The GB3 Championship announced Wednesday morning that it would introduce a new car, Tatuus MSV GB3-025, for the 2025 season and beyond, with many design elements derived from the current generation of Formula 1 cars.

By George Brabner

The car, developed by GB3 organisers MotorSport Vision (MSV) and Italian chassis manufacturer Tatuus, will become the first Tatuus-built chassis to conform to the new Formula Regional technical requirements.

It carries on the high-downforce, low-cost philosophy that guides the well-regarded Tatuus MSV-022, introduced to the series in 2022, while aligning itself more closely with the FIA single-seater pyramid, particularly the F1 package.

The MSV-022, based on a Formula 4 car that began life back in 2016, receives regular praise from drivers for its lightweight chassis and high downforce levels. These factors together have helped it set faster lap times than those of the Tatuus F3-T318 used in Formula Regional series in Europe, the Middle East and Oceania.

What’s changed on the car?

The similarities between the GB3-025 and a modern F1 car are apparent in the designs of the front wing, rear wing and floor inlets and its redesigned underbody. MSV predicts that the GB3-025’s “F1-inspired aerodynamics” will help it produce 35% more downforce than the MSV-022 at the same drag level.

The car features aero surfaces, rim fairings and a cooling package optimised via computational fluid dynamics (CFD) modelling. There will also be an improved brake system and a new steering wheel featuring a refined electronic gear-shifting system.

The Pirelli tyres used by the series will increase from eight to 10 inches on the front and 10 to 12 inches on the rear, meaning grip levels should increase.

The GB3-025’s rear wing will feature a drag reduction system (DRS), also seen on F1, F2 and F3 cars. It is set to be the first Tatuus car to have such a mechanism.

The new car will be powered by a new two-litre, four-cylinder, naturally aspirated Mountune engine similar in structure to the current one. It is expected to produce 280bhp, an increase of 30bhp over the 2022 Mountune engine.

Several parts within the engine have been redesigned to aid in this goal. There will be a modified cylinder head and inlet manifold for more power, a reengineered exhaust layout for better mid-range performance, a redesigned rocker cover and fully stressed sump for better stiffness, and additional sensors for better engine monitoring.

Though the car is set to be “considerably quicker per lap than the current model” –a predicted decrease in lap time of two to three seconds around most circuits has been indicated to Feeder Series –it will also be 40 kg heavier.

A new titanium halo and a revised six-speed gearbox by Sadev will reduce the car’s weight. Still, at 560 kg without fuel and driver, the GB3-025 remains 30 kg lighter than the Tatuus T-318, allowing GB3 to retain its car’s weight advantage over that of FRECA.

Safety advancements include new front and rear crash structures, the latter with a retaining tether; a revised front anti-intrusion panel; enhanced removable protection for the head and legs with cockpit foam gap fillers; an electronically operated fire extinguisher; a six-point safety harness; and improved rear rain lights.

A subtle upgrade will come to the FT3 fuel cell, which will be able to hold 70 litres of fuel rather than 45. This change opens the door for the increased race distances rumoured for 2025.

What other changes can we expect?

The upgrades to the car make clear that GB3 aims to tailor its package towards prospective F3 drivers while keeping costs low for the series’ level.

Feeder Series understands that a new GB3-025 car without an engine will cost around £120,000, approximately the same as the cost of the MSV-022. This means a full season in GB3 should see a minimal price increase.

Feeder Series also understands that there is also a growing desire to increase the number of mainland European venues on the 2025 calendar after the positive reaction to the addition of the Hungaroring to this season’s schedule. Three of the eight venues this year – Spa, the Hungaroring and Zandvoort – take place on F1 tracks outside the UK.

Such a change would mark a divergence from the series’ roots as British F3, the name it bore from 2016 to mid-2021.

Feeder Series also understands that the core of the MSV-022 will remain on the UK’s single-seater ladder – albeit one step lower.

The first-generation Tatuus F4 chassis used in support series GB4, a low-cost domestic F4 championship, is expected to be replaced next year by a car built around the tub of the MSV-022 with a simplified aerodynamic package.

This change would provide a cost-effective solution to GB4’s impending vehicle dilemma. While the Tatuus F4-T014 is now a decade old, introducing the Tatuus F4-T421 would push the price of a season far beyond the current £150,000–£200,000 range affordable to its target consumer.

What do teams think?

When approached by Feeder Series about thenew car, teams offered positive responses.

Oliver Oakes – principal of GB3 teams’ championship leader Hitech GP, which joined the series in 2020 – said the new car takes the series “from strength to strength” and cementing its position as a “key programme” between F4 and F3 within the team’s internal ladder.

“The past few years it has not only brought us a lot of success on track by way of wins and championships, but it continually has developed a lot of talented young drivers and people for our organisation,” Oakes said. “We are very much committed to the series.”

Elite Motorsport director Ed Ives, whose team joined GB3 in 2021, said the new car would “place the championship as the perfect stepping stone between F4 and FIA F3 on the European circuits.”

VRD Racing owner Dan Mitchell said his team was “fully committed to driver development” and that launching a car such as the GB3-025 with “so much speed and downforce at an affordable price” was “much needed”. VRD, a fixture on the American junior single-seater scene, has been increasingly involved in the series since forging a partnership with Arden in 2022.

With what he understands will be a “race calendar to suit” in 2025, Mitchell said he believed the new car would “make the series an immediate and only relevant feeder to FIA F3 as well as Indy NXT”.

Header photo credit: GB3 Championship