FIA Formula 3 Championship is a championship built for the ladder to Formula 1, being the series below Formula 2. They follow the Formula 1 calendar, along with Formula 2, but compete in selected rounds. It became Formula 3 after they joined GP3 and Formula 3 European together to create a single championship in 2019. The first ever champions of the championship were Robert Shwartzman with Prema Racing.
Like Formula 2, they are identical cars, meaning talent is monitored in the races. Pirelli tires are used for each event with hards, mediums and softs. Each driver has four sets of dry-weather tyres and two sets of wet-weather tyres available at each event. In the rules, any individual developments or upgrades are not permitted and all spare parts must be purchased directly from the Formula 3 Championship.
The Formula 3 cars have been fitted with the system called DRS, or Drag Reduction System. This is the lift of the back wing to allow air flow to go through the wing reducing dirty air, increasing speed for the driver.
There are additional points given for pole position with 4 points and fastest lap with 2 points.
In Formula 3, there are 4 sessions: practice, qualifying, race 1 and race 2.
Practice | It is a 45 minute session where drivers and teams test out the track, tyres, setups and so on before qualifying or the races. |
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Qualifying | Qualifying is a 30 minute session where all drivers aim to complete a fast lap time in order to start in pole position for the first race. The quickest also gains 4 points in the championship. |
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Race 1 | The race will always be up to 40 minutes long. They do not need to complete a mandatory pit stop, meaning it is pure racing from start to finish. The top 10 who finish are reversed for the following race, meaning 10th starts in pole position for the second race. |
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Race 2 | Like Race 1, it will always be up to 40 minutes long. There are no mandatory pit stops so it’s racing from lights to chequered flag. |
Points are as follows, but there are extra points given for:
– Pole Position (+4)
– Fastest Lap in a Race (+2)
Race 1 points are as follows:
Pos | 1st | 2nd | 3rd | 4th | 5th | 6th | 7th | 8th | 9th | 10th |
Points | 25 | 18 | 15 | 12 | 10 | 8 | 6 | 4 | 2 | 1 |
Race 2 points are as follows:
Pos | 1st | 2nd | 3rd | 4th | 5th | 6th | 7th | 8th | 9th | 10th |
Points | 15 | 12 | 10 | 8 | 6 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 1 |
The champions are:
Champion | Driver | Team |
2019 | Robert Shwartzman | Prema Racing |
2020 | season still ongoing | season still ongoing |