Kacper Sztuka won the inaugural season of the Formula Winter Series one week before the last round in Barcelona, as the Polish driver topped both races in Navarra. Despite a reduced grid of six drivers, a lot happened in both races. Feeder Series unpacks the action of the third round of FWS.

By Grégoire Devaux

After a one-week break, the Formula Winter Series was back last weekend in Navarra for the third and penultimate round of the inaugural season. As the private testing deadline for Spanish F4 has now expired, the grid has significantly reduced in size — going from 15 drivers to only six.

A reduced grid before the season finale

One of the consequences of the championship finishing after the Spanish F4 private testing deadline was a reduced grid for events after the first two rounds. Drivers competing in the upcoming Spanish F4 season were no longer able to take part in the remaining FWS events.

Juan Cota and Maximiliano Restrepo — both part of Drivex’s line-up for the upcoming Spanish F4 season — left the championship after two rounds because of this restriction. Likewise, GRS driver Carl Bennett and Campos driver Matteo De Palo did not continue in FWS. De Palo’s eye-catching performances in FWS will make him a driver to keep an eye on as he begins his rookie season in Spanish F4.

Tina Hausmann, who did not compete in the third round, was expected to return for the last round of the championship in Barcelona after testing in Italy and France but ultimately did not do so. Phynsis by Argenti left the championship after only one round, in which their drivers Patrick Heuzenroeder, Isaac Barashi, and Jaden Pariat did not find much success.

The third round of the championship in Navarra gathered the usual four US Racing drivers: Sztuka, Frederik Lund, Gianmarco Pradel and Ruiqi Liu. Only one other team joined the German side; Jenzer Motorsports made their debut in the Formula Winter Series with Ethan Ischer and Hwarang Kim, who will both compete in Italian F4 this season.

For the last round of the inaugural season, which will take place this weekend in Barcelona, an expanded grid of around 10 drivers is expected. Feeder Series has learned that even if US Racing will send five cars, Kacper Sztuka will not compete as his title is now secured.

Sztuka remains unstoppable

Once again, Sztuka dominated both races of the third round of the Formula Winter Series in Navarra.

Since the opening race of the championship three weeks ago, the Polish driver has won five out of the six races of the championship — only being stopped by De Palo with Campos during the first race of the second round in Valencia.

By winning 151 points out of the 162 possible as of now, Sztuka’s journey in the Formula Winter Series was a display of pure dominance.

Beyond Sztuka’s stunning performance throughout the championship, US Racing also deserved credit, as Pradel officially clinched the rookie championship. The Australian driver collected four podiums in the six races he took part in.

An action-packed weekend despite fewer cars

There might not have been as many drivers as for the second round in Valencia, but both races offered some great action. During both qualifying sessions, Jenzer’s driver Ethan Ischer managed to sneak in between US Racing’s quartet to take the third and fourth spots on the grid respectively.

Starting on the front row next to Sztuka, Pradel struggled at the start of the race, resulting in him finishing the first lap in dead last. However, the Australian driver managed a stunning comeback, finishing on the podium.

If he found his way through the field on track, the US Racing driver also profited from the two drive-through penalties that Ischer and Liu inherited, both sanctioned for a false start, causing him to languish at the end of the pack until the end of the race.

For his first race, Ischer impressed his peers, managing to overtake Liu in the third lap to take second place, which he defended until the penultimate lap of the race, when he had to pit to serve his drive-through penalty.

Starting last on the grid, Kim had some difficulties finding the right racecraft in the first few laps, but managed to stay close to his rival and could have hoped to overtake Pradel to take the podium, finishing only 0.252 seconds behind him.

The second race was unfortunately interrupted for around half an hour. In the third turn of the opening lap, both Jenzer drivers made contact, resulting in a serious collision between Ischer and US Racing’s Lund.

Starting from the fourth and fifth positions, both drivers ended their race prematurely but came out of the incident without any injuries — even if Ischer was taken from the track by ambulance.

After the restart, the order did not change until the end of the race. Sztuka led a full US Racing podium as Liu and Pradel managed to keep their starting positions, whilst Kim finished one lap behind Sztuka.

This weekend will see the last round of the inaugural season of the Formula Winter Series in Barcelona. This will provide a chance for drivers to test the new track layout, with the chicane before the final corner removed to return the section to its original configuration, last used in 2006.

An expanded grid of around 10 drivers is expected, with the potential for new teams to join the final round.

Campos will be back with Maite Caceres and Lola Lovinfosse — two of their three drivers for the inaugural season of the F1 Academy championship.

Header photo credit: Daniel Bürgin – Formula Winter Series