FIA Formula 3 hits the track at Le Castellet

Le Castellet, 19 March 2019: The first official pre-season test of the 2019 FIA Formula 3 Championship will commence on Wednesday at the Circuit Paul Ricard in France. After a successful shakedown at Magny-Cours last month, the ten teams will trial the thirty F3 2019 cars for the very first time for two days at Le Castellet.

The only Indian racing in Formula 3 and the best bet from India for the next driver into Formula One from the country, Jehan Daruvala, is with Prema Racing team. Jehan stepped up to the new FIA F3 championship this year with Prema Racing, and the new F3 car will be considerably faster than the car Jehan raced in 2017-2018, with a completely new Dallara chassis mated to a 3400cc Mecachrome engine, capable of touching 300 km/hr. The car will also incorporate the halo, a safety mechanism to enhance driver protection which was introduced in F1 last year.

Jehan has been signed up by Prema Racing, one of the most successful Junior Racing Teams ever. Prema has won 6 drivers & team titles, in 7 years of the F3 European Championship’s existence, Mick Schumacher being the current champion. F1 racers – Pierre Gasly, Esteban Ocon, Lance Stroll, Antonio Giovinazzi have all raced with Prema on their way to F1.

Following a draw that took place ahead of the Shakedown, ART Grand Prix were lucky to pick numbers 1, 2 and 3. They will work this week with their 2019 line-up made of multiple GP3 race winner David Beckmann, and Renault Sport Academy’s protégés Max Fewtrell (2018 Eurocup Formula Renault Champion) and Christian Lundgaard. MP Motorsport drew numbers 4, 5 and 6 and recently confirmed newly crowned Toyota Racing Series Champion Liam Lawson and Richard Verschoor, alongside Simo Laaksonen.

Sauber Junior Team by Charouz inherited numbers 7, 8 and 9 and will line up reigning ADAC F4 Champion Lirim Zendeli, Fabio Scherer and F3 Asia Champion Raoul Hyman whilst HWA RACELAB are joined by Bent Viscaal, Jake Hughes and Keyvan Andres who will sport numbers 10, 11 and 12 respectively.

Jenzer Motorsport have confirmed two drivers so far: Honda protégé Yuki Tsunoda, and Artem Petrov who will race under numbers 14 and 15. They will be joined in France by Andreas Estner who will test for the Swiss outfit for the next two days. Trident are ready to tackle the season with Devlin DeFrancesco., Pedro Piquet and Niko Kari who will run with numbers 17, 18 and 19.

Racing with numbers 20, 21 and 22, Hitech Grand Prix have completed their 2019 line-up with Leonardo Pulcini, Red Bull Junior Jüri Vips and Ye Yifei. Campos Racing will field Alex Peroni, Alessio Deledda and Sebastian Fernandez in cars 23, 24 and 25 for 2019.

Marcus Armstrong from the Ferrari Driver Academy, Jehan Daruvala and Robert Shwartzman (also an FDA member) will grace PREMA Racing’s line-up with numbers 26. 27 and 28. Finally, Buzz Carlin Racing drew numbers 29, 30 and 31 to give to Teppei Natori, Felipe Drugovich and Logan Sargeant.

The drivers will run on Pirelli’s Medium compounds. For each driver, six sets of tyres will be made available over the course of the two days.

The pitlane will open at 09:00 on Wednesday morning, and will run until 12:00 before breaking for two hours. The session will restart at 14:00 before ending at 17:00. Thursday’s session will break for just one hour, with the afternoon running taking place from 13:00 to 16:00.