2020 FIA Formula 3 Championship

The 2020 FIA Formula 3 Championship is the eleventh season of the third-tier of Formula One feeder championship and also second season under the moniker of FIA Formula 3 Championship, a multi-event motor racing championship for single-seat open-wheel formula racing cars. The championship features drivers competing in three-point-four litre Formula 3 racing cars which conform to the technical regulations, or formula, of the championship. It is due to run in support of the Formula 1 World Championship and its sister series, Formula 2. It serves as the third tier of formula racing in the FIA Global Pathway.

2020 FIA Formula 3 Championship
Previous: 2019 Next: 2021
Parent series:
FIA Formula 1 World Championship
FIA Formula 2 Championship
Prema Racing enter the season as the defending Teams' Champions.

Robert Shwartzman is the reigning drivers' champion, having won the title at the final round of the 2019 championship in Russia.[lower-alpha 1] Prema Racing are the reigning teams' champions.

Entries

The following teams and drivers are under contract to compete in the 2020 championship. As the championship is a spec series, all teams compete with an identical Dallara F3 2019 chassis and a bespoke tyre compound developed by Pirelli.[1][2] Each car is powered by a 3.4 L (207 cu in) naturally-aspirated V6 engine developed by Mecachrome.[3]

Entrant No. Driver name
Prema Racing 1 Oscar Piastri
2 Frederik Vesti
3 Logan Sargeant
Hitech Grand Prix 4 Max Fewtrell
5 Liam Lawson
6 Dennis Hauger
ART Grand Prix 7 Théo Pourchaire
8 Aleksandr Smolyar
9 Sebastián Fernández[lower-alpha 2]
Trident 10 Lirim Zendeli
11 David Beckmann
12 Olli Caldwell
HWA Racelab 14 Enzo Fittipaldi
15 Jake Hughes
16 Jack Doohan
MP Motorsport 17 Richard Verschoor
18 Bent Viscaal
19 Lukas Dunner
Jenzer Motorsport 20 Calan Williams
21 Federico Malvestiti
22 Matteo Nannini
Charouz Racing System 23 Niko Kari
24 Igor Fraga
25 David Schumacher
Carlin Buzz Racing 26 Clément Novalak[lower-alpha 3]
27 Enaam Ahmed
28 Cameron Das
Campos Racing 29 Alex Peroni
30 Alessio Deledda
31 Sophia Flörsch
Source:[4]

In detail

Reigning champion Robert Shwartzman, Marcus Armstrong and Jehan Daruvala left Prema Racing and the championship to graduate to the FIA Formula 2 Championship, competing for Prema, ART Grand Prix and Carlin Racing respectively.[5] Logan Sargeant switched from Carlin Buzz Racing to join the outfit and was joined by reigning Formula Regional European and Formula Renault Eurocup champions Frederik Vesti and the Renault-backed Oscar Piastri.[6][7][8]

David Beckmann and Max Fewtrell left ART Grand Prix, with Beckmann moving to Trident and Fewtrell to Hitech Grand Prix. Christian Lundgaard graduated to ART's FIA Formula 2 outfit. Their seats were taken by reigning ADAC Formula 4 champion Théo Pourchaire,[9] 2019 Formula Renault Eurocup third-place finisher Aleksandr Smolyar,[10] and Sebastián Fernández, who moved from Campos Racing.[11]

Joining Fewtrell at Hitech were Red Bull Junior Team drivers Liam Lawson, who switched from MP Motorsport, and reigning Italian F4 champion Dennis Hauger.[12][13] As a result, Leonardo Pulcini, Jüri Vips and Ye Yifei all left the team, with Pulcini and Vips moving to the International GT Open and Super Formula series respectively.[14]

Jake Hughes remained with HWA Racelab while Bent Viscaal and Keyvan Andres left the team, with the former switching to MP Motorsport and being joined by 2019 Euroformula Open third place finisher Lukas Dunner.[15][16] Their seats were filled by 2019 Formula Regional European Championship runner-up Enzo Fittipaldi and 2019 F3 Asian Championship runner-up Jack Doohan.[17]

Yuki Tsunoda and Andreas Estner left Jenzer Motorsport, with Tsunoda graduating to FIA Formula 2. They were replaced by Euroformula Open racer Calan Williams and 2019 Formula 4 UAE champion Matteo Nannini.[18][19] Federico Malvestiti, who raced for Jenzer at the fourth round of the 2019 season as a replacement driver, joined the team full-time.

Reigning Toyota Racing Series champion Igor Fraga and David Schumacher, who finished fourth in the 2019 Formula Regional European Championship, joined the series with Charouz Racing System, with whom Schumacher had previously raced with at the previous year's Macau Grand Prix.[20] Schumacher had previously made an appearance in the 2019 season finale with Campos Racing. They were joined at Charouz by Niko Kari, who switched from Trident. Raoul Hyman, Fabio Scherer and Lirim Zendeli all left Charouz, with Scherer joining the DTM series and Zendeli moving to Trident.[21][22] Pedro Piquet left Trident and graduated to FIA Formula 2, whilst Devlin DeFrancesco remained with the team who also acquired Formula Regional graduate Olli Caldwell, who had raced with the Italian outfit at Macau the previous year.[23]

Alex Peroni and Alessio Deledda will return with Campos Racing.[24] Peroni's re-signing also marked his return to competition, having been forced to miss the final round of the 2019 championship with a back injury. Sophia Flörsch completes Campos line-up.[25]

Along with Sargeant, Felipe Drugovich and Teppei Natori left Carlin Buzz Racing to compete in FIA Formula 2 and Super Formula Lights respectively. Their seats were filled by inaugural Formula 4 US champion Cameron Das and BRDC British Formula 3 champions Enaam Ahmed and Clément Novalak.[26]

Ahead of the delayed Red Bull Ring season opener, David Beckmann was drafted into the Trident line-up in place of Devlin DeFrancesco.[27]

Calendar

The following ten rounds are scheduled to take place as part of the 2020 championship. The series was to hold its opening round at the Bahrain International Circuit for the first time, and the Circuit Paul Ricard round was to be replaced by a round at Circuit Zandvoort. However, the championship was affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, which saw several rounds postponed.[28][29] A revised calendar was published in June 2020, which included two events at the Red Bull Ring and two at the Silverstone Circuit.[30]

Round Circuit Race 1 Race 2
1 Red Bull Ring, Spielberg 4 July 5 July
2 11 July 12 July
3 Hungaroring, Mogyoród 18 July 19 July
4 Silverstone Circuit, Silverstone 1 August 2 August
5 8 August 9 August
6 Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, Montmeló 15 August 16 August
7 Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps, Stavelot 29 August 30 August
8 Autodromo Nazionale di Monza, Monza 5 September 6 September
– Sochi Autodrom, Sochi TBA TBA
– Bahrain International Circuit, Sakhir TBA[lower-alpha 4] TBA[lower-alpha 4]
– Circuit Zandvoort, Zandvoort Cancelled[lower-alpha 5] Cancelled[lower-alpha 5]
Source:[30][31]

Regulation changes

Sporting regulations

The championship will change the grid and point systems for the second race. The top ten finishers in the first race will all score points and will have their places reversed on the grid of the second race.[32]

Notes
  1. Under the series' sporting regulations, the defending drivers' champion is not permitted to continue racing in the championship.
  2. Sebastián Fernández is a Venezuelan-Spanish driver competing under a Spanish licence.[4]
  3. Clément Novalak is a Franco-Swiss driver competing under a British licence.[4]
  4. The Bahrain races were due to take place on 21 and 22 March, but was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.[28]
  5. The Zandvoort races were due to take place on 2 and 3 May, but were cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.[29]

References
  1. "The Car". fiaformula3.com. Formula Motorsport Limited. Archived from the original on 10 May 2019. Retrieved 10 February 2019.
  2. Benyon, Jack; Evans, David (4 February 2019). "New FIA F3 car will be 'more difficult to drive' than GP3 machine". autosport.com. Motorsport Network. Retrieved 5 February 2019.
  3. "New International F3 car set to use GP3 engine". motorsport.com. Motorsport Network. Retrieved 5 July 2018.
  4. "Teams & Drivers". www.fiaformula3.com. Formula Motorsport Limited. Retrieved 25 June 2020.
  5. "Shwartzman joins Prema as Ferrari unveils F2 roster". motorsport.com. Retrieved 28 November 2019.
  6. "PREMA Racing secure Sargeant for 2020". 17 December 2019. Archived from the original on 17 December 2019. Retrieved 23 December 2019.
  7. Benyon, Jack (2 January 2019). "Formula Regional champion Vesti gets Prema F3 seat". Motorsport.com. Motorsport Network. Retrieved 2 January 2020.
  8. "Prema Racing completes 2020 FIA F3 lineup with Australian Oscar Piastri". 26 January 2020. Retrieved 26 January 2020.
  9. "Pourchaire snapped up by ART Grand Prix". fiaformula3.com. 29 December 2019. Archived from the original on 30 December 2019. Retrieved 30 December 2019.
  10. "ART Grand Prix seal Alexander Smolyar signing". 22 December 2019. Archived from the original on 23 December 2019. Retrieved 23 December 2019.
  11. "Fernández completes ART Grand Prix line-up". fiaformula3.com. 7 January 2020. Archived from the original on 11 January 2020. Retrieved 7 January 2020.
  12. "Fewtrell finalises move to Hitech GP". 28 January 2020. Archived from the original on 28 January 2020. Retrieved 28 January 2020.
  13. "Red Bull Junior Team announcement 2020 - no stopping the juniors racing and winning into a new season". 28 January 2020. Retrieved 28 January 2020.
  14. "Leonardo Pulcini makes sportscar switch as Lamborghini junior". formulascout.com. 6 February 2020. Retrieved 10 February 2020.
  15. "MP Motorsport sign Dutchman Viscaal". 20 February 2020. Archived from the original on 21 February 2020. Retrieved 21 February 2020.
  16. "MP Motorsport recruit Dunner for 2020". 27 February 2020. Archived from the original on 27 February 2020. Retrieved 27 February 2020.
  17. Benyon, Jack. "Fittipaldi, Doohan join Hughes to complete HWA FIA F3 2020 line-up". sg.news.yahoo.com. Yahoo News. Retrieved 8 January 2020.
  18. "Jenzer secure Williams for 2020 campaign". fiaformula3.com. FIA Formula 3 Championship. 25 October 2019. Archived from the original on 25 October 2019. Retrieved 25 October 2019.
  19. "Jenzer add Nannini for 2020". 3 February 2020. Archived from the original on 3 February 2020. Retrieved 3 February 2020.
  20. "Charouz Racing System". charouz-racing.com. Retrieved 5 February 2020.
  21. "Fabio Scherer moves on to DTM with WRT Team Audi Sport in 2020". fabioscherer.ch. 12 December 2019. Retrieved 10 February 2020.
  22. "Trident sign Zendeli for 2020". 20 January 2020. Archived from the original on 25 January 2020. Retrieved 20 January 2020.
  23. "Caldwell completes Trident's 2020 line-up". 12 February 2020. Archived from the original on 13 February 2020. Retrieved 12 February 2020.
  24. "Peroni and Deledda re-sign with Campos". Formula 3. Formula Motorsport Limited. 18 February 2020. Archived from the original on 18 February 2020. Retrieved 18 February 2020.
  25. "Sophia Flörsch completes Campos' 2020 roster". Formula 3. Formula Motorsport Limited. 26 February 2020. Archived from the original on 26 February 2020. Retrieved 26 February 2020.
  26. "NOVALAK, AHMED AND DAS JOIN CARLIN BUZZ RACING FOR FIA F3". 24 February 2020. Retrieved 24 February 2020.
  27. Boxall-Legge, Jake (24 June 2020). "Beckmann replaces DeFrancesco at Trident in F3". autosport.com. Motorsport Network. Retrieved 24 June 2020.
  28. "FIA Formula 2 and FIA Formula 3 Championships Round 1 in Bahrain postponed - Formula 2". fiaformula2.com. Retrieved 13 March 2020.
  29. "FIA Formula 2 and FIA Formula 3 Championships May races and tests postponed". fiaformula2.com. 19 March 2020. Retrieved 20 March 2020.
  30. "FIA Formula 2 and FIA Formula 3 confirm opening eight rounds of their revised 2020 calendars". FIA Formula 3 - The Official F3 Website. 2 June 2020. Retrieved 2 June 2020.
  31. Benyon, Jack (17 September 2019). "Zandvoort replaces Paul Ricard on F2 calendar". motorsport.com. Motorsport Network. Retrieved 17 September 2019.
  32. "2020 FIA Formula 3 Championship sporting regulations". fia.com. FIA. Retrieved 20 January 2020.
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