The FIA F3 Championship has come to an end as they closed the 2020 season with their last round in Mugello and the newly crowned champion Oscar Piastri. Looking back at the old grid that they have for the brilliant season, thirty-five drivers are involved in the championship with ten teams who shared the same targets to be the team champion with dominations and outstanding overalls.
It was an ongoing success for the Prema Racing team to repeatedly claim another title as the team champion for the last two years competing inside the series. Signing their deals off with the three drivers that marked the Italian team’s conquest carried the way for them to be ahead of the Trident team with a massive 206 points.
Frederik Vesti leads the driver with the most wins than the rest of the drivers on the grid with an impressive total of three wins, followed by Oscar Piastri’s dedication to prevail four podiums and consistency in his performances. In between the two drivers, Logan Sargeant secured the spotlight with his defensive skills and competitiveness that grew out of his personality on track.
Further down the season, tons of incredible actions happened inside the 18 races they had for the year. Nine different drivers managed to win the races for the fight to the top. The tense was built around tight battles and heartbreaking moments that happened halfway to the last round. We looked at three top sensational actions brought by the drivers who took the win for the day in a slight review of the 2020 season.
1. The Styrian Grand Prix misfortunes and triumphs
Image credit: FIA F3 Instagram
On the second round of the Austrian Grand Prix, or so-called the Styrian Grand Prix, mixed feelings were asserted throughout the 24 laps as the race started nicely for Liam Lawson and Jake Hughes. The debut from Theo Pourchaire was optimistic on his first move to lead the first lap from the second position, pressuring Jake Hughes to overlap him. He takes leads for a consistent three laps before Liam Lawson decided to pull another action to have a push in between the two drivers on his side.
The switch over Jake Hughes and the kiwi racing driver lasted until lap 20 out of 20 with their seemingly tight battles and a never-ending situation as they keep their gap at a safe distance. The two drivers were expected to have called it a pleasant day with four more laps ahead of them, and how they keep their defensive skills. As weak as how it may sound, they touched each other and dragged Jake Hughes’s car to the gravel, leaving no space for him to do the overtaking job as they’re on the curve.
Both of the willing champions failed to gain any wins or podiums, leaving Theo Pourchaire to take the final victory from the battle of the lead. The French driver has been doing the job to maintain the third position that he was in for so long to mark his first win of the season with ART, followed by Logan Sargeant and David Beckmann to end the event.
2. Chaotic race and sensational drama in Monza
Image credit: FIA F3 Instagram
The first event to welcome the Italian Grand Prix happened to be in Monza with a dramatic and crucial outlook from the second race. Starting from the first move, Michael Belov had to take the lead as he begins from pole positions for a couple of moments once the lights were off. Liam Zendeli jumped on his chance to contend the pole sitter’s role in leading the race from the inside with Enzo Fittipaldi on second not so long after Belov got the potential from a good start.
Bent Viscaal was out from the race as he got an incident after his car touched the ground and dragged him into the gravel. He was the first driver on the count to leave this race as an unexpected turning event. Liam Lawson succeeded in stealing Jack Hughes’s position to be the race leader, and Enzo Fittipaldi’s effort to impress Liam Zendelli’s current place that wasn’t enough.
On lap 8 out of 22, another incident happened on Enzo Fittipaldi’s car to have a puncture from the tiny contact caused by Lirim Zendeli on his back, giving the chance to promote Lawson’s move up to first. Frederik Vesti got his opportunity to enter the top three as Liam Lawson is still on the lead for another battle with Jack Hughes to face a wheel to wheel actions.
Surprisingly, Oscar Piastri had an intense turn on the curve that affected three drivers to be involved in the misfortune as he dragged them into the gravel—leaving the two other Prema drivers on track as they got into the battlefield. Oscar Piastri touched with his teammate’s car causing a puncture to Logan Sargeant’s car and his front wing to have damage. That closed any of Prema’s prospects to win after the first race that Frederik Vesti brought for the Italian team.
The action didn’t stop there as they got three more laps to go after the collision that happened on lap 19. Theo Pourchaire was up to a risky move from him to get past Lirim Zendeli, who’s on the third, as his way to earn another podium. Jake Hughes topped the dramatic race, leaving the drama behind to Liam Lawson and Theo Pourchaire throughout the chaotic and unprecedented laps from Monza.
3. The final push from British Grand Prix
Image credit: FIA F3 Instagram
The race started from the reverse grid that addresses Lirim Zendeli as the pole sitter for the day. Bent Viscaal clinched up to second from a good start, with Theo Pouchaire chasing the Dutch racing driver. The safety car arrived shortly after the incident caused by two drivers that were on the wall.
Oscar Piastri and Logan Sargeant were aware of the touch that could damage the car as the race is still going. The drama didn’t stop there as it continues to haunt other driver’s actions on the track. Liam Lawson remained to stay with the struggles he had for the race as Theo Pouchaire got advantaged by Ben Barnicoat, who stumbled down to 10th on lap 11.
The French ART racing driver continued to defend his third place as David Backmann set his eyes out to do the overtake. Bent Viscaal was five seconds ahead of Theo Pourchaire, leaving the battle between him and Liam Zendeli. On the final lap of the race, Bent Viscaal successfully gets to pass the race leader as he is in for the last push to mark his first win of the season with MP Motorsport.
The tight battle to first happened to be on the final lap from the British Grand Prix as the two contenders went side by side as they keep on switching positions from turns to turns. Bent Viscaal saw the chequered flag first, and he got to be announced as the winner of the day with Lirim Zendeli slightly behind him and Theo Pourchaire once more qualified inside the top 3.
Those are the three battles that we wrapped up for the previous season in 2020. There is more excitement than the three mentioned moments above as Formula 3 has always been a challenging series for new talents and the stars of tomorrow. FIA F3 will be back in May for the first opening event in Barcelona with the weekend’s new format.
