Tim Tramnitz on his 2024 season: Learning quickly in F3

17 October 2024

A top 10 finish in the FIA Formula 3 Drivers’ Championship was a solid result for Tim Tramnitz in what was his rookie campaign, but the German driver is clear he’d hoped for more.

It’s understandable after the Red Bull Junior Team and MP Motorsport driver made such a positive start to life in F3 early on. Three podiums in the opening four rounds and six top 10 finishes out of eight made for a solid platform, but he and the team struggled to build on that.

“I think we started the season so well in Bahrain. I hoped for a bit more, more points and more podiums, especially during the triple-header, but the biggest thing I probably learned was just how to prepare for Quali,” Tramnitz reflected.

“It was a very big confidence boost, on the other hand I could also say that I thought it would be easier. Maybe with a mindset of we have to do everything we can to get podiums, maybe we would have extracted a little bit more. Or maybe not had so many difficulties at the beginning of the year.

“Then in the triple-header, there were more things to learn and things that didn’t really go our way. But the confidence was very good, and I was feeling very confident throughout the whole year.”

Having stood on the podium in three of the opening four rounds of the campaign, Tramnitz expected to take another step forward in competitiveness across the European triple-header.

Things didn’t go according to plan though, and he says that his positive start to the campaign might have actually hindered their progress as he looked to learn as much as possible.

Tramnitz says that the team's strong start to 2024 might have hurt their progress

“I would say that having a bit more of a difficult time in the beginning of the year might have actually helped us further down the line. At the beginning of the season, everything was running smoothly, without too many things going wrong.

“In general, you make a lot of steps in your mind, and I think it was probably one of the seasons where I learned the most racing against very competitive drivers. The fighting with DRS was also completely different to what I was used to from before, tyre management in the races and in qualifying also, the race craft as well.”

“I thought at some point very early in the season that I’d got my head around it all. But then I figured out that there was still a lot of things to learn. I think coming back from Imola or Monaco, I thought ‘OK, I’ve got this, I know what I have to do.’

“But then there were so many things happening across the triple-header and a lot of new things to learn, which I didn’t expect so much at that point. So, I’d say from Budapest, I got my head around things and from then onwards, I was very competitive, knowing what I had to do and so for the last three rounds, I was fully there.”

The victory finally came right at the end of the campaign, as Tramnitz secured a visit to the top step of the podium in the Monza Sprint Race.

A maiden F3 victory finally arrived in the final round, as Tramnitz won the Monza Sprint

It was a long time coming says the German, and after a frustrating period in the middle-phase of the season, he says it was a hugely satisfying moment.

“After coming P2 in Imola and Monaco, I thought ‘come on now, I really want to win my first race,’ but then it took a bit longer than I thought to get back on the podium.

“It was a great feeling to finally be on the top step. How we managed the race together as a team was very nice, so it was a big relief to get it in my rookie season and win a race in my first year.”

Reflecting on 2024 overall, Tramnitz believes it was a year full of ups and downs but that he and MP were able to prove their speed more regularly than the final standings suggest.

The Red Bull junior says that his scoring record speaks to that, with only two rounds in Melbourne and Silverstone resulting in no points – and both of those were brand new circuits for Tramnitz.

“Melbourne was new, so was Silverstone and then everywhere else I managed to get at least a point. Silverstone – with the weather chaos, I feel like we were just a bit unlucky. We had good pace the whole weekend, so it was very disappointing, but that’s also part of the learning process.

“We can take some satisfaction, there are a lot of things I can be happy about. On the other hand, there’s a lot of things which I want to work on in the off season. There are things I can improve, a lot to understand and to do over the winter.”