Tasanapol Inthraphuvasak and Nikola Tsolov brought home a maiden 1-2 finish for Campos Racing in the Formula 3 feature race at Monza to secure the team’s first-ever F3 title. Feeder Series spoke to the two Campos drivers and team manager Andreu Romera after the race about the result and its significance. 

By Calla Kra-Caskey and Michael McClure

Entering the race, Campos needed to outscore Trident by 17 or more points to claim the teams’ title. The Spanish outfit had Inthraphuvasak starting fourth and Tsolov fifth, putting them in a solid position to overtake a Trident team with no cars in the top 14 grid positions.

The scale of Campos’ domination, however, was historic. With a 45-point haul – the highest for the team in a single race in GP3 or F3 history – they secured the F3 teams’ title by 11 points as all three of their drivers made up vital positions.

“It’s such an indescribable achievement for the team,” Romera told Feeder Series in the paddock after the race. “We have to really appreciate and celebrate it because [F3] is probably the most difficult [championship] to win.”

Presenting… your 2025 Formula 3 teams’ champions, Campos Racing!#F3 #ItalianGP pic.twitter.com/UtgvTfcbog

— Michael McClure (@M1chaelMcClure) September 7, 2025

At the start of the 22-lap race, AIX Racing’s Brad Benavides maintained his lead from the Prema Racing pair of Ugo Ugochukwu and Noel León. Inthraphuvasak cut the Roggia chicane in a fight with León for third, while Tsolov locked up heavily into Turn 1 and made light contact with Matías Zagazeta but stayed fifth. 

Later in the lap, Charlie Wurz stopped with damage between the first two Lesmos, dropping Trident to just two cars in the teams’ championship fight and prompting a safety car deployment. During the safety car period, Tim Tramnitz pitted for a new front wing having damaged it in a first-corner incident, effectively eliminating the MP Motorsport driver from contention in the fight for second in the drivers’ standings.

Benavides kept his lead on the restart on lap three, while Tsolov passed León for fourth and Zagazeta overtook Taponen for sixth. Ugochukwu closed in on Benavides on the run to Turn 4, prompting the American driver to cut the Roggia chicane. 

His team urged him to swap positions with Ugochukwu, which he did ahead of Parabolica, but with a strong run out of the corner, he immediately re-passed Ugochukwu to take the lead again on the start-finish straight. The Prema driver lost another position to Inthraphuvasak at the same time, falling to third, but retook second into the Roggia chicane. 

A safety car period was then called on lap three as feature race debutant Fernando Barrichello was beached in the gravel at the exit of the Ascari chicane after spinning on his own. 

Leon caught Inthraphuvasak napping on the lap seven restart, taking fourth from the Thai driver. Later that lap, Ugochukwu spun in the Ascari chicane after hitting some loose gravel on the track. He was beached, like Barrichello, causing another safety car period. 

Benavides had a good restart once again on lap 11, retaining first until Tsolov went around the outside of him into Turn 1 on lap 13. Benavides got back at him by going around the outside of the Roggia chicane and retaking his lead. 

Meanwhile, there was chaos behind the leading pack. Also on lap 13, Zagazeta lost his front wing endplate, which was run over by Giusti, after making contact with Stenshorne at the first chicane. Later in the lap, he skidded over the wet grass at the Ascari chicane and then went straight to the escape road at Parabolica, having lost his front wing entirely. 

The battle for the teams’ championship then began in earnest, as the Trident pair of Noah Strømsted and Rafael Câmara had made it into the points from their starting places of 19th and 30th by lap 14. 

The wet grass outside of the Ascari chicane continued to catch drivers out, particularly on lap 15. Strømsted was pushed off the track there by Tuukka Taponen as they squabbled over fifth. As Bilinski took over fifth place, Strømsted dropped behind Boya into seventh, while Taponen fell out of the points entirely. Câmara, too, went into the grass shortly after exiting the corner but nevertheless gained a place thanks to Taponen’s misfortune. 

Both Tridents then made it past Boya on the start-finish straight on lap 16 before going three-wide with Giusti. Despite being ninth exiting Parabolica, Câmara emerged in sixth 20 seconds later.

Out front, Inthraphuvasak made a charge for the lead in the closing laps, passing León for third into the first corner on lap 14 and Tsolov for second into Ascari on lap 15. Although he briefly fell behind Tsolov again on lap 16, he made a move around both Tsolov and Benavides at the first corner on lap 17 to take the lead, with Tsolov passing Benavides as well on exit as the latter struggled for traction. 

On lap 18, Benavides attempted to make a move for the lead but locked up and went across the grass at the outside of the start-finish straight. He returned to the track in second place, but Tsolov passed him around the outside at Curva Grande to demote him to third. 

Tsolov then had an opportunity to overtake Inthraphuvasak for the win, but he was never close enough – or bold enough, with their teams’ championship at stake – to make a move.

“I was close, but as well, I wasn’t fully behind him, so I was just putting a little bit of pressure on him and seeing if he’s going to do some mistake,” Tsolov told Feeder Series. “Because I knew if he was going to defend in T1, it was going to be his corner.”

The next lap, Câmara attempted to overtake Bilinski into the Roggia chicane for fifth. The Rodin Motorsport driver cut the chicane entirely, and Câmara passed him on the next straight entering Ascari. Strømsted also passed Bilinski into the Parabolica on lap 21 for sixth, but the Trident drivers’ impressive recoveries to fifth and sixth weren’t enough for the team to retain their advantage in the teams’ championship race with Inthraphuvasak and Tsolov holding the top two spots. 

The podium wasn’t settled until the final lap. On lap 21, Benavides ran wide on the straight after the Roggia chicane, kicking up gravel and allowing León through into  third. Benavides temporarily retook the place into Roggia on the next and final lap, but León drew ahead on exit, sealing his place on the podium behind Inthraphuvasak and Tsolov. It was only the Prema driver’s second appearance on the rostrum this season after he finished third in the Silverstone feature race.

In conversation with Feeder Series after the race, an elated Inthraphuvasak described winning the feature race and in doing so helping seal Campos’ teams’ title as ‘the best possible way to end the season’.

“I’ve had a really tough season so far with highs and lows. The start was really tough, but to turn around mid-season and come away with three victories in the end, I’m super happy,” Inthraphuvasak said.

“We discussed earlier, before the race, what our plan was with me and Nikola. Obviously, we’re driving for ourselves, but I think in this race it was more about the bigger picture, about the team. So I knew me and Nikola had the pace to pull away from the others and I gave a call to the team to tell them to work together, and I think we did a good job.”

Despite being in contention for the win and leading the contest at one point, Tsolov ended up as the runner-up in both the race and the standings with 124 points, behind drivers’ champion Câmara on 166.

“As always I wanted to win, but it was important for me today to do a good race and play it safe,” Tsolov said. “Finishing on the podium was important for me because I knew Mari was going to make up places. I was going for it, I was trying, but I was not taking any risks. And if you don’t take risks, if the driver in front of the field has a good race like Tas did, it’s pretty impossible to get by.”

Behind the two Trident drivers, Bilinski came home seventh, with Giusti eighth after having set the fastest lap, a 1:38.910, on lap 17. Boya took ninth, and Tramnitz rounded out the points having recovered from his early pit stop.

Boya and Tramnitz also finished third and fourth respectively in the drivers’ standings, with 116 and 94 points respectively. Câmara added 10 points to his tally to end on 166 points, while runner-up Tsolov had 124. Campos’ final tally was 324 to Trident’s 313.

Header photo credit: Dutch Photo Agency