The Formula 3 Championship this season went right down to the final lap of the final race in Monza, and CEO Bruno Michel spoke to FormulaNerds about his thoughts on F3 this year and the progression of young drivers.Â?
30 young drivers raced in the Formula 3 Championship this year. Some additional names were added to the roster on the occasional weekend to cover for those who missed a round.
But over the 10 race weekends, the championship fight was always wide open. Over the 20 races, there were 12 different race winners and heading into the final race weekend in Monza, six different drivers were in contention to win the 2024 F3 title.
However, ultimately, it came down to Gabriele Mini and Leonardo Fornaroli. It was only on the final lap of the Feature Race at the Temple of Speed that Fornaroli secured his championship win, despite not having taken victory in any race this season.
In a Virtual Media Roundtable following the F3 season finale, Bruno Michel, the feeder series CEO, reflected on the 2024 season. Michel pointed out that with “28 drivers” scoring points, the “level was high altogether” and that it was “a very very strong season” and the final race was a “testament” to what this year’s F3 Championship has been.
What a season. What an ending ?
Leonardo Fornaroli is the new king of FIA Formula 3 ?#F3 #RoadToF1 pic.twitter.com/PU6slfJbWa
— Formula 3 (@Formula3) September 2, 2024
The F3 CEO continued and spoke to FormulaNerds about the development and progression of the series and the young drivers who compete in it.
Development of F3 and Progression of drivers
The 2024 season has seen three Formula 2 drivers sign with Formula 1 teams. Franco Colapinto is currently racing for Williams F1, replacing Logan Sargeant, but he won’t be racing with the team in F1 next year – Carlos Sainz will be joining Alex Albon for that role.
Oliver Bearman is the second F2 driver to have signed with an F1 team. The British driver is part of the Ferrari Junior Academy and has earnt a full-time race seat with Haas for 2025. Likewise, his PREMA Racing teammate, Andrea Kimi Antonelli, has signed with Mercedes for next year.
Furthermore, Jack Doohan, who competed in F2 in 2022 and 2023, has been promoted from reserve driver to full-time driver for Alpine next year. With so many driver movements, some F3 drivers have moved up to F2 already, including the likes of Luke Browning and Oliver Goethe. And others, such as Fornaroli and Arvid Lindblad have gained an F2 seat for 2025.
FormulaNerds asked Michel about the progression of young drivers through the F3 Championship to F2 and eventually F1. He told us:
“I think Formula 3 is now an extremely important part of the pyramid for drivers to from Formula 4, go-karting, into Formula 1 for the ones that will get there. You see the success of a championship when you see how many drivers want to join Formula 3 at the beginning of the season.
“We saw that last year and we’re seeing that again this year. And also, when you see how many drivers are coming from Formula 3 to the next step, which is Formula 2, it’s always very impressive to see the number of drivers that are going to go up.
“At the moment, we don’t have the final figures because drivers are still signing for Formula 2 next year, but I will say probably half the grid will be drivers coming from Formula 3, which is a great achievement.
“And we already see some drivers coming and finishing the season and that’s the beauty of finishing the season for Formula 3 in Monza and having another three races in Formula 2 because we had this weekend in Baku, a few drivers coming from Formula 3 that did very well.
“So for me, it’s also a very good sign of the wealth of the F3 competition.”
Headline image: GettyImages