Can Anyone Stop Prema? – European F3 Half-Time Report

It’s been a typically unpredictable F3 season so far but still, it’s as tight as it could be at the top of the standings and no-one can be counted out of the title race just yet.

After 15 races of the 30, it’s Prema’s New Zealand rookie Marcus Armstrong who leads the way after 1 victory and consistent points scoring form. His teammates are all in the top 10 in the standings with Estonian Ralf Aron 3rd, Chinese Ferrari junior Guan Yu Zhou 4th, German Mick Schumacher 8th, and Russian Robert Shwartzmann 9th (the only non-race winner). As a result, Prema has a 96.5 point lead in the team’s standings over Motopark.

The closest challenger to the red rockets is Dan Ticktum of Motopark. He sits just 1 point off Armstrong in the driver’s standings having won 3 races this season. The reigning Macau GP winner has looked the fastest man on track often this year but has suffered in the occasional collision which has harmed his championship assault. His Motopark teammates haven’t been as prolific in scoring points or podiums this year with Juri Vips the only other race winner in the team sitting 7th in the standings. Fabio Scherer, Marino Sato, and Jonathan Aberdein sit 12th, 14th, and 16th respectively for the German outfit. Spaniard Sebastian Fernandez is 21st.

Carlin sit in a disappointing 3rd in the team’s standings after taking Lando Norris to the driver’s title in 2017 but poor qualifying performances have been a major downfall for the British team. Despite this, Indian Jehan Daruvala, Russian Nikita Troitskiy, and French Renault Academy driver Sacha Fenestraz have all won races in 2018 but a lack of consistency from most leaves all but Daruvala (5th) outside the top 10 of the standings. Ferdinand Habsburg will be the most disappointed with his season with a best finish of 5th and sitting only 13th in the championship having won a race in 2017. Ameya Vaidyanathan is still to score a point in 2018 lying in 22nd.

Hitech Bullfrog GP are 4th in the team’s standings with only 3 drivers in their lineup. British F3 champion Enaam Ahmed the standout with 2 victories at the Hungaroring leaving him 6th in the table with Spaniard Alex Palou 10th. the 3rd driver for this team is Ben Hingeley who has struggled for performance since an impressive 4th paced finish in race 2 at Pau. Hitech will be adding a 4th driver for the Silverstone round with Asian Formula Renault champion Charles Leong joining for the team’s home race. Leong has said that “I needed to do one of the European F3 rounds to get the entry to the Macau Grand Prix,” in an interview with Formula Scout explaining his reasoning in making this one-off appearance.

The final 3 teams have all found points difficult to come by this year the first of which is Van Amersfoort Racing. Beginning the season with just 2 cars was always going to be tricky and with Keyvan Andres Soori in 18th and Artem Petrov 20th in the table, it is proving even more challenging than they expected. The mid-season addition of Sophia Floersch has seen little-to-no progress for the team but Floersch will be encouraged to be immediately on the pace of her teammates.

The 1-car entries of Ma-Con and Fortec were never going to trouble the points often but they will still be very disappointed with their seasons so far. Ma-Con driver Julian Hanses has just 6 points so far in 19th but Petru Florescu of Fortec still hasn’t scored so far after missing the opening round at Pau.

After a short halfway break, the season kicks off with back-to-back rounds first at Silverstone this weekend (17th-19th August) before heading to Italy and the Misano circuit the following weekend (24th-26th August).