F3 or Formula 3 kicks off the 2025 season for all Formula categories with its pre-season testing in Barcelona. All the drivers had the opportunity to test out the new engines and cars.
F3 has decided to go 100% sustainable using biofuel instead of traditional fossil fuels. To accommodate the fuels, F3 has made several changes to the car engines, especially on the electronic side to accommodate Aramco’s Advanced Fuel, without sacrificing the performance.
Combining all the drivers, a total of 2,054 laps were completed on the first day, separated into two sessions, Morning and Afternoon.
Rodin Motorsport take 1-2-3 for the morning session
The session was put into motion by Nikola Tsolov of Campos Racing, setting a 1:29.592 lap time around the Barcelona circuit, just under 20 minutes into the session.
Roman Bilinski of Rodin Motorsport narrowly missed out on the first position by a 0.015-second margin, however, ART’s Tuukka Tapponen set a time of 1:28.984, lowering the score to beat. The Finn improved on his own time, followed by his teammate James Wharton. ART got their 1-2-3 when Laurens van Hoepen slotted into the first place.
DAY 1 AM TOP-10 🏁
Voisin
Bilinski
Sharp
van Hoepen
Taponen
Wharton
Domingues
Tsolov
Leon 📸
Nael #F3 #F3Testing pic.twitter.com/aR9mNTIXK4— Formula 3 (@Formula3) February 19, 2025
The top five were then displaced by Ivan Domingues of Van Amersfoort racing, jimmying into P4.
With just 15 minutes to go, Bilinski brought Rodin back to the top, followed by his teammate Louis Sharp, with the last Rodin driver, Callum Voisin displacing Bilinski from the top, making it a Rodin 1-2-3, with ART following with a 4-5-6. Domingues, Tsolov, Noel Leon of PREMA and Theophile Nael of VAR made the rest of the top 10.
PREMA Racing’s Noel Leon goes unchallenged in the Afternoon Session
Campos Racing started the session on a high as they occupied the 1-2-3 with Tsanapol Inthraphuvasak set the top score, followed by his teammates Mari Boya and Tsolov.
However, Campos’ campaign was shortlived as Rodin drivers restored the team’s 1-2-3 with Louis Sharp leading his teammates, Bilinski and Voisin.
DAY 1 PM TOP-10 🏁
Leon
Tramnitz
Sharp
Boya 📸
Tsolov
Bilinski
van Hoepen
Taponen
Voisin
Wharton #F3 #F3Testing pic.twitter.com/AGVBKDW9YF— Formula 3 (@Formula3) February 19, 2025
Noel Leon took P1 for PREMA and stayed there unchallenged for the rest of the session, while Boya managed to break into the top 3 again for Campos.
MP Motorsports’ Tim Tramnitz put himself in second just 0.151s shy of Noel Leon. Louis Sharp regained his P3 with Boya and Tsolov making up the top 5. The session ended with PREMA on top with Noel Leon not moving from the top spot, thus beginning the exciting F3 season.
