Lack of overtaking on "difficult" Madring circuit gives Ugochukwu the upper hand in F3 title fight
With just one race left in the 2026 FIA Formula 3 championship, the leaders are tied with 141 points each.
Freddie Slater was leading coming into the weekend, but after he crashed out of Feature Race 1, American driver Ugo Ugochukwu was able to close the gap with a fourth place finish and now leads the standings based on race wins.
It all comes down to Sunday morning, when the drivers complete their final race of the season. Based on Friday's qualifying session, Ugochukwu will start the Feature Race from second on the grid, while Slater will start down in eighth.
They're racing on the all-new Madring circuit in Madrid this weekend, with Formula One and their support series making their inagural trip to this street circuit. And after a day full of racing on the track, the drivers have concluded that overtaking is pretty difficult.
Saturday's Feature Race 1 winner, Pedro Clerot, talked to the media after his maiden race win about how few opportunities for overtaking there are on the Madring track.
“Street tracks in general are quite difficult to overtake," Clerot told DIVEBOMB. "You are already really on the limit and obviously there’s not a lot of space to go around. In the Sprint Race we saw Taito [Kato] do a very good job of overtaking, he did me and Tuukka [Taponen]. But yeah, in the Feature Race I didn’t see much going on.
“Obviously it’s very difficult to follow, especially in the last sector where you have such high speed corners, I don’t think it’s very easy to get back. And obviously you have back to back DRS zones, but still I don’t think maybe it’s quite enough. It’s not like Monaco, I think it’s easier to overtake than Monaco for sure, but still not an easy one.”
Not quite as difficult as Monaco isn't exactly a ringing endorsement considering that Monaco is well known for its all but complete inability to allow overtakes. One of the drivers who was able to pull off a few overtakes in the Sprint Race, Taito Kato, also spoke about how tricky pulling off an overtake has been.
“Obviously not a lot of opportunity to overtake here," he said after Feature Race 1. "I was able to overtake one time in the Sprint Race but it’s on the edge, I would say. So not a lot of opportunities to overtake in front. It’s always difficult, in Formula 3 it’s already really difficult to overtake in this
category, so at a street circuit it’s not an easy one, to be honest.”
What does this analysis mean for tomorrow's Feature Race? After coming into this weekend ahead in the standings, Slater will be on the back foot as he starts six places behind Ugochukwu at a track where overtaking has clearly been difficult for the drivers. It's most likely that Ugochukwu will be doing his best just to stay out of trouble while Slater hopes for something to happen at the front of the grid. According to Tuukka Taponen, a driver's best chance at an overtake at this circuit is if the driver in front of you is having a problem.
“Overtaking is difficult, you can overtake if a guy in front does a mistake or is starting to struggle a lot with the car, but as long as everything is under control, it’s very difficult," Taponen said after Feature Race 1 on Saturday.
The title fight is by no means over, F3 is known for being a chaotic and unpredictable series, so the chance for something to mix up the order is never low. But Ugochukwu definitely will have the upper hand starting from second on the grid tomorrow. If he can keep himself out of trouble and stay ahead of Slater, the F3 title will go to him.
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