Martinius Stenshorne on re-signing with Hitech TGR and high hopes for 2025

With a rookie season in FIA Formula 3 under his belt, Hitech TGR’s Martinius Stenshorne returns with greater expectations after a year of lessons learned.

The Norwegian driver was a race winner in 2024, standing on the top step in Melbourne after the Sprint Race, but he has designs on a Feature Race victory and much more in 2025.

Ahead of testing, he sat down to reflect on his re-signing with Hitech, explaining why this year can be different.

“I’m very excited to be back,” he began. “The rookie season was not as good as I was hoping for. We had bigger expectations than that, but sometimes it’s just like that.

“You have to take learnings from a season like that. I learned a lot during the year, so I feel more prepared now.

“It’s going to be a good challenge and I’m hoping we can get it right quickly"

“We still need to take a win in the Feature Race. I haven’t done that yet but getting the win in Melbourne and P2 in Red Bull Ring was a nice bonus in a difficult season. But now I’m looking to go even better and taking more points in the Feature Races.”

The experiences of last season were tough to go through but have helped him get to a point where he feels confident going forward.

Going through those difficult moments means he now has a better understanding and expectation of how to prepare for and manage each race weekend.

“I know what to expect now. Last year it was a new Championship for me, and I was used to a bit more track time than what you get in F3, so that was the main difficulty for me.

“Now I’m used to that kind of stuff, I know how to be more prepared going into the race weekend which I think will help me this year.”

Coming back with Hitech is also a huge positive says Stenshorne, who believes that with the introduction of the new F3 car, any form of familiarity will pay dividends.

Knowing how each other works will cut down on that learning time and instead efforts can be focused on working out how to extract the best performance from the new car and Pirelli tyres.

READ MORE: The drivers Hitech TGR hope will help them win both Championships in 2025

“It’s a positive to be back with Hitech for sure now that we have a new car. They know me, I know them, hopefully that will make the process of getting to the limit of the new car even easier.

“It’s going to be a good challenge and I’m hoping we can get it right quickly. Testing is going to be super helpful. Everyone is trying to predict how it’s going to be but until we get back out on track, it’s going to be difficult to know 100% for sure.

“Going to Barcelona will be super helpful before we get to Melbourne for the first race weekend. It’s going to be hugely important to understand everything with how the car works.

“Finding a good baseline for me and the team so we have something to work on for the rest of the season. There’s a lot of other things we have to discover with the tyres and the car, so it’s going to be excited.”

Another positive factor for Stenshorne is the F3 calendar remaining identical to the one from 2024, meaning there will be no new circuits to learn.

Last season, there were three venues he visited for the first time and while he was victorious around Albert Park, he believes all of last year’s experiences will again cut down on adaptation time and he can instead be focused on finding more performance.

“Last year there were a couple new venues for me – Australia, Monaco and Bahrain. Now I know those, I guess it’s going to be a bit easier, especially for Monaco and Australia. Knowing what everything is like, it’s going to be a plus with the limited track time, that’s going to be beneficial.”

Though Stenshorne along with the 29 other drivers will all have one aim in mind entering the season, the 19-year-old says he will be keeping things simple at first, with points the primary goal in the beginning.

“I don’t have any specific targets, I’m just going to be trying to do my best together with the team and to work as hard as possible.

“That way we can hopefully be up there and that’s my main aim. That and to just be consistent, stay in the points and to get some wins will be instrumental.”