Written by Sean McKean, Vyas Ponnuri, and Jacob Awcock
The latest Formula 3 season has gotten underway, and the grid boasts plenty of new faces, joining some experienced racers in what is set to be yet another exciting season. With the first round of 2024 underway, we give you some names to keep a keen eye on, as the season progresses.
Sean
Dino Beganovic — Prema Racing
Though he got outshone by fellow rookie teammate Paul Aron, Sweden’s Dino Beganovic showed glimpses as to what he’s capable of in 2023. Coming off a championship-winning FRECA season in 2022, Beganovic delivered on expectations in 2023, taking four podiums enroute to sixth in the standings.
While he has yet to take a win in FIA F3, the Swede’s sophomore season in the championship could be the breakout for him.
Leonardo Fornaroli — Trident
A driver that flew under the radar at the end of the 2023 FIA F3 season was Trident’s Leonardo Fornaroli.
At the beginning of the season, not much was expected of him, as his best performance in F3-level machinery was eighth in the standings with no podiums in 2022 in FRECA. However, in F3, Fornaroli surpassed many expectations, taking three podiums and a shock pole in a wet-dry Silverstone qualifying.
Though it only got him P11 in the standings, it was a very promising rookie season. Now that he’s returning to the same team for 2024, the Italian will be looking to surpass many more expectations.
Nikola Tsolov — ART Grand Prix
When thinking of a word to describe Nikola Tsolov’s rookie FIA F3 campaign in 2023, ‘disappointing’ would best fit. The Bulgarian burst onto the scene in 2022, having won the Spanish F4 Championship on single-seater debut in dominant fashion.
Many expected for him to keep the momentum going in 2023, but he appeared to have stalled out. The beginning and middle parts of the season left much to be desired, with no points finishes in 12 races amongst many retirements.
However, once the Hungary round came around, a switch flipped for Tsolov. In Hungary, he fought towards the front with great pace, but ultimately ended up retiring after collisions with competitors.
He ended the season on a high, though, scoring his first points in the Spa sprint race in seventh place and finishing off with a ninth-placed finish in the Monza sprint race. Given the pace he showed at the end of 2023, returning to ART, and now having F3 experience, 2024 could be the season Tsolov gets himself back on the radar.
Vyas
Arvid Lindblad — Prema
Talked up in circles as the next big star since Max Verstappen, Lindblad has experienced a stellar rise up the motor racing ladder.
Having begun his karting career in 2015, aged eight, the Briton, who also has Swedish and Indian ancestry, made his way up the karting scene, capping off with an excellent 2021, one that saw him finish in the top three in all his karting series that year.
Lindblad’s karting exploits earned him a spot on the coveted Red Bull Junior Academy in 2022, just as the Briton stepped up to single-seaters, earning a drive for Van Amersfoort Racing in Italian F4.
Although his first season wasn’t as spectacular, a switch to Prema for 2023 yielded a much stronger showing, as Lindblad accumulated six wins in a strong campaign, eventually finishing third in the standings, behind fellow rookie Kacper Sztuka, and rising star Ugo Ugochukwu.
The Red Bull Junior also had a clean sweep at the F4 event of the Macau Grand Prix, taking pole and winning the qualification race and the main race to follow, snapping up both fastest lap points in the process.
His showing for the SJM Theodore Prema outfit earned a call-up to the works Prema F3 team for 2024, with Lindblad stepping up to Formula 3 now, the lowest rung on the road to Formula One.
While he is young, and early into his racing career, Lindblad has been highly rated, and his early signing into a prestigious driver academy underlines the talent he possesses. Given Prema’s decorated Formula 3 history, you’d absolutely back Lindblad to add to their trophy cabinet in 2024, should he replicate his showings from karting.
Laurens van Hoepen — ART
The next Dutchman ascending the Formula One ladder, Laurens van Hoepen is another young Dutch talent, looking to follow in the footsteps of Nyck de Vries and Max Verstappen.
Known for his stellar karting exploits, the youngster took to the grassroots of racing at the tender age of ten, winning the IAME Euro Series only two years into his karting career. Four years later, he finished third in the Ultimate Cup Series, earning himself a drive in the highly-competitive FRECA series with ART Motorsport.
This was a direct step up from karting, with van Hoepen bypassing the F4 series to jump directly to the Formula Regionals. This leap was evidenced by a slow start, with van Hoepen only finishing 21st in the standings, accumulating only 15 points all season.
A trip down under yielded a win in the Formula Regional Oceania Championship, and with a year of FRECA experience under his belt, van Hoepen had a much stronger 2023, podiuming twice for ART Racing, finishing just inside the top ten.
His performances, and learning impressed the French team, who opted to bring him into their Formula 3 fold, partnering two experienced racers in Nikola Tsolov and Christian Mansell. Knowing the Dutch racer’s keenness to learn, and his improvements over seasons, expect van Hoepen to make yet another step up, and shine for the ART team, reviving them from the lows of an eighth position finish in the standings last season.
Kacper Sztuka — MP Motorsport
One of the hottest properties in motorsport right now, Sztuka comes off a dominant 2023, and a fruitful off season, winning the Formula Winter Series, having secured five wins in the first six rounds of the inaugural running of the series.
While the Pole commenced karting way back in 2011, triumphing in local kart competitions, he truly came of age in the 2023 Italian F4 Championship, winning eight of the last nine races (when he finished third) to snatch the championship by 35 points.
His Formula Winter showings prior were even more remarkable, as the dominant Pole won five out of the six races he competed in, taking the championship spoils despite missing the season finale at Catalunya.
Such showings certainly caught the attention of the Red Bull Driver Academy, who snapped up the Pole ahead of his Formula 3 signing with MP Motorsport, with Sztuka lining up alongside fellow Red Bull junior Tim Tramnitz, and highly rated Irishman Alex Dunne, rounding out a formidable line up for the team.
With momentum on his end, and backing from a driver academy, it is only a matter of time before Sztuka adapts to the Formula 3 machine, and becomes a rookie season wunderkind.
Jacob
Alex Dunne — MP Motorsport
Alex is no stranger to success and he has shown this throughout his racing career so far: British F4 champion in 2022, runner up in GB3 2023 taking the championship down to the wire in the last race, as well as multiple podiums in series such as F4 UAE and German and Spanish F4.
But it was Alex’s performance in Macau that thrust him firmly into the spotlight; battling from sixth on the grid to finish an astounding second place in the qualification race.
MP Motorsport team principal Sander Dorsman has already praised the Irishman claiming his performances in Macau as well as testing in Imola, where he topped the field during a damp and tricky session, as “hard to overlook”.
He will, however, be pushed all the way with teammates Tim Tramnitz and Kacper Sztuka, also rookies, eager to prove themselves in what is a highly competitive F3 field.
Joseph Loake — Rodin Motorsport
Another product from GB3, Joseph could only manage third on the championship roster last year managing three wins, but falling short of eventual winner Callum Voisin, whom he will partner this year at Rodin Motorsport.
The 18 year old Brit showed promising pace in testing, clocking up 140 laps for a reliable Rodin Motorsport team. It is clear that Rodin may not be the fastest team from the offset but will be able to pick up pace as the team settles into the season.
This will be crucial for Joseph who, in his debut year in F3, will require time to settle into F3 and adapt to the vastly different cars he will be driving. Yet his potential is evident and, after GB3 last year, he will be determined to come out on top in the team battle this year.
Luke Browning — Hitech Pulse-Eight
Now in his second season of FIA Formula 3, Luke will look to capitalise on what was a promising 2023 campaign, with the highlight being a fourth place finish in the Monaco feature race.
A member of the Williams driver academy, Luke has a plethora of accolades to complement his CV: A double race winner at Macau 2024, a GB3 and British F4 champion, as well as 41 Formula 3 points from the 2023 campaign.
On the back of a spectacular week in Macau, and vast amounts of promise shown in testing, by both team and driver, Luke will undoubtedly have the championship as his main goal for this season.
With the Williams F1 seat held currently by Logan Sargeant potentially up for grabs, could Luke pull off a move similar to those of Max Verstappen and Kimi Raikkonen, and skip Formula 2 and move straight to Formula 1?