This year’s Formula 3 grid has drivers with vastly different experience levels. Aside from plenty of rookies like Alessandro Giusti and returnees such as Nikola Tsolov, others such as Brad Benavides have come back after competing in other championships. Feeder Series talked to all three drivers ahead of round nine of the season about how their prior campaigns have shaped their 2025.

By Daniele Spadi

F3 always sees a plethora of drivers join the series as rookies after racing in different FRegional and F4 championships.

The 2025 season is no different, with 21 drivers classified as rookies, including five of the top 10 drivers in the standings. Among these, championship leader Rafael Câmara, Spa sprint race winner Noah Strømsted and three-time feature race podium finisher Théophile Naël have excelled throughout the year.

A name that has often been overlooked among the rookies is Alessandro Giusti. Following two successful FR Europe seasons with five wins and two top-six finishes in the drivers’ standings, the Frenchman moved up to F3 in 2025 with MP Motorsport. Consistency and fast adaptation skills have propelled him to eighth in the championship with 55 points, a position strengthened by his collecting consecutive podium finishes in the feature race in Barcelona and the sprint race in Spielberg.

“This year, I’ve learned a lot,” Giusti told Feeder Series at a media roundtable ahead of this weekend’s Hngaroring round. “In the first year you have to learn the car, learn the tyre, how to warm up, and how to work with MP, as it was new for me.

“The biggest thing I’ve learned is clearly to put everything together in a tight field as F3. FRECA is a bit not as tight as this, and also in F3, you have one lap that matters in quali. As well, [you have to] know the tyre deg and how to manage it. I think I was quite good with it this year but clearly need to learn a bit more on the quali side now.”

One-lap pace is one of the most important skills a driver needs to have to excel in F3. Improving it tends to be a focus of highly experienced drivers such as Campos Racing’s Nikola Tsolov.

The Bulgarian, who’s now into his third F3 season, has made impressive strides forward in qualifying this season. While he only finished in the top 10 five times in nine attempts last year, he has had top-10 qualifying results in all but one round this year. He took home pole position for the first time in Monaco and achieved the same feat in both Spielberg and Silverstone.

“I think I’ve managed to find exactly what I need to be on top this year, and for sure that’s what’s been helping me, especially in qualifying on the second part to stay up there,” he said. “Obviously when you have a good qualifying, you have a good weekend. Personally, it’s probably 80% of your weekend.”

Tsolov also said being more attentive to detail had helped him grow into the driver he is now.

“It’s really important to know those little things that make a big difference in the end,” he explained. “I consider myself to have always been fast, but never really putting it together when it matters or being in the right place at the right time with traffic management. There’s a lot of new things that happen in F3 that you need to be really on top of.”

Experience is not just gathered in one series. Brad Benavides was a full-time F3 driver back in 2022 with Carlin before stepping up to F2 with PHM Racing the following year. He raced in the first nine rounds without scoring any points.

Last year, he took a step back and raced in Euroformula Open with Motopark. As the pre-season favourite for the title, he didn’t disappoint, taking home the drivers’ crown with a round to spare and ending the year with nine wins and a staggering 19 total podiums in 24 races.

“Experience is the name of the game, especially in this type of field,” Benavides told Feeder Series. “If you already have experience, things like not putting it together or not managing the traffic, you already went through it, right? That’s my biggest advantage of having that experience.”

Header photo credit: Dutch Photo Agency