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. Morning Session - Day 1Formula 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. Afternoon Session - Day 1After 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. 2024 FIA Formula 3 Championship: Post-season testing - Jerez Day 1 classification
Brandon Whiteside
Writer - F1 Journal
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