Written by Emily Blake, Edited by Meghana Sree
Following the last race of the F3 2023 season at Monza, Prema Racing has officially secured their position as the Teams’ Championship winner with 327 points and their drivers, Paul Aron, Zak O’Sullivan, and Dino Beganovic finishing, third, second, and sixth respectively in the Drivers’ Championship.
Despite the team win, not all the drivers were happy with their Monza performances.
Aron started the race in third, following an unfortunate beginning to qualifying in which his car was punctured due to contact in the first corner. This eventually landed the Estonian driver with a P7 finish in the feature race. Understandably, he was disappointed with the result, considering his contention for the Drivers’ Championship.
He commented: “Just finished the feature race here in Monza. I have mixed feelings. It’s disappointing to finish seventh after starting from third. The pace was good but I just didn’t make the right decisions and I was also a bit unlucky with other drivers. I lost second place in the championship but nevertheless we can be happy for winning the team's title and Prema has done an amazing job all year around, they definitely deserve it.”
O’Sullivan finished the highest out of his Prema teammates, landing P2 after his P6 qualifying result. As Prema’s youngest driver in F3, it’s unsurprising that O’Sullivan was content post-Monza, where he overtook his older teammate in the Drivers’ Championship standings.
He stated: “Kind of a classic Monza race today. Second in the feature race from P6 and great to seal the Teams’ Championship. The pace today was quite good throughout and it was nice to make progress especially on each safety car restart until the last one where I was trying to hold the position a bit. I think it caps off quite a good season, made the most of the situations where we could.”
Despite Beganovic’s P23 start in the feature race, he continued to contribute to Prema’s group-effort championship win, finishing in ninth place.
The Swedish driver commented: “This was a good comeback for the last race of the season. I felt very strong the whole race and I think we had massive potential. It was unfortunate to start so far from the back but in general it was a good race. Very happy that the team won the championship because they deserve it. Good end to the season!”
Undeniably, Prema’s entire team delivered excellent results at Monza that saw them win the F3 2023 Teams’ Championship. Will the 2024 season see Prema win for the third time in a row?