Interview
‘A dream come true’ – Gladysz delighted to step up to F3 with ‘great’ ART Grand Prix in 2026
Maciej Gladysz is enjoying his first few weeks as an official Formula 3 driver for ART Grand Prix, as he shared his early learnings from post-season testing and his hopes for the 2026 campaign.
The Polish driver graduates to F3 with a superb record in single seaters, having finished third in both the 2024 Formula Winter Series and Spanish F4 Championship.
Earlier in 2025, he won the Eurocup-3 Spanish Winter Championship and is now taking the next step in his career with ART Grand Prix, an opportunity he is thrilled to have.
“I am really excited,” said Gladysz on graduating to F3. “It will be my rookie season and obviously it's a dream come true. Racing as well with such a great team like ART Grand Prix and competing against some of the most talented drivers in the world, it's super nice.
“As I said it will be my rookie season, so I am not putting any pressure on myself. I will just try to do my best, improve weekend by weekend, gain some experience every time, and also learn new things every time.
“It would be nice to fight at the top, but it's a super competitive championship, so that it will be really hard. The luck needs to be on the driver’s side sometimes, and everything needs to be working. Sometimes, it would be nice to have that luck.”
Luck was something that Gladysz felt he did not have in the second part of his 2025 season, finishing 10th in the Eurocup-3 Standings, as he felt several penalties dented his hopes of ending up in the top three once again.
Gladysz hopes to avoid those in 2026, and to pick up the sort of form that he had displayed at the start of his career in single seaters.
“That will be really important for the next season,” said Gladysz on avoiding penalties. “We started off good this season, winning the Winter Series Championship in Eurocup.
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“Last year as well was good in Spanish F4, I finished in the top three, so honestly my single seater career is going well so far. I hope it continues to go in this direction, so next year as well will be quite strong.
“But as I said, it's a super competitive championship, and it will be really hard. So it's hard to predict how everything goes, and we are going to tracks that I have never been too, so it will be hard to say if I am straight on it or if I need time to adapt.”
As well as adapting to the tracks he has not visited before, the 17-year-old will also be adjusting to life at a new team. Having never raced with ART previously in another Championship, he is so far enjoying life at his new team.
“I am feeling happy and confident being with them,” said Gladysz on his first few months with ART. “In the last two years I have been working with MP Motorsport, but now I'm in ART.
“I am confident with my engineer. We are working well, and we made really good steps throughout the tests. In Jerez, we struggled a bit with the car as I was trying to adapt, so obviously I was not going to be the fastest on track, because it was my first time.
“After we went to Barcelona and made a good step. We were super strong, competitive to the other teams in quali sessions, and Imola, we were quite strong again.
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“It was my first time at Imola, so maybe the result was not the best, but honestly the car is feeling quite okay. We will see how the pre-season test goes, and then Australia. We will try to work as much as possible in Australia, just to be really strong there.”
When asked what he has so far found the most challenging to adapt to in the F3 car, Gladysz responded: “I would say the race performances. The Eurocup-3 car I drove before, the tyre degradation was not as big as it is in F3.
“You have one slide in Formula 3 and you are in a hard situation with your tyres. So you need to manage them well, you can't just release the brakes as fast as possible. Also if you slide a bit with the rear at the beginning of the race, it will be really hard to keep the balance in the race.
“If you do everything well, then your race could be good. As well as that, when we did the race simulation, we did not fight with anybody, so we did not need to focus on the cars behind.
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“In the races, we will be fighting for positions, so you focus on both, overtaking and the tyres, thinking about how you can overtake someone without sliding. I think this will be the main key.”
Gladysz will be spending the next few weeks with ART preparing in the simulator, and will no doubt be working on his race performance to be ready for next season.
The Polish driver says he will also be working both physically and mentally, looking to remain calm next year. In addition to that, he also highlighted what he, and many other drivers, feel is a key area to work on for 2026.
“Obviously, if I qualify in the top 12, that would be nice,” he concluded. “If you do that, the races should be easier. You already have strong drivers ahead, and maybe you can fight forward in the Sprint and then you can manage the race.
“If you are leading and you defend well into the first corner, then you will not have anybody in front, then you have clean air and you can do your own race.
“Qualifying will be the most important, qualifying in the top 12 especially, but managing tyres in the race, that's what I am mostly trying to learn about.”