Formula 3 may be the lowest single-seater series on the F1 package on many race weekends, but its drivers still face a much bigger spotlight than they have before. Feeder Series spoke to some of this year’s F3 rookies to find out how the extra pressure affects their performance.

By Daniele Spadi

Drivers making the step up to F3 usually come from regional- or national-level series without significant worldwide attention. In F3, however, they support F1 and share the paddock with F2. 

All 10 of F3’s rounds this year support F1’s, and the championship has never raced outside of a grand prix weekend in its current iteration.

At each weekend, F3 drivers have tens of thousands of fans watching them in the stands along with an average of two million spectators from home based on 2023 viewing figures. This can bring some extra pressure, especially for the series’ 18 rookies who aren’t so used to the spotlight.

”It’s quite cool that we’re in the same paddock as F1,” ART Grand Prix’s Tuukka Taponen told Feeder Series at a media roundtable before the second round in Bahrain. “At least for me, it doesn’t give too much extra pressure. It might give you some boost that they are looking [at] you, and if you perform well, they can actually think that I could someday go into F1.”

The 18-year-old Finn, a member of the Scuderia Ferrari Driver Academy since late 2022 and one of the field’s 10 F1 juniors, made his F3 debut last year in Spa on the Belgian Grand Prix weekend. He added that it was important not to let the outside world influence his efforts.

“You are doing the things for you and not for the others, so you just forget what the others are thinking and looking [at] and you focus on yourself.”

Reigning GB3 champion Louis Sharp of Rodin Motorsport has also experienced the extra pressure and attention of a grand prix weekend. In 2022, he won both races of the F4 UAE Trophy Round held on the weekend of F1’s season-ending Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.

“No matter what formula racing you do, whether that’d be F4, F3 or F1 even, there is always going to be some sort of pressure on you,” he said.

“Being in the F1 paddock with all the F1 teams, there may be a little bit of extra pressure, but for me, I don’t really care about that. All I care about is doing my job and doing the best job I can. Whether there’s a lot of pressure or no pressure, it doesn’t affect the driving I do and it doesn’t affect the job that I have to do.”

For Sharp, the pressure is also self-imposed. “I put a lot of pressure on myself because I am a competitor and I want to win,” the 17-year-old added. “I’m not here to partake; I’m here to try and win.”

“But I think again, like [Taponen] said about knowing that if you do go out here and do well, you are in front of the F1 eyes, maybe that could then lead to some different things – I think it’s quite a cool thing to have. To be here racing in front of the F1 is definitely a big privilege.”

Others view the pressure as an asset. For 18-year-old Eurocup-3 champion Christian Ho, who made his F3 debut in Melbourne with DAMS, ”it’s a nice feeling” to have raced in front of the F1 paddock for the first time.

“At every level of motorsport, you always have pressure, and [dealing with it] is the best way to prove yourself as a driver,” he said. “Embracing the pressure is an important thing to be the best in.”

Header photo credit: Dutch Photo Agency