PREMA Racing endured a tough Spa-Francorchamps weekend as Louis Sharp, James Wharton and José Garfias finished sixteenth, seventeenth, and twenty-second respectively in Sunday morning’s Feature Race, after a weekend in which the team’s true pace was never able to shine through.
“It was a bit of a difficult race for us, we had a good first lap and made up a few positions, but just overall struggled for pace today and had a lot of rear deg quite early on in the race,” commented Sharp who finished 13th in Saturday’s Sprint Race. “Then the front left fully, fully went at the end, I got a big flat spot and was graining a lot too, so it was difficult and it was hard to fight at the end.
Sharp, Wharton and Garfias all started deep in the field following qualifying penalties that had dropped them out of position. All three made progress through the field but were unable to fight their way into the points.
“The pace at the start was not too bad but we fell off quite quickly so a little bit to work on and it goes back to qualifying,” said Sharp. “We had the pace in qualifying to be top five, but with no tow we weren’t, and then the weekend from that point on became really difficult.
“We’ve got positives to take from the weekend as a whole, but it’s just a shame we weren’t able to capitalise on any of it.”
The team leaves Spa frustrated given the team’s underlying pace was evident at points throughout the weekend. Sharp’s qualifying assessment that the car had top-five potential on pure speed is some consolation as the focus now shifts to Budapest, where PREMA will be looking for a clean weekend all round.
Ugo Ugochukwu remains the Championship leader on 104 points, but Freddie Slater is right behind him now on 103. Theophile Nael remains third on 65 points with Noah Stromsted fourth on 58. Ernesto Rivera’s win moves him into the top five with 56 points.
Campos Racing lead the Teams’ Standings on 225 points ahead of TRIDENT on 168 and Van Amersfoort Racing on 131. ART Grand Prix is fourth on 110 points with Rodin Motorsport fifth on 99 points.
Round 7 takes place at the Hungaroring from 24 – 26 July 2026.
FIA F3 Championship Feature Race Results
1/ Ernesto Rivera Campos Racing
2/ Hiyu Yamakoshi Van Amersfoort Racing
3/ Freddie Slater TRIDENT
4/ Mattia Colnaghi MP Motorsport
5/ Maciej Gladysz ART Grand Prix
6/ Taito Kato ART Grand Prix
7/ Tuukka Taponen MP Motorsport
8/ Jin Nakamura Hitech
9/ Alessandro Giusti MP Motorsport
10/ Brando Badoer Rodin Motorsport
11/ Noah Stromsted TRIDENT
12/ Nicola Lacorte DAMS Lucas Oil
13/ Bruno Del Pino Van Amersfoort Racing
14/ Pedro Clerot Rodin Motorsport
15/ Fionn Mclaughlin Hitech
16/ Theophile Nael Campos Racing
17/ Louis Sharp PREMA Racing
18/ James Wharton PREMA Racing
19/ Kanato Le ART Grand Prix
20/ Woohyun Shin Hitech
21/ Ugo Ugochukwu Campos Racing
22/ Gerrard Xie DAMS Lucas Oil
23/ Jose Garfias PREMA Racing
24/ Enzo Deligny Van Amersfoort Racing
25/ Christian Ho Rodin Motorsport
26/ Ricardo Escotto AIX Racing
NOT CLASSIFIED
DNF Fernando Barrichello AIX Racing
DNF Matteo De Palo TRIDENT
DNF Yevan David AIX Racing
DNF Nandhavud Bhirombhakdi DAMS Lucas Oil
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