Complicated debut at the Madring
The Madring, the new semi-urban circuit in the Spanish capital, sat the scenery for the final weekend of the FIA Formula 3 Championship season. The grand finale saw Trident Motorsport compete in a double race on Saturday. In both races, the drivers of the Milan-based team, with its headquarters in Ossona, failed to secure points.
The Spanish weekend began with a challenging qualifying session for the Trident Motorsport drivers. Freddie Slater failed to make an impact after a promising first push. The eighteen-year-old Englishman therefore started the Sprint Race from seventeenth place, while Matteo De Palo started thirteenth and Noah Strømsted from twenty-sixth.
At the lights, De Palo maintained thirteenth place, while Slater slipped to eighteenth. Strømsted, however, recovered ground, quickly moving up to twenty-third place. In the early stages, De Palo managed to maintain a consistent pace, while Slater had to fend off attacks from his rivals, in a race heavily influenced by the characteristics of the new circuit.
The Madring track, in fact, confirmed the difficulties already highlighted during testing and in the previous weekend's practice sessions. The circuit layout did not offer many overtaking opportunities, making any attempt to make up positions particularly difficult.
During the Sprint Race, Strømsted continued his progression, climbing to twenty-first place by lap eight. The nineteen-year-old Dane then moved up to twentieth place. De Palo also managed to gain a position on the final lap, taking advantage of a penalty handed out to an opponent, thus finishing the race in twelfth place. Slater, however, finished the Sprint Race in eighteenth place, while Strømsted crossed the finish line in twentieth place.
A few hours later, the first Feature Race of the weekend took place, with De Palo starting thirteenth, Slater sixteenth, and Strømsted twenty-fifth on the grid.
The lights went out immediately sparked an extremely hectic race, with numerous cars involved in a tangle after just a few meters. The race was then neutralized by the red flag. At the restart, held behind the safety car with a rolling start, De Palo found himself tenth, Slater fifteenth, and Strømsted eighteenth. The English driver attempted several times to push ahead, but once again the Madring layout made overtaking maneuvers extremely difficult. Meanwhile, De Palo gradually lost ground, sliding to twelfth place and dropping out of the points.
In an attempt to get into the points, Slater forced an overtaking maneuver, initially spinning, then coming to rest on the side of the track after hitting the barrier.
The deployment of the safety car brought the field back together again. At the restart, De Palo remained thirteenth, while Strømsted remained in sixteenth place. In the finale, De Palo had to defend with great determination. The McLaren junior driver held off the attacks of his rivals for a long time, but on the final lap, he was forced to give up a place, finishing the first Feature Race of the Spanish weekend in fourteenth place. Noah Strømsted, on the other hand, crossed the finish line in sixteenth place, completing a race in which he made up nine places from his starting position.
The second Feature Race at the Madring will award the final points of the 2026 season and crown the new FIA Formula 3 Championship champion.
Giacomo Ricci: "Today's result is disappointing and influenced by a lackluster qualifying session, not consistent with the rest of the season. The Madrid circuit proved, as expected, to be an extremely difficult circuit for overtakes. The layout of the Madrid track left our drivers no margin for recovery, and they were unable to recover and secure the points. In tomorrow's Feature Race, we'll give it our all, as is our custom. We want to finish the season giving, as always, 100 percent."