FIA Formula 3 2025 Season Review – Hitting the midway point in Barcelona and Spielberg

The 2025 campaign rolled on with the final leg of the triple-header in Barcelona before a short break and trip to Spielberg as the halfway mark came and went.

Rafael Câmara continued his charge to the title, while Nikola Tsolov emerged as his biggest threat for the crown, albeit with two major blows to his chances coming in Rounds 5 and 6.

Round 5 – Barcelona

Kicking off the final leg of the European triple-header, Rafael Câmara secured pole position number four of the year, meaning he had missed the top spot just once all year.

The Brazilian headed up Nikola Tsolov on the grid, with the Campos Racing driver establishing himself as a title contender following his Monte Carlo victory. Rounding out the top three was Laurens van Hoepen for ART Grand Prix with his best Friday result of the season.

The Sprint Race was the Van Amersfoort Racing show. Starting on reverse grid pole, Roman Bilinski was under pressure immediately to retain that advantage, with Martinius Stenshorne and Tim Tramnitz dicing with the Rodin Motorsport driver heading to Turn 1.

They were three-wide into Turn 2 but quickly ran out of room, resulting in contact and race-ending damage for all three.

It promoted Ivan Domingues into an early lead after the Portuguese driver had started sixth on the grid. The VAR driver was able to keep his rivals at bay and out of DRS range, a crucial factor with Turn 1 the prime overtaking spot.

He earned his maiden victory in F3 and after a late-race issue for Noah Stromsted took the Dane out of the running, teammate Santiago Ramos made it a VAR 1-2. Tsolov kept his strong momentum going with another podium in P3.

Sunday’s Feature Race looked set to pitch the two title contenders against one another, but a slow start for Tsolov in P2 gave Câmara breathing room on the run to Turn 1, with the Bulgarian down in eighth as a result of his poor launch.

The TRIDENT driver was comfortable out in front, able to build up a buffer over the chasing pack and controlling two Safety Car restarts en route to his third win of the season.

French duo Théophile Nael and Alessandro Giusti battled their way onto the podium for VAR and MP Motorsport, while Tsolov was able to recover to achieve P5, but dropped valuable points to the Championship leader.

Câmara’s victory lifted him onto 105 points, with Tsolov second on 79 and Tramnitz third on 70 heading to Spielberg.

Round 6 - Spielberg

Tsolov rebounded in brilliant style with pole in Spielberg, his second of the 2025 campaign. Brad Benavides put in a stellar effort to put AIX Racing second on the grid with Noah Stromsted rounding out the top three.

Starting on reverse grid pole, James Wharton had Giusti for close company on the first lap, but was able to retain P1.

Tsolov was wasting no time and was up to seventh with some opportunistic moves in the opening exchanges. By Lap 9, he was onto the rear wing of title rival Câmara and soon ahead.

A late Safety Car bunched the pack back up, but Wharton’s steadfast defence of the lead continued, while Tsolov was showing no signs of slowing down - a pass on teammate Tasanapol Inthraphuvasak put him fourth.

Wharton held firm for his first F3 win ahead of Giusti, while Ugo Ugochuwku earned P3 on the road, but was later demoted to 16th by a post-race penalty, moving Tsolov up to third.

Onto Sunday and the Bulgarian Lion’s strong weekend continued as he surged into a comfortable early lead, while Benavides lost several spots in the early running.

Ugochukwu led the pursuit of Tsolov in P2, until Câmara passed the American on Lap 7. Noah Stromsted followed his teammate through soon after, as did Martinius Stenshorne.

Tim Tramnitz was another driver making a charge through the pack, and he took fifth on Lap 16 from Ugochukwu while the fight for the podium places continued.

Stenshorne took second from Câmara, as the TRIDENT driver’s pace began to slip, and Tramnitz was able to climb up to P3 before the end. Tsolov though was uncatchable and won on the road, but a post-race disqualification put a huge dent in his title hopes after what had been an impressive weekend.

It handed victory to Stenshorne, with Tramnitz P2 and Mari Boya earning third for Campos Racing. The result meant Câmara remained P1 in the Standings on 117 points ahead of Tramnitz who moved up to second on 93 points, four ahead of Tsolov in third.