Rafael Câmara and Noah Strømsted brought home a 1-2 finish for Trident in Sunday’s Formula 3 feature race despite difficult wet conditions. Feeder Series spoke to the teammates after the race about how they turned the team’s fortunes around after a disastrous sprint race. 

By Tori Turner

F3’s feature race appeared to be in jeopardy Sunday morning as torrential rain poured down all across Melbourne. But an initial gap in the weather meant that racing could start, albeit after four formation laps and a rolling start.

Undeterred by the changing conditions, Brazilian Câmara took his maiden victory in his second race start in the series, finishing ahead of his teammate Strømsted and Van Amersfoort Racing’s Théophile Naël. They were the top three drivers after qualifying.

Speaking to selected media in the post-race press conference, Câmara said it was “very good” to produce strong results today. 

“There were tough conditions where it was the first time on wets this weekend, but I think the team did an amazing job to keep it all clean,” he said. “Once we started the race, I managed to keep [the car] on the track because I knew it was going to be tough. After that, it was just managing the tyres and the pace.”

When racing finally started, Câmara quickly pulled away from Strømsted as  many behind struggled for grip throughout the opening lap.

Heading into Turn 9, Red Bull junior Nikola Tsolov made contact with Rodin Motorsport’s Callum Voisin while running side by side. The first safety car was called to recover the two cars stranded in the Turn 10 gravel trap.

The safety car came in at the end of lap five, and Câmara went for another early launch, building a sizeable gap over Strømsted over the course of the next lap. The third Trident of Charlie Wurz in sixth, meanwhile, went wide at the Turn 9–10 chicane and had to defend from Campos’ Tasanapol Inthraphuvasak.

As the rain intensified at the race’s midpoint, Matías Zagazeta clipped the rear tyre of Alessandro Giusti at Turn 13 on lap 10, spinning the MP Motorsport driver. The DAMS driver was deemed at fault for the incident and was handed a 10-second post-race time penalty almost immediately.

On lap 13, DAMS’ Christian Ho hit the barriers at Turn 7, triggering another safety car and eliminating Câmara’s gap of almost five seconds. The rain intensified throughout the safety car period, and the race was halted on lap 18, though the order was taken from lap 16.

Trident’s success in the feature came after all three cars retired in separate incidents in the sprint race – the first time in the current iteration of F3 history that a team had no drivers classified because of retirements. Their double podium, along with Wurz’s sixth-place finish and Câmara’s fastest lap, lifted them to first in the teams’ standings with 54 points, 25 over VAR.

“It was a big relief. To win pole and not score many points in the weekend is not the ideal scenario. I just wanted to keep it clean for today. I’m just happy with the work the team has done.” Câmara told Feeder Series.

“It’s very important for the team to get some points and also for us to leave [Melbourne] with some points,” Strømsted added. “The championship is long, but you have to score points every weekend. Today we did, so we’re very happy.”

The top seven finished in the order they started, with one-round AIX entrant Nikita Bedrin fourth, MP’s Tim Tramnitz fifth, Wurz sixth and Inthraphuvasak seventh. Martinius Stenshorne, Roman Bilinski and Ugo Ugochukwu rounded out the top 10. Sprint race winner Santiago Ramos came home 16th after running wide at Turn 1 on the safety car restart and hitting a patch of water. 

Header photo credit: Dutch Photo Agency