Callum Ilott (Prema Powerteam, 1m22.950s) proved to once again be unbeatable on the second day of the FIA Formula 3 European Championship test at the 4.318-kilometre long Red Bull Ring. At the end of the day, the Briton was the only driver who broke the 1:23-minute barrier.

Behind Ilott, Maximilian Günther (Prema Powerteam, 1m23,086s) Jake Hughes (Hitech Grand Prix, 1m23.096s) and Joel Eriksson (Motopark, 1m23.098s) finished second, third and fourth respectively. Harrison Newey (Van Amersfoort Racing, 1m23.118s) and David Beckmann (Van Amersfoort Racing, 1m23.130s) followed in fifth and sixth position. The gap between the quickest and the slowest driver amounted to less than 0.9 seconds, thus underlining the competitiveness of the entire field.

Maximilian Günther didn’t mind that he was bested by his team-mate Callum Ilott. “It was just a test and we focused on trying as many things as possible. Trying to set the fastest possible lap time wasn’t high on our priority list. With the update provided by Dallara, the cars now feature different aerodynamics and also are somewhat heavier.

So you can’t rest on yesterday’s laurels, but have to work on understanding the cars in their new configuration.” Nonetheless, the German admitted that it was a good feeling to have secured one of the top positions on the time sheets. “It feels nice although we don’t yet know what it will be worth in the end. But we will find out in the qualifying session at Silverstone.”

Jake Hughes who finished third behind Günther on the final day of pre-season testing shared the German’s opinion. “We successfully completed our schedule and I’d say that I’ve also improved as a driver. But we will only find out in the first qualifying session of the season where we really stand. I think that the days of testing mainly were important for gathering as much data as possible with the upgraded car. The engineers now will analyse this data to provide us with the optimum car for Silverstone.”

Joel Eriksson travels back to Sweden with the fourth place on the final day of testing under his belt. “Everything ran fine so far, I even set my fastest lap time on a used set of tyres. I feel ready for the first race of the season.”

Tadasuke Makino (Hitech Grand Prix, 1m23.147s) who switched from the Japanese F3 Championship to the FIA Formula 3 European Championship secured seventh place behind Harrison Newey and David Beckmann. “The level in the European Championship is clearly higher than in Japan,” he said. “I’m looking forward to now having the chance of battling it out with these competitive drivers.”

Guanyu Zhou (Prema Powerteam, 1m23.169s) came eighth, with the best rookie, Joey Mawson (Van Amersfoort Racing. 1m23.211s) following in ninth position and Pedro Piquet (Van Amersfoort Racing, 1m23.222s) completing the top 10. “I think that I made a big step forward, in the off-season and will be more competitive, this year,” said the Brazilian.

“In addition, it is also nice that all four Van Amersfoort drivers made it to the top 10, thus demonstrating that we are racing on the same performance level. We all will benefit from this well-balanced competitiveness level in our team.”

The FIA Formula 3 European Championship teams and drivers now enter the critical stage of their season preparations with meeting each other at two different F1 circuits.

On 24-25 March they get together at the Hungaroring for the first two days of official testing and just three days later, on 28-29 March, the testing continues at the Red Bull Ring.

The 4.381-kilometre long Hungaroring, located not far from Hungary’s capital Budapest, will be the venue of the first encounter of all teams and drivers enrolled for the 2017 season. Furthermore, the Hungarian GP circuit will not only be a testing venue for the young guns but in June it will also stage the fourth race meeting of the year. Maximilian Günther (Prema Powerteam) will travel to the circuit with particularly fond memories as he secured the pole positions for all three races last year.

Meanwhile, Austria’s 4.326-kilometre long Red Bull Ring will be the venue of the 2017 season’s penultimate race weekend. Callum Ilot (Prema Powerteam) will be the man who is particularly happy about the trip to Spielberg, as he was able to win one of last year’s three races contested at the circuit located in Styria.

The other two wins were clinched by Canadian Lance Stroll who later went on to win the title and subsequently succeeded in securing a seat in the FIA Formula One World Championship.

This year’s young guns now want to follow Stroll’s footsteps by also attracting the attention of Formula One teams. German Maximilian Günther, last year’s runner-up, will be trying to do one better as he is back for another campaign with the Italian Prema Powerteam. But he has his work cut out since the field features another three drivers who made it to the top ten last year: Joel Eriksson (Motopark), the winner of the 2016 rookie title, Callum Ilott and Ralf Aron (Hitech GP).

Besides, there are quite a number of ambitious young drivers who are determined to give their more experienced rivals a hard time. The Britons Lando Norris (Carlin) and Jake Hughes (Hitech GP) are going to contest their first full FIA Formula 3 European Championship season.

For the German motor-racing enthusiasts, Mick Schumacher (Prema Powerteam) and Keyvan Andres Soori (Motopark) will be the most interesting new faces, while the Japanese fans be cheering their compatriots Tadasuke Makino (Hitech GP) and Marino Sato (Motopark).

Furthermore, Austria’s Ferdinand Habsburg (Carlin), Indian Jehan Daruvala (Carlin) and Australian Joey Mawson (Van Amersfoort Racing) are also making their debut in the FIA Formula 3 European Championship.

Just three days after the official FIA Formula 3 European Championship test in Hungary the hopeful young guns continued their preparations for the 2017 season at Austria’s Red Bull Ring. At the 4.318-kilometre Austrian-GP circuit located in Styria, Callum Ilott (Prema Powerteam) set the quickest lap time by crossing the line in 1m23.304s, followed by his team-mate Maximilian Günther (Prema Powerteam, 1m23.459s) and the fastest rookie, Lando Norris (Carlin, 1m23.526s). Guanyu Zhou (Prema Powerteam, 1m23.579s), Jehan Daruvala (Carlin, 1m23.716s) and the reigning rookie champion, Joel Eriksson (Motopark, 1m23.728s) finished fourth, fifth and sixth respectively. The only Austrian in the field, Ferdinand Habsburg (Carlin, 1m23.763s) came seventh.

Callum Ilott, however, didn’t attach major importance to having been the quickest. “It was just a test and you are not awarded any points for having secured the top position on the time sheets. Furthermore I was somewhat lucky on my fastest lap. I found a good slip stream that allowed me to set this time.”

Following after Günther and Norris, Guanyu Zhou was the third Prema driver in the top five. The Chinese was happy with his achievements. “We used a fresh set of tyres only in the afternoon and so, we could save another set for tomorrow.

Just as it was the case in Hungary we could see that our pace is very good. Now we have to keep on working this way.” After a one-year stint at Motopark, Zhou, member of the Ferrari Driver Academy, returned to Prema Powerteam for which he already raced in the Italian Formula 4.

“Every team has got a slightly different approach and I like the one of Prema. Furthermore, I feel really comfortable here. It’s somehow like coming home.”

As second-fastest rookie, Jehan Daruvala secured fifth position on the time sheets, ahead of Joel Eriksson and Ferdinand Habsburg. The Austrian – like Daruvala about to contest his first FIA Formula 3 European Championship season – took a self-critical point of view regarding his performance.

“In the morning things didn’t run too well. When it’s colder I always have difficulties with my physical condition and with finding my driving rhythm. When it’s warmer I’m doing way better. Therefore, I was happier with my achievements in the warmer afternoon than with the ones in the morning session. Also, I still have to learn to make better use of used tyres. Meanwhile, I do rather well on a fresh set of tyres. But altogether I’m rather happy and optimistic that I also will be able to successfully work on my weak points. In addition, the fact that the Carlin driver line-up is well-balanced, with every driver having different strengths, certainly also is helpful. And Jake Dennis with all his experiences is a big help for us newcomers too.”

Rookie Marino Sato (Motopark, 1m23.767s) was happy about having finished eighth, ahead of Harrison Newey (Van Amersfoort Racing, 1m23.773s) and experienced F3 driver Jake Dennis (Carlin, 1m23.810s). A glance at the time sheets demonstrates that the racing in the FIA Formula 3 European Championship once again will be extremely close this year: the gap between the top 17 added up to less than a second. Ralf Aron (Hitech Grand Prix, 1m24.270s) in 17th position was just 0.966 seconds slower than the quickest, Callum Ilott.

It is only a few more weeks before the FIA F3 European Championship starting lights will be switched off for the first time this year – in mid-April at Silverstone. The drivers who will then compete at the British Grand Prix circuit represent a good mix of experienced F3 drivers and young, talented rookies. All five teams entered, Prema Powerteam, Hitech GP, Motopark, Van Amersfoort Racing and Carlin have registered four cars – the maximum amount as per the regulations.

Prema Powerteam has already confirmed the names of all four drivers competing for the Italian squad in 2017. One is Briton Callum Ilott who switched to the reigning champions for his third FIA Formula 3 European Championship season. He will be teamed up with Germany’s Maximilian Günther who also is about to contest his third season on the grid of the competitive young-gun series and who finished runner-up behind European Champion Lance Stroll last year. In addition to Ilott and Günther, Prema has two more drivers racing for them: China’s Guan Yu Zhou and Mick Schumacher.

The Chinese, who is a member of the Ferrari Driver Academy, switched to Prema Powerteam after a year with Team Motopark. He contested his FIA F3 European Championship debut season for the German squad in 2016 and secured two podiums. The only rookie in the line-up of the Italian team is Mick Schumacher, the son of seven-time F1 World Champion Michael. Having finished second in the German and Italian Formula 4 series the 17-year old now makes the next logical step on the FIA single-seater pyramid and advances to the FIA Formula 3 European Championship.

Team Hitech GP, contested its first full FIA F3 European Championship season last year and finished second in the team championship at the first time of asking. The British team will also contest the 2017 season with an international driver line-up.

Russia’s Nikita Mazepin extended his deal with the squad and will be teamed up with three new team mates: Ralf Aron, Jake Hughes and Tadasuke Makino. Estonia’s Aron won the 2015 Italian F4 Championship and was the second-best rookie in the 2016 FIA Formula 3 European Championship season.

Briton Hughes joins the championship after competing in the GP3 series, he already made his FIA F3 debut in the 2016 season finale and secured a podium right away. Finally Japanese Tadasuke Makino, who is supported by Honda, demonstrated his skills in the Japanese F3 Championship last year.

Motopark, the German team that is based next to the racetrack of Oschersleben, impressed by finishing third in the team championship last year and in addition, won the best rookie of the season title courtesy of Joel Eriksson. The Swede believes that the squad has got the potential to do even better and extended his Motopark deal for another year. He will be joined by Keyvan Andres Soori and Marino Sato.

Van Amersfoort Racing extended the deals with two of their 2016 drivers: Pedro Piquet and Harrison Newey. Furthermore, German David Beckmann, the youngest driver on the 2016 grid, switched to the Dutch squad.

Another addition to the Van Amersfoort Racing team will be Joey Mawson. The Australian won last year’s German ADAC Formula 4 title and like his main rival in 2016, Mick Schumacher, he now advances to the FIA Formula 3 European Championship.

British team Carlin secured the services of Lando Norris who advances to the FIA Formula 3 European Championship holding three titles, he is the Formula Renault 2.0 Eurocup, Formula Renault 2.0 NEC champion and MSA Formula (now British F4) champion. Together with Austrian Ferdinand Habsburg and Indian Jehan Daruvala, who is part of the Force India F1 Academy, he will complete a competitive trio.

Stefano Domenicali, President of the FIA’s Single Seater Commission, commented, “We have done a lot of work to make sure the championship is very competitive and the quality of the entries confirms that our strategy is paying off. All teams, Prema, Hitech, Motopark, Van Amersfoort and Carlin, operate on an extremely professional level and the talent of the drivers they have contracted for the season is outstanding. We will surely see some great racing this year. And with the FIA racing ladder now complete, there is a clear path for junior drivers, solidifying the FIA Formula 3 European Championship as an essential category on the way to Formula 1.”

The entry list for the 2017 FIA Formula 3 European Championship: