The European portion of the Formula 3 calendar kicks off this weekend in Imola with three consecutive race weekends. Feeder Series spoke to Nikola Tsolov, Noah Strømsted and Noel León to find out how they are getting ready for such an intense schedule.

By Tori Turner

After another month-long break from racing, F3 is back with the first round of the only triple-header in the 2025 calendar. This weekend, drivers will compete at the anticlockwise Autodromo Internazionale Enzo e Dino Ferrari in Imola, Italy. They will then face the challenging streets of Monaco before finally heading to the familiar Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya in Spain. 

With month-long breaks after each of the first two rounds in Australia and Bahrain, the drivers have focused on preparing themselves for the demands of three back-to-back races.

“The European side of the season is probably the better and quicker one,” Tsolov said. “It’s a hard triple-header. We’re coming up to really difficult tracks in Imola and Monaco, then obviously Barcelona, a track that everyone knows, so it will be difficult because times are going to be tight.”

Campos Racing’s Tsolov, who currently sits fifth in the standings with 23 points, achieved his first win in F3 in last season’s sprint race in Monaco. As a result of his victory, he became Bulgaria’s first-ever race winner in the series.

Since then, the third-year driver has won a further three races, including the sprint race last time out in Bahrain. 

“For me, the preparation has mainly been to be good physically for all three rounds,” he added. “I had to focus on gaining weight, as we expect to lose a lot during every weekend. Also, just find the best way to improve myself in the car and to work on the parts we need to improve.”

Both Tsolov and León, an F3 sophomore, have competed in multiple back-to-back rounds in the series already. Trident’s Strømsted, however, is one of the 17 rookies on the grid this weekend. He last faced such a dense stretch of races in F4 UAE in 2023, which held four rounds in a 24-day span.

“It’s important to keep scoring points and keep improving,”  Strømsted told Feeder Series. “The preparation we’ve done has been quite good. We’ve done a lot of simulator and we’ve just been trying to improve.”

Last season, León’s best results came from the European portion of the calendar. After taking his first F3 podium during the sprint race at Imola, he stood on the rostrum three more times throughout the month of July at Silverstone, the Hungaroring and Spa.

“The main thing here is to be focused on all the whole three weekends,” the Prema driver said. “It’s quite easy to get a bad weekend and then you carry the momentum to all the races, so I’m really trying to stay focused and get ready for the three races.”

Header photo credit: Dutch Photo Agency