Interview
Consistency brings more confidence: Van Amersfoort Racing Pre-Season Review
Van Amersfoort Racing Team Principal Bradley Joyce was pleased with how their Barcelona pre-season test went, although he does not believe we can read too much into the times ahead of Round 1 in Melbourne.
VAR completed 623 laps across the three days of running – the second most behind PREMA Racing – and put in competitive times on both the Qualifying and race runs.
When times were at their quickest on Day 2, Hiyu Yamakoshi led the team’s charge in P8, with a 1:27.574, just over half a second away from Freddie Slater’s benchmark.
The Japanese driver also did the most laps of any driver in the field – with 246 – while Enzo Deligny, who joined the team prior to the test did 198 as he bedded in within the VAR setup.
The two rookies would have also learned a lot from Bruno del Pino, who is returning for his second season in Formula 3, but was affected by illness throughout the test.
Despite that, VAR boss, Joyce, was impressed with what he saw from his group, but does not believe you can read too much into the times for Melbourne, or when the paddock returns to Barcelona for Round 4 in June.
“It was good,” said Joyce when asked about the test. “We've run through pretty much all the programme we were looking to do. We did some performance running and we also got some good race runs.
“It's been good. The obvious caveat is that the conditions here are not very much like what we're going to see when we come back here or what we'll mostly see through the season. But we got to know the drivers a bit better and see where they're at after the winter break as well.
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“We've obviously got a new addition to the team in Enzo. It's nice to have him join the team. I think as the year goes on, they'll all push each other and we can carry on developing the team and the car.”
VAR enjoyed their strongest season ever in Formula 3 last year, finishing fifth in the Standings – their best result in the Championship – and scoring a team record 138 points.
In addition to that, the Dutch outfit achieved three victories and seven podiums in total, and Joyce believes they are in a better position now than they were at this point in 2025.
They get their first chance to show that in Melbourne, where they won the Sprint Race with Santiago Ramos last season, and finished third in the Feature with Théophile Nael.
“Melbourne obviously is a completely different scenario to here,” continued Joyce. “All the drivers have done a million laps around this place. Melbourne, you need to be able to cope with the very changeable conditions that you can have. A completely different circuit.
“You also have Qualifying when all the cars are out on it at the same time. It's a bit more of a difficult scenario to be able to get your lap in. I think we are as a team in a better position.
“We've all been working together for over a year now. Pretty much the team itself, obviously the drivers are different, but the actual team, the VAR F3 team is all the same people.”