What is Formula 3?
The FIA Formula 3 Championship is the third tier of the FIA’s single-seater ladder, below Formula 2 and Formula 1, and it races on the same Grand Prix weekends as both. It is run by the same promoter as Formula 2 under Bruno Michel, with a closed grid of ten teams — Campos, Trident, ART Grand Prix, Van Amersfoort, MP Motorsport, Rodin, DAMS, Prema, AIX and Hitech — each running three cars, and its graduates typically move up to Formula 2.[1] [3]
How does it work?
The 2026 season has nine rounds: Melbourne on 6–8 March, then Monaco, Barcelona, Spielberg, Silverstone, Spa, Budapest, Monza and, for the first time, Madrid on 11–13 September as the finale. A normal weekend has qualifying, a reversed-grid Sprint Race and a Feature Race worth 25 points to the winner; the Madrid finale runs a Sprint and two Feature Races. The champion receives 30 FIA Super Licence points, second 25 and third 20 — not enough alone for the 40 points a Formula 1 seat requires, which is why the path runs through Formula 2.[2] [4] [5] [7]
Since when does it exist?
The championship was created for 2019 by merging the GP3 Series, which had run since 2010, with the FIA Formula 3 European Championship, a merger announced in March 2017. Robert Shwartzman won the first season; Oscar Piastri (2020) went on to Formula 1; and three consecutive champions — Gabriel Bortoleto (2023), Leonardo Fornaroli (2024) and Rafael Câmara (2025) — moved straight up to Formula 2, where Bortoleto and Fornaroli each won the title the following year. Charles Leclerc (2016) and George Russell (2017) were GP3 champions.[5] [6]
| Season | Pool / Format | Host cities |
|---|---|---|
| 2025 | Rafael Câmara (Trident) | Teams’ champion Campos Racing |
| 2024 | Leonardo Fornaroli (Trident) | Teams’ champion Prema Racing |
| 2023 | Gabriel Bortoleto (Trident) | Teams’ champion Prema Racing |
| 2022 | Victor Martins (ART Grand Prix) | Teams’ champion Prema Racing |
| 2021 | Dennis Hauger (Prema Racing) | Teams’ champion Trident |
| 2020 | Oscar Piastri (Prema Racing) | Teams’ champion Prema Racing |
| 2019 | Robert Shwartzman (Prema Racing) | Teams’ champion Prema Racing — first FIA Formula 3 season |
| 2018 | Anthoine Hubert (ART Grand Prix) | GP3 Series; teams’ champion ART Grand Prix |
| 2017 | George Russell (ART Grand Prix) | GP3 Series; teams’ champion ART Grand Prix |
| 2016 | Charles Leclerc (ART Grand Prix) | GP3 Series; teams’ champion ART Grand Prix |
Drivers’ champions of the last ten seasons, with the teams’ champion; GP3 Series before 2019.
Why does it matter?
Formula 3 is where the FIA’s Super Licence points begin to count and where Formula 1 academies place their youngest drivers: Bruno Michel counted 16 of the 20 drivers on the 2025 Formula 1 grid as having raced in F2 or F3. Every round is on a Grand Prix weekend, so a Formula 3 season is a year of racing in front of the sport’s decision-makers.[2] [3]
References
- FIA Formula 3 — official site. Accessed September 2026.
- FIA Formula 3 — 2026 calendar. Accessed September 2026.
- FIA Formula 3 — Teams’ standings. Accessed September 2026.
- FIA Formula 3 — Preview: Round 9 in Madrid brings it all to a close. Accessed September 2026.
- Wikipedia — FIA Formula 3 Championship (background). Accessed September 2026.
- Wikipedia — GP3 Series (background). Accessed September 2026.
- Wikipedia — FIA Super Licence (background). Accessed September 2026.