bent viscaal

10th August 2020

F3 Spain preview: Sargeant goes from hunter to hunted

Formula 3 returns this weekend at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya in Spain, with Prema’s Logan Sargeant heading into the round as the new championship leader.

After winning the second feature race at Silverstone last weekend, Sargeant became the first driver to take the title lead away from Oscar Piastri, who had previously held it ever since his win in the first race of the season in Austria. That switch puts Sargeant in a tricky position this weekend, as his task has turned from catching Piastri to expanding the slender one-point lead over his Prema teammate.

Sargeant’s key advantage in this fight is his qualifying pace. The American has so far outqualified Piastri at all but one round this season, and took both pole positions at the last two rounds in Silverstone. However, Sargeant’s so far struggled to convert that advantage on race day, as he’s ultimately finished behind Piastri in every feature race bar his victory last weekend.

The key to Sargeant’s title campaign, then, will be a consistent weekend in which he can qualify and then keep ahead of Piastri. And with only four rounds left to go in the season, he will have to start doing so now before he runs out of time.

Oscar Piastri, Prema (Joe Portlock / Formula 1 via Getty Images)

Having passed the halfway mark in the season, Sargeant and Piastri’s fight for the title isn’t the only battle getting tighter as the championship moves to its climax.

David Beckmann currently leads a close train of drivers all in the mix for third in the standings. On 82.5 points, the German has only a 13.5-point buffer separating him from Liam Lawson, Frederik Vesti and Theo Pourchaire. Each has been a race winner this year, and with one good weekend could even jump up to trouble the title protagonists—especially as Beckmann, Lawson and Pourchaire are this season’s only repeat winners so far.

Bent Viscaal became the only winner outside this group at last weekend’s sprint race. However, with 33 points between him and the top six of the championship, Viscaal is currently more in contention for seventh with the likes of Richard Verschoor, Alex Peroni and Lirim Zendelli, as well as Clement Novalak and Jake Hughes behind him.

Of these drivers, Viscaal and Hughes are the ones currently on a run of form. As well as Viscaal’s win, Hughes took his first podium of the year in the second Silverstone feature race, and both are expected to carry that momentum into Spain.

But with this cluster of drivers as close on points as the group just above them, it’s highly likely we’ll come out of Barcelona with a very different championship order to what we have going in.

Bent Viscaal, MP Motorsport (Joe Portlock / Formula 1 via Getty Images)

9th August 20209th August 2020

F3 Great Britain: Viscaal snatches win from Zendelli in frantic sprint race

Bent Viscaal took victory for MP Motorsport in the Silverstone sprint race, passing long-time leader Lirim Zendelli on the final lap.

Zendelli and Viscaal started second and third on the reverse grid and got a much better start than polesitter Ben Barnicoat to jump into the lead into Turn 1. While Zendelli and Viscaal pulled away in front, Barnicoat found himself under pressure to hold third from David Beckmann, Theo Pourchaire and Liam Lawson, who had all leapt past Oscar Piastri off the line.

The battles for first and third were halted on lap 2 when Lukas Dunner and Calan Williams came together to bring out the safety car. When the race resumed on lap 6, Zendelli and Viscaal once again moved clear of the pack with several seconds back to Barnicoat.

Despite being separated by just half a second for most of the remaining 15 laps, Zendelli held the lead from Viscaal without challenge until the final lap. After setting successive fastest laps and bringing the gap down to just a few tenths, Viscaal made a late dive to the inside of Copse on the final lap, catching Zendelli by surprise and taking the lead.

Zendelli fought back and the two ran side by side through the final corners. But although Zendelli briefly managed to get ahead, Viscaal hung on around the outside of the final corner and came across the line to win by just one tenth over the Trident.

Lirim Zendelli, Trident (Joe Portlock / Formula 1 via Getty Images)

As Viscaal and Zendelli fought over the lead, a fierce battle raged behind them for third place. Barnicoat put in an impressive performance to hold the position early on from the more experienced drivers behind him. But on lap 11, the British driver pulled off the track with a mechanical problem with his Carlin, elevating Pourchaire into third.

Pourchaire was immediately forced into defending from Beckmann. On lap 16 Beckmann made a move for third but ran wide and dropped back to fifth behind Lawson, while Pourchaire was shown the black and white flag for weaving in his defence.

Lawson then took up the pursuit of third place but was also unable to find a way past Pourchaire in the closing stages. On the final lap, after losing time attacking Pourchaire and running wide out of the last corner, Lawson was then repassed for fourth by Beckmann in a drag race to the line.

Pourchaire took third for his third podium of the season, ahead of Beckmann and Lawson. Piastri took sixth place after a tight battle late in the race with Jake Hughes and Frederik Vesti, who finished seventh and eighth respectively. Clement Novalak finished ninth, and Enzo Fittipaldi took the final point in tenth.

Theo Pourchaire, ART (Joe Portlock / Formula 1 via Getty Images)

New championship leader Logan Sargeant retired with damage after contact with Cameron Das on lap 10, meaning he now has only a single point in hand over Piastri with four rounds remaining in the championship. Viscaal’s victory elevates him from 14th in the standings to 10th.

In the teams’ standings Prema has 281.5 points, while second-placed Trident has extended its gap over ART to 18.5 points. Find the full F3 drivers’ and teams’ standings here.

Update: Fittipaldi was given a post-race penalty of five seconds for leaving the track and gaining an advantage when passing Das. The Brazilian drops from 10th to 17th, and Igor Fraga is promoted up to the points.

Full race result:

Pos.	Driver	Team	Points
1	Bent Viscaal (FL)	MP Motorsport	17
2	Lirim Zendelli	Trident	12
3	Theo Pourchaire	ART Grand Prix	10
4	David Beckmann	Trident	8
5	Liam Lawson	Hitech Grand Prix	6
6	Oscar Piastri	Prema Racing	5
7	Jake Hughes	HWA Racelab	4
8	Frederik Vesti	Prema Racing	3
9	Clement Novalak	Carlin Buzz Racing	2
10	Igor Fraga	Charouz Racing System	1
11	Cameron Das	Carlin Buzz Racing
12	Max Fewtrell	Hitech Grand Prix
13	Sebastian Fernandez	ART Grand Prix
14	Aleksandr Smolyar	ART Grand Prix
15	Roman Stanek	Charouz Racing System
16	Matteo Nannini	Jenzer Motorsport
17	Enzo Fittipaldi	HWA Racelab
18	Richard Verschoor	MP Motorsport
19	Sophia Floersch	Campos Racing
20	Dennis Hauger	Hitech Grand Prix
21	Jack Doohan	HWA Racelab
22	Olli Caldwell	Trident
23	Federico Malvestiti	Jenzer Motorsport
24	Alex Peroni	Campos Racing
Ret.	Ben Barnicoat	Carlin Buzz Racing
Ret.	Logan Sargeant	Prema Racing
Ret.	Alessio Deledda	Campos Racing
Ret.	David Schumacher	Charouz Racing System
Ret.	Lukas Dunner	MP Motosport
Ret.	Calan Williams	Jenzer Motorsport

8th August 20208th August 2020

F3 Great Britain: Sargeant controls feature race for first F3 win

Prema’s Logan Sargeant took his first Formula 3 win in the Silverstone feature race, controlling from the front after breaking away early.

Sargeant got a good launch from pole position to hold the lead into the first corner. Behind him, second-placed starter Liam Lawson was slow away and was passed by Jake Hughes starting from third.

While Hughes was occupied with getting past Lawson, Sargeant immediately set about opening a gap in front. By lap 7 the American was already 2.5 seconds ahead of Hughes, and managed to maintain the same distance for the majority of the race.

The gap only increased in the closing stages as Hughes’ tyres started to lose grip, with Sargeant running more than three seconds clear in the final four laps. Hughes eventually fell back to within half a second of Lawson, although he just managed to hold off the Hitech to take his first podium of the year in second.

Jake Hughes, HWA Racelab (Dan Istitene / Formula 1 via Getty Images)

Lawson crossed the line in third, having held the position throughout a race-long battle with Frederik Vesti. Lawson appeared to struggle with his tyres all through the race and after the opening laps a train was already forming behind him including Vesti, Theo Pourchaire, David Beckmann and Bent Viscaal.

But despite Vesti’s pace advantage, Lawson was able to successfully defend against the Dane’s attempts at overtaking him. The time lost trying to pass Lawson then left Vesti vulnerable to Pourchaire behind, and on lap 9 the Frenchman tried a move through Vale. Pourchaire briefly got ahead into fourth, but Vesti was able to retake the place and Pourchaire ended up losing out to Beckmann as well.

After being told by his engineer to get after Lawson and commit to a move, Vesti set successive fastest laps and caught the Hitech again in the second half of the race. However, he was still unable to make a move stick and had to settle for fourth ahead of Beckmann.

Liam Lawson, Hitech (Dutch Photo Agency / Red Bull Content Pool)

Pourchaire finished sixth in the end, just holding off Oscar Piastri through the final corners with help from yellow flags for a collision between Sebastian Fernandez and Matteo Nannini at the back of the field. Piastri managed to recover back into the points after trouble in qualifying yesterday, although he ran out of laps to make the most of a late-race turn of speed.

Viscaal finished in eighth place, with Clement Novalak ninth and Lirim Zendelli taking reverse grid pole for tomorrow in tenth. Lawson scored the additional two points for fastest lap.

Sargeant’s victory and Piastri’s finish in the lower half of the points means Sargeant now takes over the lead of the championship by six points from his teammate.

Update: Novalak received a post-race five-second penalty for running off track and gaining an advantage, dropping him out of the points to P13. Zendelli was promoted to P9 and Ben Barnicoat to P10 for his first point of the season and reverse grid pole. Nannini also received a grid penalty for tomorrow’s sprint race for hitting Fernandez.

Full race result:

Pos.	Driver	Team	Points
1	Logan Sargeant	Prema Racing	25
2	Jake Hughes	HWA Racelab	18
3	Liam Lawson (FL)	Hitech Grand Prix	17
4	Frederik Vesti	Prema Racing	12
5	David Beckmann	Trident	10
6	Theo Pourchaire	ART Grand Prix	8
7	Oscar Piastri	Prema Racing	6
8	Bent Viscaal	MP Motorsport	4
9	Lirim Zendelli	Trident	2
10	Ben Barnicoat	Carlin Buzz Racing	1
11	Cameron Das	Carlin Buzz Racing
12	Aleksandr Smolyar	ART Grand Prix
13	Clement Novalak	Carlin Buzz Racing
14	Alex Peroni	Campos Racing
15	David Schumacher	Charouz Racing System
16	Max Fewtrell	Hitech Grand Prix
17	Enzo Fittipaldi	HWA Racelab
18	Igor Fraga	Charouz Racing System
19	Richard Verschoor	MP Motorsport
20	Sophia Floersch	Campos Racing
21	Olli Caldwell	Trident
22	Roman Stanek	Charouz Racing System
23	Lukas Dunner	MP Motorsport
24	Sebastian Fernandez	ART Grand Prix
25	Alessio Deledda	Campos Racing
26	Jack Doohan	HWA Racelab
Ret.	Matteo Nannini	Jenzer Motorsport
Ret.	Calan Williams	Jenzer Motorsport
Ret.	Federico Malvestiti	Jenzer Motosport
Ret.	Dennis Hauger	Hitech Grand Prix

1st August 20201st August 2020

F3 Great Britain: Lawson holds off Premas for feature race win

Liam Lawson took his second win of the Formula 3 season at the Silverstone feature race, seeing off the Premas of Oscar Piastri and Logan Sargeant in a race fraught with incidents.

Lawson started from second behind polesitter Sargeant. Although Sargeant held first off the line, Lawson was close enough to harry him throughout the opening lap and make a lunge around the outside of Stowe to steal the lead.

After a brief interruption on lap 4, when Matteo Nannini slowed on track and brought out a Virtual Safety Car, Lawson began pulling away from Sargeant. The American driver then dropped back into the clutches of teammate Piastri, who demoted Sargeant to third on lap 7.

Piastri was better able to keep pace with Lawson than Sargeant, closing to within half a second by lap 9. On lap 11 Piastri drew alongside Lawson under DRS and looked set to take first place, but the Australian ran wide over the kerbs and couldn’t complete the move.

Oscar Piastri, Prema (Bryn Lennon / Getty Images)

With Piastri right on his tail, Lawson was handed a saving grace shortly after when the safety car was deployed for Bent Viscaal, who spun after contact with Ben Barnicoat through Luffield and collected Jack Doohan’s HWA.

The safety car remained out for four laps, but was then redeployed almost immediately when Olli Caldwell spun in the middle of the pack and was hit heavily by Lukas Dunner and Max Fewtrell.

With Caldwell’s rear wing and suspension across the track, the race went on to end under the safety car, preserving Lawson’s first place over Piastri and Sargeant.

Jake Hughes finished fourth ahead of the third Prema of Frederik Vesti, with Alex Peroni climbing up from 18^th on the grid to take sixth. Sebastian Fernandez finished seventh, Clement Novalak took eighth and the fastest lap, David Beckmann was ninth, and Aleksandr Smolyar took the reverse grid pole for the tomorrow in tenth.

Logan Sargeant, Prema (Rudy Carezzevoli / Getty Images)

Full race result:

Pos.	Driver	Team	Points
1	Liam Lawson	Hitech	25
2	Oscar Piastri	Prema	18
3	Logan Sargeant	Prema	15
4	Jake Hughes	HWA	12
5	Frederik Vesti	Prema	10
6	Alex Peroni	Campos	8
7	Sebastian Fernandez	ART	6
8	Clement Novalak (FL)	Carlin	6
9	David Beckmann	Trident	2
10	Aleksandr Smolyar	ART	1
11	Richard Verschoor	MP Motorsport
12	Theo Pourchaire	ART
13	Lirim Zendelli	Trident
14	Calan Williams	Jenzer
15	Igor Fraga	Charouz
16	Dennis Hauger	Hitech
17	Roman Stanek	Charouz
18	Enzo Fittipaldi	HWA
19	Federico Malvestiti	Jenzer
20	Ben Barnicoat	Carlin
21	Cameron Das	Carlin
22	Sophia Floersch	Campos
23	Matteo Nannini	Jenzer
24	Alessio Deledda	Campos
25	David Schumacher	Charouz
Ret.	Olli Caldwell	Trident
Ret.	Max Fewtrell	Hitech
Ret.	Lukas Dunner	MP Motorsport
Ret.	Bent Viscaal	MP Motorsport
Ret.	Jack Doohan	HWA

19th July 2020

F3 Hungary: Beckmann fights back to sprint race victory

Trident’s David Beckmann took his first Formula 3 victory in the Hungaroring sprint race, having fought back to first after losing the lead at the start.

Beckmann started from reverse grid pole but had a slow getaway compared to Dennis Hauger starting from third. Hauger took the lead into the first corner and showed great pace in the wet conditions to move two seconds clear of Beckmann by the end of lap 2.

Beckmann responded in the following laps, reducing the gap to under a second by lap 7, before the safety car was deployed when Liam Lawson pulled off with an engine failure.

Dennis Hauger, Hitech (Dutch Photo Agency / Red Bull Content Pool)

When the race resumed on lap 10 Hauger jumped clear of Beckmann again. Meanwhile, Bent Viscaal had a great restart and passed his teammate Richard Verschoor for fifth, before then overtaking Logan Sargeant and Clement Novalak for third place by the end of the lap.

Viscaal continued charging, and on lap 13 the Dutchman moved into the lead after passing both Beckmann and then Hauger on the same lap. However, Viscaal was then handed a five-second penalty for causing a race-ending collision with Igor Fraga in the early laps, and was also placed under investigation for overtaking Sargeant off the track when taking fourth place.

As Viscaal set about trying to build a ten second gap to protect against a second penalty, Beckmann began pressuring Hauger for second place. The Danish driver was already six seconds adrift of Viscaal on lap 17 as his wet tyres struggled on the drying track, and he had little resistance to offer as Beckmann passed him on the inside of Turn 1.

Later on in the lap, Hauger then lost third place to Oscar Piastri, who had battled his way up the field from ninth on the grid.

Oscar Piastri, Prema (Courtesy of Prema Racing)

With five laps to go Beckmann struggled to bring the gap to Viscaal down beneath six seconds. But this wasn’t needed in the end, as the stewards awarded Viscaal another five-second penalty for his pass on Sargeant, which would drop Viscaal to third and hand Beckmann the victory.

However, Viscaal’s penalties were to become even more painful on lap 20, when Federico Malvestiti crashed out and caused the race to end under the safety car. Viscaal’s gap at the front was wiped out, and when he crossed the line his ten-second penalty dropped him from first all the way down to P17.

Hauger was promoted back into third for his maiden podium, with Piastri scoring valuable championship points with second place and the fastest lap.

Sargeant finished fourth ahead of Verschoor, with yesterday’s winner Theo Pourchaire in sixth and leading his ART teammates Aleksandr Smolyar and Sebastian Fernandez. Enzo Fittipaldi and Alex Peroni rounded out the top ten.

After round 3, Piastri’s double podium has extended his lead in the drivers’ standings, and he now has 26 points in hand over second-placed Sargeant. Pourchaire has dropped to third, and is now only half a point ahead of Beckmann following the German’s win. In the team’s standings Prema has 171 points, more than double the total of nearest rivals Trident and ART.

Formula 3 will be back in two weeks’ time, supporting the Formula 1 British Grand Prix at Silverstone.

18th July 2020

F3 Hungary: Pourchaire commands interrupted feature race

Theo Pourchaire became the first double winner of the 2020 Formula 3 season at the Hungaroring feature race, seeing off championship leader Oscar Piastri through numerous restarts.

Starting in slippery conditions, the race opened with several incidents at the first corner bringing out the first safety car. Polesitter Aleksandr Smolyar was spun out of the race by Logan Sargeant, while behind them Frederik Vesti and Calan Williams came together to partially block the corner.

With Smolyar out and Sargeant driving a damaged car, Pourchaire moved up into the lead with Piastri second ahead of Sargeant. When the race resumed after a lap behind the safety car, Pourchaire immediately opened up a second over Piastri to protect against the DRS.

Piastri responded on lap five to bring the gap down to half a second. But before he could try a move on Pourchaire the race was interrupted once again when Liam Lawson pulled off with an engine fire, leaving a trail of oil throughout Turns 1 and 2. After one lap behind the safety car, the race was red-flagged to properly clear the track.

When the race resumed after a start behind the safety car, Pourchaire again bolted from Piastri and within two laps the Frenchman had broken out of DRS range again. From there Pourchaire kept improving, setting a series of fastest laps to add almost a second per lap on Piastri.

By the chequered flag, Pourchaire crossed the line more than twelve seconds clear of Piastri to take his second consecutive win of the season, and become the first double winner of the year.

Logan Sargeant, Prema (Joe Portlock / Formula 1 via Getty Images)

Sargeant finished third behind Piastri to make it two Premas on the podium. Nursing damage throughout from the first corner collision with Smolyar, Sargeant was under pressure from both Lawson before his retirement and Sebastian Fernandez after the final safety car restart.

The American’s struggles were clear as he ran wide multiple times. However, he managed to hold onto the position until lap 15, when Fernandez’s tyres dropped off and he dropped behind the MP Motorsport pair of Richard Verschoor and Bent Viscaal.

As Verschoor and Viscaal then battled between themselves for fourth, Sargeant was able to pull away and comfortably keep his podium position. Behind, Viscaal came out on top with a last lap move through Turn 2, taking fourth place and his best F3 finish to date. Verschoor finished fifth and Fernandez was behind in sixth.

Alex Peroni finished in seventh, returning to the points for the first time since his podium in round one. Red Bull junior Dennis Hauger took his first F3 points in eighth place ahead of Clement Novalak, who rose 17 places from his grid position, and David Beckmann took the final point in tenth as well as pole position for tomorrow’s sprint race.

28th September 2019

F3 Russia: Shwartzman clinches title as Armstrong wins feature race

Ferrari academy driver Robert Shwartzman sealed the 2019 Formula 3 title in the Sochi feature race, but was denied a home race victory by his Prema teammate Marcus Armstrong.

Shwartzman qualified for the race on pole, his first since the season opener in Barcelona, with his sole remaining title rival Jehan Daruvala alongside him in second. But it was Armstrong starting from third who got the best launch of the three Premas, as he passed Daruvala off the line before slipstreaming Shwartzman for the lead through Turn 3.

While Armstrong went off into the lead ahead of Shwartzman, Daruvala’s chances of taking the title to the final sprint race all but disappeared. Shwartzman’s points gap coming into Sochi meant that Daruvala had to win the feature race to have any chance of snatching away the title, but after being passed by Armstrong he then lost further places to Niko Kari, Christian Lundgaard and Leo Pulcini.

Daruvala managed to repass Lundgaard for fifth on lap two, but struggled to gain any more ground as Pulcini had too much pace ahead of him to present an opportunity.

Joe Portlock, LAT Images / FIA F3 Championship

The early stages of the race were made tricky as light rain fell on some parts of the circuit, while the rest remained dry.

On lap 2 Bent Viscaal put his HWA into the wall at Turn 5, bringing out the Virtual Safety Car. Devlin DeFrancesco and Felipe Drugovich took advantage of the situation to gamble on a switch to wet tyres, although they were the only drivers to do so.

The VSC was withdrawn on lap 3, but on the following lap the full safety car was deployed when Leong Hon Chio, making his series debut with Jenzer, crashed out as well. The safety car remained out for two laps, during which the rain stopped and DeFrancesco and Drugovich both pitted again to switch back to slicks.

Carl Bingham, LAT Images / FIA F3 Championship

Armstrong managed the restart on lap 6 well to pull away from the field, although Shwartzman behind was caught by Kari and demoted to third place. Meanwhile, further back in the top ten Juri Vips hit the rear of Lundgaard while trying to position himself for an overtake, spinning the ART out of the points and earning himself a 10-second time penalty.

Once clear of Shwartzman, Kari set the fastest lap to close up to the back of Armstrong. On lap 9, the Finnish driver then went around the outside of Armstrong into Turn 13 to take the lead.

Armstrong continued fighting back against Kari over the following lap, but on lap 11 Kari’s lead seemed to be secured when Armstrong went deep into Turn 2 trying to retake first and instead dropped to fourth behind Shwartzman and Pulcini.

However, Kari’s time in front didn’t last long, and on lap 13 he was passed by championship leader Shwartzman into Turn 2.

One lap later Armstrong got back into the podium positions after passing Pulcini for third, then managed to work his way back past Kari for second on lap 17.

With four laps remaining Shwartzman looked to have enough of a buffer to keep ahead of Armstrong, and wrap up the championship with a home race victory. But Armstrong quickly settled into a rhythm and closed steadily up to the back of his teammate.

At the start of the final lap, Armstrong pulled to the inside of Turn 2 and took the lead away from Shwartzman, who offered little defence with the title on the line. Armstrong then crossed the line with just over a second in hand over Shwartzman, to take his third win of the season and his first in a feature race.

Kari held on to third for his second podium of the year, with Pulcini fourth ahead of Daruvala, Pedro Piquet and Jake Hughes, who also took two points for the fastest lap. Vips managed to finish third on the road ahead of Kari, but with his time penalty dropped to eighth and will start on reverse grid pole tomorrow morning.

Sauber Junior Team’s Raoul Hyman scored his first points of the season in ninth, and Richard Verschoor took the final point in tenth.

David Schumacher, making his F3 debut for Campos in place of the injured Alex Peroni, finished in P22 after being spun around by Keyvan Andres on lap 11.

Sauber’s Fabio Scherer retired on lap 9, while the team’s third driver Lirim Zendelli withdrew from the round ahead of the race.

3rd September 2019

F3 Monza: Title is Shwartzman’s to lose

The penultimate round of the 2019 FIA Formula 3 Championship takes place this weekend at Monza.

After a double podium at the last round in Belgium, championship leader Robert Shwartzman has the opportunity to wrap up the title in Italy this weekend.

There are currently seven drivers who can still mathematically deny Shwartzman the title: Jehan Daruvala, Juri Vips, Marcus Armstrong, Christian Lundgaard, Pedro Piquet, Leo Pulcini and Max Fewtrell. But such is Shwartzman’s lead that if the Ferrari junior can outscore his rivals by 26 points, the championship will be his with one round to spare.

Shwartzman’s closest challenger is his fellow Prema teammate and Ferrari junior Daruvala, who is on 129 points to Shwartzman’s 152. But Daruvala doesn’t have the luxury of just looking ahead, as Vips and Armstrong are within 10 points of him and Lundgaard is only a strong result away from joining them.

Jehan Daruvala, Prema (Joe Portlock, LAT Images / FIA F3 Championship)

With the season nearing its finale, close racing is expected throughout the field as drivers try to use what few opportunities are left to impress ahead of 2020.

Bent Viscaal, Felipe Drugovich, Simo Laaksonen, Teppei Natori and Fabio Scherer have all scored just one points finish each this season, and they will be fighting desperately at Monza to get more points on the board while they can.

Scherer’s fellow Sauber Junior Team drivers Lirim Zendelli and Raoul Hyman will also be on the hunt for any chance to end their season on a high and justify their links to the F1 team for another year. Zendelli, the runaway 2018 German F4 champion, has only six points to his name and hasn’t scored since Austria, while Hyman has no points and a best result of 13th.

And in a similar situation is Hitech driver and Renault junior Ye Yifei, who has come close to the points on several occasions but remains 24th in the championship.