Maciej Gladysz Season Review: Maiden win and important lessons learned

Maciej Gladysz enjoyed a decent rookie season in FIA Formula 3, with a maiden Feature Race victory at Silverstone the highlight of 2026 for the ART Grand Prix driver.

The Polish driver was able to secure 12th in the Drivers' Standings with multiple top 10 finishes and that victory the peak of the season.

"I'm not too happy with the season overall. I think there were many rounds that I messed up. I think Monaco or Barcelona should have gone much better. Or even Hungary, where I started from P2 and I had one of the worst starts of the year.

"Then Monza, I was not too quick and I had a big problem with the car as well. So overall, the season's not gone the way I would have wanted."

Though he feels the season didn't pan out in the manner he'd hoped for ahead of the campaign, it was down to a lack of consistency rather than any missing speed according to the Polish driver.

"I think the consistency's been missing this year. I think when everything was going well with myself and with the car, I think we were always up there.

"We've just struggled a bit for rhythm this season. It's obviously nice to see my teammates scoring points. I mean, in Monza it was really helpful because we went from 5th to 3rd in one round, so it was good, but obviously it's not too nice to see.

"It's nice to see my teammates winning, but it's not nice when you're not fighting with them for the top steps.

"So, I was happy for them but disappointed at the same time because obviously you want to be the top teammate. But that is one of the big lessons this year I think: being humble.

"You can't be too confident. I mean, once you have a good weekend you need to approach with the same confidence and with the same approach you had the weekend before.

"Some drivers will improve, you get frustrated with your result but if you get one bad result and you can't just give up. You just need to bounce back straight away and work as hard as you can. Every weekend is a big weekend."

Though the second half of his campaign didn't reach the same heights as he'd hoped, Gladysz says he was happy to have secured a win in his rookie campaign.

He also learned that resilience was vital, and that is a big factor he'll be carrying into the future of his career.

"Silverstone, it's been the best one. In the Sprint Race, things went well, we finished in 6th position and then we had the Feature Race.

"We started from eighth, finished in fourth and then after post-race penalties we managed to take a win. So yeah, it was the best weekend because the previous three weekends I was almost not even in the points.

"That weekend I scored 30 points and went from 16th position in the championship to sixth, just being 15 points away from P3. So that was probably the highlights of the year."