ART Grand Prix’s Maciej Gładysz has had a mixed set of performances in his rookie Formula 3 season, scoring points in every round except Austria and securing his maiden win at Silverstone. Feeder Series spoke to Gładysz about his results so far and where he needs to improve to fight at the front more consistently with his team.

By Tori Turner

Gładysz had an impressive performance in the opening round in Melbourne, qualifying fourth with a 1:34.454 in his first session. He finished sixth in the sprint race, though he was not awarded any points for his effort as less than 50 per cent of the scheduled race distance was completed. Fortunately for the Polish rookie, he only had to wait 22 hours to score as he picked up 10 points in the feature race for finishing fifth.

Since the opening round in Australia, Gładysz’s results have been more mixed. The 18-year-old experienced highs during the fifth round at Silverstone, where he secured his maiden victory in the feature race after two post-race penalties and a technical disqualification moved him from fourth at the flag to first in the final classification. His sixth-place finish in the sprint race also meant that he achieved his first and only double points finish of the season. 

His race win in Silverstone came after a disastrous round in Spielberg, where he finished 13th in the sprint race and retired from the feature race. Gładysz has scored points in six out of the 12 races thus far, including four of the six feature races. 

Whilst he has already tasted victory, Gładysz said he still had to work on his qualifying results before he can consistently fight at the front. Gładysz has never qualified outside the top 15, but his qualifying average throughout the first six rounds is only 11.3, brought down by four results narrowly outside the top 12. 

“I’m missing [consistency] in my quali performances,” Gładysz told Feeder Series at a pre-event media roundtable at the Hungaroring. “I’m not showing my full potential in qualifying, and this is the biggest problem this season. My race pace is quite strong, but it’s just that my qualifying needs to be better. That’s what I’m missing this year. I’m not happy with the year I’ve had so far.”

Gładysz put pressure on himself after his strong result in Melbourne, and his qualifying performances suffered as a result. He qualified outside of the top 12 in the next three rounds, though he was agonisingly close in Monaco, missing out by just one position and two thousandths of a second. His form returned at Silverstone, where he qualified eighth overall, before he again fell back at the previous round in Belgium to 15th overall in qualifying. Post-session grid penalties moved him up to 13th on the grid for the sprint race and 10th for the feature race.

“I would say my season isn’t going too bad, especially as it’s my rookie season,” Gładysz said. “There was a bigger potential which I didn’t use this season. I made quite a lot of rookie mistakes in my qualifying sessions, whilst my races were always quite strong. As I said, my quali performances compared to my teammate weren’t too good, so that’s the thing that could’ve gone better. Anyway, it isn’t too bad, but I could have been in a better position. But obviously the season is still not over, so I’m aiming for better results still.”

His teammate Taito Kato has a marginally better average qualifying position of 10. Kato has qualified within the top 12 on four occasions, though his best performance, a fifth in Barcelona, fell one place short of Gładysz’s fourth in Melbourne.

Looking at the bigger picture of their rookie seasons, Gładysz sits sixth in the championship standings on 54 points, tied on points with Hiyu Yamakoshi and two points away from Belgium feature race winner Ernesto Rivera in fifth. He is third among the F3 rookies this season.

His results have also been a big boost for his team, ART Grand Prix. He has scored nearly half of their 110 points, with teammates Kato and Kanato Le 11th on 45 points and 21st on 11 points respectively. The French team sit fourth in the teams’ championship standings, matching their final placement in the 2025 championship with three rounds left on the calendar.

Header photo credit: Dutch Photo Agency