ART’s Nikola Tsolov won his second race of the season after a close battle with his teammate Christian Mansell in Austria. After the sprint, Feeder Series spoke to Tsolov about his win and the improvements he’s still looking to make.

By Tori Turner

Tsolov displayed a high skill level around the Red Bull Ring during Saturday’s sprint, battling with ART teammate Christian Mansell and Hitech’s Martinius Stenshorne for the win. Throughout the 21 laps around the circuit, Tsolov made four overtakes, three of which were for the lead of the race.

His second win comes less than a month after his first in Monaco where he became the first Bulgarian driver to win a race in F3. Having the reverse grid pole for that race, he showed that he could challenge from the win starting as far back as third in Austria. 

“It feels quite good to manage to repeat what I did in Monaco,” he said. 

Tsolov’s charge for the win began on Lap 1 of the sprint when he made his first overtake on Martinius Stenshorne into Turn 6. The reverse pole-sitter had already lost a position to Mansell in the first corner, allowing Tsolov to move up to second. With an ART 1-2, it looked as if Tsolov was lining up a move on Mansell, but the race’s first safety car prevented any overtake from taking place.

It took until Lap 7 for Tsolov to make his first move on his teammate, managing to go around the outside of Turn 4 and finally taking Mansell in Turn 6. The lead momentarily returned to Mansell on Lap 15, but Tsolov repeated his outside move around Turn 4 for the third time in the race and was in first once more. Lap 16 saw Mansell overtake Tsolov into Turn 1 again, the two teammates switching positions yet again.

“It was quite entertaining. The start was okay, I just kept my place. And then down to T4, I saw an opportunity, I saw a gap on the outside and managed to put my car there and get that place. 

“And then later on I was just a tiny bit quicker than Christian in the DRS. So I just tried to pass him and see what I can do in front. I was just trying to manage my tyres all the race,” Tsolov said about the respectful battles he had with Mansell.

It was Sebastián Montoya’s crash that ultimately aided in Tsolov taking back the lead and solidifying his second win. A beep over the radio – which is used to communicate a yellow flag – caused Mansell to slow down prematurely, allowing both Tsolov and Stenshorne to overtake him. 

“I think it played out well in the end of the race. Christian came to attack me again and I thought we were going to have quite a few nice battles, but there was a confusion with the yellow flag because we get a beep on the earphones,” he said. 

“I actually thought there was a safety car as well, so I lifted as well, but a bit less than Christian and then I managed to get him.”

A safety car was deployed after Tsolov had made the move and stayed out on track for the next four laps, ending the race with a last-lap shoot-out. Fortunately for Tsolov, he was able to maintain his position as race leader and take the chequered flag.

Tsolov’s main strength going into his second season in F3 has been his results in the sprint races. Out of the four times he has scored points in 2024, three have been during the sprints. 

Acknowledging this himself, Tsolov has expressed interest in focusing more on improving his results during the feature races, where the most points are up for grabs. 

“Now the goal is to start looking forward to the feature races and try and score more points, podiums and eventually wins there. We definitely have the speed to do so,” he said. 

With his two wins taking place within the past three rounds and ART making major improvements, it’s clear that both Tsolov and the team now have the pace to challenge at the front of the grid.

“At the moment, it’s just arriving to a weekend where both the quali and the race are strong. In Barcelona, I had a strong quali but dropped a bit during the race. Here I had the opportunity to score a good quali. I just had a bit of an issue with traffic on my last run that prevented me from being at the front,” he told Feeder Series.

Tsolov is hoping to start making progress in feature races as early as tomorrow’s in Austria. 

“I think the pace is looking strong, so there’s still an opportunity to recover tomorrow. The race is long and it’s a track where you can overtake so I’m quite optimistic.”

Header photo credit: Dutch Photo Agency