Formula 3. 2026 season

Origin

The FIA Formula 3 Championship was created by merging the sport's two competing third tiers — the GP3 Series and the FIA Formula 3 European Championship — a consolidation formalised at the FIA World Motor Sport Council in September 2017 as part of the governing body's Global Pathway and launched for 2019.¹² GP3 had run since 2010, when Esteban Gutiérrez took the inaugural title for ART Grand Prix with five wins across sixteen races; its champions included Valtteri Bottas, Esteban Ocon, Charles Leclerc and George Russell, while European F3 produced Lance Stroll, Lando Norris and Mick Schumacher.³² The unified championship opened at Barcelona on 11 May 2019 with a thirty-car grid — ten teams running three cars each — in the new halo-equipped Dallara F3 2019 with a 3.4-litre naturally aspirated Mecachrome V6; Robert Shwartzman won the first title as Prema swept the top three in the standings and took the teams' crown.²

Turning points

The 2019 merger

By 2017 both GP3 and European F3 were struggling to fill grids, and running two parallel third tiers split the talent pool and confused the route to Formula 1.¹ The merger fixed the ladder's geometry: one championship, selected by FIA tender, racing exclusively on Formula 1 weekends alongside Formula 2 — a single, visible third step with standardised machinery and controlled team budgets.¹²

A championship of rookies

The series has become the ladder's most reliable accelerator. Oscar Piastri (2020), Gabriel Bortoleto (2023) and Leonardo Fornaroli (2024) each converted the F3 title into the Formula 2 crown the following season — five drivers, with Leclerc and Russell from the GP3 era, have now won both titles back-to-back — and Fornaroli's 2024 campaign stands alone as a title won without a single race victory.⁴ Trident took three consecutive drivers' championships with Bortoleto, Fornaroli and Rafael Câmara from 2023 to 2025; Câmara, a Ferrari Driver Academy member, sealed 2025 at Budapest with a round to spare — a first in the championship's history — on four feature-race wins, each taken from pole position.⁵⁶

The 2025 car and full sustainable fuel

The second-generation car, unveiled at Monza in September 2024 and introduced for 2025, kept the 380 bhp Mecachrome V6 but moved the series from 13-inch to 16-inch Pirelli tyres, widened cockpit accommodation to fit drivers from 160 to 190 centimetres tall, and applied the FIA's latest crash standards.⁷ Its headline change was chemical: after running 55 per cent bio-sourced fuel in 2023 and 2024, Formula 3 became the first championship on the Formula 1 ladder to race on Aramco fuel meeting the FIA's 100 per cent sustainable standard — a step ahead of Formula 1's own switch in 2026.⁷⁸

Today's shape

The 2026 season — the eighth of the unified championship — comprises ten rounds and twenty races, all supporting Formula 2 and Formula 1, opening in Melbourne on 6–8 March and finishing for the first time in Madrid on 11–13 September after the Bahrain round was called off.⁹¹⁰ Reigning champion Câmara has graduated to Formula 2 with Invicta Racing, continuing the pattern set by Piastri and Bortoleto, who both went on from F3 and F2 titles to Formula 1 race seats.⁶⁴ The championship remains the proving ground the merger intended: a spec Dallara, one engine supplier, and a grid that turns over almost entirely each season as its front-runners move up the ladder.²⁹

Footnotes

1. Autosport, "GP3 and European Formula 3 could merge as F1 support series in 2019," accessed 10 June 2026, https://www.autosport.com/motorsport/news/128490/gp3-and-european-f3-could-merge-in-2019. ↩ ↩² ↩³

2. "FIA Formula 3 Championship," Wikipedia, accessed 10 June 2026, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FIA_Formula_3_Championship. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵

3. "2010 GP3 Series," Wikipedia, accessed 10 June 2026, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2010_GP3_Series. ↩

4. Motorsport.com, "Leonardo Fornaroli wins 2025 Formula 2 title," accessed 10 June 2026, https://www.motorsport.com/fia-f2/news/leonardo-fornaroli-wins-2025-formula-2-title/10781205/. ↩ ↩²

5. FIA Formula 3, "Feature race: Câmara seals 2025 title with commanding Budapest win," accessed 10 June 2026, https://www.fiaformula3.com/Latest/6EjgDcBMG2tO3Xvp7KiGHA/feature-race-camara-seals-2025-title-with-commanding-budapest-win. ↩

6. Formula 1, "F3: Rafael Camara seals F3 title with round to spare after dominant Feature Race victory in Budapest," accessed 10 June 2026, https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/article/f3-camara-seals-f3-title-with-round-to-spare-after-dominant-feature-race.6pYEGfWtEe3zK7E2HTgjR; Formula 1, "2025 Formula 3 Champion Rafael Camara graduates to F2 with Invicta Racing," accessed 10 June 2026, https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/article/2025-formula-3-champion-rafael-camara-graduates-to-f2-with-invicta-racing.4UnAtEQJzOM3f6f4zIM1GQ. ↩ ↩²

7. FIA Formula 3, "FIA Formula 3 next generation car unveiled in Monza," accessed 10 June 2026, https://www.fiaformula3.com/Latest/fvztJX3uvkG3x0YCbf0K4/fia-formula-3-next-generation-car-unveiled-in-monza. ↩ ↩²

8. FIA Formula 3, "F3 Explained: The cutting-edge technology powering the all-new 2025 car," accessed 10 June 2026, https://www.fiaformula3.com/Latest/1yzuDSCEQzPrQN3qOovXNy/f3-explained-the-cutting-edge-technology-powering-the-all-new-2025-car. ↩

9. FIA Formula 3, "FIA Formula 3 Championship 2026 season calendar revealed," accessed 10 June 2026, https://www.fiaformula3.com/Latest/16F8XBnz2PSr8Rn29WCsIs/fia-formula-3-championship-2026-season-calendar-revealed. ↩ ↩²

10. "2026 FIA Formula 3 Championship," Wikipedia, accessed 10 June 2026, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2026_FIA_Formula_3_Championship. ↩