FIA Formula 3 2025 season preview: A guide to all 30 drivers

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Will past form make a difference in FIA F3 this year as a new car is introduced? Here’s a guide to the entry list

Prema

Prema has now taken the teams’ title five times in six years, but now the Dallara F3 2019 car it has won so much with has finally been retired and an all-new challenge awaits. Although, if we rewind to 2019 when Prema joined the paddock it not only won both titles but its drivers occupied the top three places in the standings. Six titles in seven years could happen.

1. Brando Badoer Italy, 18
2025: 4th in FRegional Middle East   2024: 5th in FRegional European Championship, 10th in FRME   2023: 6th in Italian F4

A month-and-a-half ago, Badoer claimed his first win in single-seaters in a Formula Regional Middle East race. Yet his results in the preceding two years were enough to earn him Mclaren junior status. Clearly they saw race-winning potential. And Badoer was genuinely impressive in FRME this year and in a podium-filled FRegional Europe campaign with Van Amersfoort Racing in 2024. But in both campaigns he was with teams where a few strong results meant a job well done. But should Prema prove to be a force from the off this year, then Badoer needs to show he can match more competitive equipment.

2. Noel Leon Mexico, 20
2024: 10th in FIA F3 Championship, 3rd in FIA FRegional World Cup   2023: Euroformula champion, 19th in FIA F3 World Cup

Leon has won multiple junior single-seater titles, yet doesn’t usually appear in lists of the most exciting talents on the way to Formula 1. This is because there was limited high-quality opposition for him to prove himself against in those series. And when he has joined packed fields in European paddocks, he has struggled to 23rd in FREC and come 10th in the FIA Formula 3 Championship. But he also came third in the Macau Grand Prix, in its first running as a FRegional race, and the feedback from pre-season testing is he is well placed to impress at Prema. This should be the year where it becomes clear if Leon is, like Badoer, capable of taking it to the very best at this level or not.

3. Ugo Ugochukwu USA, 17
2025: 3rd in FRME   2024: FIA FRegional World Cup winner, 7th in FRME, 11th in FREC, 13th in GB3   2023: E4 champion

Another McLaren junior, Ugochukwu is the most successful driver in Prema’s line-up and is a Macau GP winner but only has two F3 starts to his name and actually had fairly limited success in FRegional. From 52 races, he got four wins and three poles. But the height disadvantage that Ugochukwu has contended with through his single-seater career should become less of an issue in F3, and he should get more attention from the McLaren Driver Development Programme on race weekends now he’s in F1’s support paddock. The ingredients are there for 2025 to be a title-winning one for Ugochukwu.

Trident

Trident has scored at least 261 points and been in the top two of the teams’ standings in each of the last five years, but only won the title once. However in the last two seasons, when beaten by Prema, Trident did run the champion driver. With this line-up, there’s potential for that to happen again.

4. Noah Stromsted Denmark, 17
2024: 32nd in FIA F3 Championship, 6th in FREC, 30th in FRME   2023: NC in FREC, 7th in Spanish F4, 9th in F4 UAE

Recently signed by the Mercedes-AMG F1 Junior Team, it’s taken a while for Stromsted to reach F3 but he’s still only 17. He was Danish Formula 4 runner-up as a single-seater rookie in 2021, and after turning 15 he got to contest two Spanish F4 rounds in 2022 and claimed a pole. A full campaign in 2023 didn’t lead to great success though, and by year’s end he had switched focus to driving for the underdog Race Performance Motorsport team in FREC. That was an inspired decision, as Stromsted grew to become a podium and pole threat. There’s anticipation about what he can achieve in a title-winning F3 team.

5. Rafael Camara Brazil, 19
2024: FREC champion, 3rd in FRME   2023: 3rd in FRME, 5th in FREC   2022: 2nd in F4 UAE, 3rd in Italian F4, 3rd in ADAC F4

Camara has raced exclusively for Prema and its sister team Mumbai Falcons since his car racing debut in 2022, and that relationship has proven incredibly productive as proven by the results listed above. Leaving for Trident might mean he is denied the opportunity to be in the most competitive package on the grid, but it most likely will provide more value to anything he does achieve this year since he will have done it outside of the environment he has exclusively been in to date. The last two FIA F3 champions received wider appreciation of their success by claiming the crown with Trident.

6. Charlie Wurz Austria, 19
2024: 22nd in FIA F3 Championship   2023: 6th in Euroformula, DNF in FIA F3 World Cup, FRegional Oceania champion

A rival to Leon in Euroformula, Wurz may be a winner at this level but is still yet to prove himself in F3 as he only scored once with Jenzer Motorsport last year. He also has limited success on European circuits, as an F4 champion in the United Arab Emirates and FRegional champion in New Zealand but a winner of only one of his 43 F4 races in Europe and a scorer of one point from 12 FREC starts. With the opening two rounds in Melbourne and at Bahrain, maybe he could start 2025 strongly.

ART Grand Prix

Almost as consistent as Prema and Trident, ART Grand Prix has come third in the standings five times in six years. By retaining two of its drivers from 2024, it may be able to transfer better what it learned previously to this new car.

7. Laurens van Hoepen Netherlands, 19
2024: 13th in FIA F3 Championship   2023: 10th in FIA F3 World Cup, 10th in FREC, 11th in FRegional Oceania

Now entering his fourth year with ART GP, van Hoepen is still yet to win a race with the team. But he has consistently displayed a pattern of growth, starting off with four points finishes as a FREC rookie, making the podium twice and coming 10th in the standings as a sophomore, then coming 10th in the Macau GP and following that up in his rookie F3 season with three podiums in the first seven races. But a lack of strong race results after that meant he dropped from a high of second all the way down to 13th in the points table. Bringing home a lot more points, and a first win, is the aim this year.

8. Tuukka Taponen Finland, 18
2024: 31st in FIA F3 Championship, FRME champion, 3rd in FREC, 10th in FIA FRegional World Cup   2023: 2nd in F4 UAE

Taponen is a routine winner, and unless ART GP drops the ball he has the ability to continue that form into 2025. He made his FIA F3 debut in a 2024 cameo and didn’t light up the timesheet, but it was not a particularly relevant outing given it was in a car he knew he would never drive again thanks to F3’s chassis switch for this season. The Ferrari junior has driven for Prema and R-ace GP in the past, and ART GP is another behemoth. His breadth of experience in terms of the differences between how top teams operate may put him in good stead for knowing what feedback will be useful for learning the Dallara F3 2025.

9. James Wharton Australia, 18
2024: 33rd in FIA F3 Championship, 2nd in FREC, 6th in FRME, DNF in FIA FRegional World Cup, 25th in GB3

In contrast, Wharton has contested 130 races for Prema and Mumbai Falcons and only left their ranks for the first time last year through two GB3 outings, an FIA F3 cameo and then by joining ART GP for the Macau GP. While none of those weekends went well in terms of results, they were important for getting a taste of both the team and paddock he is in now. Wharton also exited the Ferrari Driver Academy in 2024 and he grew in maturity and speed as a result, which helped him beat Taponen to the FREC runner-up spot.

Campos Racing

Campos scored 179 points, won three races and took six podiums in 2023, more than it achieved from 2019 to 2022 combined. The points tally was matched in 2024, and two wins were the best of its five podiums. Will its 2025 drivers deliver the same?

10. Mari Boya Spain, 20
2024: 15th in FIA F3 Championship, 5th in FRME, 7th in FIA FRegional World Cup, NC in Eurocup-3   2023: 2nd in Eurocup-3

Boya made the podium once as a rookie with MP Motorsport and came 17th in the standings. He switched to Campos in 2024 and while he won on home soil and was a consistent points threat in the season’s first half, he dropped from eighth to 15th in the season’s second half as he only scored twice despite being the seventh fastest driver on average when it came to race pace. All but one of the drivers ahead of him in that metric are now in Formula 2, and if tyre management proves important with the Dallara F3 2025 then he should be a dark horse.

11. Tasanapol Inthraphuvasak Thailand, 19
2025: currently 14th in Eurocup-3 winter series   2024: 24th in FIA F3 Championship, 9th in FRME   2023: 6th in Eurocup-3

Inthraphuvask has become more competitive each year, but his rookie F3 season with AIX Racing in 2024 was a disaster barring the Hungaroring sprint race where he finished second. He was the 30th fastest on average when it came to absolute pace, and his average race position was 20.9 even when taking his podium into account. Reuniting with Campos is a good way to resurrect career momentum, since he took podiums and poles with them in Eurocup-3 in 2023.

12. Nikola Tsolov Bulgaria, 18
2025: currently 10th in Eurocup-3 WS   2024: 11th in FIA F3 Championship, 11th in Eurocup-3   2023: 22nd in FIA F3 Championship

Tsolov swapped Alpine’s support for Red Bull’s during the off-season, and based off the last few F3 champions he needs to win less and score more to be a contender for the 2025 crown. He claimed three victories in 2024, but two of those were sprint races and that was a product of him being on average the 10th fastest driver on qualifying pace.

He was a classified finisher in every race contested, and spent more laps in the lead than anyone else, but he was on average only the 17th fastest on race pace so his habit of starting races in the top 10 rarely led to him finishing them there. In fact, Tsolov only scored points seven times. He was convinced after pre-season testing that the new car is very different, and is confident Campos has already made a lot of progress with it.

Hitech

Hitech landed in FIA F3 with a splash in 2019, but has not hit those season-long heights since then despite usually getting two wins each year. But in 2024 it actually ran a driver to the top three in the standings for the first time and the continual investment into the team should make it well placed to land on its feet with the new car.

14. Martinius Stenshorne Norway, 19
2024: 18th in FIA F3 Championship, 8th in FRME, 27th in GB3   2023: 2nd in FREC, 18th in FRME   2022: 7th in Italian F4

The McLaren junior had a superb 2023 in which he was FREC runner-up behind F1-bound Andrea Kimi Antonelli, and he began 2024 strongly with FRME podiums. His step up to FIA F3 also started well, as he won on his third start at a track that was totally new to him. But that was his only points finish in the season’s first half. He returned to the podium at the Red Bull Ring, but couldn’t build momentum as he was barred from the next round at Silverstone for having raced there in a GB3 cameo and had another points-free run that ended at the season finale. Like Tsolov, it was a season of contrasts. He was 16th on absolute pace, had the 14th highest average finishing position but had the second-best race pace. A puzzle with title potential.

15. Joshua Dufek Austria, 20
2024: 28th in FIA F3 Championship   2023: 7th in Euroformula, 29th in FIA F3 Championship, 6th in FRME, 13th in FREC

Dufek scored his first F3 point in the final race of 2024, but he did get a win and six other podiums from eight Euroformula races in 2023. His Euroformula form is unrepresantative of his pace at this level, but his FIA F3 campaign with AIX Racing in 2024 was too and being at Hitech will likely show that he sits somewhere in the middle. As long as he can qualify in the top 10 regularly, he should be able to frequently contend for points and a podium might be possible too.

16. Gerrard Xie China, 18
2024: 11th in Euroformula, 7th in FRegional Oceania, 7th in GB3   2023: 18th in Euroformula, 20th in GB3

Xie was Chinese F4 champion in 2022, and has adapted well to far more competitive series since then. He took wins and poles in GB3, where he spent two seasons, has won at Spa-Francorchamps in Euroformula and at Taupo in FRegional Oceania, but the FIA F3 Championship will be another big step up in terms of the level of the competition and scoring points would be an ambitious target even if Xie is quick.

MP Motorsport

Felipe Drugovich’s run to the F2 title with MP in 2022 has contributed to the team attracting top drivers since then, and it has a strong F3 line-up this year that could spring surprises.

17. Tim Tramnitz Germany, 20
2024: 9th in FIA F3 Championship   2023: 12th in Euroformula, 3rd in FREC, 20th in FRME   2022: 15th in FREC

If Tramnitz follows up his pattern of development in F4 and FRegional, then his second year in F3 should be a very strong one. As a rookie with MP he was on the podium three times in the first seven races last season, and although a dry patch followed he became a race-winner in the final round and was comfortably the highest-scoring driver in a strong MP line-up. Tramnitz was one of five drivers who on average ended up in a points-scoring position every race, and the only one who has not moved on to F2. Expect him to lead MP again and be a race-winning prospect.

18. Bruno del Pino Spain, 18
2024: 3rd in Eurocup-3, 16th in FRME   2023: 7tb in Eurocup-3, 32nd in FREC   2022: 3rd in Motorsport Games F4

The first three years of del Pino’s single-seater career were primarily spent on the Iberian peninsula, so he will have plenty of new tracks to learn this year as well as a new car. He is very familiar to MP though, having raced for the Dutch team in Eurocup-3, FREC and FRME. His sophomore Eurocup-3 campaign was close to being a title attack, but he’ll be following that up with a learning year in F3.

19. Alessandro Giusti France, 18
2024: 4th in FREC   2023: 6th in FREC   2022: French F4 champion   2021: 6th in French F4

The Williams junior is a rare example of a driver who has not dabbled in multiple series each year, instead putting all of his focus into one place as drivers usually have to do once they reach F3. His approach has reaped rewards so far, as he romped to the French F4 title as a sophomore, won three FREC races as a rookie with the minnow G4 Racing team and took a further two wins last year in a season where he was higher up the points table. To a degree he arrives in F3 as still a bit of an unknown having only appeared in those two paddocks to date.

Van Amersfoort Racing

A driver from the Americas has carried the team in each of the last three seasons, and that trend could continue in 2025.

20. Theophile Nael France, 17
2025: 7th in FRME   2024: 9th in FREC, 11th in FRME, DSQ in FIA FRegional World Cup   2023: Spanish F4 champion

While he’s not had the backing to exclusively race for the often dominant Prema on his way up the ladder, Nael is a French driver who has experience of racing for a single French team and of nothing else. VAR could be a big tonal shift, but joining it will probably develop him further as a driver and that’s an exciting prospect. The Sainteloc Racing outfit he has raced for so far has not yet established itself as one of the top teams in junior single-seaters, but Nael has won a F4 title and FRegional races in two different championships for them.

21. Santiago Ramos Mexico, 21
2024: 16th in FIA F3 Championship   2023: 11th in FREC   2022: 27th in FREC   2021: 15th in Spanish F4, 22nd in Italian F4

Ramos was only able to contest part-time campaigns for several years, and when he finally got the chance to race full-time in 2022 he was horrendously slow in FREC. The next year he was part-time again, but with the R-P-M team he took a podium, consistently scored and came 11th in the standings. He was clearly growing as a driver. That trend continued into FIA F3 last year, when Ramos raced for Trident. He took a pole, a podium and finished every single race by being clean.

22. Ivan Domingues Portugal, 18
2024: 10th in FREC   2023: NC in FREC, 11th in Italian F4, 11th in E4   2022: 15th in Italian F4, 16th in F4 UAE

Another driver who has demonstrated a lot of growth of late, Domingues made the podium once over two years racing in Italian F4 but he was able to stand on it twice and score in 10 other races a FREC rookie in 2024. This will be his third year with VAR, and it will be intruiging to see how he compares to his team-mates in qualifying pace and raceability.

Rodin Motorsport

The team that took over the assets of Carlin has not taken long to be competitive across single-seaters in a way that means it is well established under its own name now, and has followed a similar strategy to 2024 with the drivers it has signed.

23. Callum Voisin Great Britain, 19
2024: 12th in FIA F3 Championship, 24th in GB3   2023: GB3 champion   2022: 4th in GB3   2021: 6th in Ginetta Junior

Voisin is well integrated into this squad, having spent two years in GB3 with Carlin (and becoming champion at his second attempt) then leading Rodin’s FIA F3 line-up in 2024. Although he failed to score in his first 12 races in F1’s support paddock, Voisin hit form on familiar tracks late in the season as he came fourth and third in the two Silverstone races, taking two sixth places at the Hungaroring and winning from pole at Spa. Now he knows the other venues on the schedule, his target should be to be as consistently strong everywhere else.

24. Louis Sharp New Zealand, 17
2024: GB3 champion   2023: British F4 champion   2022: 4th in British F4, F4 UAE Trophy winner

Voisin’s successor as GB3 champion has also been at Carlin/Rodin since 2022. It ran him for two seasons in British F4, and he won the title as a sophomore. In GB3 he went one better, picking up the crown as a rookie and having particularly strong results at circuits he will race on in F3. A third title in a row would be a pipedream, but the 17-year-old is firmly on the rise and could spring some surprises.

25. Roman Bilinski Poland, 21
2024: FRegional Oceania champion, 14th in FREC   2023: 21st in FREC   2022: 18th in FREC   2021: 7th in GB3

Bilinski has had to be a bit more patient to make it to F3. He also raced for Carlin in British F4, back in 2021 while he was also proving very competitive in GB3 with Arden. Following that were three years in FREC with Trident, and Bilinski had the pace to impress but it was just not seen often enough. There was a pole, a podium, and plenty of points at the end of last year too, but after missing races to injury, 15th in the 2024 standings proved to be his most competitive campaign. Where his potential did get to be seen more clearly was in FRegional Oceania, where he won the title in 2024.

AIX Racing

The German-based outfit succeeded PHM Racing on the grid, and did not pick up much experience with the old F3 car before having to tackle the new one. It has chosen to race under an Emirati license, and sign some inexperienced drivers, this season.

26. Javier Sagrera Spain, 21
2024: 2nd in Eurocup-3, 31st in GB3   2023: 8th in Eurocup-3, NC in FREC   2022: 9th in GB3   2021: 10th in GB3

Sagrera was expecting to step up to FIA F3 as the reigning Eurocup-3 champion, but an appeal process led to him recently losing his title. That was truly a standout year for the Spaniard that has raised expectations about what he could achieve in F3, as he claimed four victories and six other podiums in Eurocup-3 but never finished higher than eighth in F4 and got two podiums from two seasons in GB3.

27. Nicola Marinangeli Italy, 21
2024-25: 26th in Asian Le Mans Series – GT class   2024: 3rd in Int. GT Open   2023-24: 25th in ALMS – GT class

For the last two years, Marinangeli has been racing GT sportscars since his junior single-seater career had seemingly come to a close. He debuted in F4 way back in 2018, and went points-free in the Italian championship but was able to take a win and eight other podiums in F4 UAE. Next was FRegional, and Marinangeli had five top-10 finishes from 79 races. He then picked up F3-level experience in Euroformula, but looked no more competitive and has actually brought to a pause a pretty productive time in GT racing to return to open-wheel action. It’s hard to see it being a worthwhile move.

27. Nikita Bedrin Russia, 18
2025: 11th in FRME   2024: 19th in FIA F3 Championship, 16th in FREC, NC in Eurocup-3, 5th in F4 UAE   2023: 8th in FRME

AIX’s first F3 victory was delivered by Bedrin last year, and while it’s great to see him on the grid again he is confirmed only for the Melbourne season opener.

DAMS

Jenzer Motorsport left FIA F3 at the end of last year, freeing a spot in the pitlane. DAMS has taken it after many successful years in F2, and while some have predicted its experience there should set it up strongly for F3, in truth there is a lot of unknowns and particularly as the team only got one pre-season test at Barcelona to learn the car.

29. Niko Lacorte Italy, 17
2024: 10th in FRegional Oceania, 21st in FREC   2023: 9th in Italian F4, 9th in E4, 24th in F4 UAE   2022: 28th in Italian F4

Lacorte has made an ambitious move up to F3, since he still needs to prove himself at the level below. He claimed two podiums from 53 races in F4, and although he did take a win with top team M2 Competition in FRegional Oceania, he was only able to get two points finishes with Trident in FREC last year. Aged 17, he would’ve lost nothing by staying at that level for another year.

30. Matias Zagazeta Peru, 21
2025: 5th in FRegional Oceania   2024: 25th in FIA F3 Championship   2023: 17th in FIA F3 World Cup, 17th in FRME

Zagazeta has a bit of a yo-yo career so far and that includes what he’s already got up to this year. He was British F4 runner-up in 2021, then consistently underdelivered over the next two years in FREC and only scored twice. A FRME podium did come his way during that time, but was really a false dawn even within that championship, and in his rookie FIA F3 season last year with Jenzer he was more of a midfield talent than he looked and his Silverstone podium was proof of that. It was also his only points finish. Zagazeta began 2025 in FRegional Oceania, and put in some impressive drives against some really high calibre talents to take two wins, a pole and come fifth in the standings. Could he deliver again with DAMS?

31. Christian Ho Singapore, 18
2024: Eurocup-3 champion   2023: 2nd in Spanish F4   2022: 13th in Spanish F4, 21st in F4 UAE

The beneficiary of Sagrera’s title loss was Ho, and it also made up for missing out on the Spanish F4 title the year before. The Singaporean is 18, so in the middle when it comes to age in the paddock, but is one of the least experienced racers. A half-season in F4 UAE in 2022, which marked his arrival in cars, is the only programme he has done away from the Iberian peninsula and his best results have been heavily concentrated at the two venues he has tested at most. Of his 11 wins in Spanish F4 and Eurocup-3, seven have come at Algarve and Barcelona. Since the latter is also where he’s tested the new F3 car, it might be where he is at his most competitive this year.