After a fraught last weekend in Austria at round six of the FIA Formula 3 championship, Kiwi racer Louis Sharp is looking forward to getting back on his pseudo home track at Silverstone this weekend.
Moving up to F3 for 2025, Sharp has had to endure the challenge of racingon tracks he’s not been to before in the series so far. Starting at the Northamptonshire track this weekend, the 18-year-old will round out the season on circuits he’s familiar with – Silverstone, Spa Francorchamps and Budapest.
Silverstone in particular has some significance for Sharp. He’s raced on the full Grand Prix circuit in the past and spent two days there as a finalist in the 2024 Silverstone Autosport BRDC Young Driver of the Year Award.
“I’m really looking forward to Silverstone as it’s the first circuit this year I’ve been to before,” Sharp told the Weekend Herald.
“It’s one of my favourite circuits and I hope it’ll be a good weekend. It’s sort of my home circuit and the only track on the F3 calendar that we race on in the UK.
“It hasn’t been the season we’ve wanted so far, and we haven’t been that far off the pace. We just have to keep trying to bridge the gap, stay out of trouble and qualify well as it’s hard to pass around Silverstone.”
The F3 series is highly competitive, with small time differences impacting driver rankings significantly. Photo / Matthew Gimlette
After winning the F4 British championship in 2023, followed by the GB3 Championship the next year, Sharp has discovered the FIA F3 series is one of the hardest to get to grips with.
He sits 20th on the table in his rookie year with 11 points, a fair way off championship leader Rafael Camara on 117 followed by Tim Tramnitz (93) and Nikola Tsolov (89).
While every one of the junior category drivers want to get to F2 and eventually F1, it would be fair to say the F3 championship is probably the most highly contested. A few hundredths of a second lap time difference can result in a driver dropping outside the top 10 and languishing in the bottom half of the 30-car field.
“It’s a tough championship that’s for sure. One or two tenths of a second makes a huge difference in where you are in the field,” said Sharp.
“In F3 it’s all about the smallest advantages, which makes it a bit more difficult than some other categories. Every year it gets harder and harder, and the smallest mistake can see you drop down the field.
Louis Sharp and the victorious Rodin team celebrating the GB3 championship at Brand's Hatch last year. Photo / Rodin
“We’ve had a few issues with the car that we are trying to resolve. If we can sort that out our pace should improve. I’m really looking forward to getting on top of the problem so we can move further up the field.
“We made some improvements for the feature race in Austria last weekend and we should be even better this weekend,” said Sharp.
Not only is the field compressed when it comes to lap times, Sharp is also at a disadvantage as a F3 rookie with only 45 minutes allowed for practice before it’s straight into qualifying. This plays into the hands of drivers who are in their second and third season in F3.
“We don’t really get many laps in practice, so being at tracks I haven’t been to before makes it just that bit harder.
“Having had previous experience at a circuit can make all the difference, especially when everyone is so close on lap times. That’s why drivers who raced F3 before have a bit of an advantage.
“This weekend we can spend time dialling the car in rather than trying to learn the circuit which will make a big difference,” said Sharp.
