

Lap 6 and the safety would come in at the end of that lap so racing would be resumed in the championship deciding race and Dunne would choose to get the race back underway at the start of the parabolica however Fornaroli would intend to stay with him and he would be tryingt pressure the young Irishman into a mistake.

Mini would not get off to the best of restarts as he would lose a place to the ART of Mansell and he would not be the best of times in the Prema Racing car. However, luck could be on his side as Fornaroli would drop back to fifth after going wide and through the gravel at Ascari. A nightmare for the Trident driver, who had slipped behind his main championship rival.

Start of lap 8 and Fornaroli would recover himself and would make his way back ahead of Mini and the Prema driver would be struggling and would have to dig deep for the championship. The move was made at Ascari. Fornaroli trying to rectify his race at the same place where he made the mistake at, one lap earlier. 

Meanwhile all the drama was kicking off between the top two in the championship, joy was at the car 5 of Trident with Sami Meguetounif taking the lead from Alex Dunne into turn 1. A truly brilliant move and the Frenchman was into the race lead.The reformed top three was Meguetounif ahead of Dunne in second and Mansell in third, with still plenty of time for it to all change.

Within the battle of the top three Mansell would get ahead of Dunne for second with a good move from the ART man, who was in the title fight coming into the weekend but sadly after luck didn't go his way in the Saturday sprint, he would have nothing to play for in the final race.

Mini would be getting the urgency call from his team Prema, who were urging him to get ahead of Fornaroli and on lap 13 he was closing him down but likewise Fornaroli was trying to hunt down Alex Dunne of MP Motorsport for the final place on the podium, to once again put a car between him and Mini,

Dunne would lose DRS to the front two and it would make it a no contest for Leonardo Fornaroli to make his way through into turn 1, as through the rest of the lap Mini would drop back a touch.

It would take until the start of lap 16 for Mini to hunt down Fornaroli as that's when he would be able to get of Dunne. Mini of the Alpine Academy and Prema was in search to become the first FIA Formula 3 champion from Italy and to take that honour away from Fornaroli.

Meanwhile all this had gone on a few penalties had been handed out. For knocking the polystyrene down at the first chicane, Tasanapol Inthraphuvasak would be handed a 10-second time penalty and this would be added to the end of his race time. Sebastian Montoya and Luke Browning would find themselves also in trouble with the Race Stewards.

Fornaroli was on a mission and would be on a charge after the ART of Christian Mansell for second place in the race and sure enough on lap 18 he would find his way through into turn 1 for second place, although he would have a slight lockup, while completing the move and also into the following Roggia chicane. That would have done his tyres no good at all.

On the following lap, Mini would get ahead of Mansell down the start/finish straight before they reached turn 1 and now he would be up into third place. With the race being on lap 19, not much time was there for things to change. If Mini wanted to get the title, he would have to seriously work for it over the next few laps.

The following lap and Mini had closed up to the back of Fornaroli but was unable to make a move, he was going to need to try and get ahead as quickly as possible.

However on lap 21, there would be a major late twist in the championship title as Mini found his way ahead of Fornaroli but Mansell would also get back ahead! A significant twist because as it stood, Gabriele Mini would become the champion of 2024.

This would leave Fornaroli just one more lap to rectify the misfortune. Could he do it in such little time?

Down the main straight, DRS advantage for Mansell would keep Fornaroli at bay that in truth would be supplied by Mini, who would have to play this tactically to run out champion. Down to the Roggia chicane and Fornaroli would go for a move but both would go off the road and therefore have to concede the place. He was running out of time.

Down to Parabolica however, what was about to unfold was sensational by any standards as Fornaroli would desperately and in control send it down the inside of the final corner on the final lap to take third place and to bring him back into the championship lead. A hugely dramatic pass and that was fantastic from Fornaroli.

However, fantastic could also be used to recognise the performance of Fornaroli's Trident teammate Sami Meguetounif, who out front really showed his skill and controlled the pace with all the fighting going on behind him. He would cross the line and take his second win of the season and his second feature race in Italy - after taking his first in the Imola feature race back in May 

Mini would finish second in a truly brilliant effort, however, it wouldn't be enough for the Alpine Academy man of Prema to clinch the Formula 3 title. As with that daring move down the inside of the final corner, to take third, Fornaroli would take the final place on the podium but the title also.

Christian Mansell would finish fourth for ART, while after starting on the front row, MP Motorsport's Alex Dunne completed the top five. Hitech's Martinius Stenshorne would be sixth ahead of sprint race winner Tim Tramnitz in seventh.

Noel Leon finished eighth for Van Amersfoort Racing ahead of Laurens Van Hoepen who was ninth for ART Grand Prix.with Prema's Dino beganovic completing the top 10 and taking the final point.

A truly remarkable Formula 3 Championship comes to a close after a fantastic season with so many twists and turns at the top and so much change throughout the year.

The season began in February and ended in Spetember but what happened in between was truly magnificent and is a great advert for the FIA Formula 3 Championship and a fantastic title fight that had four drivers within a mathematical possibility heading into the final race of the season on Sunday morning.

So much action with all 10 teams appearing on the podium at least once in what will be a Formula 3 season to remember for many years to come. The field was so evenly spread and there were so many drivers that were fighting for results.

Across the 10 rounds and 20 races, there was 12 different winners, with Arvid Lindblad, Luke Browning, Dino Beganovic and Nikola Tsolov being the repeat winners of the season but 21 different drivers ended up on the podium. 

We have seen 34 different drivers competing in the championship with four stand-ins participating. James Hedley, James Wharton, Tuukka Taponen and Noah Stromsted have all been fantastic to welcome onto the grid.

Prema would once again return to Teams Championship glory in 2024 and they clinched the championship with a round to spare, as they won it in the Belgium feature race, in round nine, at Spa Francorchamps. At the end of the season, Prema would have the title by 91 points from Trident who were second and ART Grand Prix were third.

However, Trident would still claim a title and it would be the drivers one with Leonardo Fornaroli without a win, taking the championship title in the most dramatic and fascinating of circumstances with a pass on the final corner of his season, to take it away from Gabriele Mini.

Fornaroli has been consistent which is the key to success and Fornaroli's championship-winning campaign proves exactly that. Yes he may have not won a race, but his form has been super consistent. He has scored seven podiums which is a brilliant record.

The Italian driver becomes the first driver from Italy to win the FIA Formula 3 Championship but also he becomes the first driver in GP3 and Formula 3 history to win the championship and not take a victory through the season. Simply remarkable from him.

Although it's Fornaroli's time in the spotlight, there was going to be seven drivers fighting for it this weekend, before Colapinto's move to Williams kick-started a chain of events that saw Oliver Goethe graduate and therefore would narrow it down to six.

Not all of these talents will make it to Formula 1 but one thing is for sure is that they have put their names in conversations for future seats in any top flight motorsport series. After all these talents are the stars tomorrow.

There will be post-season testing in Formula 3 in 2024, which will be the last action of the calendar year. However, with a new car era coming in 2025, excitement is starting for the next season of this thrilling championship, which begins at Melbourne,

​Until then, goodbye!

Brandon Whiteside
Writer - F1 Journal

German rookie Tim Tramnitz took victory for MP Motorsport in an action-packed final Formula 3 sprint race of 2024, which took place on Saturday morning.

Tramnitz has managed to take his maiden victory in the FIA Formula 3 Championship, which has come in a critical championship-deciding weekend, where all of the focus has been lying.

The Red Bull junior driver took victory from the Campos of Sebastian Montoya, who finished second narrowly ahead of Santiago Ramos, who was third for Trident.

After an action-packed race with a lot of drama and a lot of overtakes, Fornaroli leads the championship after the sprint race and had a one-point lead coming into the weekend over Gabriele Mini.

That lead has extended itself by two points but the top three, which includes Luke Browning, is separated by three points.

After a four week summer break, Formula 3 would return to racing action for one final weekend in 2024 at the Monza circuit, in a championship-deciding weekend. Six drivers would have the possibility of taking the championship title 

Gabriele Mini, Luke Browning, Arvid Lindblad, Dino Beganovic and Christian Mansell would be looking to try and de-throne Leonardo Fornaroli, who would come into the round with the championship lead.

It would be Fornaroli who would take pole position for the feature race and with it two extra championship points. However, Saturday morning would see the sprint race grid have the op 12 from qualifying reversed.

Therefore, it would be Tim Tramnitz who would start from pole position with Dino Beganovic starting alongside him on the front row, who is a championship challenger. It would be time to go racing for the final sprint race of the season.

There would be drama before the start of the race, as Christian Mansell would cause an extra formation lap, as he had a mechanical issue on the initial formation lap. Not what the ART driver needed and put a big dent in his championship hopes.

After the second formation lap it would be time to go racing for the final sprint race of the year. The lights would go out anfd an initial good start from Tim Tramnitz he would maintain the lead after covering off Beganovic. 

Beganovic would  into turn 1 as Sebastian Montoya would take second from Beganovic after being forced wide at turn 2 of the first chicane and would keep the place. There would be moves made all over the field on the first lap as Nikola Tsolov would go for a pass into Ascari but would lock up on cold tyres and go straight on into the gravel. Tsolov would rejoin safely enough but would drop all the way down the order.

Start of the second lap and there would be a pause of green flag racing as Tim Tramnitz would hold the race lead. The safety car would be deployed due to an incident at the first chicane as Noel Leon and Nikita Bedrin would end up in the gravel out of the race!

Leon would be hit through the back from his Van Amersfoort Racing teammate Tommy Smith and would end up collecting Nikita Bedrin through no fault of his own. Racing would be neutralised, while the marshals would clear the cars from being a track hazard. Smith would be handed a 10-second time penalty for causing a collision.

Lap 6 would be the restart lap and it would be a good restart from Tramnitz and he would get a much better getaway than Montoya, who would be under pressure from Dino Beganovic and Sami Meguetounif, who would both be shovelled out - Beganovic dropping to fourth and Meguetounif dropping to sixth. Santiago Ramos would be up to third.

Leonardo Fornaroli would already start Sunday's feature race from pole position as he would be making great progress through the field and was flying along and would be up into the points as he would sit 10th in the order. He would make a move for ninth on Arvid Lindblad, one of his championship challengers.

Fornaroli was flying and on lap nine into the first corner would make a move for eighth on Martinius Stenshorne in the McLaren liveried Hitech. Fornaroli was having a fantastic race and was the fastest driver on circuit. Evidence of this would be him taking the fastest lap of the race so far.

One lap later and it would be an extra position gained from Fornaroli as he overtook Mari Boya.for seventh.

Dino Beganovic had been struggling a bit since the restart and was passed by Meguetounif and dropped to fifth, with a lap later he would be behind Alex Dunne for sixth. Not the result, Beganovic needed and would near enough end his championship challenge and leave him with a lot of work to do.

However, the entertaining racing would be halted due to the second safety car of the race would be deployed due to an incident at the first chicane involving two cars. It would be the Rodin Motorsport of Piotr Wisnicki and the Jenzer Motorsport of Max Esterson that would come together and would go into the gravel trap.

Wisnicki would go wide into the first corner and would try and keep the position ahead of Esterson but he would clip the curb on the inside and collide with the Jenzer Motorsport and both would be out of the race. Both would blame each other but the Stewards would investigate it after the race.

There would be one final lap of racing as at the end of lap 16 the safety car would come in as the two cars had been cleared and there would be a chance for one lap of racing. Tim Tramnitz would be under pressure from those behind, who were keen on taking victory. 

Tramnitz would maintain the lead but remarkably behind Luke Browning would make his way into the top eight as he would pass Fornaroli, in a critical fight for a few points, which could make all the difference ahead of the final feature race on Sunday morning.

Browning would have a great final lap and would make a charge towards Boya as Gabriele Mini would make his way ahead of Martinius Stenshorne into 10th for the final point in the order.

Out front, Tramnitz would be brilliant out in front and had maintained great pace after starting from pole position and had led the entire race throughout. Around the parabolica and the German rookie for one more round only, would see the chequered flag first and would take his maiden Formula 3 victory.

Tramnitz of MP Motorsport would take the win ahead of Sebastian Montoya for Campos, who was second. It would be MP Motorsport's third Formula 3 win at Monza in succession, after winning both races at Monza in 2023. Mexican driver Santiago Ramos would finish third for Trident.

Alex Dunne would finish fourth, making it two MP Motorsport cars inside the top five as Dino Beganovic would complete the top five as he finished fifth for Prema. Sami Meguetounif was sixth for Trident ahead of Luke Browning, who had driven a great race to finish seventh. 

Mari Boya was eighth to make it two Campos cars which finished inside the top 10. Leonardo Fornaroli and Gabriele Mini completed the points scoring and the top 10 finishers.

After the race, five points would separate the top three in the championship, ith today's points added. Should Fornaroli start the race tomorrow, that's when the pole position points will come into effect. 

After the sprint race, five points would separate Leonardo Fornaroli, Gabriele Mini and Luke Browning as the final race of the season will take place on Sunday morning with the feature race at Monza, taking place 07:35 UK time.

Brandon Whiteside
​Writer - F1 Journal

​Friday, August 30th, would see the final qualifying session of the season take place in a season finale that was set to see the drivers title go down to the very wire with six possible champions heading into the final round of the season.

It was Mari Boya of Campos Racing who topped the morning practice session. Boya would be joined at Campos by Noah Stromsted making his debut in FIA Formula 3, replacing Oliver Goethe who had graduated to Formula 2 to drive for MP Motorsport.

The qualifying would be split into two equal groups like it was in the Monaco round back in May. 15 cars would participate in each group based on their car number being odd or even. Whoever takes the fastest lap time out of both groups would take pole position for the feature race and the two championship points that come with it.

In Group B, it would be the remaining 15 drivers who didn't participate in Group A, and who all have odd numbered cars. This would include the other three of the six championship challengers.

Group B would consist of:

• #1 Dino Beganovic & #3 Arvid Lindblad (Prema Racing)
• #5 Sami Meguetounif (Trident)
• #7 Tim Tramnitz & #9 Alex Dunne (MP Motorsport)
• #11 Sebastian Montoya (Campos Racing)
• #15 Martinius Stenshorne (Hitech Pulse-Eight)
• #17 Charlie Wurz & #19 Matias Zagazeta (Jenzer Motorsport)
• #21 Sophia Floersch (Van Amersfoort Racing)
• #23 Christian Mansell & #25 Nikola Tsolov (ART Grand Prix)
• #27 Nikita Bedrin (AIX Racing)
• #29 Callum Voisin & #31 Joseph Loake (Rodin Motorsport)

The green light would come on at the end of the pit lane for the second time in Monza and Group B would be underway with these 15 drivers aiming to take pole position away from championship leader Leonardo Fornaroli.

The first half of the 12-minute session had gone by without any action and with seven minutes remaining the drivers headed onto the circuit to prepare for their laps in an attempt to try and get pole position for the final round of the season.

Unfortunately for Christian Mansell, who is one of the challengers for the title, he had backed up the pack but unfortunately in comparison to the others, he had none of the cirtical tow the others would have had.

In the lap times, it would be Alex Dunne of Ireland who would go top of the times with a great effort in his MP Motorsport car. Dunne would go fastest of Group B with a 1:38.818, which was just ahead of Sami Meguetounif of Trident who would sit second.

The chequered flag would be out meaning only the drivers on current flying laps were able to set new personal bests and improve their best lap times. However, no one was able to beat Dunne's time and he would take pole for group B.

However it wouldn't be pole position overall as Leonardo Fornaroli's time was better and therefore he would take pole position overall, for the final round of the season but more critically two points, which would extend his championship lead to three over Gabriele Mini.

In the qualifying classification overall, Fornaroli would have pole position with Alex Dunne set to start alongside him in second for the feature race on Sunday. Gabriele Mini completes the top three, with Trident duo Sami Meguetounif fourth and Santiago Ramos completing the top five.

Sebastian Montoya was sixth for Campos, ahead of AIX Racing's Joshua Dufek in seventh. Championship challenger Christian Mansell is eighth ahead of Mari Boya in ninth with Dino Beganovic completing the top 10. 

Tasanapol Inthraphuvasak was 11th with Tim Tramnitz starting the final sprint race from pole position in the final sprint race of the season as he qualified in 12th. 

Saturday morning will be when the final Formula 3 sprint race of 2024 takes place, in this important championship-defining weekend.
​

Brandon Whiteside
Writer - F1 Journal