F3 returns to action at pre-season testing in Bahrain

The Formula 3 championship hits the track in Sakhir, Bahrain, this week, following on from a spectacular 2021 campaign that saw Dennis Hauger crowned Champion, earning him a well-deserved promotion into the second tier with PREMA Racing.

Starting on Wednesday, the three days of testing will give the teams and drivers their first on-track experience of the season, before the Bahrain International Circuit kicks off the 18-race, nine-round season.

WHAT TO EXPECT

Running from 2 – 4 March, each day of the official pre-season test will be split into a morning and an afternoon session, with a total of 15 hours of track time available across the three days. The first session of the day will run between 9am and 11.30am, while the second session will start at 2.30pm and run until 5pm local time.

Teams will be testing on Pirelli’s hard compound tyres, the same compound that will be used during the opening round of the season at the Bahrain International Circuit, which takes place 18-20 March. Each car will be allocated four sets of tyres for the duration of the test.

WATCH: The best of the action from 2021

THE CHALLENGERS

With 29 out of 30 drivers announced for the new campaign, the new-look F3 field blends 15 exciting rookies with 14 established names, including last season’s highest placed driver, Victor Martins, who has joined ART Grand Prix.

Teams' Champions Trident and Drivers' Champions PREMA Racing both have new look line-ups. Trident will field Jonny Edgar, Zane Maloney and Roman Staněk, while PREMA's roster features Arthue Leclerc, Oliver Bearman and Jak Crawford.

Every team on the grid will run at least one rookie, while Carlin will operate with an all first-year line-up of Zak O’Sullivan, Brad Benavides and Enzo Trulli. Campos possess the youngest team, with David Vidales, Hunter Yeany and Josep María Martí.

Since finishing as the quickest driver in post-season testing at Valencia last year with ART, Grégoire Saucy has gone on to sign with the French team for 2022.

Trident’s Zane Maloney will become the first driver from Barbados to compete in F3 and Hitech’s Nazim Azman will become the first Malaysian to race in F3, with 18 different nationalities on the grid overall.

READ MORE: Colapinto says LMP2 experience could help him with ‘tyre degradation and risk management’ in F3

WHERE TO FOLLOW

You can keep track of all the action at pre-season testing on the official website via live timing.

FIA Formula 3 Sakhir pre-season test entry list