FIA F3 in Monza
The final race weekend of the 2023 FIA Formula 3 Championship took place last weekend at the Temple of Speed in Monza. The challenging high-speed circuit with tricky chicanes is the perfect finale for the fiercely contested feeder series.
The weekend did not start well for PHM Racing driver Nikita Bedrin, who drives for Jenzer Motorsport. His car caught fire after just a few laps in the 45-minute practice session, which also meant he would miss the afternoon qualifying session. The Jenzer Crew did a great job to rebuild the car during the night, so Nikita could start the sprint race on Saturday morning.
Taylor Barnard continued his positive trend from the penultimate round at Spa, which he finished on the top step of the podium in the main race, qualifying eighth in Monza. Sophia Flörsch finished in 18th, Michael Shin in 19th and Roberto Faria in 22nd position.
In the sprint race over 18 laps, the drivers fought hard for every position throughout the field. In the end, Taylor Barnard missed the third podium in a row by only 0.2 seconds and finished fourth. Nikita Bedrin made up many positions coming from the back of the field and finished 15th. Sophia Flörsch also drove a great race and finished 16th, only 0.3 seconds behind Nikita. Michael Shin and Roberto Faria unfortunately both retired from the race.
The feature race over 3 laps more than the sprint race was a successful conclusion to the 2023 FIA F3 season for Taylor Barnard with another podium with third place. Sophia Flörsch came once again very close to the points with a P13 finish to end the season. Michael Shin actually finished the race in 11th place but a 5 second post race penalty put him back to 17th place. Nikita Bedrin and Roberto Faria had to retire from the last race of the season.
Taylor Barnard collected 56 points in the last 4 races of the season, the most of any driver in the field, showing his great speed and improvements in his rookie season. He finished in 10th place in the overall driver standings. Nikita Bedrin finished the season in 18th place with 2 podiums. Sophia Flörsch became the first woman to finish in the points in the FIA F3 Championship and scored the only points for PHM Racing in the championship.
Overall, we are happy with our rookie season in FIA F3 after having only one year of experience in Formula 4. PHM Racing finished the season in 9th place in the team standings. We learned a lot during the season and have already improved a lot. We will continue to develop over the winter and in the post-season testing in a few weeks.
We would like to thank our partner team Jenzer Motorsport who looked after our drivers Nikita Bedrin and Taylor Barnard and together they achieved great results with a total of 5 podium finishes.
