Feeder Series Preview: Silverstone
- DIVEBOMB Motorsport
- Jul 3
- 8 min read
Written by Vyas Ponnuri and Trisha Lynnette
Formula 2 and Formula 3 return to the second part of their European leg. Heading into the sights and sounds of Silverstone in the light of typical British weather, both championships begin to hit their peaks. DIVEBOMB takes you through the previews for the weekend ahead.
Formula 2
Formula 2 heads over to Silverstone to kick off its second half of the 2025 season, one that has seen an exciting narrative of the experienced taking on the rookies, in what is set to be a tantalising championship battle.
It’s only fitting to have a location as picturesque as the British countryside to kick off the final seven weekends of 2025, none better than a track with as much history and prestige as Silverstone. Every corner has a story to tell.
The fast sweepers of Abbey and Farm will test the drivers' necks, as they come into the corners at speeds of over 150 mph (241 kph), braking heavily for Village corner. The slow right-left section from Village onto The Loop will certainly test drivers, with traction ever critical off the latter, and heading into Aintree, onto the Wellington straight.
Coming at the end of the Wellington straight, the long left-hander of Brooklands allows drivers to take their racing line of choice, setting them up for a potential move into the long right of Luffield corner. Another tough turn to navigate for drivers, traction off this corner is key, heading past Woodcote and onto the old pit straight.
The fast right-hander of Copse is always a challenging corner in any championship. It is the same for the F2 drivers, who take the quick right-hander at over 160 mph (260 kph). They will then brace for a similar series of sweepers heading into the Maggots-Becketts-Chapel section, and onto the Hangar Straight, in one of the fastest sections on the entire F2 calendar.
Stowe corner will once again pose as a prime overtaking opportunity, with drivers looking to take the optimal racing line and make use of the second DRS zone on the track to line up an overtake. The run down into the Vale chicane also opens up opportunities to overtake, should drivers manage to get alongside into Stowe corner, and hold on alongside in the quick run down to the chicane.
Club corner isn’t as much of an overtaking zone for drivers, taking them all back onto the Hamilton straight, for a lap of the circuit.
The tyre allocation for Silverstone sees drivers have to choose between soft and hard tyres. These compounds have been chosen, keeping in mind the high tyre wear drivers will experience around the venue, and the quantity of high-speed corners, stressing the front left tyres for drivers.
Drivers such as championship leader Richard Verschoor, third-placed Jak Crawford and ace qualifier in 2025, Victor Martins, will be looking to leverage their experience around the circuit to take top honours in the UK.
On the other hand, second-placed Alex Dunne and Red Bull junior Arvid Lindblad will be looking to continue building their prowess in their maiden F2 season and continue their winning spree in 2025. Lindblad comes into his home weekend on the back of his double in F3, when he won both the sprint and feature race on the weekend.
Lindblad will also celebrate driving in FP1 for the senior Red Bull outfit in the Formula One weekend, jumping between F2 and F1 on Friday, making for an interesting transition to follow on qualifying day. It will also make for an interesting narrative to see how he bounces back after his first scoreless weekend in Austria, even copping a ten-second penalty in the feature race for a last-lap incident with Ollie Goethe.
A Red Bull junior who fared strongly in Austria was Lindblad’s teammate Pepe Martí, the sprint winner on Saturday, who finished a strong sixth in the feature race. He will certainly be looking to build on the recent momentum to continue his stronger second campaign with Campos.
One team eyeing an improvement will be DAMS. Having come off a stupendous triple header, the team endured a difficult qualifying session on Friday, with neither Crawford nor Kush Maini making it to the top ten. Through an excellent rearguard effort on Sunday, Crawford made his way up the order, eventually promoted to a podium after Dunne’s disqualification from the feature race results. Maini failed to score any points, instead finding himself in a collision with Trident’s Sami Meguetounif towards the end of the feature race.
Both Crawford and Maini come to a venue of past success last year. Crawford took the feature race win on the track in 2024, before losing it to Isack Hadjar after a ten-second penalty for an unsafe release in the pits dropped him to third. Maini, meanwhile, finished third in a cold and wet sprint race, won by current Mercedes F1 man Kimi Antonelli.
Speaking of the weather, it could once again set to affect the weekend’s running, given the typical British weather. Spits of rain threw open the F3 feature race earlier last year, forcing drivers to make multiple pit stops to swap tyres, highlighting just how difficult it can get to judge conditions around the former airfield.
That being said, expect a truly exciting weekend in store, with F3 and Formula 4 joining F2 and F1 on the same weekend, with plenty of racing action set to ensue from Friday morning.
Free Practice for F2 kicks off at 10:00 BST (09:00 GMT), with qualifying at 14:55 BST (13:55 GMT) on Friday, 5th July.
The 21-lap sprint commences at 13:15 BST (12:15 GMT), while the 29-lap feature race gets underway on Sunday at 11:05 BST (10:05 GMT). Do tune in to enjoy all the racing action on offer!
Formula 3
The FIA Formula 3 Championship heads to the iconic Silverstone Circuit for Round 7 of the 2025 campaign, with track activity run from July 4th through July 6th. The historic British circuit, one of the world's most storied tracks featuring demanding high-speed corners and a rich history, always puts on a fantastic display and is promising another compelling weekend of motorsport for the junior racers competing to ascend the single-seater hierarchy.
Silverstone is a track that really puts the mettle of these up-and-coming stars to the test. Its legendary series of rapid, flowing corners, Copse, Maggotts, Becketts, and Stowe, require pinpoint accuracy, unshakeable focus, and a sublime car setup. It's a high-downforce circuit, so aerodynamic efficiency and stability through the high rates of turn are essential.
Tyre life will certainly be an important aspect of the races, since the high-speed characteristics of Silverstone put massive energy loads through the Pirelli tyres.
The Hard and Soft compounds are coming in for the weekend, and although the soft will probably be the first choice for the Feature Race, drivers will have to have their wits about them regarding any graining and degradation during their stints.
Adding an element of unpredictability to the British Grand Prix weekend, of course, is the notorious British weather. The correct prediction for the weather in the Silverstone region is that it will be generally cloudy throughout Friday to Sunday.
More importantly, there is a likelihood of light rain occurring on Saturday, which is the day of the Sprint Race. This unpredictability of the weather ensures that drivers and teams will have to be extremely adaptable, ready for almost instant changes in track conditions that may go from dry to wet and vice versa, asking for clever strategic decisions about tyre selection and car setups.
Referring to the championship picture, the 2025 F3 championship has been a closely fought campaign, with not a single driver able to dominate the show. Rafael Câmara, competing for Trident, is the current leader in the Drivers' Championship, having shown consistently brilliant pace and calmness in the previous rounds.
His team, Trident, also leads the Teams' Championship. Trailing Câmara by very little, and being tied for second, are Tim Tramnitz of MP Motorsport and Campos Racing's Nikola Tsolov, both of whom have already shown their ability to contend for race wins.
Martinius Stenshorne, driving for Hitech TGR, is one of the other drivers to have impressed so far this year, with a notable Feature Race victory in Austria, and he will be hoping to do more of the same at Silverstone.
Look out too for drivers such as MP Motorsport's Alessandro Giusti, ART Grand Prix's Tuukka Taponen, Rodin Motorsport's Callum Voisin, and Van Amersfoort Racing's Santiago Ramos, who have all made bright sparks of themselves and might well be in the running for podiums or even wins.
In other news, Nikita Johnson was confirmed to join Hitech GP for the rest of the season alongside Martinius Stenshorne and Gerrard Xie.
“I want to thank Hitech for the faith they have shown in promoting me to their Formula 3 team, which has enjoyed so much success. I feel ready to compete at this level and after a strong debut in the series last week, I’m excited to step up within the Hitech environment and help the team achieve its goals for the second half of the season.” said the 17-year-old driver who raced for Hitech in Spielberg in place of Jesse Carrasquedo.
“We are pleased to see Nikita make the step up from our GB3 team to Hitech’s Formula 3 line-up at this pivotal point in the season. At the age of 17, he already has a remarkable record of success in multiple single-seater championships, and his ability was on full display in Austria last weekend during his impressive F3 debut.
“It is intended that Nikita will still feature during the remainder of the GB3 season, but we are delighted to provide him with the opportunity to progress within the Hitech team and unlock even more of his talent.” said Paul Bellringer, Hitech Team Manager.
The FIA Formula 3 Championship's Silverstone round is thus expected to be an action-packed affair. Qualifying will be of utmost significance, since getting a good grid spot tends to determine the success of the weekend on this track.
With rain always lurking around the corner, both the Sprint Race on Saturday and the Feature Race on Sunday may turn out to be tactical chess battles, where bright tyre gambles and a driver's quickness in adapting to variations in grip levels will be the deciding factors.
Look forward to uncompromising wheel-to-wheel combat as these young and determined drivers drive their Dallara F3 2025 machines to the limit on one of the most hallowed tracks in motor racing.
Qualifying takes place on Friday, at 14:00 BST (13:00 GMT), setting the pace for the rest of the weekend. While qualifying has consistently played a pivotal role in the race weekends, Barcelona could prove an exception as the drivers are highly familiar with the circuit.
The Sprint Race takes place on Saturday at 09:15 BST (08:15 GMT) and the Feature Race takes place on Sunday at 09:30 CEST (07:30 GMT).
Make sure to catch this exciting race weekend live. If not, head back to DIVEBOMB for all the action you might have missed!
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