Photo: Topspeed
Freddie Slater will join the FIA Formula 3 Championship field for the in-season test in Bahrain this week, driving for AIX Racing.
The AIX team has yet to fill its third seat for the full 2025 season, with sportscar racer Jonas Ried having occupied it for the pre-season test at Barcelona last month before Nikita Bedrin was recalled to the line-up for the season-opening round in Melbourne.
Bedrin finished sixth and fourth in the two races in Australia, putting him fourth in the championship standings, but his place for the Bahrain test will be taken by Slater.
Reigning Italian Formula 4 champion Slater already did four days of official FIA F3 testing with Rodin Motorsport at the end of last year to get accustomed to the category, but preferred to make an intermediate step into Formula Regional for 2025. Having already finished second in FRegional Middle East at the start of this year, he will take on the European championship with Prema and also contest a partial campaign in GB3 with Hillspeed.
The three-day Bahrain test that begins on Wednesday will provide teams and drivers with valuable additional track time with the new-for-2025 F3 car, with just the three days of running at Barcelona having been completed ahead of the opening round. The Sakhir circuit hosts round two of the season in two weeks’ time.
With Formula 2 also in action, F3 will have a pair of two-and-a-half-hour sessions on each of the three days of testing. Every car has eight sets of the Pirelli hard tyre available for the duration of the test, plus three sets of wet tyres.