Photo: Aston Martin F1
Halfway through the FIA F3 season the driver to beat is clearly Rafael Camara, and one of the drivers who appears to have similarly strong pace at every circuit is only 13th in the standings but on an F1 team’s radar
Five rounds, four poles, three wins, almost two times as many points as his closest team-mate and one goal: the title.
Rafael Camara has had an excellent first half of the season in the FIA Formula 3 Championship, and it already seems unlikely that anyone will stop him becoming champion despite the Trident driver failing to score in half of the races so far.
His run of pole positions has made him the fastest driver on absolute pace and has been critical to his immense points haul in feature races. He has led lights-to-flag in two of those and led another in which he finished third. Being at the front so often has allowed him to manage races, and therefore his long-run pace is the best in the field at present.
Those calculations have taken into account the Bahrain and Imola feature races, and both races in Monaco and at Barcelona due to the data made usable by uninterrupted periods of green-flag action lasting 10 laps or longer. In the season-opening round in Melbourne, there were only seven laps in each race not run behind the safety car so drivers’ long-run pace there was never truly tested in any meaningful way.
Camara’s closest rival in the points table is Campos Racing’s Nikola Tsolov, and he is also his nearest opponent when it comes to average qualifying and race pace. Tsolov’s figures were boosted by his lights-to-flag victory in the Monaco feature race, but he was also incredibly close to Camara’s benchmark long-run pace at Bahrain and what Van Amersfoort Racing’s Ivan Domingues achieved in clean air at the front of the field in the Barcelona sprint race.
MP Motorsport’s Tim Tramnitz occupies third in the standings and is third on race pace, but only just. He is narrowly quicker than Campos’s Mari Boya, who beats him when it comes to single-lap prowess. Boya is 13th in the standings, averaging just over seven points per round, but a reminder of his potential came two days ago via the Aston Martin Formula 1 team.
Single-lap pace
| Pos | Driver | Team | Pace | Pos | Driver | Team | Pace |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Camara | Trident | 100.142% | 19 | Dufek | Hitech | 100.965% |
| 2 | Tsolov | Campos | 100.333% | 20 | Wurz | Trident | 100.966% |
| 3 | Boya | Campos | 100.558% | 21 | Ugochukwu | Prema | 101.004% |
| 4 | Tramnitz | MP | 100.589% | 22 | Garfias | AIX | 101.076% |
| 5 | Stromsted | Trident | 100.616% | 23 | Intraphuvasak | Campos | 101.145% |
| 6 | Slater | AIX | 100.654% | 24 | Bedrin | AIX | 101.181% |
| 7 | Giusti | MP | 100.699% | 25 | Badoer | Prema | 101.191% |
| 8 | Stenshorne | Hitech | 100.705% | 26 | Domingues | VAR | 101.271% |
| 9 | Leon | Prema | 100.736% | 27 | Ho | DAMS | 101.271% |
| 10 | Voisin | Rodin | 100.737% | 28 | Wharton | ART GP | 101.294% |
| 11 | Bilinski | Rodin | 100.763% | 29 | Carrasquedo | Hitech | 101.368% |
| 12 | Taponen | ART GP | 100.780% | 30 | Zagazeta | DAMS | 101.435% |
| 13 | Nael | VAR | 100.787% | 31 | Xie | Hitech | 101.555% |
| 14 | del Pino | MP | 100.810% | 32 | Sagrera | AIX | 101.575% |
| 15 | Sharp | Rodin | 100.919% | 33 | Hedley | AIX | 101.591% |
| 16 | Benavides | AIX | 100.947% | 34 | Lacorte | DAMS | 101.641% |
| 17 | Ramos | VAR | 100.948% | 35 | Marinangeli | AIX | 102.322% |
| 18 | van Hoepen | ART GP | 100.949% |
Driver did less than three rounds
Aston Martin announced it had signed the 21-year-old Spaniard to a new programme it has launched, with the intention of translating his pace into points and trophies after two-and-a-half years in FIA F3 with few headline results.
Boya came 17th in his rookie F3 season with MP Motorsport and claimed one podium as well as coming fourth in the FIA F3 World Cup-awarding Macau Grand Prix. Last year he switched to Campos and rose two places in the standings. His victory in the Barcelona sprint race was one of only two top-five finishes, and so far this year he has achieved the same with a fifth in the Imola feature race and a third in the Monaco feature race.
“[Mari] is a promising talent with a strong track record, natural speed, and a determined mindset, but he is also an incredibly well-rounded athlete – a trait we value in motorsport,” said Aston Martin’s team principal Andy Cowell.
“Our aim is to support his development in every area, from racecraft and technical feedback to media, fitness, and personal growth, preparing him for the demands of top-level racing.”
Boya called it “a dream come true” to have Aston Martin’s support and said his “goal is to absorb as much knowledge as possible” from working with the team.
But he will not join 2022 Formula 2 champion Felipe Drugovich and current F2 racer Jak Crawford as an F1 junior in its driver development programme. He instead joins the newly created ‘Aston Martin F1 Team Driver Academy’.
Being an F1 junior is no guarantee of success, and two of the drivers struggling the most this year are Prema’s McLaren juniors Brando Badoer and Ugo Ugochukwu. Their team-mate Noel Leon has fared better on pace, but not on points, with Prema so far proving uncompetitive with the new Dallara F3 2025 car.
Rolling race pace average
| Pos | Driver | Pace | Pos | Driver | Pace | Pos | Driver | Pace |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Camara | 100.334% | 12 | Taponen | 100.887% | 23 | Dufek | 101.370% |
| 2 | Tsolov | 100.472% | 13 | Nael | 100.939% | 24 | Zagazeta | 101.383% |
| 3 | Tramnitz | 100.523% | 14 | Wurz | 100.977% | 25 | Hedley | 101.523% |
| 4 | Boya | 100.538% | 15 | Voisin | 100.985% | 26 | Lacorte | 101.554% |
| 5 | Stromsted | 100.621% | 16 | Inthraphuvasak | 101.057% | 27 | Xie | 101.570% |
| 6 | Giusti | 100.638% | 17 | Wharton | 101.116% | 28 | Ugochukwu | 101.586% |
| 7 | van Hoepen | 100.645% | 18 | Leon | 101.159% | 29 | Carrasquedo | 101.802% |
| 8 | Stenshorne | 100.758% | 19 | Sharp | 101.171% | 30 | Marinangeli | 101.805% |
| 9 | Ramos | 100.769% | 20 | Badoer | 101.233% | 31 | del Pino | 101.810% |
| 10 | Domingues | 100.794% | 21 | Ho | 101.257% | |||
| 11 | Bilinski | 100.803% | 22 | Benavides | 101.347% |
Driver did less than three rounds
Team principal Rene Rosin recently spoke to media including Formula Scout about his team’s season, and preferred to take a positive outlook on the situation as he believes Prema does have the pace to be competitive. Leon has not shown that in qualifying, but what the experienced Mexican has been is consistent in his gap to the ultimate pace.
That would suggest he’s extracting close to the maximum of what we can with the tools he has, with his position on the grid each weekend then determined more by who in other teams realises the potential of their machinery. Leon has said Prema is struggling “overall in different aspects”, and his team-mates’ quotes have indicated a lot of unknowns remain.
Badoer has only spent five laps so far this season in a points-paying position, while Camara has missed over a fifth of the season’s lap count so far in races but has been in the lead for 23% of the time and has over 1.3 times as many points as anyone else.
While drivers repeatedly talk about the importance of consistency, particularly after the 2024 champion went win-free, it looks like with the new car this year the more important aspect in the title race is for teams to turn up to circuits and be very fast from the off, and for the drivers to then be able to maximise that on the weekends when their car is competitive.
Camara and Tsolov have proven that’s possible, and Boya’s weaker translation of pace into points than Trident’s slower but higher-scoring drivers indicates that Campos is the team to beat so far.
Laps led
1 Camara 49 2 Tsolov 36 3 Ramos 27 4 Stenshorne 23 5 Tramnitz 16 6 Slater 8 7 Voisin 4 =8 Dufek & del Pino 2