Photos: Formula Motorsport Ltd

Drivers in F3 often rue weekends not coming together, but this year the results very much reflected the pace

There were no doubts that Trident’s Rafael Camara was the driver to beat in the 2025 FIA Formula 3 Championship, and he claimed five poles out of 10. But he was also one of the eight drivers to line up in 30th and last place for a feature race.

Only two drivers scored half as many points as Camara racked up in feature races, but in sprint races he was outscored by 14 of his rivals. He had a 26-point lead after four races, but only nine races later did he grow that advantage to 27 points. His lead grew by another point in the following round, then he added 20 to it at the Hungaroring and wrapped up the title a round early.

So was it a dominant year? Or did the first two rounds outside of Europe make the difference before the more familiar tracks for the field made it a more competitive contest?

Let’s start with the detail with the biggest impact on drivers and teams’ competitivity this year: the new Dallara F3 2025 car.

Pre-season testing took place at Barcelona, and in winter coats. The consensus was the cool conditions made the test useful for teams but no so much for drivers, particularly with wet weather during some running, and there was huge variance in paddock responses regarding how similar or different the car was to its lighter predecessor.

Some drivers stepped up from series with tyres with very different characteristics to the Pirellis used in F3, so managing degradation was a crucial new skill they needed to learn that Barcelona in February didn’t offer.

The track time was still incredibly useful for teams, who now had data to correlate their simulator models to the real car. Trident’s Noah Stromsted said after two rounds his team’s model was “very accurate” and why “we always start in quite a high level” on race weekends. Camara topped practice and qualifying at each of the first three rounds.

Single-lap pace

Pos	Driver	Team	Pace	Pos	Driver	Team	Pace
1	Rafael Camara	Trident	100.214%	20	Santiago Ramos	VAR	100.846%
2	Nikola Tsolov	Campos	100.286%	21	Brando Badoer	Prema	100.874%
3	Mari Boya	Campos	100.475%	22	Louis Sharp	Rodin	100.932%
4	Brad Benavides	AIX	100.509%	23	Joshua Dufek	Hitech	100.965%
5	Noah Stromsted	Trident	100.537%	24	James Wharton	ART GP	101.038%
6	Martinius Stenshorne	Hitech	100.564%	25	Christian Ho	DAMS	101.044%
7	Tim Tramnitz	MP	100.569%	26	Ivan Domingues	VAR	101.047%
8	Freddie Slater	AIX/Hitech	100.591%	27	Jose Garfias	AIX	101.076%
9	Alessandro Giusti	MP	100.610%	28	Matias Zagazeta	DAMS	101.141%
10	Ugo Ugochukwu	Prema	100.624%	29	Nikita Bedrin	AIX	101.181%
11	Roman Bilinski	Rodin	100.638%	30	Jesse Carrasquedo Jr	Hitech	101.189%
12	Callum Voisin	Rodin	100.648%	31	Fernando Barrichello	AIX	101.222%
13	Noel Leon	Prema	100.649%	32	Gerrard Xie	Hitech	101.291%
14	Charlie Wurz	Trident	100.674%	33	Niko Lacorte	DAMS	101.348%
15	Theophile Nael	VAR	100.679%	34	James Hedley	AIX/VAR	101.385%
16	Tuukka Taponen	ART GP	100.737%	35	Nikita Johnson	DAMS/Hitech	101.437%
17	Bruno del Pino	MP	100.737%	36	Javier Sagrera	AIX	101.575%
18	Tasanapol Inthraphuvasak	Campos	100.778%	37	Nicola Marinangeli	AIX	102.141%
19	Laurens van Hoepen	ART GP	100.818%	38

Driver did less than three rounds. No average when only one event attended

Super simulator usage enabling Trident’s drivers to start 2025 with more confidence and pace was grounded further when Van Amersfoort Racing’s Santiago Ramos said his pre-season preparations had been tougher than expected as he had been used to Trident’s simulator from racing for them in 2024.

“With the new car, where there was a big question mark for everyone on where are you going to start,” reflected Camara, one of the field’s rookies. “Let’s say that we got the right information [from testing] then we knew already the direction to go.”

During the season opener in Melbourne, a very different track to Barcelona, Ramos told Formula Scout that the difference in approach and feeling to the Dallara F3 2019 wasn’t when driving at pace — or managing it — but rather with “warm-up procedures”. Given how much track temperature influences that, it meant lots of learning waited for the first two rounds.

Drivers without the understanding of where those procedures had to be approached differently started the season with big question marks as to why qualifying push laps they felt happy with in the moment put them down the order, and they all made the breakthrough at different points.

Trident had it nailed from the off, while Ramos went from lining up last in round two to qualifying second in round three.

Camara’s pace advantage in Melbourne was calculated from practice, where laptimes were faster than in qualifying. He told Formula Scout next time out at Bahrain that “qualifying is the most important” session to maximise, and after taking the title spoke about one of FIA F3’s sporting regulations increasing the significance of the skills and understanding he started with.

“Some races we had a different [tyre] compound from free practice to quali. That you don’t even know what is the grip [for qualifying]. And in understanding where is the limits and be fast straight away, I think this was a strong point on my side because every time on the first runs, we were already with a good pace.”

Rafael Camara

His team-mate Charlie Wurz qualified third at Bahrain, and he deemed pre-season simulator work “the most important part” of 2025 as he pointed out Trident’s drivers had already been learning from each other when in it. Formula Regional graduate Camara echoed that, and comments on feeling the collective value of having strong team-mates.

Bahrain’s track surface was “super dirty, super hot” according to AIX Racing’s Freddie Slater, and the safest approach every team could take was to use the lowest tyre pressures possible to delay the onset of degradation and overheating.

But Campos Racing, which was yet to find the warm-up breakthrough and been far from contending for pole, found those issues occurred rapidly anyway despite an in-season test at the track providing further learning time.

“From lap two, I was already struggling with the rears, so that I knew that it was going to be a long race,” said its sprint race winner Nikola Tsolov, who had qualified eighth and benefited from a reversed grid for that race result.

“I tried to save them as much as possible. Then the degradation went forwards. I was struggling with fronts at some point on braking, and it was just a mess, a little bit of deg everywhere, which made life difficult.”

Only slightly ahead in qualifying, but finishing in the top four of both Bahrain races was Tuukka Taponen and he was proud that his team ART Grand Prix made a “good step up from Melbourne” where it went points-free and Taponen qualified 24th.

The one-month gap before round three at Imola left plenty of time for data analysis, but also to have a break as the Monaco and Barcelona rounds were in the weekends immediately following Imola.

Rodin Motorsport’s Callum Voisin called the calendar’s triple-header “very mentally challenging by the end”, but there was not a performance drop-off trend in the paddock across the three events since teams mostly became more competitive.

Qualifying

Driver	Mean start pos.	Median start pos.	Standard dev. of start pos.
Camara	5.8	1.5	8.67
Tsolov	7.1	6.0	6.47
Stromsted	9.5	9.5	5.52
Ugochukwu	10.4	7.5	7.98
Benavides	10.8	13.5	7.69
Bilinski	10.8	10.5	5.88
Wurz	10.8	8.0	7.17
Tramnitz	10.9	12.0	4.13
Slater	11.0	11.0	1.00
Stenshorne	11.4	10.5	4.22
Giusti	11.7	11.5	3.69
Boya	12.3	14.5	6.83
Taponen	12.9	9.0	8.47
Leon	13.1	13.5	6.76
Inthraphuvasak	13.2	12.0	7.57
Voisin	14.2	17.0	9.02
Nael	14.9	20.0	8.08
van Hoepen	15.0	17.0	6.39
Dufek	15.0	14.5	2.74
Ramos	16.0	16.0	8.68
Badoer	17.1	15.5	6.32
Sagrera	17.5	17.5	2.50
del Pino	18.0	21.0	8.99
Wharton	18.6	20.0	5.06
Sharp	18.7	19.5	6.28
Ho	18.9	21.5	7.02
Domingues	20.3	21.5	6.02
Zagazeta	21.7	24.0	6.69
Xie	23.5	26.0	7.30
Carrasquedo	24.5	24.5	1.50
Lacorte	24.6	26.0	4.88
Hedley	24.6	26.0	6.09
Johnson	25.3	27.5	5.54
Marinangeli	28.4	28.5	1.11

green text signifies top 10 in metric, red text signifies bottom 10

Campos continued its qualifying struggles, although Tsolov and team-mate Mari Boya were the top two in Monaco and converted that into first and third in the feature race. At Imola, Tsolov had said “we’re only improving each time we go out on track, so we keep finding a lot of new things,” and felt his Monaco weekend went right from the start.

The strong Monaco results showed confidence with the car but also with the famed street circuit. Other drivers lacked that, were more heavily impacted by the tricky to navigate traffic and conceded performance through caution. Boya was frank that Campos was still “losing a bit” over a lap but “especially in the races, I would say we are the most competitive ones”.

With overtaking almost impossible, and with some drivers backing off during the races to create fresh air for themselves and go for fastest lap, it masked where teams were still trailing in single-lap or long-run pace.

“We thought Trident was unstoppable, especially in the beginning of the season. But they have weak points as well. We can tell the last two rounds they’ve been having their flaws,” Tsolov remarked at the time.

Ramos had successfully pressured Camara into overworking his tyres to win the Imola feature race, with Camara later being asked to let team-mate Stromsted past. In Monaco, Stromsted crashed in practice and Trident’s highest-placed driver on the feature race grid was Wurz in seventh. Camara lined up 11th after being penalised three places for not meeting the minimum delta time under red flag conditions.

But the points leader headed to Barcelona “quite, quite relaxed” and proceeded to top practice, qualifying and win the feature race yet again. Tsolov was 10th in practice, and not on course to do much better in qualifying until he made the needed procedural breakthrough late in the session. It was a moment his team-mates didn’t seem to benefit collectively from, unlike in other line-ups, and one where the driver led the way rather than Tsolov’s engineer who he previously had in Spanish Formula 4.

Nikola Tsolov

“Before the weekend, I thought we were going to be really strong, but then things changed and we haven’t been finding what we need until the last [tyre] set where we did. I did. I did something really different, so I’m glad it worked out.”

Tsolov jumped to second with his final lap, and team-mates Mari Boya and Tasanapol Inthraphuvasak were 15th and 16th. In rounds one to four, Tsolov’s average grid position for feature races was 8.5. In the next four it was 2.8, and Camara’s was 3.3.

A slow start consigned Tsolov to finishing eighth in the Barcelona feature race, and while he was on the sprint race podium his feedback was similar to Bahrain after using his “bad” set of tyres.

“It was quite difficult. We had a lot of oversteer, even following [other cars], and it was just a bit about surviving at some point. I was quite close to spinning off in a few corners, which is not usual.”

Despite Ramos having already delivered VAR a sprint race and feature race victory earlier in the year, Theophile Nael felt the team made a breakthrough at Barcelona. It was reflected by all three of VAR’s drivers qualifying in the top seven, Ivan Domingues leading home Ramos in the sprint race then Nael starring in the feature race by having his tyres well prepared for a safety car restart where he went around the outside of ART GP’s Laurens van Hoepen to take second place.

“We were missing something in Monaco and Imola. I think we found what’s happened and we did something really good on the car this weekend and hopefully we can manage to do it again in the second part of the season,” Nael said at the time.

Round six at the Red Bull Ring took place four weeks later, and this time it was Tsolov who topped practice, qualifying and dominated the feature race. After taking pole, he was quick to remind media why he was now qualifying at the front.

“In Barcelona we had an issue in [tyre] set one and two. I was not really fast, and then I did different things on the warm-up in set three which pumped me up to P2. So then we had time to analyse, which was good, and I think we found most of the things we need.”

Noah Stromsted

Brad Benavides was second fastest in Red Bull Ring qualifying – as AIX Racing showed its advantage at ‘power tracks’ which has been evident in Formula 2 and FIA F3 – 0.176 seconds off pole and 0.002s ahead of Stromsted. While most went for two runs, each featuring two sighting laps then two to three flying laps, Stromsted took a different approach after a mistake-filled first run.

“Instead of doing a cooldown lap and then going for a third push, I decided to box, and put on a new set of tyres to do one push lap. That was more about getting the feeling in the car [with] the track with the soft tyres. And it worked quite well. Then we went with everyone in the end, on our third set of tyres. And I left it for the last lap [to go for pole].”

ART GP struggled for pace at the Red Bull Ring, as would also occur at Spa-Francorchamps and to a lesser degree at Monza, but James Wharton was victorious in the sprint race as qualifying 12th put him on reversed-grid pole.

“I feel some teams have got it quite easy. They put the car down in Barcelona pre-season test and were fast. But we’ve had to work quite hard,” he told Formula Scout. “I spent nearly six days in a row on the sim in ART trying to prepare for these next couple of races.”

There was a twist in the title fight the next day, as Tsolov was disqualified from victory due to his front plank being below the minimum accepted thickness. The plank itself was damaged, but since Campos couldn’t prove to stewards that the damage induced the excessive wear, nor identify an event that triggered the damage, it couldn’t prevent Tsolov being removed from the race results. That meant Camara left the track 24 points clear rather than leading Tsolov by just one point.

Camara had showed suprerior race pace (measured over a consecutive run of 10 laps) while chasing Tsolov in the race, but that worked his tyres too hard and he then suffered a drop-off that consigned him to finishing sixth on-the-road. It contrasted heavily to Barcelona, since this time Tsolov was able to maintain a strong pace around the high-speed bends late into the 26-lap race. He lapped in the 1m24s in three of the last four laps, a pace only team-mate Boya in fourth could match on his starting set of tyres. Only eight drivers in total were able to go sub-1m25s even once after their rubber was 20 laps old.

Rolling race pace average

Pos	Driver	Pace	Pos	Driver	Pace	Pos	Driver	Pace
1	Camara	100.306%	12	Taponen	100.824%	23	Domingues	101.142%
2	Boya	100.432%	13	Leon	100.842%	24	Ho	101.176%
3	Tsolov	100.524%	14	Bilinski	100.902%	25	Johnson	101.253%
4	van Hoepen	100.577%	15	Benavides	100.970%	26	Zagazeta	101.317%
5	Stromsted	100.616%	16	Ugochukwu	100.977%	27	Carrasquedo	101.360%
6	Tramnitz	100.694%	17	Wharton	101.020%	28	Dufek	101.370%
7	Stenshorne	100.724%	18	Badoer	101.022%	29	Xie	101.374%
8	Inthraphuvasak	100.724%	19	Ramos	101.060%	30	Lacorte	101.519%
9	Giusti	100.733%	20	Hedley	101.086%	31	del Pino	101.625%
10	Wurz	100.758%	21	Voisin	101.113%	32	Marinangeli	101.633%
11	Nael	100.759%	22	Sharp	101.127%

Driver did less than three rounds. No average when only one event attended

There were 13 races across the season (taking in all tracks bar Melbourne) which featured enough uninterrupted green flag running for rolling race pace to be calculated, and the advantage of clean air while leading meant the on-the-road winner was quickest every time bar Camara’s costly on-the-limit laptimes at the Red Bull Ring and in the Hungaroring sprint race where Prema’s Ugo Ugochukwu went from sixth to second in the 11 laps between safety car periods.

Since his sole retirement was in Melbourne, and he had no races where laptimes lost to track limits violations prevented a 10-lap rolling average from being formed, Voisin was the sole driver whose season average for race pace was taken from 13 races.

He came 14th in the championship and was 21st on average race pace, but the order (seen in the table above) mostly reflected the championship. One or two high-scoring races can easily lift a driver up the points table while their average pace would put them in a far lower position for the season, and much rarer this year was a driver whose pace was consistently strong but wasn’t reflected by their championship position.

Van Hoepen was such an outlier, who on race pace had an average deficit to the fastest driver only bettered by Camara, Boya and Tsolov yet came 12th in the standings. The Barcelona sprint race was the only time van Hoepen showed the pace to win, but the only time his pace was over 101% of the benchmark was the Monaco feature race and he still finished that in sixth.

After finishing third in the sprint race there, FIA F3 sophomore van Hoepen said “this year has been a way harder start for me than” in 2024 despite being with the same team.

The three ahead of van Hoepen on race pace were consistent, repeatedly maximised their pace once they knew how to and it was shown by their averages all bettering the fastest driver in races from 2024 when a win-free driver was champion.

Points scored

Feature races			Sprint races
Pos	Driver	Points	Pos	Driver	Points
1	Camara	138	1	Stenshorne	54
2	Boya	85	2	Tsolov	44
3	Tsolov	75	3	Inthraphuvasak	42
4	Tramnitz	68	4	Giusti	32
5	Stromsted	63	5	Boya	31
6	Nael	58	6	van Hoepen	30
7	Taponen	46	7	Ugochukwu	30
8	Bilinski	40	8	Tramnitz	26
9	Stenshorne	35	9	Bilinski	25
10	Giusti	35	10	Wurz	25
11	Voisin	35	11	Stromsted	21
12	Inthraphuvasak	32	12	Taponen	21
13	van Hoepen	30	13	Ramos	20
14	Wurz	28	14	Wharton	19
15	Ramos	28	15	Camara	18

Green text signifies sprint race tally exceeding feature race tally

A driver with big contrasts was Inthraphuvasak. He on average was the 18th fastest on absolute pace, and his average starting position for feature races in the season’s first half was 18.2. In the second half it was 8.2, he was on reversed-grid pole twice and that helped him become 2025’s third-highest scoring driver in sprint races and eighth fastest on race pace.

His first win was at Silverstone, where Campos was rapid and he didn’t initially maximise it. Tsolov took pole, Boya was fourth fastest and he was 12th in qualifying.

“My pace has always been there to be in top five,” he claimed after sprint race victory. “It’s just about putting things together, and we struggled with that so far. This weekend, again qualifying a bit unlucky, with a problem and a mistake from my side.”

Hitech GP’s Martinius Stenshorne — sixth on absolute pace and seventh on race pace — finished runner-up to Inthraphuvasak from sixth on the grid in a charging drive. It contributed to the 54 points he scored in sprint races, a tally last reached by a driver in 2021, and like the Campos driver he was enjoying an upwards shift.

Stenshorne said “in the beginning of the season we struggled a bit for race pace”, or “a bit up and down”, but from the Red Bull Ring onwards he was happy with it and he rose from 11th in the standings to fifth in the season’s second half.

Two of the last three rounds were on tracks with long straights, Spa-Francorchamps and Monza, and Benavides was on pole at both. While his AIX team-mates were outside of the top 27 on the grid, Benavides’s pace was genuinely representative of the team’s competitiveness at these circuits in Formula 1’s support series.

Those results helped Benavides be the fourth fastest driver in 2025 on single-lap pace, and the abandonment of the Spa feature race after two laps (both behind the safety car) meant no points and no chance to improve his race pace average.

Brad Benavides

The American’s average start position was 18th in the season’s first half, then 6.4 in the second half. He only scored twice, with his ninth place at the Red Bull Ring followed by fourth in the season-ending Monza feature race in which he led six green flag laps before falling down the order.

Ugochukwu was another driver to cite the Red Bull Ring for a “big turnaround”, particularly in race pace. The laptimes supported his comments, and he went on to finish second in two sprint races which he started from outside the top five. While his single-lap pace was 10th best in the field, still the highest-placed Prema driver, he had the fourth-best average starting position for feature races. It was 15.8 in the season’s first half, then fifth from the Red Bull Ring, where Ugochukwu’s car shed its orange paint to help him meet the minimum weight limit.

One garage which had a less productive time as the year went on but still placed strongly on pace and points was MP Motorsport. Tim Tramnitz said the team “weren’t so happy with the start of the year” due to needing to go on recovery drives, but he came fourth in the championship and team-mate Alessandro Giusti was 10th.

Almost three quarters of Tramnitz’s points came prior to the Red Bull Ring though, with a single point from the last four rounds, while Giusti’s nine-race scoring run was followed by one point in five races. MP was still third in the teams’ standings.

Laps led

1 Camara 97   2 Tsolov 62   3 Inthraphuvasak 39   4 Stenshorne 31   5 Ramos 27   6 Tramnitz 26   =7 Domingues & Wharton 21   9 Benavides 15   10 Boya 12   =11 Slater & Stromsted 10   =13 Voisin & Nael 4   =15 Dufek & del Pino 2   17 Ugochukwu 1

The post Who was fastest in FIA Formula 3 2025? appeared first on Formula Scout.

Photo: Formula Motorsport Ltd

James Hedley will remain on the FIA Formula 3 grid after all for this weekend’s season-closing round at Monza, driving for Van Amersfoort Racing in place of Santiago Ramos.

Hedley had contested five rounds this season with AIX Racing but has been replaced for Monza by Fernando Barrichello, who is also signed to race for the team in 2026.

The former GB3 regular had scored a breakthrough result in the most recent round at the Hungaroring when he finished fourth in the sprint race – his first points finish in the series.

Ramos has won twice with VAR this year – in the season-opening Melbourne sprint race and in the Imola feature race – but the two parties have mutually decided to part ways, according to the team.

“We’re pleased to welcome James to the team for the final round at Monza,” said VAR team principal Brad Joyce.

“With prior race experience in the category and the clear potential we’ve seen from him, we expect he will adapt quickly to our environment. This weekend is a valuable opportunity for him to build on his time in FIA Formula 3, while for us it’s a chance to support him in making the most of it. We’re looking forward to working with him and are confident that he will make a positive impression.”

In its statement, VAR said that Ramos “proved his competitiveness in one of the most demanding junior single-seater championships”.

“His results not only underline his talent but also reflect the hard work and commitment he has put in alongside the team. The team thanks Santiago for his efforts and achievements this season and wishes him the very best for the next steps in his career.”

The post Hedley stays on F3 grid by replacing Ramos at VAR for Monza appeared first on Formula Scout.

Photo: Escuderia Telmex

Santiago Ramos executed FIA Formula 3’s feature race at Imola exactly to plan, taking victory after pressuring Rafael Camara into overworking his tyres.

Camara had pole, but Ramos overtook him at the race’s first corner. The lead returned to Camara on lap four, and Ramos allowed him to control the pace up front while he looked after his tyres to be better placed for attacking late on.

It “went as planned” as he got back in front with three laps to go, and Camara finished a distant third. Ramos felt “pretty happy” with his victory, which he said was redemption for 2024 when he finished eighth from pole in Imola’s feature race. 

“I knew since [the sprint race] that I had everything to play for today,” the Van Amersfoort Racing driver told Formula Scout.

“I knew that I could have a really good start. I could try to challenge [Camara] for first in the first corner. That’s what I did. After that, I saw he was pushing too much to try to gain the position back, so I let him by like I was not fighting for the position. And after that, I was just managing to stay within DRS [range].”

Ramos’s in-car reaction to Camara leading was “if you want to go first, you can go first”, and “knew that I had good pace” so never doubted he would be able to retaliate later on.

“The DRS was a big help trying to cool down the tyres. I didn’t have to put so much in the corners to stay close to him, so I knew he was using his tyres more to try to [push] me out of the DRS range. It was a bit of mental games. I knew more or less that this was going to happen. At the end it worked out exactly as I had anticipated.”

Ramos overtook Camara on lap 19 of 22, as the points leader’s pace had worsened considerably. He was then even asked to let Trident team-mate Noah Stromsted past.

Stromsted, who took 10 laps to return to third after losing two places on lap one, finished 0.277 seconds behind Ramos.

“What could have happened [if Stromsted had not lost places] was a DRS train between Camara, me and Noah,” the winner reckoned.

“For sure he would have the same tyre degradation as us because we were running quite fast since the beginning. We escaped from the group, so we used more tyres in the beginning. He used them more at the end. So I think it’s just a matter of positioning.

“He was coming really fast. I think if I had managed a bit better with Camara, maybe try to pass him a few laps earlier, I could have ran away better. But I wanted to make it the safe way and try to pass him in the last three or four laps to make sure that he will not come back and that I would not have any degradation.”

The post Ramos explains his race-winning plan that caught out Camara at Imola appeared first on Formula Scout.

Photo: Formula Motorsport Ltd

Van Amersfoort Racing’s Santiago Ramos passed points leader Rafael Camara twice to take his first FIA Formula 3 feature race victory at Imola.

Starting from pole for the third time this season, Trident’s Camara lost out in a drag race with Ramos on the run to the Tamburello chicane on lap one. Ramos swept around the outside and then resisted a renewed challenge from Camara into the Villeneuve chicane to stay ahead.

The front two quickly pulled clear of ART Grand Prix’s Tuukka Taponen, who had gained one spot off the line to third. It did not take long for Camara to regain the advantage, as he used DRS at the beginning of lap four to move ahead of Ramos before Tamburello.

Camara held a slender 0.5-second lead on lap 13 when the field was forced to slow for a virtual safety car period due to VAR’s Ivan Domingues coming to a stop following a collision.

Ramos made the better restart when the track returned to green to climb onto the tail of Camara, who was forced to defend the middle of the road from his pursuer at the beginning of lap 15.

The pair continued to run nose-to-tail over the next three laps before Ramos regained the lead on the outside into Tamburello on lap 19.

Having dropped two places at the start to fifth, Trident’s Noah Stromsted reclaimed third by passing Rodin Motorsport’s Louis Sharp and Taponen during the first 10 laps.

He eradicated a four-second deficit to snatch second from Camara in the closing stages and then reeled in Ramos on the final lap, but missed out on victory by 0.277s. Camara finished 6.5s further behind in third to extend his championship lead to 21 points, with Taponen coming home fourth.

Sharp lost further ground to his team-mate Roman Bilinski in the race’s first half but the Rodin pair eventually faded. Campos Racing’s Mari Boya passed them both to finish fifth, with Bilinski shuffled back to eighth on the penultimate lap by MP Motorsport’s Tim Tramnitz and Alessandro Giusti.

Campos’s Nikola Tsolov came home 0.4s behind Bilinski in ninth, with ART’s Laurens van Hoepen gaining seven places to 10th. Hitech GP’s Martinius Stenshorne moved up five places to pip Sharp to 11th.

By taking the chequered flag in sixth, Saturday’s sprint race winner Tramnitz dropped to third in the standings behind Stromsted.

Race results (22 laps)

The post Ramos resists late Stromsted charge to win FIA F3’s Imola feature race appeared first on Formula Scout.

Photo: Formula Motorsport Ltd

Santiago Ramos finally became a winner in single-seater racing on Saturday in Melbourne, sealing victory in the FIA Formula 3 Championship season opener.

It felt “good”, it came on his 21st F3 start and 95th car race in total, and was an unexpected triumph despite the Van Amersfoort Racing driver starting on reversed-grid pole.

Of the 10 F3 races in 2024 in which he had maintained or improved upon his grid position, he had started four in the top 10. And of the 10 previous times he had started in the top 10 in F3, he had a net loss of 74 positions in races.

“I have waited for this moment for a long time. Last year we were close in Barcelona, we were close in Imola [races he started from pole], but never quite there,” said Ramos after his breakthrough victory, which puts him in the points lead.

“Super happy to start the year like this. It’s a big confidence boost not only for me, also for the team. So it’s great to start like this. Also with a new car, it’s the way to go.”

He continued: “I had it clear what I wanted to do for this race. So the strategy was to try to pull out of the DRS range from the guys behind. So after I managed the situation, not to get overtaken in the first and the second corner, I said, ‘okay, now I will go’. So I started pushing more and more and more, and obviously using more of tyres.”

Within a lap, Ramos was 4.296 seconds clear of the field, but his advantage was removed by a safety car period.

“I knew that once I pulled out of them, it was going to be really hard for them to catch me. So I just kept pushing. I made a good gap. Then I was really hoping not to have any safety cars. Unfortunately, we did. But anyways, it was still I think a good strategy.”

Hitech GP’s Martinius Stenshorne pressured Ramos when racing resumed, but then another safety car period that ran to the finish secured Ramos the win.

“I think at that stage I was struggling a bit with the tyres. Because I pushed so much in the beginning, so at the end I was struggling a bit more. So definitely helped me a bit that last safety car. Otherwise, I think the racing would have been really hard towards the end.”

Ramos admitted pre-season testing had been a mixed bag, so “we were expecting to struggle a bit more here in Melbourne” and victory “definitely was a bit of a surprise”. He topes to take “learning how to manage the tyres in especially the high-speed corner section” from the sprint race into the longer feature race.

The win was Ramos’s fourth podium in single-seaters, following third places in Spanish Formula 4 and Formula Regional European Championship and then a second place in F3’s last sprint race of 2024 at Monza.

Santiago Ramos’s best results progression

The post “I have waited for this moment for a long time”: Ramos’s road to F3 win appeared first on Formula Scout.

Photo: Pauline Ballet

Santiago Ramos won FIA Formula 3’s season-opening sprint race in Melbourne, as the first outing for the new Dallara F3 2025 car ended behind the safety car.

The Van Amersfoort Racing driver resisted mid-race pressure from Hitech GP’s Martinius Stenshorne to take his maiden single-seater win, while Rodin Motorsport’s Roman Bilinski finished third on debut. Sunday’s feature race poleman Rafael Camara was involved an early incident and failed to finish.

After lining up from pole, Ramos held off DAMS’ Matias Zagazeta to lead into turn one, and he then benefited from a frenetic battle for second to pull out a five-second advantage before the first lap was completed.

Bilinski initially snatched second after a three-wide squabble into turn three, but then lost out to Campos Racing’s Tasanapol Inthraphuvasak who completed a bold move around the outside at turn nine. Inthraphuvasak ran wide two corners later and was shuffled back several places, with Stenshorne emerging in second ahead of Bilinski.

Trident’s Charlie Wurz retired in a collision with MP Motorsport’s Tim Tramnitz, necessitating a brief virtual safety car period, while Rodin’s Louis Sharp spun after tangling with Hitech’s Joshua Dufek who was forced to pit for a new front wing.

Ramos’s lead was soon eradicated by a full safety car period shortly after green flag running had resumed due to a collision at turn 11 between Camara and ART Grand Prix duo James Wharton and Laurens van Hoepen which resulted in all three retiring. There was further drama while the safety car was out, as Tramnitz slowed with an issue and pulled into the pitlane.

The leader quickly built a one-second gap again once racing resumed on lap nine, but two laps later that advantage was eradicated in the final sector by Stenshorne. As he defended from his pursuer, Bilinski, Zagazeta and Inthrapuvasak also closed in to make it a five-car lead train.

Stenshorne had a look up the inside of Ramos at turn three on lap 14, and the front three pulled clear on the next tour after Inthrapuvasak prevailed in a squabble for fourth with Zagazeta.

The safety car neutralised the race once more with five laps to go after AIX Racing’s Javier Sagrera and MP’s Bruno del Pino collided on the run to turn six and both slid into the gravel, and the remaining laps ran under yellow flag conditions.

Ramos therefore won ahead of Stenshorne and Bilinski, with Inthrapuvasak fourth and Zagazeta fifth. AIX’s Nikita Bedrin held off VAR’s Theophile Nael for sixth, and Noah Stromstead had looked on course for eighth before damaging his front wing on a kerb while under pressure from behind and tumbled down the order as he pitted.

Campos driver Nikola Tsolov climbed from 16th to eighth ahead of Rodin’s Callum Voisin, who also made a strong recovery from 18th, and Prema’s Noel Leon made up nine places to 10th.

Race results (20 laps)

The post Santiago Ramos takes maiden win in first race of FIA F3’s new era appeared first on Formula Scout.

Photo: Formula Motorsport Ltd

Santiago Ramos has left the title-winning Trident for Van Amersfoort Racing as he embarks on a second FIA Formula 3 Championship season.

The Mexican was announced by VAR on his 21st birthday, and completes the team’s 2025 line-up alongside rookies Theophile Nael and Ivan Domingues.

He came 16th in last year’s standings with 44 points, scoring in eight races. His best result was second place in the Monza sprint race, and he claimed pole position at Imola.

“I’m thrilled to announce that I’ll be joining VAR for the upcoming FIA F3 season,” said Ramos.

“After showing some strong pace last year, I’m confident that with VAR’s support and expertise, we’re set for an incredible season. I can’t wait to get back in the car and fight for great results together.”

Before F3, Ramos came 11th in the Formula Regional European Championship (claiming one podium from his two seasons), and 16th in Italian Formula 4 where he contested three part-time seasons.

“We are delighted to welcome Santiago to our FIA F3 team for the upcoming season,” VAR’s F3 team principal Brad Joyce said.

“We’ve followed his progress over the years and have been impressed by his skills and determination. Santiago showed great potential during his rookie F3 campaign, and we are confident that, with the right support and environment, he will be able to reach his full potential with us. We look forward to working with him and helping him continue advancing in his racing career.”

The only remaining vacant seats on the 2025 FIA F3 grid are at AIX Racing.

The post Santiago Ramos swaps Trident for VAR in FIA F3 appeared first on Formula Scout.

Photo: Formula Motorsport Ltd

FIA Formula 3 stewards issued over two minutes worth of time penalties related to track violations committed in Saturday’s sprint race at Spa-Francorchamps.

Once a driver is found to have exceeded track limits four times in a race, they are penalised five seconds. Each further violation leads to another five-second penalty.

Stewards had already penalised Trident’s Sami Meguetounif 30 seconds, AIX Racing’s Tasanapol Inthraphuvasak 10s and Prema’s Arvid Lindblad five seconds before the end of the sprint race for repeated abuse of track limits, with Lindblad having another five seconds added to his race time shortly after the finish.

A few hours later several more track limits penalties came in, with Campos Racing’s Mari Boya penalised 25s for exceeding track limits eight times, MP Motorsport’s Alex Dunne, Hitech GP’s Luke Browning and Van Amersfoort Racing’s Tommy Smith penalised 10s, Inthraphuvasak getting two more five-second penalties to add to the two he already had, and Hitech’s Martinius Stenshorne, Jenzer Motorsport’s Charlie Wurz and the Trident trio of Leonardo Fornaroli, Meguetounif and Santiago Ramos being penalised five seconds each (meaning Meguetounif racked up 35s of penalties in total).

The penalties bring Campos’s Sebastian Montoya and Oliver Goethe up to fifth and sixth in the race race results, with Rodin Motorsport’s Callum Voisin gaining three spots to be classified seventh while Ramos, Fornaroli and Browning all lose points by dropping from fifth, eighth and sixth to eighth, ninth and 12th respectively.

Gabriele Mini’s championship lead now grows from eight to 13 points over Browning, with Fornaroli a further point behind and Lindblad 15 points off the top.

“It was almost impossible to stay on track. And I think we were all out everywhere,” Lindblad told Formula Scout.

“It was a bit annoying because with five, six laps to go my engineer told me I had two track limits. I didn’t do any for the rest of the race, but they still came through because they were going through the previous laps’ ones.”

Lindblad, who would have finished outside of the points anyway had he been penalty-free, added: “I think the race was pretty good. And there was not that much I’d do different if I do it all over again.”

In total, 101 laptimes by 28 drivers were deleted due to track limits abuse. The only non-offenders were Jenzer’s Max Esterson and Rodin’s Piotr Wisnicki. Esterson had no violations since he crashed out on lap one.

Eau Rouge was where track limits was exceeded 52 times, and there were 46 violations at Pouhon, two at Les Combes and one at Speaker’s Corner.

Browning avoided a penalty for allegedly forcing off Meguetounif at turn five, and MP’s Tim Tramnitz also went unpunished after a potential unsafe release in the pitlane was investigated.

Lindblad interview by Roger Gascoigne

Race results (12 laps)

The post Mini’s F3 points lead grows as title rivals handed track limits penalties appeared first on Formula Scout.

Photo: Formula Motorsport Ltd

Trident enjoyed a dream FIA Formula 3 qualifying at Imola as it locked out the top three spots of the feature race grid.

Santiago Ramos edged local star Leonardo Fornaroli by 0.053 seconds, with Sami Meguetounif 0.252s behind in third.

“I never really aimed for pole position at that stage [end of qualifying],” Ramos admitted in the press conference afterwards.

“I tried to make a clean lap, and at the end, it ended up being like a really good lap. I felt like I pushed on the limit in high-speed corners, on traction, everywhere.”

The Mexican was “super happy” with his lap, and had “never imagined” he would claim his maiden car racing pole position after a tough previous round at Melbourne, although said that “Imola is a good track for me” the result “definitely helps a lot and brings the confidence back”.

Ramos qualified 18th in Melbourne. while Fornaroli took pole. After narrowly missing out on another at Imola, Fornaroli said: “I just wanted to put a clean lap together without doing any mistakes. So maybe there was a little bit of time [to find], but I’m still very happy with my lap.”

Meguetounif pointed to off-track work for Trident’s enviable qualifying results.

“We’ve been lucky to have Leo, a second-year driver, to help us to learn quicker, and let’s say catch the pace. We spend a lot of time at the simulator, [and] on a tricky track like here, I think it really pays off a lot.

He added: “The first push [lap in qualifying], you really need to approach it as taking information for later in the session. And if you made this one correct, then you can just add the small details, knowing that you will get a bit more grip by having a lighter car in the second and third set of tyres.”

The trio agreed that the team’s interest must prevail in the feature race over the individual urge to win against each other.

“The quickest is going to win, so it’s just a matter of fighting properly,” Ramos stated.

Formula Scout caught up with team manager Giacomo Ricci, who was delighted with Trident’s performance.

“It’s the first top three in qualifying in our history. So it is really, really special,” he remarked. “We risked quite a bit with the strategy, but at the end it paid off. So I’m really happy and really proud of the job of everyone involved in the team.”

Trident opted to use all three sets of new tyres in qualifying, completing a single flying lap on each.

“For the feature race, we will not have the new tyre. That’s a factor. But at the same time, you’re starting in front. So I still believe that the clean air, it could be an advantage. During the races there can be also plenty of safety cars. So we will see.”

Ricci is “optimistic” and reckons the lower temperatures with the race’s early morning Sunday start time may play in Trident’s favour.

The post Trident delighted by its top-three lock-out in F3 qualifying at Imola appeared first on Formula Scout.

Photo: Formula Motorsport Ltd

Santiago Ramos claimed his first ever car racing pole position in outstanding FIA Formula 3 qualifying session for Trident at Imola.

The Italian outfit locked out the top three positions as local star Leonardo Fornaroli was second, followed by Sami Meguetounif in third place.

MP Motorsport’s Tim Tramnitz and Alex Dunne were the first drivers to set a competitive laptime. However, they were quickly bettered by Fornaroli setting a benchmark of 1m32.694s while Red Bull junior Tramnitz had his lap deleted.

Prema’s Gabriele Mini was next to top the charts by 0.096 seconds. Meanwhile, ART Grand Prix’s Laurens Van Hoepen slotted into third, followed by Mini’s teammate Dino Beganovic and Campos Racing’s Oliver Goethe.

The red flag came out 10 minutes into the session and before anyone had set a second flying lap, after Rodin Motorsport’s Callum Voisin lost the control of his car at the Tamburello chicane and beached his car into the gravel trap.

Hitech GP’s Luke Browning, who was yet to set a representative laptime, rose to fourth place as the session resumed. Then Goethe improved to go fastest.

Trident and MP started their runs later, and therefore stayed out when the rest returned to the pit-lane. Their strategy paid dividends and Fornaroli set the fastest time followed by Dunne 0.141 seconds. Meguetounif and Tramnitz were fourth and sixth respectively after that last lap on the first set of tyres.

Drivers coming out on a fresh set of tyres meant lots of green sectors in the timing sheet. Prema’s Arvid Lindblad claimed the top spot followed by Beganovic. However, Fornaroli regained it as he headed out, but he was beaten by his teammate Ramos.

A late lap upped Goethe to eighth place, but it was then deleted meaning he was 13th fastest in the final classification.

MP’s Kacper Sztuka was 12th fastest and will start the sprint race from reversed-grid pole, with Van Amersfoort Racing’s Noel Leon alongside him.

Voisin and ART Grand Prix’s Nikola Tsolov will each serve a three-place grid penalty in the sprint race after failing to stay above the minimum ECU time when free practice was red-flagged.

Qualifying results

The post Santiago Ramos claims Imola F3 pole in Trident top-three lock-out appeared first on Formula Scout.