As we inch closer to the 2027 Formula 3 season, the starting grid for next year is taking shape day by day. With post-season testing already underway in Jerez and another test taking place in Barcelona next week, Feeder Series breaks down everything you need to know about the drivers who are set to race next season.

By Tori Turner and Daniele Spadi

So far, 21 drivers have already been announced to the general public. Among them are FRegional Middle East champion Kean Nakamura-Berta and this year’s Eurocup-3 titleholder James Egozi. Alongside some talented rookies, however, the series will welcome back well-known faces such as Brazil’s Pedro Clerot, France’s Alessandro Giusti and Sri Lanka’s Yevan David.

Seven teams out of 10 – Campos Racing, Trident, Hitech, MP Motorsport, Van Amersfoort Racing, Rodin Motorsport and newcomers LN4 Fusion – announced their three drivers before the start of post-season testing. Prema Racing, ART Grand Prix and DAMS are yet to announce any of their 2027 picks.

Two post-season tests have been announced by the championship, with both taking place in Spain. One of them has already taken place in Jerez on October 20 and 21, whereas the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya will hold the next two days on October 26 and 27.

The sole team change sees LN4 Fusion take AIX Racing’s place on the F3 grid in 2027. The new outfit backed by Formula 1 world champion Lando Norris will become the first team to join the grid in two years, after DAMS took over from Jenzer Motorsport back in 2025.

Campos Racing

Campos secured their second consecutive teams’ championship this season with a mammoth 117-point lead over Trident. The Spanish outfit was also rewarded with their first double championship, with Ugo Ugochukwu taking the drivers’ title at the final round in Madrid. Their success was spearheaded by a strong partnership among all three drivers, who all finished within the top seven in the drivers championship.

Red Bull junior Ernesto Rivera will continue with Campos after demonstrating strong form in his rookie season once he recovered from a pre-season injury. The 17-year-old scored two wins in Spielberg and Spa in his maiden campaign and finished seventh with 87 points, though he ran as high as third late in the season. His partnership with the Spanish team, which stretches back to 2024, and his string of results this season place the Mexican in a good position to contend for the 2027 title.

Mattia Colnaghi, 18, joins Rivera at Campos for 2027, the next in a long line of Red Bull juniors at the team. Competing with MP Motorsport for 2026, the Argentine-Italian had an underwhelming rookie season, though four consecutive fourth-place finishes in Spa and Hungary helped lift him to 13th in the standings with 54 points.

Rounding out Campos’ 2027 line-up is Salim Hanna, who was announced to have joined the Scuderia Ferrari Driver Academy earlier this month. He finished seventh overall in his maiden FRegional Europe with Prema Racing and stepped into F3 machinery for two rounds in 2026 at AIX Racing. The Colombian is mentored by Juan Pablo Montoya, whose son, Sebastián Montoya, raced for Campos’ F3 team in 2024.

Campos’ reigning F3 champion Ugo Ugochukwu is set to move up with the team to F2 alongside 2026 teammate Théophile Naël. Their F2 team squad has fought for both titles in what has been their best season in F2 to date.

Trident

Trident finished second in the teams’ championship for the fifth year running, albeit with a much bigger deficit than in 2025. The Italian team also missed out on securing the drivers’ title for the first time since 2023 after producing the previous three champions.

Kean Nakamura-Berta was the first driver from the 2027 grid to be announced in September, stepping up to F3 after fighting for the championship in FR Europe. The 2026 FR Middle East champion finished third in the standings with 201 points and three race wins. The British-licensed driver is also a member of the Williams F1 Driver Academy.

It is confirmed that Sebastian Wheldon, one of his title rivals from this season in Europe, will race alongside him next season. The 17-year-old, part of the Andretti Global driver development programme, finished eight points ahead of his 2027 teammate in second overall.

Niccolò Maccagnani, who turned 16 in August, will join Trident to make the leap from F4 after campaigns in UAE4, Italian F4 and E4. The Ferrari junior has taken four wins across the three series, though he has cut short his F4 running to focus on F3, having made his debut at the final round of 2026 with Rodin Motorsport.

Freddie Slater, who narrowly missed out on the F3 title by 14 points, has already confirmed his F2 seat at Invicta Racing. Noah Strømsted will make the step up with him after finishing 10th in the standings. Matteo De Palo, whose 24th-place finish was the worst for a Trident driver since Devlin DeFrancesco finished 25th back in 2019, has instead secured a drive elsewhere on the F3 grid.

MP Motorsport

Thanks to a late surge in form, MP Motorsport matched their 2025 result in the teams’ championship, finishing just nine points behind Trident with 208 points. Their only win of the season came at the final round of the season in Madrid at the hands of Tuukka Taponen, who scored over 50 per cent of the team’s points in 2026. The Finn’s success landed him an F2 seat with ART Grand Prix for 2027.

The first driver to be announced by the Dutch outfit is Italy’s Matteo De Palo. The 2025 FR Europe runner-up will be looking to revitalise his stock after a torrid rookie F3 season in which he finished 24th with a single points finish. He was, however, stripped of a feature race victory in Silverstone after his car failed to pass technical inspections.

The driver who ultimately inherited that race win, Maciej Gładysz, also returns for a second F3 season, leaving ART Grand Prix to join the Dutch outfit with whom he raced in 2024 and 2025. Though the 18-year-old Pole showed strong results during the first half of the season, he did not score any points after the sixth round in Belgium, slipping to 12th in the standings with 54 points to his name.

The final seat was confirmed just a few hours after the first in what was a busy day for MP. Aston Martin junior Chi Zhenrui will make the step up with the team from FRegional Europe, in which he finished eighth in the standings with 73 points.

Several others had been linked to the seats, but none panned out. Second-generation racing drivers René Lammers and Ean Eyckmans, both 18, have long relationships with the team and currently sit second and fourth respectively for the Dutch outfit in Eurocup-3, but neither is expected on the F3 grid next year.

While Taponen is moving up to F2, his two teammates from this season are staying in the series, albeit with different teams.

ART Grand Prix

The French outfit finished fourth in the teams’ championship for the second year running, scoring 189 points and two wins across the 2026 season.

Taiwanese driver Enzo Yeh is believed to have signed with ART for his rookie season in F3. The 18-year-old wrapped up the Euroformula Open title a round early last month, having won eight races and scored a further eight podiums with Team Motopark.

Taito Kato is expected to continue with the team for a second season at the F3 level and a third year in total. Boosted by a strong end to the season, the 18-year-old Honda junior finished fourth in the championship after winning the Monza sprint race and taking three podiums across the season. He will also race for the team in Macau.

The third seat is expected to feature Emanuele Olivieri, who appears to have resolved his budget limitations for 2027. The 18-year-old surprised plenty of people by storming to the FR Europe title this year against future F3 drivers Wheldon, Nakamura-Berta and Al Dhaheri, scoring two wins and seven additional podiums as a member of R-ace GP. He will race in the Macau Grand Prix with R-ace before saying goodbye to FR-level racing.

Kato’s 2026 teammates Gładysz and Kanato Le have been announced at other teams.

Van Amersfoort Racing

Van Amersfoort Racing placed fifth in the teams’ championship, taking one victory and five additional podiums en route to scoring 168 points. The Dutch team had another strong start to the season, upheld by Bruno Del Pino’s consistent early point-scoring, but could not maintain their momentum despite late-season efforts from Hiyu Yamakoshi.

Enzo Deligny, 18, has been confirmed to be continuing with the Dutch outfit for his second season in F3 after a promising but ultimately underwhelming rookie year. The French-Chinese driver finished 16th in the championship, with his sole podium coming in the shortened Melbourne sprint race that opened the season.

Mercedes junior Rashid Al Dhaheri will contest his rookie season in F3 with VAR, following Deligny’s path of moving to the Dutch team from R-ace GP. The 18-year-old Emirati finished fourth in FR Europe and second in FR Middle East with the team.

Despite missing the post-season test at Jerez because of academic exams, Yevan David will complete Van Amersfoort Racing’s line-up in 2027. The Sri Lankan scored 35 of AIX’s 43 points in 2026 and could be one of the dark horses next season should he maintain the trajectory that saw him score points in three of the last five races in 2026.

Hiyu Yamakoshi has already started racing for VAR’s F2 team in place of Nico Varrone and is rumoured to be making the step up full-time to F2 with DAMS for 2027 after finishing ninth in a strong rookie F3 season. Bruno Del Pino is instead looking to move overseas to Indy NXT, though he is still battling funding issues.

Rodin Motorsport

Rodin Motorsport scored two wins in 2026, improving on their 2025 total with a line-up that showed great potential at times. They finished sixth in the standings with 161 points, only seven points behind VAR in a close battle for fifth in the teams’ championship.

Pedro Clerot, 19, has been confirmed to stay with Rodin after a strong rookie season after finishing sixth overall with 88 points and five podiums. He surged from outside the top 10 to sixth after a superb final round at the Madring, where he took his maiden victory in the first feature race before scoring another podium in the second feature race.

Rodin have also confirmed that Reza Seewooruthun will graduate to their F3 team for 2027. The 20-year-old British driver finished 16th with the team in his FRegional Europe campaign this year.

Williams junior Alessandro Giusti, 20, rounds out the line-up after switching from MP Motorsport, with whom he has spent two seasons in F3. He finished 10th and 15th in the previous two years, missing out on the podium entirely in a tough 2026.

Brando Badoer has been confirmed to move up to F2 with Rodin next season after finishing eighth in the standings in F3. Christian Ho vacated his seat before the final round of the 2026 season, and he will not be racing in 2027 as he begins his mandatory two years of military conscription in his native Singapore.

Prema Racing

Prema Racing did not recover from their challenging 2025 season and finished seventh for the second year running. Under new management, they scored 75 points this year, though they returned to their winning ways with James Wharton’s victory in the Barcelona sprint race and took a further two podiums across the season.

The team’s 2027 plans are still unannounced, but Feeder Series expects Alex Powell to return to the Italian outfit for his first full-time F3 campaign. The 19-year-old American-Jamaican has already made his debut in the series with Prema, racing in both Monza and Madrid and scoring a podium in the sprint race in the latter. He is currently sixth in Eurocup-3, with top-five finishes over the winter in FR Middle East and the Eurocup-3 Spanish Winter Championship. Outside of Europe, he participated in an Indy NXT test with Andretti Global last month, and he is also set to race in Macau with Prema Racing, who previously fielded him in F4 in 2023 and 2024.

The other two seats are also still up for grabs. Alongside Powell is expected to be Jin Nakamura, 20, who is set to move teams as part of a realignment from Toyota. In a solid rookie F3 campaign with Hitech, the Japanese driver took a convincing win in the sprint at Spa-Francorchamps en route to 14th in the drivers’ standings.

The third driver who will represent the Italian outfit in both Jerez and Barcelona is Martin Molnár, who has competed primarily on the British feeder series ladder. Molnár was third in British F4 in 2025 and is currently fourth in GB3, just four points away from second.

Nevertheless, Molnár in particular is not sure of getting the 2027 seat, with Rafaël Pérard another serious contender for the spot. The 18-year-old is seventh in Eurocup-3 racing for Palou Motorsport, who have a technical partnership with Prema. Patrick Heuzenroeder is also seeking an F3 return after making a cameo appearance on home soil in Melbourne in place of the injured Rivera at Campos. Heuzenroeder then raced in the first five rounds of Eurocup-3, taking a win in Imola, before leaving the series last month.

Prema’s 2026 drivers are all moving elsewhere. James Wharton has signed with Trident to jump up to F2, José Garfias is looking to join Indy NXT, and Louis Sharp is trying to revitalise his career after budget issues meant he ceded his seat to Powell for the last two rounds of 2026.

Hitech

Hitech had a rough 2026 and finished eighth for the second season in succession, albeit with only 55 points compared to last year’s 90, almost all thanks to Jin Nakamura. They will retain one driver from 2026 while signing two names familiar to the team from other series.

For 2027, Hitech will retain Michael Shin for a second season. The driver from South Korea graduated to F3 full-time with the British outfit for 2026 but ended the season as one of two full-time drivers not to score any points throughout his rookie campaign. He had previously raced with Hitech in GB3 in 2023.

Also coming back for a second F3 season is Kanato Le, though he has switched teams from ART Grand Prix. The Japanese driver finished in 20th position with 30 points with one podium in the sprint at the Hungaroring. His relationship with Hitech goes back even further to the F4 UAE trophy round back in 2022, and he has since raced with the team in a British F4 and F4 UAE double campaign in 2023 and in FR Oceania over the past winter.

Completing Hitech’s 2027 line-up is Keanu Al Azhari, who has raced with Hitech in GB3 and Eurocup-3. The driver from the United Arab Emirates claimed his maiden single-seater title this season in the Eurocup-3 Spanish Winter Championship. He currently sits third in Eurocup-3, just 16 points off second place, with three wins to his name.

Both Nakamura and Fionn McLaughlin are yet to announce their 2027 plans. Nakamura is expected to switch F3 teams, while Red Bull junior McLaughlin’s options to stay on the F3 grid appear limited after a bruising rookie season with only two points scored. The Irishman has since tested for Irish-Italian FR Europe team RPM.

DAMS

Though DAMS finished down in ninth in the 2026 F3 teams’ standings, the French outfit took a step up from their rookie campaign in 2025. Arguably their two most impressive displays were Gerrard Xie’s win in the sprint in Monaco and Nicola Lacorte’s home triumph in the feature race at Monza, and they will bring a mix of experience and freshness in hopes of exceeding that in 2027.

The team’s third driver from last year, Nandhavud Bhirombhakdi, is thought certain to stay on for a second season as part of a rumoured two-year deal. After two years in FR Europe, the Thai driver joined DAMS for his maiden F3 campaign but failed to score points across the 19 races, his best finish being 12th in the Monaco sprint.

Alongside him, Kazakh driver Alexander Abkhazava has been strongly rumoured to step up to F3 after racing with MP Motorsport in 2026. His FR Middle East campaign saw him finish third with 95 points, and he then placed sixth in FRegional Europe with 100 points.

No clear candidate has emerged for DAMS’ third seat. Miguel Costa, who is testing at Jerez, is expected to race in FR Europe next year. One possibility is Gerrard Xie, who, like Bhirombhakdi, would be returning for a second straight season with the team. After missing out on the Madrid F3 finale because of injury, the Chinese driver will be looking to expand on an F3 career that yielded a historic win in the sprint at Monaco in 2026.

After also enjoying the taste of victory in 2026, Lacorte is now exploring endurance racing, in which his father Roberto Lacorte competes. The 19-year-old Italian raced for the first time in the GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup in Portimão last weekend, and he will join the new Hypercar class in the upcoming Asian Le Mans Series season with Cetilar Racing, his father’s team.

LN4 Fusion

The sole new entry on the 2027 F3 grid team-wise is LN4 Fusion. The outfit backed by F1 world champion Lando Norris, which announced its arrival on the feeder series scene at the start of September, is joining several single-seater championships, with F3 being one of the flagship series in their first venture into racing. They replace AIX Racing, who finished last in 2026 behind DAMS.

James Egozi was LN4 Fusion’s first-ever confirmed driver across their entire operation, being confirmed on October 12. The American was the Eurocup-3 Spanish Winter Championship runner-up with four wins from eight races before putting on an utterly dominant display in the main Eurocup-3 season to take the title with four races to spare. He is set to race in the Macau Grand Prix with SJM Theodore Racing, who have a partnership with LN4 Fusion, in November.

Partnering the American will be Gabriel Gomez. The 20-year-old Brazilian was the 2025 Formula Winter Series champion and Italian F4 runner-up to Nakamura-Berta, but he had a tougher 2026 with Rodin Motorsport in FR Europe, finishing 14th place. Budget constraints meant he could not participate in a winter series campaign and were thought to have imperilled a move to F3s.

While a number of drivers were looking to fill the team’s third seat, the ultimate choice was Dion Gowda, who will make his F3 debut after competing at the FR level for the past two seasons with Van Amersfoort Racing. He was the highest-placed FR Europe rookie in 2025, finishing 12th with 38 points, but slipped back to 20th in his sophomore campaign with only one points finish in the final six rounds.

With LN4 Fusion replacing AIX Racing, the team’s three 2026 drivers are looking elsewhere. Yevan David has secured a seat at Van Amersfoort Racing, while Fernando Barrichello does not look likely to return to the F3 grid for 2027. The same goes for Brad Benavides, who sustained three broken vertebrae in Monaco and has not returned to racing since, as well as Ricardo Escotto, who substituted for the American in four F3 rounds this year in between a partial Indy NXT campaign.

Date	Driver	Team
17 September 2026	Kean Nakamura-Berta	Trident
18 September 2026	Pedro Clerot	Rodin Motorsport
28 September 2026	Reza Seewooruthun	Rodin Motorsport
6 October 2026	Keanu Al Azhari	Hitech
7 October 2026	Enzo Deligny	Van Amersfoort Racing
8 October 2026	Michael Shin	Hitech
9 October 2026	Sebastian Wheldon	Trident
12 October 2026	Kanato Le	Hitech
12 October 2026	James Egozi	LN4 Fusion
14 October 2026	Yevan David	Van Amersfoort Racing
15 October 2026	Rashid Al Dhaheri	Van Amersfoort Racing
16 October 2026	Salim Hanna	Campos Racing
16 October 2026	Alessandro Giusti	Rodin Motorsport
16 October 2026	Gabriel Gomez	LN4 Fusion
18 October 2026	Ernesto Rivera	Campos Racing
19 October 2026	Matteo De Palo	MP Motorsport
19 October 2026	Dion Gowda	LN4 Fusion
19 October 2026	Niccolò Maccagnani	Trident
19 October 2026	Maciej Gładysz	MP Motorsport
19 October 2026	Mattia Colnaghi	Campos Racing
19 October 2026	Chi Zhenrui	MP Motorsport

Header photo credit: Dutch Photo Agency