Photo: PHM Racing
PHM Racing has announced Tasanapol Inthraphuvasak as its second signing for the 2024 FIA Formula 3 Championship season.
The Thai driver steps up from Formula Regional-level competition, where he has been racing for two years. That began with six races in the Ultimate Cup Series in 2022, where he took five wins, three poles and six fastest laps.
A FRegional Middle East campaign followed at the start of 2023, in which he had one podium and came 19th in the standings.
He then raced in Eurocup-3 with Campos Racing and finished sixth in the championship. Despite failing to win a race, he demonstrated his pace with two pole positions, and ended the year on a high with two podiums in the final round. Earlier this month he joined PHM to have another go a FRME, and after two rounds sits seventh in the standings with one podium.
A “delighted” Inthraphuvusak thanked “everyone who has made this possible and the team for giving me this amazing opportunity” to step up to F3. “I can’t wait to get started in Bahrain in a couple of weeks,” he said.
Inthraphuvusak drove for PHM Racing in FIA F3’s post-season tests at Barcelona and Imola last year, and he will be team-mate to Joshua Dufek. The team’s remaining seat is expected to be occupied by Taylor Barnard, who has been racing for PHM since 2022 and is currently team-mate to Inthraphuvusak in FRME.
Through 2021 and ’22, Inthraphuvasak raced primarily in Formula 4 in the British, Spanish and United Arab Emirates championships. He took three wins and three poles, as well as netting two podiums on a guest appearance in French F4.
PHM commended Inthraphuvasak’s “great progress and pace from the start” since the team started working with him, and added how much it “really enjoyed working with him during this time”.
Roland Rehfeld, PHM’s sporting director, noticed Inthraphuvasak’s choice to sign with the team for F3 was “showing his trust in our still young team” which is now operating independently in Germany after previously running out of Charouz Racing System’s facility in the Czech Republic.
“He is fully dedicated to our driver programme including the UAE winter season as well as our FIA F3 team,” said Rehfeld.
“Tas has collected victories in each class and championship he was competing in so far, so he knows how to deliver. He is extremely ambitious and focused and in the post-season testing he already showed a very promising performance and work ethic. We are sure he will be one of the positive surprises in 2024.”