Photo: Formula Motorsport Ltd
As it stands, Jonny Edgar brought his FIA Formula 3 career to a close today by taking a long-awaited first win in the season-ending Monza feature race.
The MP Motorsport driver started fourth, his best qualifying result from his 23 rounds in the series, and got into second place on lap one. He remained there after the first safety car restart, then overtook Van Amersfoort Racing’s Caio Collet for the lead before the safety car came out again on lap six of 21.
He and Collet traded first place before the third safety car period, and Edgar got back in front before it began. From there he handled two more restarts, keeping his lead in both instances, to get his first F3 podium.
“It was quite a difficult race with a lot of restarts and safety cars, but I just focused on getting good restarts and trying to stay in the top two,” Edgar told Formula Scout.
“Early on, me and Caio worked well together, I think when we were swapping places we weren’t losing time, which worked well. And then there just kept being safety cars through the race and I just kept focusing on trying to stay in the lead once we got close to the end, and the last restart was really good so I had no pressure on the last lap.
“Before the last safety car I saw Zak [O’Sullivan, who had passed Collet for second] was struggling in the Lesmos, I think he was struggling with the front-left, which is a problem a lot of people have had this weekend. So the reason for going early [on the restarts] was I knew I could to pull a gap in Parabolica if he had some understeer, so that’s the main reason I went early.
“It seemed to work well. I pulled a big gap in Parabolica, and then didn’t have pressure on the last lap and he had to defend.
“It was nice to be at the front again and lead a race. In the middle of the race, I was just hoping to at least stay on the podium, and then as it got later on I was thinking a win was possible. It’s nice to win, but again, like I’ve said before, I also accept that if I didn’t get a podium, it wouldn’t change too much [about my future]. So I think I would have been happy with a result somewhere else, but it is nice to finish with a win, and finish with F3 on a good race.”
Edgar does not think he will race in the FIA F3 World Cup in Macau, saying “I’d be very surprised myself if I was there”, but “you never know”. He’ll instead spend the off-season looking “more towards next year and decide what I’m going to do”.
Earlier this month he told Formula Scout about how he will be moving on from F3 for 2024, with Formula E now his long-term career target.