Madrid, an eighth place not enough to claim the driver's title

The Feature Race that closed out the 2026 FIA Formula 3 Championship season, held on the new Madring circuit in Madrid, did not bring Trident Motorsport the satisfaction of seeing Freddie Slater crowned Drivers' Champion in the third category. The eighteen-year-old Briton finished the race in eighth place, dropping him to second in the overall standings after a season that saw him consistently at the top of the series. On a track that offered little margin for overtaking and proved unsuitable for the season-ending double-header, the qualifying result proved decisive. Both races were uneventful.

Trident Motorsport also finished runner-up in the Teams' standings.

Starting from eighth place, Freddie Slater immediately had to fend off attacks from his rivals. The Trident Motorsport driver lost a position when the lights went out, dropping to ninth, but immediately began finding the pace needed to make up ground. On lap four, Slater set the fastest lap of the race, a sign of his car's competitiveness. The Audi Junior driver then continued to push, and on lap five, a true oddity throughout the weekend, he managed to complete a pass that allowed him to move up to eighth.

Having moved behind the group battling for seventh place, Slater continued to maintain a high pace, trying to close in on his rivals. The layout of the Madring, however, made overtaking maneuvers extremely difficult. The group remained very compact, with the cars forced to proceed in a single line for long periods without significant changes in position. Slater thus maintained eighth place for most of the race, controlling the pace and focusing primarily on managing his championship position.

The situation remained stable until lap seventeen, when a car went off track, necessitating the deployment of the Safety Car. The safety car's neutralization re-consolidated the field for the finale. At the end of lap eighteen, Slater was still in eighth place, and with the restart scheduled for the final lap, the Trident Motorsport driver faced a particularly intense final lap.

The eighteen-year-old Briton kept his cool and crossed the finish line in eighth place, a result that mathematically secured him the FIA Formula 3 Championship runner-up title. This was a prestigious result for Slater, coming at the end of his rookie season, in which the English driver fought for the title until the very end. Matteo De Palo's final part of the race was more eventful. Starting from twentieth place, the eighteen-year-old Roman lost a position in the opening laps, dropping to twenty-first place, before settling into the midfield.

The McLaren junior driver thus maintained his position for most of the race, with the characteristics of the Madrid circuit making it particularly difficult to make up ground. When the Safety Car came out, De Palo was in twentieth place and prepared for the final-lap restart. At the restart, the eighteen-year-old Roman staged an excellent reaction, managing to make the most of the battle and making up two places in a single lap. De Palo thus finished the Feature Race in eighteenth place, once again demonstrating determination and the ability to seize every available opportunity.

A bitter end, however, for Noah Strømsted. The nineteen-year-old Dane had started from nineteenth on the grid and, after an uneventful first half of the race, had moved up to eighteenth place thanks to the effects of the Safety Car. However, the final-lap restart reshuffled the cards. Strømsted was unable to maintain his position and slipped to twenty-first place by the checkered flag.

With the Feature Race in Madrid, the curtain falls on the 2026 FIA Formula 3 Championship season. Trident Motorsport closes the championship with the satisfaction of having secured second place in the overall Teams' standings, confirming its position once again among the leading teams in the third category.

Giacomo Ricci: "We're closing the season with a result that doesn't satisfy us, especially given the way it came about. We saw two races devoid of content, as the track layout left no margin for overtaking. We're at the end of a high-level season, which deserved a different ending. Instead, everything came down to qualifying. We accept this result, which is a bittersweet one for us today, and we promise to return to fighting for the title, hopefully with even greater determination, next year."