ART Grand Prix target climb back up the F3 order

The last team to finalise their driver lineup for 2024, ART Grand Prix enter the new campaign with high hopes after a disappointing season last time out.

The French outfit that helped Victor Martins claim the Drivers’ crown back in 2022 slipped back to eighth in the Teams’ Standings, a fall that they will be eager to arrest this year.

Enlisted to help them do just that, Christian Mansell, Laurens van Hoepen and Nikola Tsolov make for a promising lineup that could well help the team back up into familiar territory at the sharp end of the grid.

It will be tough work, but the trio have plenty of potential to make that happen during the 2024 season.

Mansell joins the French squad fresh from an impressive rookie campaign that included two podiums in the latter half of the year. The Australian made marked gains throughout as he built up more experience, achieving seven points-scoring results in the final nine races including the two rostrum appearances.

He is aiming to make those performances a regular occurrence this year as he joins from Campos Racing.

When the laps were at their quickest in the morning sessions of pre-season testing, Mansell was able to post times good enough to leave him in and around the top 10, a positive beginning to his collaboration with ART.

Accumulating 149 laps in his own right over the course of the three days in Sakhir, the 19-year-old prepared as well as he could considering the downpour of day one limited running to begin the test.

Van Hoepen arrives in F3 fresh from two previous campaigns with ART’s Formula Regional European Championship outfit, making great improvements in his second season. The Dutch driver went from 21st in the standings to 10th, taking two podiums and nine points finishes, five of those coming in the final six races.

His Formula Regional Oceania results were equally impressive, securing five podiums in six appearances in what was a part-time entry to the 2023 campaign. One win, two P2 finishes, and another two third-place results put him 11th in the standings on 154 points in the space of just two rounds.

Like Mansell, his improvements across the campaign from beginning to end stand him in good stead for what comes next in FIA F3, though it will be a year of learning with it being his rookie season.

After struggling to get to grips earlier in the year, Tsolov made improvements towards the end of his 2023 rookie season in the Championship. The Bulgarian Lion finished twice in the points in the final two rounds, taking P7 and P9 in the last Sprint Races of the campaign.

This time around, the goalposts have moved and there’s a feeling in the ART camp that the Alpine Academy Driver is well placed to make a step forward in performance this time around. Those within the team believe that the driver of 12 months ago is a world away from the one they have in the garage for 2024.

A year of experience will of course have done the 17-year-old plenty of good. After a second winter of preparation for F3 now knowing what to expect, he could have exactly what he needs to show the clear potential those that work closest to him expect to shine through sooner rather than later.

Tsolov cut a very relaxed figure throughout testing and was quietly pleased with the work he and his ART team had carried out across the three days of testing. While he wasn’t at the top of the timing screens in any of the sessions, seventh across both segments on day two and P2 in the final morning indicated that steps have been made over the break.

READ MORE: Optimising performance the goal this year: ART Grand Prix Pre-Season round-up

A team used to running at the front and competing for the biggest prizes, the goal for ART Grand Prix in 2024 is clear: return to competitiveness.

After running concluded in Sakhir, the early signs are positive though nobody in the paddock is taking anything for granted at this early stage. With one rookie and two experienced heads at the team, ART’s fightback looks promising on paper, but we will have to wait and see if pre-season promise turns into anything material at the season-opener.