Ferrari Academy star Rafael Camara shines in wet Melbourne Formula 3 feature race

Credit: James Sutton

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.

How the Formula 3 feature race unfolded in Melbourne

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.

2025 FIA Formula 3 Championship: Round 1 - Melbourne Feature race final classification

1. Rafael Camara (Brazil, Trident)
2. Noah Stromsted (Denmark, Trident)
3. Theophile Nael (France, Van Amersfoort Racing)
4. Nikita Bedrin (Italy, AIX Racing)
5. Tim Tramnitz (Germany, MP Motorsport)
6. Charlie Wurz (Austria, Trident)
7. Tasanapol Inthraphuvasak (Thailand, Campos Racing)
8. Martinius Stenshorne (Norway, Hitech TGR)
9. Roman Bilinski (Poland, Rodin Motorsport)
10. Ugo Ugochukwu (United States, Prema Racing)
11. Joshua Dufek (Austria, Hitech TGR)
12. Laurens Van Hoepen (Netherlands, ART Grand Prix)
13. Noel Leon (Mexico, Prema Racing)
14. Louis Sharp (New Zealand, Rodin Motorsport)
15. Javier Sagrera (Spain, AIX Racing)
16. Santiago Ramos (Mexico, Van Amersfoort Racing)
17. Mari Boya (Spain, Campos Racing)
18. Gerrard Xie (China, Hitech TGR)
19. Ivan Domingues (Portugal, Van Amersfoort Racing)
20. Tuukka Taponen (Finland, ART Grand Prix)
21. James Wharton (Australia, ART Grand Prix)
22. Matias Zagazeta (Peru, DAMS Lucas Oil))
23. Bruno Del Pino (Spain, MP Motorsport)
24. Nicola Lacorte (Italy, DAMS Lucas Oil)
25. Alessandro Giusti (France, MP Motorsport)
26. Brando Badoer (Italy, Prema Racing)
27. Nicola Marinangeli (Italy, AIX Racing)
28. Christian Ho (Singapore, DAMS Lucas Oil) DNF
29. Nikola Tsolov (Bulgaria, Campos Racing) DNF
30. Callum Voisin (Great Britain, Rodin Motorsport) DNF

Brandon Whiteside
Writer - F1 Journal