Talking points from Barcelona

With the dust settled at the end of the first ever FIA Formula 3 race weekend, at The Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya in Spain, we take a look at five talking points from the track.

We came, we saw, we conquered

There would be no siesta in Spain for the FIA Formula 3 teams and drivers. The Championship enjoyed a successful start to life in the metropolis of Catalonia, giving anxious racing fans a glimpse of the electrifying season that looks to lay ahead. Billed as the perfect training ground for young and ambitious drivers with cars that share an identical chassis, engine and Pirelli tyres, anticipation was rife in Barcelona.

When racing finally commenced on Saturday, we were treated to a wheel-to-wheel fight that had us on the edge of our seats. The 30 cars battled brilliantly on track and suffered just one DNF in Race 1 – this added up to a whole lot of racing.

If Round 1 is anything to go by, we’re in for a treat.

The PREMA party

There are so many teams and drivers who could be praised this weekend in the Championship’s opener, but PREMA made themselves impossible to ignore. The Italians amassed 81 points over the weekend, which included our first ever race winners.

Robert Shwartzman and Jehan Daruvala will go down in history having secured the first two wins in the championship, but the team were dominant all round. Three of the top four places in qualifying were secured by PREMA drivers, which set them up nicely for Race 1.

Shwartzman and Marcus Armstrong retained their P1 and P3 placings, while Daruvala still finished in a solid seventh place – which set him up nicely on the reverse grid for Race 2. The Indian seared to first early on and never wavered, with his two teammates also taking up places in the top five.

“Did I win?”

From pole to first place, but not in the way you’d expect… Shwartzman’s first F3 victory was a major talking point in the weekend – mostly because he didn’t finish in first place.

The PREMA driver clambered out of his car in the parc fermé having thought he’d finished as runner up – only to see on-track winner Christian Lundgaard demoted to second place with a late five-second time penalty.

The driver admitted to having mixed feelings about the win, but shouldn’t let the method of victory take away from the feat. The title of F3’s first ever race winner is one that he will always hold, and his racing all weekend suggested he deserved it.

The argument for ART

PREMA may have taken the headlines in the inaugural F3 round, but ART Grand Prix pushed them every step of the way. Lundgaard in particular was a strong competitor all weekend and technically finished Race 1 in first place.

Their other two drivers – David Beckmann and Max Fewtrell – completed the top five in Race 1, alongside PREMA duo Shwartzman and Armstrong. While, their sixth, seventh and eighth place finishes on Sunday meant that they were the only team other than PREMA to see all three drivers score points in both races.

So we say: let the battle for supremacy commence…

The wait for Le Castellet

You want more? Because we do. This weekend has given us the F3 bug and we cannot wait for Le Castellet in just over a month’s time. Plenty of confidence will have been gained by the drivers and their teams after a successful weekend and they are sure to come out even stronger in Fre for what they have learned.

With six different podium finishers spread across four teams from just two races we’re excited to see who can add their names to the tally next time out. Will Shwartzman launch a Championship bid? Can Lundgaard gain revenge for Race 1? Will PREMA extend their lead at the top of the Championship, or will ART attack their position? Or, will we see a completely new look podium?

Join us in France between 21-23 June to find out.