GB3 drivers give early impressions of new car as Slater tops last test day

Photos: Jakob Ebrey Photography

Since taking delivery of the Tatuus MSV GB3-025 in February, GB3’s competitors have learning their new car

Fresh from making the podium on his FIA Formula 3 debut in Bahrain, Freddie Slater returned to Britain this week to switch focus back to one of his main programmes for 2025: GB3. The Hillspeed driver went quickest in the final pre-season test day on Brands Hatch’s Grand Prix layout, with the series’ new era getting underway at Silverstone next week.

The Tatuus MSV GB3-025 that drivers will be racing for the first time at Silverstone is a significant step forward over its predecessor, with Formula 1-inspired aerodynamics producing 35% more downforce and no extra drag. The car is heavier and has a longer wheelbase than the 2024 machine, but will have an extra 30bhp from a modified Mountune engine.

Laptimes have been around a second per lap quicker on British circuits in pre-season testing compared to last year, with more potential to come as teams get more mileage under their belts. This became clear after Formula Scout spoke to several drivers, some graduating from Formula 4 and others with GB3 experience, to get their first impressions:

Deagen Fairclough, Hitech GP (2024 British F4 champion): “It’s really nice, I’m really enjoying it building that confidence up going through high-speed corners with the amount of downforce and aero there is. Because it’s a new car, there’s so many things we’re trying out in testing. There’s many things we’ve had to gauge and understand.”

Abbi Pulling, Rodin Motorsport (2024 F1 Academy champion): “It’s got a lot of downforce, you can really tune it as well. There’s a lot that the team can play with, balance adjustments you can do and make it suit the driver. It feels like no matter your driving style and how you like the car you can still get the maximum out of it. There’s no one set way to drive it, and it’s going to make the grid feel really close.”

Freddie Slater, Hillspeed (2nd in 2025 FRegional Middle East, 2024 Italian F4 champion): “It’s a bit bigger, a bit heavier now, so it’s pretty interesting on these smaller UK tracks. The car is an improvement from last year’s in certain areas. Personally, I’d say it has pretty similar traits [to a Formula Regional car]. High-speed, maybe a little bit better, but in FRegional Europe we’ve had multiple years to develop the car. This is our fifth day with the car, so we’re still developing loads. There’s a lot of room for improvement on this car.”

Nikita Johnson, Hitech GP (3rd in 2025 FRegional Oceania, 2024 USFP2000 runner-up): “For me, it feels completely different [to the old car]. It’s very fast in the medium to high-speed because of all the downforce, but it’s a little bit heavier. Last year’s was a little bit more nimble on entry, but overall this has a bit more grip so feels easier to drive because it’s so planted. Last year you really had to extract everything out of it. This is a little bit different, it seems that the smoother you are, the better it is, so completely the opposite in driving style.”

Will Macintyre, Elite Motorsport (5th in 2024 GB3): “There’s similarities [to the old car], and there’s differences. It’s a bit of a wider tyre, that is the biggest difference. It’s a bit bigger, a bit heavier, but a little bit more power to make up for that. The cars in F3 and Formula 2 have a bucket-load of power, whereas I feel there is not enough [in this]. We are not quite making that same step in direction, but we’re about one second quicker than what we were doing last year, so it’s progress.”

Will DRS improve overtaking in 2025?

For the first time, GB3 will have an adjustable rear wing (like Formula 1, F2 and F3’s drag reduction systems). After trying it out freely in testing, do drivers think it will impact the racing this season where usage will be restricted?

Fairclough: “It looks like at high speed, it has an effect. Not too much at the beginning of the straights in lower gears, but when in fifth or sixth that’s where it’s useful the most. It’s quite interesting and I hope it helps the racing this season. Going to European tracks like Spa-Francorchamps and Monza I think it will have a big effect and the racing will be brilliant.”

Pulling: “It’s one of the things that can go wrong when it’s new for everyone. It’s daunting in that sense, but as a driver having more toys to play with is always fun. It’s going to make for some exciting racing, and I’m looking forward to trying it for the first time in wheel-to-wheel racing at Silverstone. Some tracks, like Brands Hatch, it will be interesting to see how they implement it, as I don’t think there’s really anywhere you can use it. As long as it’s reliable I think it’s a great addition.”

Slater: “As long as they put the right rules across and are making sure that when you’re in front you can’t use it so that you get a bit of an advantage from being behind, I think it can really work and pay off.”

Johnson: “I think it will help the racing. We will have to see what it does when we’re in traffic, nobody has really tested that yet. It’s going to be a gain of course, but we’re not sure how much. It’s an interesting tool because we get to practice using it for a whole year before FIA F3.”

Macintyre: “I think for the racing, it’s going to be really interesting. The DRS test [at Donington Park], it seemed really cool. I’m super excited to go racing with that and see if it makes much difference to help with the overtaking.”

Part-timer Slater ends pre-season on top

Slater has been one of the regular pacesetters in testing over the last few weeks, and he continued that form by setting the fastest time on this Tuesday’s rain-affected test day.

The dampest conditions came in session one. Fairclough exchanged top spot with Argenti with Prema’s Reza Seewooruthun in the opening minutes before lowering the pace to 1m32.343s. Xcel Motorsport’s Patrick Heuzenroeder set two faster laps inside the final five minutes, but Fairclough responded with a 1m31.330s to end up quickest by 0.618 seconds.

Photo: GB3

Slater was just 0.003s behind Heuzenroeder in third. Seewooruthun and JHR Developments duo Noah Lisle and Kai Daryanani were also within a second of Fairclough.

Heuzenroeder, Fortec Motorsports’ James Higgins and Seewooruthun all bettered session one’s benchmark in the first five minutes of session two. A 1m28.068s from Seewooruthun was not challenged for the remainder of the session, leaving him quickest by 0.495s from Fairclough. Slater was again third, with Rodin Motorsport’s Alex Ninovic and Argenti’s Yuanpu Cui close behind him.

Improved conditions resulted in laptimes tumbling in session three. Ninovic lowered the pace on his first attempt to 1m27.512s, which was swiftly beaten by Rodin’s Gianmarco Pradel and Macintyre.

Fairclough traded quickest laps with Ninovic until the final five minutes, when the latter set a 1m19.758s. Slater’s final improvement got him within 0.196s of that time, while Pradel displaced Fairclough from third place by 0.093s.

Slater set a 1m19.836s, his new personal best, to lead session four after the first runs. When the field returned to track it was on fresh tyres, and Slater lowered the pace to 1m19.723s with less than four minutes remaining. Pradel lapped 0.281s slower than Slater as he rose to second, before the pacesetter grew his gap at the top of the timesheet to 0.371s with a 1m19.633s.

Ninovic, one of four drivers to not improve in the final session, was second overall in the test and 0.125s off Slater. Fairclough was 0.1s behind Pradel in fourth and Higgins, who is yet to confirm is racing plans, was fifth. Seewooruthun, Daryanani, Heuzenroeder and Macintyre were all within a second of the pace, and Pulling was 10th fastest.

Hillspeed ran two further cars at the test for Japanese teenagers Kanato Le and Hiyu Yamakoshi, who are doing full seasons in FREC. Le, who contested GB3’s Spa round in 2024 with Chris Dittmann Racing, was 15th and fellow F4 race-winner Yamakoshi was 17th.

Test results