Bruno Michel Double-Header Debrief: The twists keep coming in closely fought title battle

11 July 2025

After another two thrilling rounds of action in a 2025 season that is keeping everyone guessing, Bruno Michel gives us his thoughts on how the title fights are taking shape.

In the Drivers’ Championship, Rafael Câmara still leads though his rivals are getting closer with every race that goes by, on pure pace. In the Teams’ Standings, two outfits can hardly be split as we look set to have a new Champion by the end of 2025.

Here is how CEO Michel saw the action around the Red Bull Ring and Silverstone.

SPIELBERG AND SILVERSTONE PROVIDE SOME SPICE

“Once again, we had great racing in the last two rounds, and it’s true that both tracks always provide us and the fans with enthralling on-track action. In Silverstone, the rain on Sunday really spiced things up, too, and I must say we saw some very mature drives.

“We’ve seen three new race winners in the past four races, including Thailand’s Tasanapol Inthraphuvask who claimed a maiden F3 victory in Silvestone Sprint. The Championship is very much still open. We had a clear leader coming into the double-header in Rafael Câmara, but in terms of speed he’s being caught up. And after Silverstone, we have a new leader in the Teams’ Standings as well, with Campos Racing overtaking TRIDENT. All in all, both race weekends had fantastic action on the track, so we’re really happy with that.”

CÂMARA LOSES DOMINANCE, TRAMNITZ AND TSOLOV CLOSE THE GAP

Camara has missed out on a victory since his Barcelona Feature Race win

“When Rafael Camara starts in front, quite often he is untouchable, that’s for sure. And he’s been doing very well in the car in the first half of the season. But in Qualifying in Spielberg, he was not as dominant as previously, and in the Feature, I think the tyre degradation caught him a little bit by surprise.

“After quite a strong start to the race, the degradation and the fact that some cars were saving their tyres more than others made a difference. That’s how his title rival Nikola Tsolov was able to win the race on the track, but, following a technical infringement, the Bulgarian lost the win to Martinius Stenshorne’s benefit.

“At Silverstone, weather came into play and both Camara and Tsolov – who was on pole position, started on the Hard tyres, which turned out to be the wrong decision. I’m sure they will want that decision back, but we got to see a new Feature Race winner in Mari Boya on Sunday, and he did a great job. The Spaniard slowly, but surely, is joining the title fight.

“Meanwhile, Tim Tramnitz may have left Silverstone pointless, but his performance in Austria, and the fact that Tsolov lost the Spielberg Feature win, plus lost some extremely precious points in the Silverstone Feature, means that the MP Motorsport ace has moved up to second in the Standings. It will be interesting to see what happens as we head towards the summer break.”

A LOOK AT THE TEAMS STANDINGS

The Teams' title fight is continuing to close up after Silverstone

“We’ve been used to a battle between reigning champions PREMA Racing and TRIDENT in recent years for the F3 crown. But Campos Racing have thrown the gauntlet and are now sitting pretty at the top of the Standings, 2 points ahead of TRIDENT. There still quite a few points left on the table, but it looks like the title will be decided between these two teams.

“Behind the pair, MP Motorsport are a solid third, but Van Amersfoort Racing are having their strongest season to date, so could they challenge their countrymen for a podium finish? ART Grand Prix – who finally claimed a win this season in Spielberg Sprint, remain within touching distance to VAR, Rodin Motorsport in tow.

“I think it could be a very close fight for all of these teams in the final three rounds of 2025.”

ALL EYES ON SPA

“Next up on the calendar is another double-header, starting in Spa-Francorchamps. This is a venue where again the weather can be a bit unpredictable, just like Silverstone. It’s a very technical track, one that the drivers and the teams like for its challenge. It can also be a make-or-break race weekend for the drivers chasing for the F3 crown.

“There are teams that are expected to do strongly, looking at past results, but it’s true that since we introduced the new car, we’ve seen a bit of a reshuffle, which is great and exciting to see. But for now, everyone has a bit of time to rest first and then look at the data to prep for the next two rounds.”