After 2024 brought plenty of excitement with its closest championship battle yet, Formula 3 is back with a new car to shake things up for 2025. Feeder Series catches you up on everything you need to know ahead of the new season. 

By Daniele Spadi and Tori Turner

F3 is back for its seventh season in 2025, bringing a new class of fresh and returning faces who will make up the grid.

The entire top eight from last year’s final drivers’ standings have since graduated to F2. Champion Leonardo Fornaroli has joined Invicta Racing, with title rivals Gabriele Minì and Luke Browning moving up with Prema and Hitech respectively.

Because of this, the 2025 F3 season will see 17 rookies on the starting grid in Melbourne for the first race of the season. The series will once again feature several 2024 champions from lower-tier single-seater championships, including FRegional Europe’s Rafael Câmara, Eurocup-3’s Christian Ho and GB3’s Louis Sharp.

The calendar 

For the third year in a row, the same 10 tracks are scheduled to host the 2025 F3 season. Two years after it debuted on the calendar, Melbourne will become the fourth different venue to host the season opener for the series.

• Round 1: Albert Park (14–16 March)
• Round 2: Bahrain International Circuit (11–13 April)
• Round 3: Autodromo Internazionale Enzo e Dino Ferrari (16–18 May)
• Round 4: Circuit de Monaco (22–25 May)
• Round 5: Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya (30 May–1 June) 
• Round 6: Red Bull Ring (27–29 June)
• Round 7: Silverstone Circuit (4–6 July)
• Round 8: Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps (25–27 July)
• Round 9: Hungaroring (1–3 August)
• Round 10: Autodromo Nazionale Monza (5–7 September)

The format 

For 2025, the weekend format will remain unchanged. F3 kicks off the race weekend with a 45-minute free practice session on Friday morning followed by a 30-minute qualifying session to determine the starting grids for the two races. At some venues, such as Monaco, the qualifying session will be split into two 15-minute sessions, each featuring half of the grid.

The first race of the weekend is the 40-minute sprint race on Saturday morning, for which the top 12 drivers from qualifying start in reverse order. The top 10 drivers score reduced points, with the winner awarded 10 points. The longer feature race on Sunday uses Friday’s qualifying order, and the top 10 drivers are awarded points according to the standard FIA format of 25 for the winner down to one for 10th place. 

An extra point will be awarded to the driver in the top 10 who sets the fastest lap in each race. In addition, two points are also given to the driver who sets the fastest lap in qualifying and starts on pole for the feature.

Where to watch 

All of the sessions, including the 20 races, can be streamed on the subscription platform F1 TV, but specific regions and countries broadcast F3 on their own channels. The full list of where you can watch the series in your region can be found here. If you cannot access the broadcasts, live timing can be found on the F3 website. 

Teams and drivers

Prema Racing

As the reigning teams’ champions, Prema Racing will once again be among the favourites coming into the new season. The team from Grisignano di Zocco, however, are still on the lookout for a fourth drivers’ title after their drivers failed to secure it for the past three seasons. The team have signed one returning driver and two newcomers as they try to win both championships for the first time since 2020.

McLaren junior Brando Badoer (#1) will be looking to make an immediate impact in the series as he steps up from FR. The 18-year-old Italian finished fifth in the drivers’ standings in a promising debut season in FR Europe, collecting one pole position and seven podiums. He also picked up his maiden win in single-seater racing in FR Middle East earlier this year in Dubai and ended the campaign fourth.

On the other hand, Noel León (#2) is the only driver in the Italian team’s line-up with prior F3 experience. The Mexican raced with Van Amersfoort Racing last year, scoring four podiums en route to 10th in the final standings with 79 points. Before his impressive rookie campaign, the 20-year-old was a member of the Red Bull Junior Team and the winner of the 2023 Euroformula Open title.

The team’s third car will be driven by Ugo Ugochukwu (#3), another McLaren junior. After a promising year in F4 in 2023 that yielded a Euro 4 title, the 17-year-old struggled to keep the momentum going in FR Europe last season, finishing 11th with a win in the season finale at Monza and a further trip to the podium at the Hungaroring. Ugochukwu turned things around in November, however, when he became the first American in 43 years to win the Macau Grand Prix. Like Badoer, Ugochukwu also raced in FR Middle East earlier this year, finishing the season third, 49 points ahead of his future teammate.

Trident

Trident kept up their streak of strong results last season by producing back-to-back drivers’ champions in Gabriel Bortoleto and Leonardo Fornaroli, but the Italian team failed to win the teams’ championship, placing second in the standings for the third consecutive year.

New Mercedes junior Noah Strømsted (#4) joins Trident for the 2025 season after stepping into F3 machinery at the final round in Monza last year. The 17-year-old Danish driver placed 17th in the sprint and 23rd in the feature. In 2024, he competed in FR Europe, finishing sixth with four podiums and taking the rookie title. 

FR Europe champion Rafael Câmara (#5) is set to partner Strømsted as he steps away from Prema for the first time in his single-seater career. In a dominant sophomore FR Europe campaign, the Brazilian scored 309 points and won seven races. Câmara, 19, also finished third in FRegional Middle East last year, winning two races and scoring 128 points. Throughout his entire junior single-seater career, he has never finished below fifth in a series.

Completing Trident’s line-up is returning driver Charlie Wurz (#6). The 19-year-old Austrian competed with Jenzer Motorsport in 2024, finishing 22nd and scoring his only points of the season in the feature race in Melbourne. The 2023 FR Oceania champion faces a crucial year ahead of him with the pressure of performing at one of F3’s top teams as their only driver with a full season of F3 experience. 

ART Grand Prix

After a tough 2023 season in which they finished eighth, ART Grand Prix bounced back in style last season, taking home third place in the teams’ standings thanks to three wins and eight additional podiums.

Laurens van Hoepen (#7) will continue his relationship with the team after a promising debut in the series last year. The Dutchman collected three sprint race podiums on his way to 13th in the drivers’ standings with 58 points. The 19-year-old opted to stay in F3 for one more season with the aim of challenging for the title, as he explained to Feeder Series last year.

Racing alongside the Dutchman will be two rookies with prior F3 experience. The first is 18-year-old Ferrari junior Tuukka Taponen (#8), who made his debut in the series with ART last season in Spa when he substituted for Nikola Tsolov and finished 14th in the sprint. In 2024, the Finn became the FR Middle East drivers’ champion by a 79-point margin. Later in the year, he put himself in contention for the FR Europe title mid-season before ultimately settling for third in the standings, with four wins and three further podiums.

Taponen’s longtime rival James Wharton (#9) also joins forces with ART for his first full season of F3. The 18-year-old edged out the Finn in FR Europe last year, earning seven podiums – including three wins – in the last eight races to finish second in the drivers’ standings. The Australian also made his F3 debut in 2024 with Hitech at Silverstone, finishing 18th and 21st in the two races, and finished sixth in FR Middle East the winter before.

Campos Racing

After finishing fourth in the teams’ championship last season with 179 points – the same total as in 2023 – Campos Racing have chosen to have no rookies for 2025. With the most experienced line-up on the grid and strong performances in testing, Campos have solidified their position as contenders for both the teams’ and drivers’ championships this season.

Mari Boya (#10) is set to return to the team after winning his home race in Spain last season. The 20-year-old finished 15th in the standings but had much more consistent results throughout his second season in the series than he did in his first year in 2023. 

Tasanapol Inthraphuvasak (#11) joins Campos for his second season in F3 after previously racing with them in Eurocup-3 in 2023. In his rookie season, he became Thailand’s first-ever F3 podium finisher when he came second in the Hungaroring sprint race with AIX Racing. That podium marked the only time the 19-year-old scored points in 2024, and he finished 24th in the standings.

Many eyes will be on Bulgaria’s Nikola Tsolov (#12) after he showed promise throughout his sophomore F3 campaign in 2024, which he finished 11th. The 18-year-old spent the last two seasons with ART Grand Prix, with whom he won two sprint races in Monaco and Austria as well as the feature race in Hungary. Tsolov was suspended from participating in the penultimate round at Spa-Francorchamps for competing at the same venue in Eurocup-3, in which he also finished 11th overall last year. Returning to the team with which he won the Spanish F4 title in 2022, Tsolov will certainly be in contention for the championship this year if he produces consistent results. 

Hitech

In 2024, Hitech had one driver fight for the F3 drivers’ championship with Luke Browning while failing to score points with two cars in all but one race all season. This duality left the British outfit – formally renamed today to Hitech from Hitech GP – to finish fifth in the teams’ standings.

With both Browning and Cian Shields graduating to F2, Martinius Stenshorne (#14) will be the sole returning driver for Hitech in 2025. The 19-year-old Norwegian, who is also part of the McLaren Driver Development Programme, had mixed fortunes in his rookie season last year, taking his maiden win in the series in Melbourne but only finishing 18th in the standings with 38 points.

Another driver gearing up for a second consecutive F3 campaign is Austrian-licenced Joshua Dufek (#15), who made his debut in 2024 with AIX Racing. The 20-year-old struggled to get to grips with the new challenge but scored one point in the final round of the season in Monza to finish 28th in the drivers’ championship.

To partner two experienced drivers, Hitech have signed 18-year-old Chinese rookie Gerrard Xie (#16). After winning the 2022 Chinese F4 title with a record 13 wins from 14 races, Xie finished seventh in GB3 last season with Hitech, scoring his first win in the championship at the Hungaroring while also stepping on the podium on two other occasions. He also took a race win in a Euroformula Open appearance at Spa and finished seventh in his winter series campaign in FR Oceania.

MP Motorsport

MP Motorsport finished sixth overall in the 2024 standings with only one win. After experiencing a drop in performance from 2023 to 2024, the Dutch team head into 2025 with a line-up featuring two F1 juniors, one of whom is the series’ highest-placed returnee. 

That driver is Red Bull junior Tim Tramnitz (#17), who finished ninth overall in a strong rookie season with the team. The 20-year-old German driver took his first victory in the final sprint race in Monza and scored a further three podiums throughout the season. Tramnitz previously battled both Ollie Bearman and Andrea Kimi Antonelli for F4 and FR titles in 2021 and 2023 respectively and will be aiming to take a crown of his own this season.

Partnering Tramnitz for the 2025 season is Spain’s Bruno Del Pino (#18). The 18-year-old has driven with MP for the majority of his single-seater career, including his Eurocup-3 campaign last year that he finished third overall. He won three races throughout the season, including one at the Red Bull Ring, after finishing as the rookie champion in 2023. Del Pino also competed in FR Middle East last year, finishing 16th with 18 points.

As Also joining MP Motorsport is Williams Racing Driver Academy member Alessandro Giusti (#19). The French driver had a strong campaign with ART in his second season of FR Europe last year, placing fourth in the standings with two wins and a further five podiums. The 18-year-old also won the French F4 title in 2022 with 300 points.

Van Amersfoort Racing

After a rather disappointing season in 2024 in which they finished in seventh in the teams’ standings with 91 points, Van Amersfoort Racing will look to get back to winning ways this season with a line-up that mixes experience and untapped potential.

After having raced with Saintéloc throughout his entire junior single-seater career, Théophile Naël (#20) will join Van Amersfoort for his maiden F3 season. The 17-year-old Frenchman, who won the Spanish F4 title back in 2023, had a promising rookie campaign in FR Europe last year, scoring his and Saintéloc’s first win in the series at the Red Bull Ring and finishing ninth in the drivers’ standings with 81 points. Naël also partook in the first three rounds of FR Middle East earlier this year, capturing three podiums and 125 points on his way to seventh in the championship. He finished 11th in a full season in the series last year.

Staying in F3 for a second season, Santiago Ramos (#21) joins the Dutch outfit despite missing the post-season test. The 21-year-old Mexican endured a tough first full campaign with Trident en route to finishing 16th with 44 points. A pole position in Imola and a sprint race podium in Monza were the highlights of his season.

Also graduating from FR Europe is Portugal’s Ivan Domingues (#22). The 18-year-old from Leiria has been with Van Amersfoort Racing since 2023, climbing the junior single-seater ladder from Italian F4 to F3 with them. Though he finished his rookie season last year in FR Europe in 10th with two podium finishes, Domingues is still chasing his first race win in single-seaters.

Rodin Motorsport

Rodin Motorsport had a rough start to the 2024 championship but flourished at the end of the season with their first win in the current iteration of FIA F3. Whether that progress will continue with the new car is not yet known, but the team had a promising showing in testing, topping the standings on the final day and placing all three cars in the top 10 in wet conditions.

After taking a lights-to-flag victory in Belgium for the team, 2023 GB3 champion Callum Voisin (#23) returns for his second season with Rodin in 2025. The 19-year-old British driver, who resides in Switzerland, finished 12th in the standings with 67 points despite not scoring in the opening six rounds. He turned his season around at his home grand prix at Silverstone with a third-place finish in the feature race, then closed out a run of six points-scoring finishes with his maiden pole and victory in the Spa feature race.

Hoping to follow in the footsteps of fellow New Zealander Liam Lawson is F3 rookie Louis Sharp (#24), who has likewise enjoyed personal backing from Rodin Cars CEO David Dicker for the past few years. Like teammate Voisin, Sharp is also a GB3 champion, having won five races and scored 478 points during his rookie season in 2024. The 17-year-old previously won British F4 in 2023 with an impressive 14 podiums, of which six were victories. 

Completing Rodin’s line-up for 2025 is Poland’s Roman Bilinski (#25), who graduates to F3 after three years at the FR level. The 20-year-old got off to a promising start in 2024, winning the FR Oceania championship over the winter with six victories and taking his first FR Europe pole at Spa, but broke two of his vertebrae in a car accident in June. After missing several rounds to recover, he returned to Trident’s FR Europe team and scored points in six of the eight races en route to finishing 15th overall. 

AIX Racing

After joining the series as PHM Racing in 2023, AIX Racing made impressive steps forward last season, going from scoring six points to 35 and taking their first 1-2 finish in the series in Hungary thanks to Nikita Bedrin and Tasanapol Inthraphuvasak. The team will now contest their first full season under the AIX banner following a change in ownership last May.

Making his debut in the series will be Javier Sagrera (#26). The Spaniard fought for the Eurocup-3 title with MP Motorsport last season and took home four wins and six additional podiums. The 21-year-old was initially crowned champion but eventually fell short by just five points following a lengthy appeal process that handed Christian Ho the title over three months later.

In a surprise move, Nicola Marinangeli (#27) will make his single-seater comeback after two years in sports car racing. The 21-year-old Italian was part of a front-running line-up in GT Open last year with AF Corse, and he and Vincent Abril finished third in the drivers’ standings with two wins and three additional podiums. Prior to his switch to GT cars, he raced in FR Europe from 2020 to 2022 and took part in the first three rounds of the 2022 Euroformula Open season. He had also tested F3 machinery with AIX predecessor Charouz Racing System in the 2022 post-season test at Jerez. As recently as a month ago, he was competing in the Asian Le Mans Series with Dragon Racing, driving a Ferrari 296 GT3 car.

AIX ran German driver Jonas Ried in the #28 car throughout pre-season testing, but he will not be the full-time occupant of the final seat. Instead, Budapest sprint winner and F3 veteran Nikita Bedrin (#28) has been announced to drive for AIX in the opening round only. Previously in F3, the 19-year-old finished 18th in 2023 and 19th in 2024. It is not yet known who will pilot the car for the remaining rounds.

DAMS Lucas Oil

DAMS are the latest arrival to the F3 grid as they replace Jenzer Motorsport, who announced their withdrawal from the series last year after a 15-year stint across F3 and predecessor GP3. DAMS have achieved great success in the second tier, winning the teams’ title in 2019 in F2 and in 2012 and 2014 in GP2, but their two-year stint in GP3 was largely fruitless, with their sole win coming courtesy of Jake Hughes in their first year in 2016. 

Alpine Academy driver Nicola Lacorte (#29) is set to make his F3 debut with DAMS. The 17-year-old Italian had an uninspiring 2024, placing 21st in FR Europe and 10th in a partial FR Oceania campaign with one win in the latter. His career-best placement in single-seaters came in 2023, when finished ninth in both the Italian F4 and Euro 4 standings.

As the experienced driver in the line-up, Matías Zagazeta (#30) returns for a second season in F3 after scoring a season-best third – his only eight points all year – during the Silverstone sprint race for Jenzer. The Peruvian driver started 2025 by competing in FR Oceania and finishing fifth in the standings. The 21-year-old won races at Taupo and Teretonga and finished in the points for every race except for the season-ending New Zealand Grand Prix.

Newly crowned Eurocup-3 champion Christian Ho (#31) will partner Zagazeta and Lacorte for 2025. The 18-year-old Singaporean of Korean heritage won six races during his title campaign and scored 255 points throughout the season, seven of which were awarded to him via the appeals process for the final race of the season. He also found success in Spanish F4, finishing as the runner-up in 2023 with five wins. 

Header photo credit: Dutch Photo Agency