Campos Racing’s Théophile Naël delivered an atypical set of results in the Spielberg Formula 3 round last weekend, qualifying 24th and failing to score any points in what was a blow to his championship campaign. Feeder Series spoke to Naël about what went wrong for him in Austria as well as his incredible pace in prior rounds in qualifying this season.

By Tori Turner

Before heading into the fourth round of the 2026 season, Naël was second in the drivers’ championship after taking his first maiden victory in Barcelona’s F3 feature race. More crucially, he was only six points away from his Campos Racing teammate and championship leader Ugo Ugochukwu. 

However, after a disastrous qualifying session in Austria that left him 24th on the grid for both races, his weekend veered off the usual script he had established, and he was left with zero points to add to his championship campaign. As other title rivals took vital podiums and scored points, Naël dropped to third in the standings, with Briton Freddie Slater passing him and amassing a 10-point gap. Ugochukwu held onto his lead and now sits 26 points ahead of the Frenchman.

As Naël’s round in Austria demonstrated, it only takes one bad performance to sway your results. Still, despite coming away from Spielberg empty-handed, Naël is optimistic about the upcoming round in Silverstone and the rest of the season.

“There are plenty of things to improve on my side and on the team as well as all together,” Naël told Feeder Series at a virtual media roundtable ahead of round five. “I’m still P3 in the championship, not that far to Ugo. We are in the fifth round of the championship, so still a very long way to go to the end of the season. At the moment, the pace is looking good, except in the Red Bull Ring where we had some issues and we’re not in the place we wanted to be in qualifying.”

Naël’s qualifying performance in Austria was surprising, especially after he had taken three consecutive pole positions to start his sophomore season in F3. The Frenchman struggled throughout the session, particularly with the notorious track limits. His mistakes were not unusual, with stewards cancelling 43 laps for 20 drivers  throughout the 30-minute session. Naël was one of four drivers who lost a faster lap than the one that ultimately counted; his deleted time would have put him 18th. 

If it weren’t for such mistakes, Naël may well have challenged for a fourth pole position. Ugochukwu demonstrated that Campos had pace at the circuit by placing his car second overall, 0.015 seconds behind pacesitter Hiyu Yamakoshi. Naël and Ugochukwu have otherwise been extremely close to each other throughout qualifying this season, being separated by 0.021s in Melbourne and 0.039s in Barcelona. 

“The team gave me a really good car in qualifying since the beginning of the season,” Naël explained. “I have to say that at the Red Bull Ring, the car was really good as well. I just didn’t extract everything. We were in the wrong place at the wrong time, but I have no doubt in terms of the speed and the pace that we’ve had since the beginning of the season in qualifying. Hopefully, we can be at the top this weekend again and if we’re not at the top we can be at the front to score points.”

To close the gap on Ugochukwu, Naël will need to deliver another strong qualifying performance at Silverstone and ensure that he is ahead of his teammate in both races. He heads to the British circuit with the advantage of having scored a second-place finish in the feature race last season with Van Amersfoort Racing, whilst Ugochukwu, then driving for Prema Racing, finished outside of the points in 21st. 

Header photo credit: Dutch Photo Agency