Monza, the home of the Italian Grand Prix is the traditional ‘show closer’ of the F3 season. Multiple promotions of up-and-comers like Red Bull’s junior Arvid Lindblad and the current Italian F4 champion Kacper Sztuka. When rookies join the field of well-established sophomores, including Luke Browning, Dino Beganović, and Gabriele Mini, the 2024 F3 season was widely regarded to be an exciting one regarding driver quality.
An exceptional roster of the 2024 F3 class hoped to dethrone Italian ‘powerhouses’ of Prema Racing and Trident Racing, who both had won every single title since F3’s re-introduction in 2019.
Despite all the front-runners above on the list mentioned, ultimately, the drivers’ title went to the Italian city of Piacenza with Trident’s Leonardo Fornaroli achieving the status of 2024 F3 champion and newest signee to 2025 F2 season with a hard-to-repeat feat.
Invicta’s 2025 F2 signee has won a title without stepping on the top step of a podium. A consistent season without retirements while being twice outside of the points was enough for Leonardo Fornaroli to secure a wealthy sum of points. 7 podiums, including two 2nd places and relatively always finishing inside of the top 5 were enough for Fornaroli to engrave his name into F3 history.
Albeit a winless 2024 F3 season, those who follow F3 will know that Fornaroli brought attention with a more than solid rookie campaign in 2023. Young Italian scored three podiums and maiden pole-position at Silverstone round.
2024 F3 Season – Season like no any other
Back to Fornaroli again. Italian’s pass on ART’s Christian Mansell on the last corner of the last lap of the last race of the season to regain the F3 title from countryman Gabriele Mini will be another factor that will cement the 2024 F3 season as timeless.
Out of 34 drivers who competed in a season, 12 of them have managed to win at least one race of the season. 9 of these 12 victories came from the first 9 races after Prema’s Arvid Lindblad ended the streak at Barcelona’s Feature race.
Another mindblowing fact that can be attributed to statistics is the percentage of the grid on the podium throughout a season. 21 different drivers have taken home a race trophy which results in to amount of 62% of a grid overall.
Pre-season title hopeful Arvid Lindblad topped the sheets with 4 victories overall and was followed by ART’s Nikola Tsolov who managed to forget the torrid 2023 rookie season he had.
Surprise(s) of the Year
Two-thirds of the ART Grand Prix team had a more successful season than it was probably expected. Laurens van Hoepen and Christian Mansell contributed greatly to the French team’s success finishing in third place among teams.
Van Hoepen entered his F3 adventure with 21st and 10th place in FRECA, respectively. Solid results in FRECA did not refer to Dutchman’s candidature for an outstanding result. Oppositely, van Hoepen scored 2 podiums in the first 3 races of the season which turned eyes onto his performance. A couple of reverse pole positions for the Sprint Races were joined by a 2024 F3 Hungarian round pole position. Dutchman would always be around the top positions in the Sprint Races.
His teammate Christian Mansell ended the season in high 5th place ahead of the likes of Dino Beganović, Nikola Tsolov, and Alex Dunne. Australian was another ‘Mr. Consistency’ of the F3 2024 season. 3 Feature Race 2nd places in Sakhir’s season opener, never-forgiving Monte Carlo and Catalunya highly helped young Australian to close the TOP 5 of the drivers standings. The rapid progress of Mansell could see him lurk into the potential 2025 F2 seat of one of the teams.
Disappointment of a season
Presumably, the biggest disappointment of a season belongs to Swedish-Bosnian and Herzegovian Prema Racing driver Dino Beganović. Strong CV of being a part of Ferrari’s academy project and 2022 Formula Regional by Alpine champion put a lot of pressure and hope on the shoulder of ‘Dynamite Dino’.
Prema’s driver could not 6th place from his rookie season into greater achievement regarding the final positions overall. Despite finally scoring a maiden victory at Melbourne’s F2 round and later in the Belgian Sprint race, Beganović was the least-performing Prema driver of the season.
FRECA and Italian F4 are regarded as the strongest junior single-seaters outside of F3 and F2. Champion of the mentioned categories always has a spotlight shining onto them once they get promoted to either F3 or F2.
This did not fare well with Polish Kacper Sztuka as the reigning Italian F4 champion. The former Red Bull prospect ended the season in 27th place finishing inside of the points only during the Imola’s Sprint round.
Sztuka’s result comes as a surprise due to a secured drive for a decent MP Motorsport outfit whose other two drivers Oliver Goethe and Tim Tramnitz finished in 7th and 9th place overall.
In the most of race, Pole was not even close to finishing in positions near the 10th place with results mostly fluctuating around 18th to 20th place.
Who is bound for F2?
Leonardo Fornaroli’s arrival as Bortoleto’s potential replacement within Invicta’s team is now a confirmed piece of information. The 2024 F3 champion could very well be joined by a couple of more drivers from this strong class of 2024 F3 season.
It is fair to say that the first 7 drivers are strong candidates to jump ship to F2 in 2025. Gabrielle Mini’s affiliation with Alpine and Prema in F3 presented Italian as one of the most completed F3 drivers with a mature racing approach over the past 2 seasons.
Bearman’s and Antonelli’s departure from Prema’s F2 outfit means that both seats are vacant. Beganović’s experience in F3 and his long-standing partnership could bring him a place in F2 as a team’s leader in a new era.
Third-place finisher Luke Browning looked like the strongest candidate to snatch the F3 title as the season progressed. A third season in F3 would surely not benefit the talent that perhaps next Williams’ F1 protege possesses.
Arvid Lindblad is the only driver within the first 7 drivers that has unfinished business with F3. Briton came out of his rookie year with 4 wins and title aspirations were damaged due to a spree of bad results following a terrible qualifying in Hungary and DNF in Belgium. Moreover, there is no need to rush Lindblad with the current rush between Lawson and Hadjar for the RB seat.
The next F3 season will mark a switch to a new chassis and engine package under the name ‘Dallara F3 2025’. Until the lights go down in Melbourne there is a high possibility that a couple of current F3 drivers will contest in the remaining rounds of the F2 season.