Matteo De Palo aiming to bounce back from Melbourne opener and show true potential

It was a tricky opening weekend of the season for rookie Matteo De Palo, as he made his FIA Formula 3 debut with TRIDENT in Melbourne.

The Italian was unfortunate to miss out on the top 12 spots in Qualifying, making his weekend tougher than he’d have ideally liked.

Contact in the Sprint Race left him down the back of the pack once more, but a more positive Sunday brought more track time, and experience that’ll be valuable to take into the upcoming races.

Reflecting on his time in Melbourne, De Palo said that it was important to learn from the setbacks he’d faced.

“Melbourne wasn’t really good. In Free Practice, the pace was good even though it was my first time there. I managed to learn quickly and even in Qualifying, my first stint on the new tyres, I was P5 with a lot of room for improvement.

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“But then I had the crash, so it was not ideal and because I caused the Red Flag, I had to start last on the grid. But then it was all about recovering places and getting experience.

“It will get better over the next races, but it’s a shame because I think if we didn’t have the Qualifying we had, the potential was looking really good and my pace was strong.

De Palo also spoke ahead of the season about the work the team has put into getting him ready for the new season. He competed for TRIDENT in Formula Regional European Championship last year, and was looking to make that experience with the team count in 2026.

“We have been working really a lot during the winter to get ready for this season and for all the changes from the Formula Regional cars to the Formula 3 cars. So I feel really confident. I also feel like with a big team behind me, supporting me, we can have success this year.”

De Palo enters 2026 with the support of McLaren after joining the Formula 1 team’s Driver Development Programme.

He says it has already been a huge step and help in his career, and added he was grateful to be working with such a successful outfit.

“I'm really proud about this, to have such a team like McLaren supporting me throughout my career. I will use all their help to benefit as much as possible.

“We have been working together for a couple of weeks at the MTC - the first time I went there, it felt unreal. Entering there, seeing all the cars, it was really cool.”

Looking ahead to what comes next in F3, De Palo says he is excited to get back to racing in Monte Carlo for the next round of the season.

The TRIDENT driver has already been working hard in the simulator around a track that he expects will be a huge challenge, but equally rewarding to experience.

“I’ve been at TRIDENT doing a lot of simulator work getting ready for each of the races. Monaco will be really challenging but also nice to discover. After last year, I’m confident that the team and I can achieve really good results.

“I’m looking forward to the next races because when things have been working, we have been looking quite good. The pace looks really strong in both races and Qualifying. I can’t wait to get back on track and give our best.”