Noel León pleased after fast start with PREMA Racing and “promising” 2025 car

PREMA Racing go into 2025 looking to defend their FIA Formula 3 Teams’ Championship crown and the Italian outfit started on the front foot with Noel León.

Their new signing for this season finished the day with the fastest time, as he set a 1:27.711 in the afternoon segment on the opening day of testing to lead the field.

Speaking after jumping out of the car and debriefing with the team, León said it had been a hugely positive start, and that he was already excited to build on their work in the coming days.

“It's a good start of the season,” he summarised. “Obviously, it's a lot of work to do and still it’s the first day and not all of us are on the same programme.

“Today, I didn’t jump out of the car all morning or afternoon. At the end of the day, we want to be back driving. The engineers have said I did a lot of laps, I feel a bit tired but I’m excited for Days 2 and 3.

“There are more laps to come, we’ll try some more performance runs tomorrow and then Day 3 will be more focused on race runs. Today was more about getting the sensors and the car sorted. Performance will be the focus for the coming days.

“But we’re happy with today, with all the data that we collected and the programmes we finished. Now we’re looking forward to the next two days and enjoying the new car.”

Day 1 of pre-season testing in Barcelona marked the first time that all 10 teams ran their cars on track at the same time, marking the beginning of the new era for the Championship.

Having sampled the previous generation of car during his rookie campaign in 2024 and across the post-season tests last season, León says he could feel the differences on track already.

READ MORE: León fastest on opening day of 2025 pre-season test in Barcelona

He added that the changes bode well for racing and when it comes time to push on against rivals.

“Both cars have their high points. One is faster in some corners, the other faster in another. I think this new car will be good for racing but let’s see. At the moment it looks promising and interesting for the racing.”

Refocusing on the task at hand across testing, León admits that while it was nice to top the times on the opening day, there’s no time to get carried away with the result.

He says the team will be planning out the fine points in their run plans for Days 2 and 3, with more performance to come over the remainder of the test.

It’s all in pursuit of his ultimate goal for 2025: fighting for the Formula 3 Drivers’ Championship.

“I’ve been preparing to fight for the Championship this year, that’s the main goal for this season. We’re focused on that, and I feel really good and that I’m prepared for the challenge. It’s a big challenge but as a team, we need to work really hard to arrive in Australia and be strong and then carry that into the rest of the season.

“It’s the first day today, we’re in a good position but there are still a lot of things to improve both on my side and on the team’s side. We’re getting there but to finish P1, it’s still a lovely feeling.

“We did a lot of testing with the team, just to get used to everything and to not lose time in these sessions. I feel at home at PREMA so thankful to all of the support from the team.

“With a new car, there’s a lot of work to do. Today, we did a lot of laps, a lot of testing and a lot of programmes and we still have a lot more to do over the next two days. It’s getting there, I love the car and it’s going in a good direction.