LWOS spoke with four of 2025 F3’s new talents about the challenges of adapting to the new car and the pressure of a new racing world.
2025 F3 Rookie Drivers on Embracing the Demands of a New Championship
The year 2025 presents an impressive challenge not only for the new F3 drivers who are in their first year in the series and trying quickly to adapt to the car, but also for the drivers who are already competing in the series.
As it happened in Formula 2, finding performance immediately with these new cars is not easy, and many teams, that in previous years were at the top of the standings, had readjusted everything from the beginning.
The teams must understand how to fully exploit its potential and adapt in the shortest possible time. Even the drivers already present in the championship are partially disadvantaged because, as said by Tim Tramnitz to LWOS, the performance is now levelled and everyone has to discover this car from scratch.
In Formula 3 this year there are 17 rookies out of 31 competitors. This high number is encouraging to see, as it shows that a new generation of drivers is taking its first steps from the minor series to reach the higher championships in Motorsport.
In Imola this year, LWOS spoke to some of this year’s rookies, asking their opinions on the new car, the new championship, and the performance we can expect from them in the next rounds.
Bruno Del Pino
Bruno Del Pino Started his journey in a single-seater at 15 years old, debuting in the Formula 4 championship. In the series he reached the points after six races, at the end of the second round, finishing the year in sixteenth place.
The same year he raced in the FIA Motorsport Games Formula 4 Cup where he crossed the line of the final race in third place.
In 2023, he started his journey with MP Motorsport in the Eurocup-3 series, where he raced until last year. In 2024 he came very close to fighting for the championship but had to settle for third place.
This year marks his debut in Formula 3, always with the Dutch team. In Imola, he scored his first podium in the series in the Sprint Race.
For the ones who don’t know Formula 3 really well, it is a spec series, so all cars are the same. Many new fans usually wonder: how does a team find more performance in the car with respect to the others?
“Being a spec series, there’s not much that you can play with. Also, we’re limited in various things. Obviously, the engineers make some difference, they can find some new things that maybe other teams don’t find.
“Us drivers also can make a difference. It’s a good thing that all drivers have the same car, more or less, so it shows the capacity and the skills of the driver.
“Obviously as a driver and as an engineer, we have to work together to find what is best for us individually and what’s best for the team.”
You’re continuing your journey in the feeder series with the same team, MP Motorsport, how much do you think sticking with the same environment helps a driver in his career?
“I mean, obviously I’ve been with MP for three years now, this is my third year with them.
“Coming from Euro Cup to FIA F3, which is a big step, being with them already, knowing how they work and being able to not only start from zero but start from something that I’ve built relations with them from the past years, also helps me to develop.
“From last year it’s obviously different engineering, different mechanics, but there’s the same tendency on the way they work with the drivers. So it’s good for me to speed up my learning process.”
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Tuukka Taponen
The Finnish driver debuted in the Formula Championships in 2021 in the Formula Academy Finland. However, his true debut arrived two years later in the Formula 4 UAE Championship, where he finished in second place.
Since then, he collected impressive results, such as the title win in the Formula Regional Middle East championship with R-ace GP.
In 2024 he fought with Rafael Camara for the Formula Regional European Championship but too many retirements in the last half part of the race forced him to finish the season in third place.
This year, after a brief appearance in Formula 3 last season, he started his full campaign with ART Grand Prix in the FIA championship. The first round proved to be a challenge for him, but in the last rounds, he seems to have found new competitiveness.
You tested with the old F3 car and now with the new car. How is the process of adaptation going?
“It’s never easy to adapt to the new car. I think I have been managing quite well. You need to work quite a lot in a simulator for that to find the right rhythm. It’s been quite natural for me and I haven’t needed to change my way too much.”
Coming to Imola and with the rest of the European circuits which you know best, do you think you will manage to improve your performance?
“Yes, I think it’s a little advantage for me. I’d say less disadvantageous than what it has been in Australia and Bahrain because quite many F3 drivers knew the track while a lot of rookies didn’t know.
“But it will help for sure. It will be different with this amount of speed we will carry in the corners but it’s slightly easier to start.”
Theophile Nael
In 2022 Theophile Nael raced in his first single-seater championship. After a brilliant karting career the French driver stepped up to the F4 Spanish Championship, where the following year he won the title against Christian Ho.
In 2024 he raced in the Formula Regional European Championship and finished the year in ninth place with one victory in Austria.
This year he debuted in Formula 3 with Van Amersfoort racing and, in Australia, he collected a podium in the feature race. This gave confidence to the French driver, who then had to face a lot of difficulties in the two following rounds.
However, the F3 2025 season is long and Nael is still coming to grips with the new car.
I followed your journey in Formula Regional and you were the author of impressing overtakes. Like the one in Barcelona. Do you feel that with this car it is easier to overtake? What are the differences you’ve found from the past cars you’ve driven?
“Well for sure it’s easier to overtake, especially from the outside like in Barcelona. Because of the downforce, the brakes as well and DRS it’s helpful to overtake.
“Especially compared to the previous F3 car, I think it’s even easier because we feel more the front of the car and it’s helpful to overtake.”
Sometimes there is a bit of chaos during qualifying in Formula 2. Do you think the group division, like we’ve seen in Monza, is the solution or do you think maybe it’s best to keep it this way?
“Well, think all the run plans that have been made are very important. I think that’s the key.
“We are 30 cars on track, which is an enormous number, and especially here in Imola, to find a gap, it’s difficult. It’s something important to be with the two other teammates and help each other.”
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Noah Stromsted
Noah Stromsted debuted in the single-seater F4 Danish championship at only 14 years and concluded the season in second place.
During his career he switched teams multiple times, passing from Campos Racing in the Formula 4 Spanish Championship, to RPM in the Formula Regional European Championship where he ended his first full season as the best rookie.
This year marked his arrival in Formula 3, alongside Rafael Camara and Charlie Wurz in Trident. From the beginning of the 2025 F3 season he already collected two podiums, one in Melbourne and in Imola, and finished in the points on every occasion except the Melbourne Sprint Race.
Being this year your first year in the series and already climbing the podium once, do you feel the process of adaptation with the new car is going pretty well?
“Yeah, it’s been going well so far. The team has done a great job over the season to have a good car now. And yeah, we keep working, but it’s been a good start.”
Looking at the future, what do you think about the group division in qualifying that we’ve seen used in Monza many times?
“I think last year was quite a mess and it has been over the last couple of years. I think it will be a bit better, but still the issue of the slipstream, but we’ll have to wait and see.”
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Main Photo
Credit: IMAGO / PsnewZ
Recording Date: 18.05.2025
