2018 FIA Formula 3 European Championship preview and entry list
The 2018 FIA Formula 3 European Championship season will start this weekend in France, at the streets of Pau. Five months later, in October at Hockenheimring, we will get a new champion and a successor of the 2017 champ Lando Norris, who currently competes in Formula 2. A new champion would be also a successor of Lance Stroll, Esteban Ocon, Nico Hulkenberg, Romain Grosjean or Lewis Hamilton, the former European F3 champions who currently compete in Formula One.
Ten rounds at famous Grand Prix circuits
The championship features again ten rounds with three races, with separate qualifying session for each race. Between season-opening Pau Grand Prix and season’s finale at Hockenheimring, the other venues which will host F3 races are Hungaroring, Norisring, Zandvoort, Spa-Francorchamps, Silverstone, Misano, Nürburgring and Red Bull Ring.
The Pau Grand Prix is a stand-alone event. In seven occasions, F3 races would be a part of the DTM weekend, one round would be a support to 24h Spa event and one round as a support to FIA WEC race at Silverstone.
Mick Schumacher is considered as one of the favorites
Twenty-three drivers on the entry list
Twenty-three drivers from six teams are on the entry list for the European F3 season. The best five drivers (Lando Norris, Joel Eriksson, Maximilian Gunther, Callum Ilott, Jake Hughes) from the previous season graduated to another series (F2, GP3 or DTM).
The next four from the last year’s list will take main roles this year – Jehan Daruvala, Ferdinand Habsburg, Guanyu Zhou and Ralf Aron. Among the favorites, there will be also Mick Schumacher, a son of Michael Schumacher, who finished third among rookies last year. An experienced Alex Palou is also consedered as one of the favorites.
Carlin will have six driver at European F3 grid
Thirteen drivers will fight for the Rookie title
This year, thirteen drivers will have a Rookie status in the European F3 Championship. Lando Norris triumphed last years in the championship as a rookie so maybe among those thirteen names are the future F3 champion.
Many of them already tasted the championship-winning success, such are Formula Renault Eurocup champion Sacha Fenestraz, British F3 champion Enaam Ahmed, German F4 champion Jüri Vips, Italian F4 champion Marcus Armstrong, UAE F4 champion Jonathan Aberdein or freshly crowned Toyota Racing Series champion Robert Shwartzmann. One of the rookies is Dan Ticktum, who won at Macau Grand Prix last year.
Prema will try to defend Teams’ title
The season 2018 is the last
Among the teams, Prema Theodore Racing will try to defend last year’s title against Carlin, Motopark, Hitech Grand Prix, Van Amersfoort Racing and ma-con. The German outfit ma-con previously competed in series in 2013 and now is returning after a four-year hiatus.
The 2018 FIA Formula 3 European Championship will be the last season of the series because in 2019 this championship and GP3 Series will merge into the FIA Formula 3 Championship.
Motopark’s drivers for the 2018 European F3 season
2018 European Formula 3 Championship entry list
| Team | Engine | Number | Driver |
|---|---|---|---|
| Prema Theodore Racing | Mercedes | 1 | Guanyu Zhou |
| 4 | Mick Schumacher | ||
| 7 | Ralf Aron | ||
| 8 | Marcus Armstrong (R) | ||
| 10 | Robert Shwartzmann (R) | ||
| Motopark | Volkswagen | 3 | Sebastian Fernandez (R) |
| 13 | Fabio Scherer (R) | ||
| 23 | Jonathan Aberdein (R) | ||
| 27 | Dan Ticktum (R) | ||
| 33 | Marino Sato | ||
| 44 | Juri Vips (R) | ||
| Carlin | Volkswagen | 9 | Jehan Daruvala |
| 11 | Sacha Fenestraz (R) | ||
| 16 | Nikita Troitskiy (R) | ||
| 17 | Devlin DeFrancesco | ||
| 24 | Ameya Vaidyanathan | ||
| 62 | Ferdinand Habsburg | ||
| Van Amersfoort Racing | Mercedes | 12 | Artem Petrov (R) |
| 15 | Keyvan Andres | ||
| ma-com | Volkswagen | 18 | Julian Hanses (R) |
| Hitech Grand Prix | Mercedes | 39 | Alex Palou |
| 65 | Enaam Ahmed (R) | ||
| 77 | Ben Hingeley (R) |
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