The stakes are high for Christian Ho as he enters his rookie Eurocup-3 season. The Singaporean driver will look to win the series title in an effort to find himself an F3 seat for next year – which he says will be possible with Campos Racing should he become champion.

By Juan Arroyo

Months ago, Christian Ho made an important choice. He would stay with Campos after two seasons in F4, seeing the potential of a straight path to Formula 2 by staying with the team. Ho could progress to Campos’ F3 stable in 2025, but he will need to perform in Eurocup-3 from the off – and most likely win the title – to boost his chances of a seat.

Last year, Ho made a significant step in his sophomore Spanish F4 season by finishing runner-up in the drivers’ standings. He won five races – up from none the previous season – and looked ever faster as the season went on. 

From Jerez onwards, Ho was in the top three in nine out of 12 races. Four of his victories came in the last four races of the year, while at the season finale in Catalunya, he locked out pole position for all three races. He progressed drastically in 2023 and quickly proved he was ready to step up to the Formula Regional level.

Ho had multiple options for 2024, but only Eurocup-3 offered him the opportunity to stay with Campos.

The series was introduced to offer Spanish F4 drivers a direct path to F3 without having to head elsewhere in Europe. Drivers for Campos – a team present at every tier in the junior series ladder – see a significant advantage, as they can now join the team in F4 and stay with them all the way to Formula 2. Ho was adamant on pursuing this avenue.

In an ideal scenario, Ho would graduate to F3 next year, but he told Feeder Series that largely depends on whether he wins the Eurocup-3 title this year. It’s worth noting that few of Campos’ F3 drivers in the past three seasons have spent extended time – if any – with the Spanish outfit prior to their campaign. Ho would be the exception if he were to make such a move.

“I think it will be pretty hard,” Ho said when asked if he sees himself stepping up next year. “I know that if I win this year, there’s a high chance of me being in F3 with the same team next year. I think that’s how it would be, but I think it all depends [on] if I win this year, so we’ll see.”

This will be Ho’s second full season spent with Campos. For the 17-year-old, it has been a fruitful relationship. He is satisfied with the team and generally enjoys the environment shared with the rest of the drivers, as well as the mechanics and engineers.

“I think I really made a big step from my first year in Formula cars with them last year,” Ho said. “The goal this year is to do the same thing – make an even bigger step compared to last year and continue with them until however far I go.

“In general, I think the vibe around the team is really like a family, basically. We all know each other really well within the team and I feel really comfortable with it,” he added

This year, Ho is racing in new machinery with Eurocup-3’s modified Tatuus T-318. While this car has been said to be difficult to adapt to in other series, Ho hasn’t found the transition especially challenging. In fact, the only limiting factor for the Singaporean driver has been the increased physical strain.

“Of course, it’s more downforce. Compared to the FRECA [car] – FRECA uses the original version of the Tatuus T-318 – I think it’s a bit more draggy. It’s a bit more downforce than the FRECA, but a bit less power, so [to] get used to it has been a pretty smooth process,” Ho said.

He was put in a race situation for the first time in the new car in February, as the series held a winter round at Motorland Aragón. Later in the month, he also took part in two days of collective testing at Spa-Francorchamps, topping one session and going second-fastest in two others. Suffice it to say, Ho has taken a quick liking to the T-318.

“I think it’s much easier [to follow] compared to the F4. Even in the Winter Series race, when you were behind, you didn’t really have that much wash behind the cars,” Ho said.

“I was pretty surprised, to be honest. I really expected it to be the opposite, because there’s more downforce in this car. I thought that when you were behind, you struggle a little bit more. But it feels pretty similar being by yourself and being behind another car.”

In the winter round, Ho claimed pole position for the first race ahead of a rapid Valerio Rinicella. However, problems with his setup and gear shifts dropped him to fourth by the chequered flag. He was slow in the laps following an early safety car restart, which lost him places to Javier Sagrera and Rinicella. Several laps later, he was overtaken by Owen Tangavelou – who he battled for third until the end but couldn’t repass.

Ho led at the end of the first lap in the second race, but a mistake at the end of Aragón’s back straight saw him lose positions to Rinicella and Sagrera again. He recovered to second place as Sagrera retired with technical issues in the latter stages.

Because of the gear shift issues, Ho said he was losing up to four tenths of a second in lap time in both races. He also found it hard to adapt to the changing wind conditions throughout the weekend. But he was satisfied with the results nonetheless. 

“I was pretty happy with the two races because I think we had really good pace if we didn’t have any of the problems,” Ho said.

Ho wasn’t the only driver to face technical problems throughout the weekend: Sagrera retired from the second race, while Valentin Kluss missed free practice and qualifying on account of a broken engine and later retired from both races with gearbox issues. These mishaps are expected to be rectified before the opening round.

As it was in the winter round, the expectation for this season is that Campos and MP will be the two dominant teams. Ho has mainly his teammates and MP drivers to look out for as championship competition.

However, the Singaporean driver can’t pinpoint for certain which driver-team pairing is the fastest thus far.

MP’s Bruno del Pino was consistently within the top three in last month’s Spa-Francorchamps test. Also driving for MP, Javier Sagrera was close to the top places in testing and was the team’s strongest driver in the winter round. José Garfias tested for Saintéloc – despite not being confirmed for a race seat – and topped one session. Ho has been within this mix and has shown himself as one of the early contenders with his winter round performance.

“Looking from the winter round, I think Sagrera was pretty strong,” Ho said. However, the overall order still seems unclear within the paddock. “From the test in Spa, I’m not really sure, because I’m sure the other teams are sandbagging as well, so nobody knows where everybody is.

“I think as a team, we’re pretty solid for the first race in Spa. Right now, probably I’d say either Sagrera or Del Pino in MP look pretty strong. Maybe Saintéloc could come as a bit of a dark horse. I think they look pretty strong in the qualifying runs, but we’ll see,” he added.

Ho’s ambitions are – evidently – to win the drivers’ championship this year. More than a want, the Singaporean driver feels he absolutely needs the series title. 

“I think it’s quite realistic for me to aim for the title this year. I think I have to win the title this year, in my opinion. I mean, no pressure on me, but I think I want to win this title as much as last year,” he said.

This seemingly compulsory goal partly stems from losing out on the Spanish F4 title last year. Ho attributes this to a small slump in the first half of the season, in which he missed out on the podium six races in a row between the second and fourth rounds. In the same period, Théophile Naël secured four wins and built a sizable lead over Ho in the standings.

“Every year I have to look to try and win the title. I think aiming high is always better than aiming low. The main goal for me is to win this year and do a better job than last year in terms of consistency, because at the start of last year I struggled quite a lot.”

“I had a really strong end to the season, but I think I missed out because of the first part of the year. So I think the goal for me this year is to start off better. Not to win every race, but to be finishing on the podium every single race, and just trying to be consistent in general.”

Ho has previously raced – and even beaten – a portion of this year’s grid in Spanish F4. This would typically be a source of confidence for a driver, but Ho isn’t taking it that way. Instead, Ho is wary of entering the season overconfident.

“Everybody can grow like I did from the first year in F4, so I don’t think I’ll underestimate anybody this year,” he said.

“I want to underestimate myself because I don’t really want to go into a season too confident because anything can happen in racing. My main goal is to focus on myself and try to be the best I can and try to improve in every single way.”

If Ho were to step up to F3 next year, he would only be the second driver to do so from Eurocup-3 – following in the footsteps of Tasanapol Inthraphuvasak. Winning the championship will be a fairly difficult task for the incoming rookie, but the early signs point to him being a strong contender – if not the strongest altogether.

Editor’s note, 13:50 CEST: A previous version of this article erroneously mentioned this to be Ho’s third season with Campos, while it will be his second.

Header photo credit: Niels Broekema / Dutch Photo Agency