‘I had a blast’ - Macedo pleased with performance after ‘unexpected’ test with VAR in Jerez

Francisco Macedo set the fastest time of this week’s Jerez post-season test, after receiving a late call up from Van Amersfoort Racing.

The Portuguese driver showed strong pace, recovering from some issues on Day 1 to top the timesheets on the second day’s morning session.

When times were at their quickest during the qualifying runs, Macedo completed a 1:29.766, the best time of the week, leading fellow VAR driver Enzo Deligny by 0.169s.

Macedo followed that up with a run to second in the afternoon, which was dominated by race simulations.

Speaking in the paddock at the end of the test, Macedo reflected on the unexpected opportunity to jump into the F3 car.

“It was a bit of an unexpected test,” he said. “I actually received a late call. I tried to prepare myself as best as possible, and today I managed to get a P1 in the morning, P2 in the afternoon.

“Unfortunately, yesterday I had some issues during the day, but me and the team managed to solve them during the night, and today we were fastest.”

Speaking further about his time driving the Formula 3 car, Macedo picked out the best parts of the experience.

READ MORE

• AS IT HAPPENED: Follow all the action from Day 2 of post-season testing in Jerez
• Nakamura-Berta reflects on ‘big learning day’ after ending up fastest in Jerez

“It was my first time in the F3, and it's completely different to the FREC that I am used to driving,” he explained.

“It has a lot more speed, a lot better braking, and I just had a blast. VAR was my team from last year, so it was quite easy to adapt to that aspect.

“I already knew everyone and I felt very comfortable since day one with the team and of course with the car too.”

Speaking more about the challenges that he had to adapt to, Macedo picked out tyre management on race runs, especially with there being two different compounds this week – the Medium and the Hard.

“It was a big challenge because in my previous categories, it was always a one-compound tyre,” he explained.

READ MORE

• Nakamura-Berta ends Day 1 of Jerez post-season testing on top
• PREVIEW: 2026 Post-Season Testing starts with two days in Jerez

“So here we had two compounds and also the tyre life is a lot shorter. I had to be a lot more on it from the first lap.

“Then also the race runs were a bit more tricky, with more tyre degradation. I just had to adapt and learn as much as possible.

When asked if he had adapted well to the tyres by the end, Macedo joked: “Actually I managed to survive at least to the end.”