How two F3 stars face new challenges from very different perspectives

Aged just 19, Frederik Vesti has already made a name for himself. The Dane had two strong seasons in Formula 4 before dominating the inaugural Formula Regional European Championship in 2019. Now he’s joined ART Grand Prix for his second season in the FIA Formula 3 Championship, after placing fourth in his rookie campaign with Prema Racing in 2020, and has recently joined the Mercedes Formula 1 Team’s junior programme.

Joining Vesti at the French team are Juan Manuel Correa, returning to motorsport after a year out following his serious crash at the Spa Formula 2 round in 2019 that claimed the life of Anthoine Hubert, and Alexander Smolyar, who stays with the team for a second season.

The team placed third last year, winning two races with Theo Pourchaire, who has moved up the ladder to ART’s F2 team. But with its illustrious history – in GP3, the series that pre-dated FIA F3, it carried Esteban Gutierrez, Valtteri Bottas, Esteban Ocon, Charles Leclerc, George Russell and Hubert to the title – the French operation is clearly striving to return to the top.

Vesti certainly thinks so, and says he is “extremely confident” going into this weekend’s first round at Barcelona with his new team and with the backing of the reigning F1 world champions behind him. After the two pre-season tests at the Red Bull Ring and the Spanish track, he reflects: “I could very quickly feel how powerful and how motivated the people are and for me, to be with a team is working with people.

"They need to be motivated, I need to help them be motivated and they need to help me be motivated. I could very quickly feel at the test that they were really hungry – they wanted to win more than I’ve ever really felt before, they really want to put in the work and that was matching me very well.

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“I think ART is the kind of team that when you get there is straight into work and you never really stop working on the things you need to improve, and I just really like that approach and the work ethic of the team.”

Frederik Vesti, ART Grand Prix

Photo by: Formula Motorsport Ltd

On the team’s performance so far, he says: “I believe as a team we are really strong. I was doing really, really strong race runs. I was also pretty fast on the new tyres on day one. I was struggling a bit on day two though with a bit of car balance and finding the right approach on the new set of tyres to warm them up properly.

“But when I wasn’t performing as I should, my team-mate was right up there battling for P1, which means we have the car, both with new tyres and race runs, so I’m extremely confident going into the weekend with my new team. The expectations are quite simple, from both myself and the team, and that is to become champions. Since the day I signed with ART, that’s what we’ve been working towards. It’s a really long season, it’s a really long process of improving, of consistently looking into the detail of how you get better.

“If you start out the season as the fastest team or the fastest guy, it doesn’t mean that you’re going to stay the fastest, because everyone is really hungry to become better and win. So the guy who’s going to be winning towards the end of the season to keep it, whoever keeps improving and consistently looks at themselves and understands what they need to improve even though maybe it’s going well, that’s the guy who wins, that’s what we are really focusing on to do – that’s going to be the key.”

"It gives a lot of motivation, but also it gives a lot of trust, because the people I’m working with have already done it, they’ve already taught other drivers the important things to become a Formula 1 driver" Frederik Vesti

As the second highest-placed returning driver (only Logan Sargeant, who has joined Charouz, finished above him last year), Vesti says that “of course there is some pressure”, but said he “blames himself first every single time”.

Since joining the Mercedes academy earlier this year, he says it has given him “a lot of motivation. It’s a bit like waking up and looking where you are and where you can be if you put in the work.

“That’s very true that it gives a lot of motivation, but also it gives a lot of trust, because the people I’m working with have already done it, they’ve already taught other drivers the important things to become a Formula 1 driver. My goal is to become a world champion in Formula 1, so it’s a hard goal to become a Formula 1 driver, and I am just so happy and motivated to be around Mercedes.”

Frederik Vesti, ART Grand Prix

Photo by: Formula Motorsport Ltd

Team-mate Correa is also ready for a new challenge, but approaches it from a very different place. After suffering catastrophic injuries in the crash at Spa, he spent two months in a coma, before having to relearn many things “from zero”. He says it has been an “excruciating, long, painful and mentally hard year and a half”, but his huge sense of self-belief and “racing driver mentality” meant he returned to the track less than 18 months later for testing in Austria.

Correa signed with ART in December, having turned up to a meeting with team boss Sebastien Philippe in Paris in a wheelchair, armed with his medical records, to undertake the gargantuan task of convincing him to give him a seat. And it worked.

Correa says Philippe “wasn’t sure if I was kidding or if I was serious, but I said, ‘Before you say anything, just sit down with me and let me show you why it’s possible’. I think what really convinced him was the way I said it, because I was so convinced – I was trying to be so convinced for him, I told him there’s no risk that I will not be ready, this is all I have been doing for the last year or so, you know. Trust me, just give me this chance.

“And a few weeks later, they called and he was talking with my manager, and they agreed that they were going to do it. So I must say, I’m very thankful to him. I’m very thankful to Fred Vasseur, who was one of the major stakeholders in ART, because they really did take a chance on my project, they believed that I could do it, and many other people did not. So I really appreciate that from the bottom of my heart.”

Correa says it has been a “huge challenge – probably bigger than I was expecting” to get back in the car, but has a steely sense of determination pushing him forward. He says he is hoping to be fighting in the top 10, but that “the goal eventually is to be on the pace and to be fighting for podium positions and be on my team-mates’ pace”.

“If this whole process and recovery has taught me something, it’s that you have to believe 100% and not think about the bad possibilities,” he says. “And that’s really what I did, I tried not to think about it. I knew I was trying to do something so crazy that if it didn’t happen, it was not gonna be the end of the world. But genuinely, in the back of my mind, I knew it was possible.”

Juan Manuel Correa, ART Grand Prix

Photo by: Juan Manuel Correa

Team principal Philippe feels similarly optimistic about the squad’s potential this season. He describes the testing as “very good” and is “quite confident that we should have some good performance”. He adds that he is “very happy with the way Juan Manuel is able to come back after such a long period.

"I remember the first time we met in Paris at the end of last year, it was quite a big bet for him and for us to commit together. But I think on both sides we were really motivated to make it happen. It’s true that there was some question mark over if Juan Manuel could be ready at the beginning of the season, you know, and I think he has been working really, really hard all winter to come back.”

"I knew I was trying to do something so crazy that if it didn’t happen, it was not going to be the end of the world. But genuinely, in the back of my mind, I knew it was possible" Juan Manuel Correa

Philippe says the team has also made good progress with Vesti: “Yeah, I think we have done a steady job together so far. We are still in the process of learning each other, but we did four very strong test days with him. He has a very good understanding and a nice feedback on the car and his pace is quick. So we’re very happy now. Let’s wait to see the first race, where it’s really important to perform.”

The goal for ART GP this season? “The goal is always to win,” says Philippe. “The target is for us to win both championships, with the drivers and the team. There will be a lot of competition from other teams, very strong. But this is our target.”

And with such a strong, determined driver line-up, that goal doesn’t look out of their reach.

Juan Manuel Correa, ART Grand Prix

Photo by: Juan Manuel Correa