The Stakes

With the dust barely settled on last weekend’s blistering action in France, the Red Bull Ring in Austria welcomes the F3 paddock for Round 3 of the 2019 FIA Formula 3 Championship.

PREMA Racing put in another mightily impressive display at Le Castellet, but they didn’t have everything their own way as Trident’s Niko Kari went fastest during Friday’s practice. The PREMA pair of Jehan Daruvala and Robert Shwartzman then thought they’d done enough to secure a front row lock-out during qualifying, only to be denied at the death by a fantastic last-ditch effort from HWA RACELAB’s Jake Hughes to snatch pole position. Ultimately, the Italian team were not to be denied however as Daruvala and Shwartzman finished first and second in an enthralling Race 1 with Pedro Piquet bringing home his Trident machine in third. The Brazilian went one step better in Race 2 after an impressive drive, finishing P2 to split Shwartzman and Daruvala who now have two wins each this season.

Shwartzman (70 pts) leads Daruvala (58 pts) at the top of the Drivers’ standings, with fellow PREMA man Marcus Armstrong (35 pts) 23 points further back in third; PREMA are dominating the Teams’ Championship at this early stage with 163 points but there’s plenty of points still available. ART Grand Prix (50 pts) are in second, with third-placed Trident (41 pts) nine points behind.

The Red Bull Ring plays host to F3 for the third round of the championship, with the drivers battling hard on the smooth Austrian surface. There weather is expected to be glorious and Pirelli are providing Soft compound tyres for the weekend. With no mandatory pit stops and 30 cars fighting wheel-to-wheel up, down and around the short, scenic track in the mountains, it’s sure to make for fantastic viewing once again!

Warm Up // Fabio Scherer – Sauber Junior Team by Charouz

“For me it's a lovely track. It's up and downhill, so it's quite nice. The difficult thing is to always get the exit right for the first three corners and then the track changes a bit with high-speed parts so you need to adapt quite well in one lap. The first three corners are also great places to overtake for sure. I guess, when it works, you can maybe overtake in front of Turn 6 as well. For a seven-corner track that's quite a lot of overtaking opportunities!

“It's actually nice because you can race quite well, so it makes it interesting. There's plenty of action and plenty of racing. Normally the races there are really good so I'm really looking forward to it. I think it will be fun!

“Normally we don’t have to worry that much about tyre degradation because the surface is quite smooth tarmac. The tyres don't tend to overheat too much and the good thing with the long straights is that the tyres can cool down if they do. That means that it should be a good track to push on as well.

“I've had some good races there in the past, and a few bad moments too including one where I flipped the car, but the race pace and speed was always there.”

Mario Isola, Pirelli Head of F1 and Car Racing

“Austria presents a marked contrast to the last round at Paul Ricard a few days ago, but we can expect similarly warm, or perhaps even hotter conditions. Drivers will have to pay particular attention to thermal degradation. In F3, we’re using our third type of tyre in three races, so there will be plenty for the drivers to get used to at this spectacular venue.”

Season Stats

82 The total number of points PREMA Racing earned in Round 2, after taking 81 points from Round 1.

7 The number of times (from a possible 12) a PREMA driver has stood on the podium.

12 The points gap between Robert Shwartzman and teammate Jehan Daruvala at the top of the Drivers’ Championship.

1 Jake Hughes grabbed HWA RACELAB’s first ever F3 pole position in France.

Noteworthy

Between them, PREMA Racing teammates Robert Shwartzman and Jehan Daruvala have won all four races of the FIA Formula 3 Championship, with each having a Race 1 and a Race 2 win

Just 12 points separate Shwartzman and Daruvala at the top of the Driver’s Championship

Daruvala has led more laps than any other driver in the championship so far with 34

PREMA were the only team to see all three of their drivers score points in both races at Circuit Paul Ricard, and they are 113 points ahead of second-placed ART Grand Prix in the Teams’ Championship. Sauber Junior Team by Charouz are the only team yet to score a point

13 different drivers scored points in Round 2 – Shwartzman, Daruvala and Marcus Armstrong of PREMA, Jüri Vips of Hitech Grand Prix, Pedro Piquet from Trident, ART’s David Beckmann, Bent Viscaal and Jake Hughes of HWA RACELAB, Alex Peroni of Campos Racing, Logan Sargeant of Carlin Buzz Racing, MP Motorsport’s Liam Lawson and Richard Verschoor and Jenzer Motorsport’s Yuki Tsunoda

Argentina-born racer Giorgio Carrara will join Tsunoda and Andreas Estner to take the empty seat at Jenzer Motorsport vacated by Artem Petrov