Stunning driving from Brazilian Rafael Camara who extends his championship lead with second successive Formula 3 Feature Race victory at the Bahrain International Circuit.

Following on from taking pole position and winning the Feature Race with the fastest lap in Melbourne, Camara came into the round with the championship lead but he replicated such domination in Sakhir in the boiling Bahrain temperatures.

Camara won the Feature Race by over six seconds to Rodin Motorsport's Callum Voisin in second place. The pair had a good fight for the race lead in the early stages but it was the Trident of Camara that came out on top.

For the second successive year, MP Motorsport's Tim Tramnitz took third place in the Bahrain Feature Race. ART driver Tuukka Taponen and Saturday Sprint Race winner Nikola Tsolov rounded off the top five.

Camara extended his championship lead to 26 points over Tramnitz of MP Motorsport who sits on 30 points, as opposed to Camara's 56.

Grand Prix Sunday descended on the Bahrain International Circuit but that meant Feature Race Sunday for the FIA Formula 3 Championship with an exciting 22-lap race inbound following a stunning Sprint Race on Saturday.

On Saturday it was the Campos Red Bull junior Nikola Tsolov who took victory to win a record-equalling fourth race in the FIA Formula 3 Championship. He fought off a fierce and pacey debutant Freddie Slater, who drove brilliantly to finish second for AIX Racing.

However, for Sunday, the grid for the Feature Race was determined by the order of qualifying that was determined on Friday. For a second successive Feature Race, championship leader Rafael Camara was to start from pole position. He was to have Rodin's Callum Voisin alongside him on the front row.

Behind them on the second row would be the Trident of Charlie Wurz and the DAMS Lucas Oil of Christian Ho.

​The lights went out for 22 laps of racing at the Bahrain International Circuit and it was Voisin who got the best start as into the first turn he got ahead of the Trident of Camara and took the lead of the Feature Race. Wurz was behind in third.

There was no shortage of action at the start of the race with James Wharton being accidentally spun round by the DAMS of Matias Zagazeta, who was had not seen Wharton coming round the corner behind another car in Zagazeta's line of vision. Zagazeta was also side by side with Van Amersfoort's Ivan Domingues.

The incident was viewed as a racing incident and no further investigation was taken against the ART of Wharton or the Peruvian Zagazeta. 

Out front the leading pair had closed up and Camara was in DRS range of race leader Voisin. Into the first turn and Camara used the DRS advantage to get ahead and into the race lead. However, Voisin would use the DRS on the run down to turn four to get back ahead through the turn four, five, six and seven complex. 

Freddie Slater had a fantastic debut race in the Saturday Sprint Race but a form of issue with the car forced him into retiring his AIX Racing machine only on lap three. 

Also on lap three there was a brief Virtual Safety Car which had been caused by some of the debris that had flown off in wheel to wheel combat between drivers. This Virtual Safety Car was very brief with early on through lap four, the racing would be back underway.

Camara had not fallen back from the race leader Voisin despite being re-overtaken by the Rodin driver. On the fifth lap, the Brazilian would take the lead using the DRS advantage on the start/finish straight and was to stay ahead throughout the next set of DRS Zones.

Up to third on lap seven was Tuukka Taponen. The ART driver who finished third in the Saturday Sprint Race was back into third place again. Taponen passed the Trident of Charlie Wurz who had fallen back from the leading pair.

Overtakes were being made up and down the field with Tim Tramnitz on a charge from 13th on the grid. Lap eight and he took sixth from the Singaporean driver Christian Ho of DAMS Lucas Oil.

That lap would be positive for MP Motorsport with Tramnitz's teammate Alessandro Giusti also moving up a place via an overtake. Williams Academy driver Giusti made the move into 10th by passing the Prema of Brando Badoer.

​Birthday boy Mari Boya was making progress early on despite starting only 20th. By the halfway point in the race he was up to 12th after passing Noel Leon and was on the fringes of the points scoring positions.

Further forward a battle was forming for fifth with Noah Stromsted leading a trio of cars who were all eager to hold fifth place. The two that Stromsted had to contend with were Red Bull junior driver duo Tramnitz and Tsolov driving for MP Motorsport and Campos Racing respectively.

Stromsted was struggling for grip and lap 12 Tramnitz would make fifth place his own with a great pass to get ahead of the Danish Trident driver and that would be Tramnitz up into fifth and Stromsted down to sixth.

Tsolov showed great speed in the Saturday Sprint Race and was continuing to do so in the Sunday Feature Race. One lap later he would take sixth from Stromsted and followed his fellow Red Bull junior counterpart up the road. The duo were chasing Taponen and Wurz.

Prema usually dominate Formula 3 and have won every bar one of the Teams Championships since the championship began in 2019. After a difficult start to the season, they were hoping for better in Bahrain. The team were no doubt anxious when they had two driver, Brando Badoer and Noel Leon, fighting for position.

Fighting through the turns five and six, Badoer ran out of road and made the sensible decision to take to the run off area and rejoin behind his Mexican teammate Leon.

An incident was noted that happened between Campos' Tasanapol Inthaphuvasak and Rodin Motorsport's Roman Bilinski. The Campos driver appeared to find his way ahead of the Rodin driver off the track and subsequently was noted for leaving the track and gaining an advantage.

The Stewards would investigate the incident and would hand Inthraphuvasak with a 10-second time penalty as they saw he was the person responsible. This was one of two penalties in the race handed out with the other being handed to the McLaren junior Ugo Ugochukwu.

Ugochukwu had exceeded track limits more than the three strikes given to each driver per race. On his fourth occasion and Ugochukwu was handed a five-second time penalty which was added to his race time at the end of the race.

Alessandro Giusti had been showing great speed throughout the Feature Race and on lap 16 he took eighth from the DAMS Lucas Oil driver Christian Ho. Giusti and his MP Motorsport teammate Tramnitz were having strong drives through the field and one lap later Tramnitz had fourth from Charlie Wurz with another excellent pass at turn 4.

Tsolov was also keeping busy and keeping himself on a charge towards those podium places and the Bulgarian would move into fifth passing Wurz, who was beginning to struggle with tyre wear.

The same lap, lap 19, Tramnitz moved into the podium positions by taking third from Sprint Race third place finisher Taponen. Tramnitz was in position to finish third in a Bahrain Feature Race for the second sucessive Formula 3 season. 

Boya was another driver making progress he ended up in the points on lap 19 when he passed the other MP Motorsport car of Bruno Del Pino..

Moving onto the penultimate lap of the race and Noah Stromested was back up to fifth following a pass on teammate Wurz in a heated battle for position. Wurz was falling back and fell behind Giusti into seventh place.

Ho, Boya and Del Pino were all fancying their chances to get ahead of the Austrian driver. Onto the final lap and Wurz's tyres had completely fallen off and he had dropped out of the points paying positions, which were the top 10.

However, out front Rafael Camara had won the Feature Race in dominant style after he had to get back ahead of Callum Voisin in the early stages of the race. He dominated in Melbourne too by taking pole on the Friday and winning the Sunday Feature Race while taking the fastest lap too!

History was repeating itself and in doing so became the first driver to win the first two Feature Races in a FIA Formula 3 campaign and in doing so had extended his championship lead to 26 points.

Camara took victory from Voisin who finished second despite being over six seconds off the championship lead. MP Motorsport's Tim Tramnitz completed the podium in third place. Rounding off the top five were ART's Tuukka Taponen and Saturday Sprint Race winner Nikola Tsolov.

Coming home in sixth was Mercedes junior Noah Stromsted of Trident, who finished ahead of Mp Motorsport  and Williams Academy driver Alessandro Giusti in seventh. Birthday boy Mari Boya came home in eighth ahead of Bruno Del Pino and Christian Ho completed the point scorers and top 10.

It will be a while before FIA Formula 3 returns, which will be when the championship heads to Imola for the start of a very busy European season in over a month's time. Free Practice commences on May 16.

Brandon Whiteside
​Writer - F1 Journal

Red Bull junior driver Nikola Tsolov won a record-equalling fourth Formula 3 race after taking victory in the Bahrain sprint race on a sunny Saturday.

Tsolov, racing for Campos, held off a charging Freddie Slater who pressured the Bulgarian all the way to the line on FIA Formula 3 race debut! It was a very busy race that had lots of battling throughout as well as two Safety Cars and seven drivers failing to finish!

The Bulgarian racing driver took the win after a fantastic battle with Slater before the second Safety Car. Slater had a great debut but would have to settle for second for his maiden Formula 3 podium. Also, Tuukka Taponen completed the podium for his maiden podium finish in the championship.

Despite stalling on the grid, Rafael Camara fought back hard and finished 12th. He scored no points but the championship leader will start the Feature Race from pole position!

For the first time in almost a month, it was time for racing once again in the FIA Formula 3 Championship taking place at the Bahrain International Circuit. A venue that has played host to the last three Formula 3 season openers but in 2025 the Bahrain International Circuit was to play host to round two.

A track that Formula 3 had been familiar with in recent times with a three-day test for all 30 drivers at the end of March to get to grips with the modern era of Formula 3 machinery. With all having a decent experience of the circuit in recent times, it was set to be a close weekend throughout the field.

Friday's action was dominated by the championship leader Rafael Camara who picked up from where he left off in Melbourne. Topping the morning Free Practice was not satisfactory for Camara, who went and took a second successive pole position in Formula 3, in just his second Formula 3 qualifying.

Qualifying in 12th and crucially taking reverse grid pole position for the Saturday Sprint Race was the Hitech of Joshua Dufek and would start the race from the front of the field.

Hitech would have a great chance of scoring big points with a front row lockout on the Sprint race grid. Martinius Stenshorne would start alongside Dufek in second position. Behind them on debut would be Freddie Slater, would be participating in the AIX Racing 28 car for the second round. He would start third after qualifying 10th!

​ The lights went out and a positive start from Dufek saw him keep out the challenge from his Hitech TGR teammate Stenshorne in second place. A good start from the Austrian.

This left Stenshorne offset and under pressure from the debut Brit Slater and the AIX Racing driver would take second through the turn four- turn seven complex. What a start to his Formula 3 career!

Drama further back however as championship leader Camara stalled on the grid and dropped back, all the way behind the medical car which no doubt caused some panic in that Trident cockpit. However, the Brazilian driver managed to keep his cool and carry on for the rest of the race.

Lap three of proceedings saw a change for the race lead with Slater shining once more as he took the lead from pole sitter Joshua Dufek with a lovely pass into turn 1 - using the DRS advantage down the start/finish straight.

Puncture problems had been a themed issue for a few drivers in the opening three laps with AIX Racing's Nicola Marinangeli and Campos Racing's Tasanapol Inthraphuvasak suffering punctures and being forced to pit.

Both punctures had been caused by contact with other drivers. Marinangeli had made contact with the DAMS Lucas Oil of Nicola Lacorte whereas Inthraphuvasak made contact with the rear of Trident's Noah Stromsted.

However, there was a pause to the green flag racing action as the Safety Car was called upon on lap four of the race due to the two McLaren junior Prema drivers, Ugo Ugochukwu and Brando Badoer, colliding at turn 1.

Badoer would survive a scare from his teammate making a lunge but Ugochuwku would be out of the race and the incident would be investigated after the session between the two drivers. Ugochukwu and Marinangeli ended up retiring as Marinangeli pulled into the pit lane with extensive damage sustained from the Lacorte contact.

It would be a short stoppage and Ugochuwku's Prema car was quickly removed. By lap seven the race was back underway with green flags flying and Slater controlling the restart from Nikola Tsolov who had moved up to third place and was looking to hunt down the top two in Slater and Dufek.

At the restart, there were battles galore up and down the field. One at the restart was Tsolov who made almost an immediate pass for second on the Hitech of Dufek and the pole sitter was down to third and under pressure from his teammate Stenshorne.

Soon Tsolov had caught up to Slater's DRS and on lap nine he would make a move down the inside into turn 1 but the Campos had gone in too deep and gave the position back to Slater. The battle was getting very close for the lead of the Sprint at the Bahrain International Circuit. 

Meanwhile, Stenshorne took third from Dufek with a move into turn 1 and Dufek was struggling and beginning to fall back. He soon went on to lose fourth to the ART of Tuukka Taponen.

The battle was continuing on for a couple of laps between the leading pair but eventually on lap 11 Tsolov had a breakthrough. The Campos driver made a move on Slater and the AIX driver had done brilliantly but could contain the Red Bull junior much further.

Further behind French duo Theophile Nael and Nicola Lacorte had picked up damage and both were out of the Sprint. Both suffered with contact being made from behind and therefore both would be forced to retire due to rear suspension damage.

There was to be a second appearance from the Aston Martin Safety Car in the Bahrain Formula 3 Sprint Race. Tuukka Taponen had caught the top two at that point but unfortunately the race was neutralised?

The reason for the neutralisation would be a tangle between the Hitech of Dufek and the Van Amersfoort of Ivan Domingues who came together at the first corner. Both were out of the race and both were to be investigated after the race.

Formula 3 went back racing for two final laps after the Safety car was brought in and although he was trying with all his might to get a win on debut, Slater could not get by Tsolov and would have to settle for second.

Nikola Tsolov took victory in Formula 3 for a fourth time, which equals the record, and with the races left in the 2025 season. He has an opportunity to record his own! He would see off the challenges from Freddie Slater and Tuukka Taponen to take to the top step of the podium.

Slater with a tremendous debut and will be hoping to add to the podium and points picked up in the Feature Race where he will start 10th. The other two, Tsolov and Taponen will be hoping to do the same.

Completing the top five in fourth and fifth respectively were Rodin Motorsport's Callum Voisin and Hitech TGR's Martinius Stenshorne. 

Action would return on Sunday for the Feature Race at the Bahrain International Circuit with Rafael Camara from Feature Race pole position.

Brandon Whiteside
Writer - F1 Journal

Championship leader and Ferrari Academy driver Rafael Camara put in a stunning performance to take pole position for the second successive round at the start of 2025.

The Brazilian rookie made it the perfect Friday, after topping the morning's Free Practice session, where he beat Nikola Tsolov for fastest with a lap time of 1:50.984.

However, when it came to qualifying, Camara picked up from where he left off and took pole position for the second time in just his second ever FIA Formula 3 qualifying session and has put himself in a good position to add to his Feature Race victory in the season opener.

Camara took pole position from Callum Voisin of Rodin Motorsport, who went second fastest at the end of the session. Teammate of Camara, Charlie Wurz completed the top three in another great result for the Italian outfit.

After qualifying 12th, Hitech TGR's Joshua Dufek will start the Saturday sprint race from reverse grid pole. The reverse grid is set to have the front row locked out by Hitech TGR with Martinius Stenshorne qualifying 11th, is set to start second, with the top 12 reversed to form the sprint race grid.

Formula 3 may be feeling quite familiar with the Bahrain International Circuit, having tested here in recent times. However, it was time to put what was learnt in these new cars to good use, as it was time to go qualifying for round two of the championship.

It had been almost a month since the last race weekend of the FIA Formula 3 Championship took place at Albert Park in Melbourne, Australia. That round it was a brilliant showing from Trident but more importantly Rafael Camara who took pole on the Friday and then converted it to Feature Race victory on Sunday!

Camara leads the championship and already so far at Bahrain has shone. In testing, he set the fastest time across the three days. In addition, Camara topped Friday morning's Free Practice session prior to qualifying!

There would be a green light on at the end of the pit lane, and the 30 minutes of qualifying was underway with many cars heading out of the track early on in the session. Hanging back would be the Trident & AIX trios as they were wanting to avoid traffic on their laps.

The others would be fighting for a track position to give themselves the best possible opportunity to set the quickest possible lap times! Eventually, they would continue on to their first flying lap attempts.

After the first set of lap times it would be the Bulgarian Red Bull junior Nikola Tsolov who held provisional pole after an impressive first lap time for Campos Racing. After finishing second in the morning Free Practice session he was holding provisional pole with a 1:50.506.

Elevating themselves up to second and third respectively, following Tsolov's lap time, would be DAMS' Christian Ho and ART Grand Prix's James Wharton. A competitive field returned to the pits for a change of tyres ahead of their second flying laps in the session.

Track limits were playing their part in proceedings with many drivers having their lap times deleted so drivers needed to be careful as they headed back out onto the track with fresh tyres, in an attempt to improve their lap times.

On the second run was the Rodin Motorsport driver Callum Voisin who would take provisional pole with a great lap time around the Bahrain International Circuit. A 1:49.882 would be 0.023 in front of Alessandro Giusti who initially took provisional pole for MP Motorsport.

10 minutes remained and the top five were separated by 0.227 as Voisin led the way from Giusti, Rafael Camara, Nikola Tsolov and Charlie Wurz.

The track limits proved to be a problem for Campos' Mari Boya, Javier Sagrera and Louis Sharp as all three had their times deleted following violations on their fastest lap times. All three dropped into the bottom four positions of the timing pages.

Following one final pit stop and review of data, the 30 drivers headed back out onto the circuit for one final flying lap attempt at the Bahrain International Circuit in one final hunt for pole position.

With a magnificent lap on his final lap, championship leader Camara blew the rest of the field away with a stunning effort and set a 1:49.214 for Trident, which was going to take some beating but it would fail to be beaten!

For the second consecutive round, in just his second Formula 3 qualifying the Ferrari Driver Academy Brazilian, Rafael Camara, had taken pole position. A stunning effort from Camara and he was going to have a great opportunity at taking his second Feature Race win on Sunday.

Camara added two championship points to his tally as a result and therefore extended his championship lead by that amount. 

The Trident driver took pole position ahead of Rodin's Callum Voisin in second place, who after a great session missed out on pole position by over a tenth of a second. Camara's Trident teammate Charlie Wurz finished third.

DAMS' Christian Ho and MP Motorsport's Bruno Del Pino completed the top five in fourth and fifth respectively. All three had achieved their best qualifying in Formula 3 to date. ART Grand Prix's Tuukka Taponen finished sixth ahead of the third Trident of Noah Stromstead in seventh, which would round off another impressive qualifying for the team.

Eighth was Nikola Tsolov for Campos ahead of Alessandro Giusti in ninth of MP Motorsport. 

On debut, AIX Racing driver Freddie Slater impressed massively to qualify in 10th place and with the reversing of the top 12 for the Saturday sprint race, the British driver will start third. This will be behind Martinius Stenshorne and Joshua Dufek who qualified 11th and 12th respectively.

Joshua Dufek will be the driver who will start from the reverse grid pole position on Saturday in the sprint race, which will come next!

Brandon Whiteside
Writer - F1 Journal

Trident's Formula 3 Championship leader Rafael Camara set the fastest time in an uneventful Free Practice session, on Friday at the Bahrain International Circuit.

Camara shone in the weekend's opening round and with a fantastic lap in the final five minutes topped the session ahead of Red Bull Junior and Campos Racing driver Nikola Tsolov, who finished second. Finnish driver Tuukka Taponen finished third.

The session was non eventful due to recent mid season testing that had taken place for the Formula 3 drivers around the Bahrain International Circuit. Therefore, drivers only needed limited running. Only Ivan Domingues had set a lap with 15 minutes remaining in the session.

However, it was the championship leader Camara who set the fastest time, which was a 1:50.984.

For the first time since March it was race weekend action time in the 2025 FIA Formula 3 Championship. The second round of the season taking place in the city of Sakhir and at the Bahrain International Circuit.

With the drivers having a decent knowledge of the circuit following mid-season testing just over a week prior to the event, the drivers would be feeling confident ahead of the weekend. The circuit would be one that the 30 drivers would have a good recent memory of.

This would include AIX Racing's debut driver Freddie Slater who also competed in the three-day mid season test with his teammates Javier Sagrera and Nicola Marinangeli.

Free Practice would get underway with the green light coming on at the end of the pit lane. 45 minutes would be the session time, with the drivers having good understanding of the circuit.

With these factors, there would be little action throughout the first half an hour of the session with just Ivan Domingues having set a lap time for Van Amersfoort Racing. The Portuguese driver would register a lap time of 1:52.776 before pitting.

With under 15 minutes remaining there would be eventually cars on circuit with Domingues prompting the entrance of the entire field and there would be some lap times in the latter part of the session at the Bahrain International Circuit.

Campos driver Nikola Tsolov had shown great speed in mid season testing and the Bulgarian would rise to the top of the time sheets with a 1:51.111. Many drivers were setting competitive lap times, including Roman Bilinski who would go second fastest - albeit three tenths further back.

However, Tsolov would have to settle for second at the end of the session, as to finish top of the time sheets would be Rafael Camara with a 1:50.984 as the chequered flag signified the end of Free Practice in Bahrain.

Camara would be fastest ahead of Tsolov with the ART of Tuukka Taponen making it two drivers inside the top three part of the Ferrari Driver Academy! Santiago Ramos of Van Amersfoort Racing would be fourth, with MP Motorsport's Alessandro Giusti completing the top five.

Trident's Charlie Wurz was sixth ahead of seventh place driver Roman Bilinski. MP Motorsport driver Tim Tramnitz was eighth ahead of his teammate Bruno Del Pino in ninth. Ugo Ugochukwu completed the top 10 for Prema Racing.

Action would return for the qualifying session, later on in the Friday session which would set the grid for both races.

Brandon Whiteside
​Writer - F1 Journal

The FIA Formula 3 Championship returns to racing this coming weekend as the second round of 2025 is to take place at the Bahrain International Circuit.

Formula 3 has become very familiar with the Bahrain International Circuit in recent seasons with the championship having been tested at the venue in recent times. In addition, Formula 3 has also become used to racing in Bahrain, having raced at the circuit every year since the first visit in 2022.

Since the first visit for Formula 3 in 2022, there has been a lot of track action and a lot of different winners around the world famous Middle Eastern race circuit, which is used for the Formula One and World Endurance Championships.

It will be the first time that the Formula 3 grid will go racing in 2025, since the season opener that took place down under - situated in Melbourne, Australia.

While the racing in Melbourne was almost a month ago, Formula 3 visits Bahrain having tested there in recent times. FIA Formula 3 recently visited the Bahrain International Circuit for a three-day mid season test during 24-26 March.

The Bahrain International Circuit, situated in Sakhir, is made up of 15 corners and has a lap distance of 5.412km. Around the circuit, there are plenty of overtaking opportunities around the circuit, which has a total of three DRS Zones.

The DRS Zones can be found on the runs toward turns one, four and 11. This is set to provide fascinating action in the weekend's two races. The sprint race on Saturday is set to last 19 laps while Sunday's feature race is set to last 22 laps.

Formula 3 has a lap record around the Bahrain International Circuit that was set in the first visit to the circuit back in 2022. Argentine Franco Colapinto, who has since raced in Formula One for Williams, holds the current lap record which is a 1:46.249.

The 2025 championship enters round two after Trident rookie and 2024 Formula Regional European Champion Rafael Camara shone by taking Feature Race victory from pole position in Melbourne.

Camara picked up 28 points in the feature race, despite not scoring at all in the previous day's sprint race. This came from the pole position, race victory and the fastest lap.

The Brazilian was joined on the podium by Trident teammate Noah Stromsted and Theophile Nael in an all-rookie podium, which would be a testament to the level of talent in quantity that has joined the Formula 3 grid in 2025.

Formula 3 would also see a new winner in the Sprint Race too, with the Mexican racer Santiago Ramos taking the win for Van Amersfoort Racing.

Exciting times ahead this weekend in Bahrain for British motorsport fans this coming weekend as reigning Italian F4 Champion Freddie Slater will make his Formula 3 debut with AIX Racing.

Slater will experience his first Formula 3 race just in the second round of the 2025 Formula 3 Championship, with AIX Racing not having a driver contracted for the full season in the number 28 car.

The Brit will become the second driver to participate in that number 28 car, following Italian racing driver Nikita Bedrin who scored 17 points and currently sits fourth in the standings after round one.

​Slater is set to compete full time in the 2025 GB3 Championship with Hillspeed and the Formula Regional European Championship by Alpine (FRECA) with Prema Racing. Prema led current Formula 3 championship leader Rafael Camara to glory in 2024.

Speaking to Formula 3, Slater said: "I will make the most of this opportunity working with the AIX Racing team at Bahrain. It's always been a circuit I have wanted to drive, so to get to test and race F3 there will be a massive privilege."

Brandon Whiteside
Writer - F1 Journal

Trident's Ferrari Driver Academy star Rafael Camara shone in the Australian wet weather, as he took his maiden Formula 3 victory of his career, on Grand Prix Sunday.

Camara shone and was such a level of speed ahead of his competitors, that despite a rolling start and a safety car restart, he was able to pull a significant time margin to take victory at the Albert Park street circuit in his first ever feature race.

The Brazilian racing driver starred in an all-rookie podium, of the first feature race of the 2025 campaign, that was ended earlier than expected with a red flag being brought out on lap 18 due to there being excess water on the circuit - making the circuit an unsafe place to race.

It would be a 1-2 for Trident with Mercedes junior Noah Stromsted finishing in second place. Completing the all-rookie podium would be Van Amersfoort Racing's Theophile Nael in third in another great showing from a Van Amersfoort driver in 2025.

The feature race was red flagged on lap 18 out of 20 due to the excess of water and it would be the end to the very first weekend of the championship's brand new era of machinery.

Sunday in Melbourne, Australia meant Grand Prix Sunday for the FIA Formula One World Championship for the first time in 2025. However, for the FIA Formula 3 Championship, it would mean the first feature race of the year.

Following a frantic weekend of action already, it was set that the feature race would be a producer of so much great action. On Friday, it would be a day dominated by Rafael Camara as the Brazilian making his Formula 3 debut, would top free practice and dominantly take pole position.

Trident would dominate qualifying as they would qualify 1-2, with Mercedes junior Noah Stromsted qualifying in second and would join Camara on the front row of the grid for the feature race. Charlie Wurz would qualify sixth.

On Saturday's sprint race, it would be a maiden win for Santiago Ramos of Van Amersfoort Racing. Could Camara take victory for his first in Formula 3 too?

He would certainly be hoping so on Sunday at Albert Park. However, he would have to deal with the additional factor of a wet circuit as rain had fallen and was very much in the air around Albert Park.

The race procedure would begin under the Safety Car, with many formation laps completed, to try and clear some water on the circuit to make it easier for racing and there being less spray being kicked up - which would aid visibility.

Eventually, the race would get underway with a rolling start procedure, which is different to the usual standing start. However, a rolling start was to be the decision made by Race Control and that's how the race would get underway.

Rafael Camara had the choice of when to go and he did almost immediately and bolted off into the distance with some great speed at the very start - an excellent getaway from the Brazilian driver and pole sitter.

It would iron itself out into a Trident 1-2 in the first few corners but there would be squabbling all up and down the field, with many drivers looking to impress on their first feature races of the season.

However, further back at turn nine, a coming together would happen between Rodin driver Callum Voisin and Campos Red Bull junior Nikola Tsolov. The two colliding would bring out the first Safety Car of the actual race itself.

Lap four of 20 and the Safety Car would be called in at the end of that lap and green flag racing would make a return. 

Almost immediately, Camara picked up where he left off and the Brazilian began to pull away from the rest of the field once again as there was so much action behind with the likes of Martinius Stenshorne being in the midst of the battling.

One battle in particular between MP Motorsport driver Alessandro Giusti and DAMS driver Matias Zagazeta caught the attention and threatened to boil over. Contact was made between the pair. Seemingly it was clumsy from both parties.

Zagazeta would be the driver believed to have been responsible and he picked up a 10-second time penalty for causing a collision.

Zagazeta would not be the only DAMS car having a difficult feature race in the team's first ever feature race in the FIA Formula 3 Championship.His teammate Christian Ho would make an error at turn seven by spinning and whacking his machine into the wall.

The Safety Car would once again return as rain was starting to fall more and more around Albert Park making the conditions more difficult for the drivers and teams.

Rain would increase and the standings water on circuit would increase to a level where the race was red-flagged and suspended. This would be the last action as Race Control would soon later decide that the race would not be resumed.

Therefore, Rafael Camara would be the man who would take victory down under, in a truly dominant victory from the 2024 Formula Regional European Championship by Alpine (FRECA) champion.

The Brazilian would convert pole position into victory as well as taking the bonus point for the fastest lap, that will continue to be used in Formula 3 despite that no longer being involved within the points scoring of Formula 1.

It would be a Trident 1-2 finish with Camara's teammate and 2024 FRECA Rookies' champion, Noah Stromsted, who would take second place. It would be an all-rookie podium with Van Amersfoort Racing's Theophile Nael completing the podium places.

Camara, Stromsted and Nael would all be 2024 FRECA graduates and would all share the podium together, in what was a fantastic showing from the pair of you. AIX Racing's Nikita Bedrin was fourth ahead of MP Motorsport's Tim Tramnitz who completed the top five.

Trident would complete a good weekend of performance by a sixth place finish for returning driver and Austrian Charlie Wurz - son of former Formula One racing driver Alex Wurz.

Tasanapol Inthraphuvasak of Campos and Martinus Stenshorne of Hitech would end up seventh and eighth. Roman Bilinski was ninth while Ugo Ugochukwu completed the top 10 and points scoring positions.

It will be just short of a month until FIA Formula 3 goes racing again, which will be in the Bahrain desert of Sakhir, at the Sakhir International Circuit between 12-13 April.

Brandon Whiteside
Writer - F1 Journal

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