Albert Park opens new F3 season
Preview - Round 1 - Albert Park, Melbourne
Training season’s over, it’s time to get down to business for the start of the 2025 FIA Formula 3 Championship.
It’s the dawn of an exciting new chapter in the series’ history, as the all-new Formula 3 car makes its racing debut. After three days of pre-season testing in Barcelona, the Albert Park Circuit stage is set for the very first competitive outing of all 30 cars. It promises to be quite a race week, and season, in prospect.
Melbourne provides the perfect backdrop for the F3 curtain-raiser, but Albert Park is a tough test for the drivers.
Martinius Stenshorne is embarking on his second season in the series, having raced for Hitech in 2024. So both track and team are known-quantities for the Norwegian driver, who also begins his second campaign as a McLaren Driver Development program member, his progression entrusted to Hitech along with a number of other F1 team academy drivers.
For Joshua ‘Josh’ Dufek, this will be also be his second full season in Formula 3, but the first with his new Hitech team. The pit lane is a tight community so he knows Hitech well, which has helped him to settle in and hit the ground running during the Barcelona test. As with the rest of the lineup, the 20-year-old Austrian has been part of an intensive pre-season sim + gym program run by Hitech’s engineering and human performance specialists.
Gerrard Xie has graduated from Hitech’s 2024 GB3 squad, stepping up another rung on the single-seater ladder. The Chinese driver may be an F3 Rookie, but his debut season in the series comes off the back of a very competitive GB3 season. He’s made excellent progress in his two years with Hitech and is excited to make his mark on this pivotal championship.
Melbourne’s temperate autumnal climate has mostly been a ray of sunshine at the end of a bleak winter with no racing action – and that looks set to be the case as we head into the early part of the weekend. However, Sunday could be an entirely different prospect. The forecast is for rain, and plenty of it. The Feature Race will likely put the drivers’ skill and bravery to the test around this tight and fast street circuit.
The weather obviously has implications for strategy also. The correct tyre choice at the right time is always critical to the race outcome, but the timing of a sudden change in conditions will call for swift decisions from the pit wall and the cockpit.
Speaking after the Barcelona test, Hitech's F3 Team Manager, Paul Bellringer, commented:
“On balance, it’s been a really good test with a new car. We’re hopeful and expectant as we always are, but I think we’re in good shape.”
The 16-turn 5.2km circuit is comprised of public roads in leafy Albert Park, set against the backdrop of Melbourne’s distinctive city skyline. This track is tricky, its abundance of gravel traps and the proximity of its walls leaving little margin for error. Four DRS zones – the most of any circuit on the F3 calendar – provide good overtaking opportunities, but the high-speed sections give way to some heavy braking events, so there is a good variety of corners across the lap. Track evolution tends to be high, as is the likelihood of a Safety Car appearance, the combination of which dials up the unpredictability of the race outcome.
Event Schedule
FRIDAY
Free Practice
08:50
45 minutes
SATURDAY
Qualifying
11.15
30 minutes
Sprint Race
14.00
20 laps
SUNDAY
Feature Race
09.00
23 laps
