Back in February, I made my Predictions for the upcoming 2024 FIA Formula 3 Season! Over 6 months and 10 Rounds later and the season is officially over which means it’s time for me to react to said Predictions! These usually go amazingly (bad) so this should be a lot of fun!
P30: Piotr Wisnicki
For the second straight year, I predicted Piotr Wisnicki to finish 30th in the Formula 3 Standings, and for the second straight year, I was wrong! However, this year was because Piotr performed better and finished 23rd in the Championship following a P5 finish in the Silverstone Feature Race! So yep, this was definetly wrong!
P29: Tasanapol Inthraphuvasak
I thought Tasanapol Inthraphuvasak would really struggle in his Rookie Season in FIA Formula 3, but he didn’t do as bad as I thought he would as he ultimately finished 24th in the Championship with just the 1 points finish. However, that points score was a Podium finish in the Hungarian Sprint Race which is pretty nice going! Tasanapol also wasn’t the lowest-scoring AIX Racing driver so I got that wrong too!
P28: Tommy Smith
Tommy Smith didn’t have the best year last year which is why I put him so low down, but a P4 finish in the Silverstone Feature Race actually meant that Smith finished P20 in the Standings! It’s pretty impressive given Tommy Smith only had four other finishes inside the Top 20, and he also beat one of his VAR teammates which I didn’t expect.
P27: Joshua Dufek
I was really close with this one as Joshua Dufek actually finished one place lower in 28th! As expected, Joshua didn’t have the best of seasons, scoring just the 1 point, but that did come in the final Race of the year in Monza which is at least a nice positive to take!
P26: Matias Zagazeta
I’m once again one off as Matias Zagazeta finished 25th in the Standings! Matias only points-scoring finish all year was a Podium (P3) in the Silverstone Sprint Race, and it was worth mentioning that he did miss Monaco. However, one thing I did get right about this is Zagazeta did end last out of the 3 main Jenzer drivers!
P25: Nikita Bedrin
Nikita Bedrin actually had a better year than I anticipated as he ended up 19th in the Standings with a pretty decent 25 points! Nikita also managed to win the Hungarian Sprint Race, and the only positive I can take from this is I was right to have Bedrin as AIX Racing’s Number 1 driver!
P24: Max Esterson
Despite only finishing in the points twice, Max Esterson ultimately finished 21st in the Championship! Max’s best result actually came in the opening Race of the Season (P6 in Bahrain) and he also ended up as Jenzer Motorsport’s highest-scoring driver which is something I didn’t have on my Prediction chart!
P23: Charlie Wurz
It’s another near miss for me as Charlie Wurz ended up finishing 22nd! Charlie’s only points finish in 2024 was a P5 in the Australian Feature Race, and given he’s only finished 1 point behind the leader Jenzer driver, I’d say this Prediction was okay!
P22: Laurens van Hoepen
Well, I’d say this is my first proper poor Prediction of this article (so far)! I didn’t expect a strong year from Laurens van Hoepen, but I was wrong because he went on to finish 13th in the Standings. However, more impressively than that, van Hoepen scored 3 Podium finishes and got a Pole Position around Hungary! My only saving grace is I was right to have Laurens as ART’s lowest-scoring driver!
P21: Mari Boya
This is another Prediction I’ve got wrong as Mari Boya did much better to finish in 15th place! Mari Boya scored 45 points over the course of the 2024 Season with his highlight being a special Sprint Race Win at his home track! Mari also wasn’t the worst Campos driver this year so I got that wrong too!
P20: Sebastian Montoya
It’s safe to say I wasn’t right with Sebastian Montoya. On the one hand, Sebastian did better than I expected as he finished 17th in the Championship in a season that contained a P2 finish in the Belgian Feature Race. On the other hand, Montoya ended up as the worst of the three Campos drivers which is something I didn’t predict, so all in all, this wasn’t a very good one!
P19: Joseph Loake
Joseph Loake actually did a lot worse than I expected as he ended up 26th in the Standings! Joseph only scored points in 2 Races this year (both in Monaco), and it just didn’t click for him. I mean, this is not a good Prediction, and I certainly never would’ve expected him to be Rodin’s lowest-scoring driver!
P18: Nikola Tsolov
Whilst I didn’t do as terribly when it comes to predicting Nikola Tsolov this year, I was still a bit off! Nikola Tsolov had a much better year this time around, finishing 11th in the Standings in a year that saw him pick up 3 victories (two Sprints and one Feature). It’s also worth mentioning that Tsolov missed the Belgium weekend which honestly makes this Prediction even worse!
P17: Sophia Florsch
Oh no! I had higher hopes for Sophia Florsch heading this season, but that was clearly a mistake as Sophia ended up 29th in the Championship without a single point to her name! I mean, Florsch only finished inside the Top 15 on 3 occasions, and yeah, a difficult year for Sophia, and a terrible Prediction from me!
P16: Santiago Ramos
Well, at least this saves it a little as Santiago Ramos did indeed finish 16th in the Championship! Santiago’s best result of the season was a P2 finish in the Monza Sprint Race, but all in all it’s not been a great season for Ramos given where his Trident teammates are. Still, I got the Prediction right so I’m happy!
P15: Callum Voisin
I expected Callum Voisin to outperform his Rodin Motorsport, but even he did better than I expected to ultimately finish P12! Callum managed to score 49 points more than his teammates combined and his highlight definetly came with a Pole to Victory win at Spa! Expect big things out of this guy next year!
P14: Cian Shields
Oh gosh, this is really bad! Firstly, I said Cian Shields would be Hitech’s worst driver and that came true! Secondly, Shields didn’t have a single Top 15 finish all season and he ended up 30th in the Standings! Sometimes I really question how I make these Predictions because this is shambolic!
P13: Sami Meguetounif
Sami Meguetounif actually did better than I expected in Formula 3 this year as he ultimately went on to finish 8th in the Championship! Sami’s season also included 2 wins (1 in Imola, 1 in Monza) and he was Trident’s “middle” driver which is what I expected! But yeah, fair play to Meguetounif!
P12: Noel Leon
I wasn’t too far off with this one as Noel Leon ended up finishing in a nice P10! Noel had a really good year this year, securing 4 Podium finishes (2 seconds, 2 thirds) whilst he absolutely smashed his Van Amersfoort Racing teammates! I expected a good year out of Leon, and that’s exactly how it panned out!
P11: Oliver Goethe
Oliver Goethe actually had a better season than I was expecting as he ended up finishing inside the Top 7! Ollie Goethe had a terrific weekend in Imola which saw him win the Sprint Race, finish second in the Feature Race, and get the Fastest Lap in both whilst Goethe also picked up a P3 finish in Spain (Sprint Race). I was definetly right to have Oliver as Campos’ best driver, but the fact he finished 7th whilst missing the final weekend means this wasn’t actually that good of a Prediction!
P10: Martinius Stenshorne
I was well off with this one as Martinius Stenshorne actually ended up finishing down in 18th place! Martinius did manage to achieve a victory in the Australian Sprint Race and he also finished second in the Austrian Sprint Race! Stenshorne also missed the Silverstone weekend which at least saves me ever so slightly, but even still, this was not a good Prediction by me!
P9: Leonardo Fornaroli
Right, well in case you didn’t know, Leonardo Fornaroli left Monza as the 2024 FIA Formula 3 Champion! Now firstly, Leonardo didn’t win a single Race all year which I think is flipping awesome, that is such a cool stat! Secondly, I said in my Predictions article that Fornaroli “isn’t going to be anywhere near the Title”! Well then, I guess I was wrong (time to face-plant the table, again)!
P8: Christian Mansell
I thought Christian Mansell would build on his positive first year in Formula 3, but he did even better than that to end up 5th in the Championship! Whilst he didn’t win a Race, Christian Mansell did manage to achieve 5 Podium finishes (three P2’s, two P3’s) and he also took Pole in Spain! I did expect Mansell to be ART’s Number 1 and that’s exactly how it panned out so fair play to him!
P7: Kacper Sztuka
Yep, I think this is officially my worst Prediction of 2024 (well I hope so anyway)! I had a lot of confidence in Kacper Sztuka heading into this season, but I was clearly wrong because Kacper finished 27th in the Championship with just 6 points from the Imola Sprint Race! I did at least say that Sztuka would finish last of the three MP Motorsport drivers, but still, this is really bad, even for my standards!
P6: Arvid Lindblad
I felt like putting Arvid Lindblad 6th in my Predictions was bold, but it clearly wasn’t bold enough as the young 17-year-old finished 4th in the Standings! Arvid did amazingly well to win 4 Races this year (including 2 in Silverstone), and honestly, he probably should’ve finished higher given he failed to score a single point in any of the last 3 Rounds. It’s also worth mentioning that Lindblad out-scored one of his Prema teammates which I didn’t expect would happen, but to be fair to me, Arvid Lindblad is only 4 points ahead of P6!
P5: Luke Browning
Luke Browning actually managed to go better than this as he ended up finishing 3rd! Luke achieved 2 wins in 2024 (Bahrain and Austrian Feature Races) and he also secured a couple of Pole Positions too (Austria and Silverstone). Browning’s always been great in his second year in a Racing Series and he proved that again this year to finish just a win off the Title!
P4: Tim Tramnitz
I probably went a bit too high with Tim Tramnitz here as he finished 9th in his Rookie Season! Tim managed to appear on the rostrum 4 times in 2024 with his highlight being victory in the Monza Sprint Race! Tramnitz also ended up as MP Motorsport’s highest-scoring driver which means I was definetly off with this one!
P3: Alex Dunne
Speaking of being off, I was nowhere near getting this Prediction right! Alex Dunne didn’t manage to achieve the heights that some people expected of him in his Rookie Season as he ended up coming home in 14th place! Dunne did achieve 2 Podium finishes in 2024 (both in Sprint Races) and he actually scored a good chunk of his points in the final weekend at Monza! Still, 11 places off is not good from me!
P2: Dino Beganovic
2024 didn’t go as I expected when it comes to Dino Beganovic as the Prema driver ended up 6th in the Championship! Dino did achieve 2 wins in 2024 which is a positive step forward, and it’s worth mentioning that he’s only 4 points behind 4th. However, I expected Beganovic to fight for the Title this year, and that just didn’t happen for whatever reason!
P1: Gabriele Mini
Besides Max Verstappen, I’ve never correctly predicted the Champion in any sport I write about, but I was so close with this one! Gabriele Mini had a great season, winning from Pole in Monaco whilst also taking another 4 Podiums (3 second's, 1 third). If you ignore Mini’s disqualification in Monza, he was a corner away from being crowned Champion, but In the end, though, Gabriele had to settle for the Runners-up spot which will definetly hurt (I mean, I’m disappointed because I nearly got this right)!
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