After an unusual three-month break, Formula 3 returned to action in Monaco. In a weekend of firsts around the streets of the Principality, Gerrard Xie and Brando Badoer took their maiden victories in the series. Feeder Series brings you the main takeaways from the second round of the season.

By Daniele Spadi

Despite the unexpectedly long break after Melbourne, the favourites from the season opener were on top in Monaco right from the get-go. Théophile Naël was the class of the field on Friday, topping free practice and setting the fastest qualifying lap to take his second consecutive pole position. Though Hiyu Yamakoshi originally won the sprint race, he was later disqualified for a technical infringement. This enabled Gerrard Xie to taste success for the first time, with Bruno Del Pino and Pedro Clerot rounding out the podium. On Sunday, Naël was unable to convert pole to victory, as Rodin’s Brando Badoer jumped him at the start and took a convincing triumph in the feature race in front of the Frenchman and Freddie Slater.

• Pre-weekend roundtable: F3 drivers on the challenge of racing in Monaco after unplanned three-month break
• Qualifying report and quotes: Naël claims back-to-back F3 poles in spectacular Monaco qualifying
• Sprint race report and quotes: Xie inherits his and DAMS’ first F3 win after Yamakoshi disqualified
• Feature race report and quotes: Rodin’s Badoer claims maiden F3 win in Monaco feature race

1. A wide-open championship fight

Though a handful of drivers have shone in both Melbourne and Monaco, it’s safe to say that the 2026 season is yet to find its favourite for the drivers’ title. After emerging as the one to beat in Melbourne, Ugo Ugochukwu failed to finish on the podium in Monaco, while his teammate Théophile Naël could not convert pole into a feature race win for the second weekend in a row.

Looking outside of the Campos Racing garage, Bruno Del Pino is the only driver to have scored points in all four races, though his best results came in the reverse-grid sprint races. Though Freddie Slater was able to step on the podium on Sunday, a costly mistake the day before prevented him from scoring valuable points.

As the series heads over to Barcelona, the championship standings reflect this variety. Ugochukwu leads by just eight points over Del Pino, with Slater a further point behind in third. Brando Badoer and Naël have shot up to fourth and fifth respectively after their impressive displays on Sunday, with both still within a feature race win from the top.

The playing field has been leveled in the teams’ standings as well. Though Campos have a 28-point lead, six out of 10 teams have already finished on the podium at least once. What’s more, for only the second time in the history of FIA F3, the first four races of the season were won by four different outfits; the sole precedent dates back to 2022, when the first repeat winner was ART in race number six.

2. Rodin and Monaco: A match made in heaven

In Monaco, using the team’s knowledge to the fullest extent to nail the set-up is of utmost importance, as Feeder Series explained on last week’s Feeder Focus episode previewing the Monaco weekend.

There is no better example of how to do so on the current F3 grid than Rodin. Since they took full control of the former Carlin team’s F3 operations in 2024, the outfit from New Zealand have excelled in the Principality.

In 2024, the team scored their first points of the season at Monaco, with Joseph Loake finishing fifth in the sprint and ninth in the feature. Last year, Rodin made an even greater impression in Monaco, scoring points with all three entries in one race for the first time in the series. Roman Bilinski took his maiden F3 podium by finishing second in the feature race, while Voisin and Louis Sharp came home fourth and ninth respectively. Sharp himself had his only double points finish of the season, finishing in ninth during the sprint too.

In 2026, the team finally hit the jackpot. Badoer excelled in qualifying, topping group A by 0.351s over Ugo Ugochukwu and 0.630s over the rest of the field. The Italian, who had taken his maiden podium finish in the series in the Melbourne sprint, nailed the start in the feature race, jumping polesitter Naël and leading from there to the finish to clinch his first F3 win.

The team also enjoyed a further podium this weekend in the sprint race, as Yamakoshi’s disqualification promoted Pedro Clerot to third place. The Brazilian also scored points in the feature race, in which he finished eighth.

3. A historic weekend for some…

Other than Badoer’s astonishing win, Monaco once again proved to be a happy hunting ground for drivers still on their quest to make history.

Before arriving in Monaco, Gerrard Xie had scored a single point in his 21 F3 starts. He now leaves the Principality with not just his but also China’s maiden podium and win in the championship after Hiyu Yamakoshi’s disqualification. To put this in perspective, the only other occasion on which a Chinese driver scored points in the series was back in 2019, when Yifei Ye finished sixth in the final race of the 2019 season to earn four championship points.

It was a historic result for DAMS, too. The French outfit joined F3 last year, taking Jenzer Motorsport’s spot on the grid. They finished in the top 10 a total of six times, with a best finish of fourth in the sprint race at Monza courtesy of Matías Zagazeta, and scored 30 points across the 10 rounds.

Thanks to what is their first win in a junior single-seater championship outside of F2 since the 2016 GP3 season finale with Jake Hughes, DAMS have jumped to seventh in the teams’ standings, their position strengthened by Xie’s ninth place in the feature race.

4. …and a forgettable one for others

Naturally, however, not everyone left Monte Carlo smiling. It was another difficult weekend for reigning FRegional Europe runner-up Matteo De Palo. After struggling to get up to speed in Melbourne following a crash in qualifying, the McLaren development driver was far from his best form in the Principality as well. He qualified down in 24th position, 1.737s off pole, and finished 14th in the sprint and 25th in the feature.

Tuukka Taponen was also expected to step up after failing to score points in the season opener, but that didn’t happen either. The Finn, who is part of the Scuderia Ferrari Driver Academy, had started the weekend well, qualifying in sixth position and thus putting himself in the hunt for points in both races.

However, his next two days in Monaco were short-lived. Contact with Campos Racing’s Ernesto Rivera at the Fairmont hairpin in the sprint put him out of the race due to the damage sustained to his front wing. On Sunday, he crashed out of the race at the exit of Rascasse on the opening lap following contact with ART Grand Prix’s Maciej Gładysz.

Before the start of the season, both De Palo and Taponen were considered among the dark horses – if not the favourites – for the drivers’ title. After two rounds, they have zero points each, thus needing a complete reset from the next race in Barcelona if they wish to keep dreaming big this year.

Results and standings after round 2 at Monaco

Results	P1	P2	P3
Qualifying, Group A	Brando Badoer, 1:24.612	Ugo Ugochukwu, +0.351s	Tuukka Taponen, +0.630s
Qualifying, Group B	Théophile Naël, 1:24.471	Freddie Slater, +0.406s	Ernesto Rivera, +0.411s
Sprint race (18 laps)	Gerrard Xie, 1:01:55.381	Bruno Del Pino, +0.252s	Pedro Clerot, +1.016s
Feature race (27 laps)	Brando Badoer, 41:14.986	Théophile Naël, +0.527s	Freddie Slater, +17.240s

Standings	Drivers	Teams
P1	Ugo Ugochukwu, 43	Campos Racing, 75
P2	Bruno Del Pino, 35	Van Amersfoort Racing, 47
P3	Freddie Slater, 34	Rodin Motorsport, 44
P4	Brando Badoer, 28	Trident, 43
P5	Théophile Naël, 22	ART Grand Prix, 31
P6	Taito Kato, 16	MP Motorsport, 14
P7	Pedro Clerot, 16	DAMS, 12
P8	Alessandro Giusti, 13	Hitech, 6
P9	Maciej Gładysz, 13	AIX Racing, 6
P10	Gerrard Xie, 12	Prema Racing, 1

Header photo credit: Dutch Photo Agency