Slater: ‘The pressure’s not on us' after drawing level on points with Ugochukwu in title fight

Freddie Slater was content to take a point in the Budapest Sprint Race and said he was able to maximise his result on Saturday.

The TRIDENT driver's top 10 finish put him level on points with title rival Ugo Ugochukwu, and speaking in the paddock afterwards, the Briton was at ease with the result and how it came to be.

"I don't really care to be honest about the gap or anything. I think we had a good race overall, I think it was a positive race in terms of tyre management and pace. It was very tricky obviously with Ugo having the five-second penalty. He came up with some interesting tactics, let's say, but I know it's part of the game.

"I'm maximising the job I need to do. I know where I'm starting, and for me it's just about maximising the result, taking the right risk for the right reward.

"Having a clean race and maximising my opportunities and the potential in what I have on track at that point. Honestly, I think there's a lot of people looking at us and we're not looking at anyone else. It's quite a nice place to be in.

"It seems like other people are under a lot of pressure. I'm in my rookie season having fun like always and full steam ahead."

The Audi Development Driver started from P11 and said he'd driven a conservative race in the early stages.

He reflected afterwards that it looked to have been the right decision, as he and polesitter for tomorrow's Feature Race Tuukka Taponen made progress through the pack in the latter stages.

"Generally a pretty good race and we're looking forward to tomorrow. Tuukka and I were pretty much on similar strategies as each other. We kind of had the same plan and obviously the guys at the front decided to go, and you saw what happened to them at the end, they were in big trouble.

"So I think with a longer race tomorrow it could be even more interesting. Unfortunately, when I got to the pack there was chaos, and there were just no opportunities in T1, T2 and then once you get passed in T2 you can't overtake until you get to the start and finish line again.

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"It was always pretty difficult in that situation, but we stayed out of trouble and still brought a point home which is always key to maximise the job."

Slater goes from the front row of the grid in the Feature Race looking to earn his maiden Formula 3 victory.

The Briton has been almost ever-present on the Feature Race podium in 2026, but knows a win won't be gifted to him before the end of the season.

He says that he will be taking the learnings of the Sprint Race and aiming to use those to full effect come lights out on Sunday.

"I think it's just about me trying to maximise what I have in the car at that point in the day. I'm honestly really proud of myself because I drove a near perfect race.

"There wouldn't be much I would change from my side in terms of driving technique or anything like that.

"But we need to try and adjust a few things to try and help our race pace because for sure we're not as good on race pace as others, and I think we need to understand this as a team. But I've got full trust in TRIDENT.

"We're going to put a lot of effort in tonight to see what we can do for tomorrow and also try and make our lives a bit easier for the future rounds.

"I think just a clean start, it's a long race tomorrow again and we'll see what the tyres do, which we have a bit of experience with now with the knowledge that we gained today

"Hopefully it's going to be a nice clean race for everyone, keep it sensible and see what happens at the end."