How close did Freddie Slater come to winning his debut F3 race?

Photo: Formula Motorsport Ltd

Freddie Slater enjoyed a “mega start” to his FIA Formula 3 career, leading and eventually finishing second in the sprint race in Bahrain, which he feels he could have won.

The Briton filled AIX Racing’s vacant seat for last month’s in-season test and was retained for the second round of the championship. Having been 10th fastest in Friday’s qualifying session, he started his maiden race from third on the reversed grid.

“It was great fun out there,” he told media including Formula Scout after the race. “Leading for a little bit, then got into second and tried to reset everything so I could have another chance. But unfortunately a few safety cars affected that.”

Slater overtook Martinius Stenshorne around the outside of turn four on lap one, and went on to claim the lead from Joshua Dufek on lap three. He then held on to first until lap 11 of 19, when he was passed by Campos Racing’s Nikola Tsolov.

F3 veteran Tsolov had to fight hard to drive past the debutant and keep him behind until the finish, with Slater believing he could have got back past if it weren’t for a late safety car.

“We had to get on with it at the start. I basically knew what I had to do. I needed to get into the lead as soon as possible, and that was the goal. And then I tried to manage for as long as possible,” he explained. 

“Then Nikola came up behind. He was a little bit faster maybe in that phase where I was managing, and then he got in front and we were managing more. And then we started to pick the pace up as I saw Nikola was starting to struggle. 

“If it wasn’t such an interfered race, I think it would have been a different race in terms of strategy, the way I played it. But, you know, on those first two laps you can’t mess about, you’ve got to get on with it. So I had to attack and then manage from there.

“I had full focus ahead,” he said, referring to the safety car restart with two laps to go. “As I was coming up to where the safety car turns the lights off, I knew this was my opportunity, and I needed a good restart. And I actually got a really good jump. So just the tow wasn’t quite big enough today. It wasn’t a headwind. It was unfortunately a tailwind down the main straight. So I think if there was a bit of a headwind, I would have been able to have a bit more of a race into T1. 

“I knew the moment I was going for and I had to try and execute, but it just didn’t quite happen,” he said.

“The track was super dirty, super hot,” said Slater, describing it as the “worst” conditions for drivers. “But we managed it well and had a good battle out there. A really enjoyable experience.”

Slater’s sprint race gap to Tsolov