James Wharton’s Barcelona Weekend Debrief

16 June 2026

It was back to the top step for James Wharton and PREMA Racing in Barcelona, as the Australian driver delivered the Italian team’s first victory since 2024.

After the Feature Race chequered flag brought the weekend to a close, we caught up with him to get his thoughts on the weekend overall.

THAT WINNING FEELING

“Overall, I feel like we have a lot of positives to take away, not just in the way every weekend we say that, but Saturday was the best day we've had in 2026 so far and that was a day where we actually got to show our true pace and show what we can do when we're at the pointy end of the grid.

“At the end of the day, when the cars in the window, when I'm in the window, I think we're one of the fastest cars on track. It's just, we're struggling to find the consistency, and I feel like on Sunday that showed a bit where we didn't quite have the pace that we did on Saturday, so we still have a lot of work to do.

“We still have lots of things to improve but I'm very happy with this weekend and I want the team to be happy as well with how they've performed this week.

“At the end of the day, we scored our first points, well first major points as a team so we need to take that into the next week, and we need to just keep building on this at the end of the day.

“Right now, we are one of the top teams, but we need to focus on that and keep building to hopefully get on the podium more often and be fighting at the front, not just in the sprint but in the future as well.”

Wharton's victory was PREMAs first since the 2024 F3 campaign

AREAS OF FOCUS

“I just feel like we've got a car that is very, very easy to drive and maybe it's a little bit too easy in a way.

“I feel like we need to be a little bit more aggressive on what we do with the car but at the same time it's a good thing in a way as the race pace is really strong because of it so we just have to have a bit more compromise from qualifying to the race is the biggest thing to work on.”

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UP NEXT – SPIELBERG

“The test was very positive. It was not the cleanest test from my side having some issues throughout so we didn't really get to show our true pace again but at the same time we showed it this weekend. So I'm sure we can go to Red Bull Ring on the front foot for the first time this year which feels a little bit different to the rest of the year so go to Red Bull Ring with a lot of confidence in myself.

“I feel like I'm on the upward spiral now and out of my little rut that I was in, so I feel ready for Red Bull Ring. I still feel like there's a little bit to go but I definitely feel a lot more back to who I was previous years and I feel like I'm starting to understand that I have the ability to be at the front, I just need to execute.”