With just about a week left until lights out in Bahrain for the F3 2022 season lets look at who the drivers are for the 10 teams, each with 3 drivers. While there is still one seat to be confirmed out of the 30 drivers.
Starting with Prema Racing returning this season driver Monegasque Authur Leclerc along side returning driver American Jak Crawford and rookie British driver Oliver Bearman. Last season saw Prema finishing second in the standing with 377 points. Coming off of a winning season which saw last year F3 Champion Dennis Hauger moving up to F2 potenitally paving a way for Leclerc.
Following with winning the constructors championships Trident are having a strong line up however with 3 new drivers to the team can this be the winning formula or hurt the team in the long run. First driver for Trident is British driver Jonny Edgar who moves from Carlin to Trident this year. Alongside him is Roman Stanek who moved also moved teams this season from Hitech to Trident this season. And rounding up the Trident team is Zane Maloney the first Barbadian driver in the F3 season.
ART Grand Prix sees returning ex MP Motorsport driver Victor Martins who finished 5th last season. Alongside him is returning driver Juan Manuel Correa driving for his second season with ART. Along side these two season drivers is rookie Swiss George Saucy winner of the Formula regional European Championship in 2021.
MP Motorsport sees for his second season with the team Brazilian driver Caio Collet. Alongside returning F3 driver Russian Alex Smolyar whom moves from ART to MP this season. Joining them is rookie driver Indian Kush Maini moving from FIA Endurance and F3 Asian championship last season.
Charouz Racing System this season includes 2 rookie drivers and one returning driver but with a team switch. Hungarian Laszlo Toth moving from Campos Racing where he did not have a full season last year missing one race in the calendar to Charouz this season. Two rookies driving with him are Italian Francesco Pizzi whom moves from Formula Regional European Championship to F3 this season. Alongside with is Ayrton Simmons, a British driver who had a few drives last season in F3 for Charouz (2 Races) but now has a full drivers seat for the 2022 season. He was also second in the GB3 Championship last season.
Hitech Grand Prix similar to Charouz has a returning driver and 2 rookies. Returning American driver Kaylen Frederick whom almost has a full season last year with Carlin but missed out one of the races in the 2021 calendar. Joining him are two rookies to F3 Frenchman 2022 Formula Regional Asian Championship, and 2021 F3 Asian Championship driver Isack Hadjar. Alongside is Malaysian driver Nazim Azman, whom raced in the Euroformula Open in 2021 and BRDC British Formula 3 Championship 2019 and 2020 season.
Campos Racing, sees a 1 returner and 2 rookie trio; American driver Hunter Yeany whom had a busy 2021 season including racing in F3 for Charouz for 2 races, Indy Pro 2000, Formula Regional Americas Championship and GB3. Joining the American are two Spaniards David Vidales whos raced in F3 Asian Championship and Formula Regional European Championship; and Josep Maria Marti who raced this year in the Formula Regional Asian Championship which saw him finishing second, and in 2021 the F4 Spanish Championship which he finished 3rd.
Jenzer Motorsport still has an open seat available and has not released their final driver. Their first driver returning back into F3 after driving for Carlin the entire F3 2021 Season is Israeli Ido Cohen, alongshide him sees rookie Finnish driver Willian Alatalo who raced in 2021 in the Formula Regional European Championship. While its still not confirmed the third driver as testing has concluded today (March 4th) Jenzer’s third driver is another Finnish driver Patrik Pasma. Patrik raced in 2022 for the Formula Regional Asian Championshp and last year saw him driving in the Formula 3 Asian Championship and Formula Regional European Championship.
With majority of Carlin’s drivers moving to other teams and competitions sees their 2022 season with a full rookie line-up. British driver 2021 GB3 Champion Zak O’sullivan joins Carlin as well as being a Williams Racing Driver Academy Member. Brad Benavides, a Spaniard whom raced in the Euroformula Open and the Formula Regional European Championship in the 2021 season. Carlin’s third driver has a family history of F1 as his father was a former F1 driver, Enzo Trulli son of Jarno Trulli, champion of the F4 2021 United Arab Emirates Championship and Euroformula open driver will be driving for Carlin for this season F3 championship.
Finally finishing up the F3 Driver line up is new constructor entry, in replacement of HWA Racelab is Van Amersfoort Racing who is also a constructor in the F2 2022 season. Van Amersfoort has as a driver line-up of including previous constructor HWA driver Mexican Rafael Villagomez, alongside 2 rookies Argentinian Franco Colapinto and British driver Reece Ushjima. Colapinto had a busy 2021 season which saw him particpanting in the Formula Regional European Championship, various Le Mans races (Asian, European, 24 hours) and GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup. With Ushjima who raced in the F3 Asian Championship and GB3 Championship in 2021.
With Bahrain testing now over the calendar is set for the Formula 3 2022 Championship. Which team has your pick? Who do you think will be Jenzer’s third driver? Any drivers you find interesting? Let us know in the comments, like, follow and share!