Why the Formula 3 benchmark's 2022 season hinges on qualifying

Prema Racing has a long history of success. Since 2001, it has taken 26 single-seater titles, including in GP2, Formula Regional and various Formula 4 championships. The Italian outfit works closely with Ferrari and has been a hotbed of young talent, taking drivers such as Esteban Ocon, Lance Stroll and Mick Schumacher all the way to Formula 1.

In the FIA European Formula 3 championship, which was merged with the GP3 Series to form F3 in 2019, the team won every teams title from 2013 to 2018, taking five drivers’ championships in the process. Once the new championship was formed, it did the double in the first two years with Robert Shwartzman and Oscar Piastri. It missed out on the 2021 teams’ title by four points to Trident, but Dennis Hauger claimed the drivers’ championship.

But its start to 2022 has been less smooth. Despite leading the teams’ championship by 22 points from ART Grand Prix, its highest-placed driver is Red Bull junior Jak Crawford, sitting in third behind ART driver Victor Martins and Roman Stanek (Trident). Arthur Leclerc, in his second year with the team, is fifth, with rookie and fellow Ferrari Driver Academy member Ollie Bearman seventh after winning both ADAC and Italian F4 titles in 2021.

Arguably, the biggest factor affecting their progress this year is qualifying. Though the series followed a different format last year with more races per weekend, at this point last year after three rounds Prema had snared two pole positions courtesy of Hauger, who was second in qualifying for the second round at Paul Ricard. By contrast, the team's best so far this season is Crawford's third at Imola. Bearman and Leclerc’s best starts have been fifth.

Team boss Rene Rosin, whose father Angelo formed Prema Powerteam in 1984, agrees that though the team’s race performance is strong, qualifying is an area where improvement is needed.

Speaking to Autosport over the Spanish Grand Prix weekend, he said: “So far, I will say we are happy about race performance. I think we could have done a bit better on quali performance, especially yesterday. In Imola, it was good on one side, Arthur got a bit of bad luck because [Enzo] Trulli dived into him in a tricky condition otherwise he could have fought for pole position.

Crawford's third place in qualifying at Imola remains Prema's best result over a single lap in F3 so far this year

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“Here [in Spain], Jak yesterday got P6, made the mistake in front of him and that compromised his last attempt - otherwise he would for sure have fought for position. So still we need to work a bit I would say into the quali performance, but we are getting there.

“On the race, I'm satisfied with the results that we are bringing home. It’s still a long season, still six weekends to go. From me though, this season, we can start taking some judgement at the moment. What we are telling the drivers is to concentrate race by race, do the maximum that they could, bring in on the maximum amount of points, and after that, we will find out who will start judging and making the conclusion.”

Rosin says the team’s troubles in Bahrain were “more car-related – we did some mistakes on the set-up of the car,” while he blames its struggles in Imola on a “messy” qualifying, which saw confusion over when the chequered flag had been waved.

But he says: “I think we're getting there, for sure. We still need to work and of course all the time every year, the competition becomes stronger and stronger because they're gaining more experience with a car. It's normal that the advantage that a team can have on year one, or year two, started to tend to become smaller. 

"I don't think all the qualifying since the beginning of the season has been as bad as it looks. Results will come, I'm not worried. We have the pace, we know it" Arthur Leclerc

“But I think we need to consider, the important thing is for sure the quali. Because you start in front, but it's to maximise the points between race one and race two. At the moment we have to say our racecraft has been pretty solid both in Imola and Bahrain and even here [in Spain].

“We have a good pace and I think once we put in order, which is just a question of really little adaptations, the qualifying I think will be pretty okay. Honestly, already now everything is getting okay. I'm not negative, but we can do better and because we can do better and we know that the potential of our drivers is to do better, I want that everybody's pushing for the same direction.”

The drivers agree that qualifying has been the team’s Achilles heel so far this season, having had varying degrees of success on a Friday.

Leclerc could be the team’s likeliest title contender this year, with the Monegasque joint top of the standings before Barcelona. But he agrees that qualifying has been “a bit difficult,” having lined up 13th, 21st and fifth for the first three rounds.

PLUS: How the ultra-tight F3 title fight is taking shape

Lowly qualifyings have hampered Leclerc in the early rounds of the 2022 F3 season

Photo by: Ferrari

Despite his struggles, Leclerc has managed some impressive points hauls this season courtesy of his trademark charges through the field. He made it to the second step of the podium in Bahrain, having started 13th, then repeated the feat in Imola to take fourth after lining up 21st. Barcelona however was a setback, as an eventful race dropped him out of the points.

“On my side, I struggled a bit to put one push lap together,” he said. “But I mean this weekend, I was quite happy because we did the top five, in front of team-mates as well, so of course, it's a plus. I'm quite happy about how it's improving.

“In Imola we didn't have that much luck, but we have always had the pace and managed to come back in the race as well to fight as well for the championship after qualifying P13 and P21 is unexpected, so quite happy.”

He believes the key is “just to put everything together,” adding: “I'm in a really calm and cool mindset. I don't think all the qualifying since the beginning of the season has been as bad as it looks. Results will come, I'm not worried. We have the pace, we know it.

“I improved quite a lot on this side of qualifying, so now I have to put it on paper.”

Crawford has scored points more consistently than his team-mates, having only failed to finish inside the top 10 in the Bahrain sprint race, scooping up three podiums in the process. But qualifying 20th, third and ninth, the American too has struggled, something he puts it down more to struggling to find a clean run in often chaotic qualifying sessions.

Branding Imola “a mess,” Crawford said there “always seems to be something that comes up.”

“I think it's just all about having a clean run,” the Barcelona sprint race runner-up said. “I mean, in Imola, it was a mess. But in Bahrain, and here in Barcelona, I never really got a clean run where I had no traffic, no issues on the warm up – there always seems to be something that comes up. So I think it's all about having a clean run and just doing the lap when it matters.”

Crawford feels hectic and messy qualifying sessions has limited his success for Prema

Photo by: Red Bull Content Pool

As the only Prema driver to have qualified inside the top 10 on all three occasions, Bearman feels “a lot more comfortable” on a Friday than his team-mates appear to. But his weekends have been hampered by bad luck, with Imola a prime example – the Briton lost the lead to Stanek on the penultimate lap before clashing with ART’s Gregoire Saucy in the battle for third, resulting in a 20-second penalty and dropping him to 17th.

In what he admits has been an “up and down” season so far, Bearman feels he is seeing improvements as the rounds pass, but is still struggling with tyre management and qualifying.

“Qualifying is super tough, because you only get one lap, so it's a real challenge,” he said. “I mean, there's not really many ways you can improve other than just doing more. Obviously, we have to just make sure that I'm fully happy, because you only have one lap, so you have to be confident in the car, which is obviously difficult when that was only my third qualifying session.

“But I think we're getting there, especially after the test I was a lot happier, a lot more comfortable. I felt like yesterday was a strong qualifying, so I was relatively happy with that.”

"I was surprised in Bahrain that they [Prema] were quite far off in qualifying, I thought they did something, some kind of mistake. But I think now we can see that we’re finally probably on the same level with them" Alexander Smolyar

While qualifying has proven tough so far this season, the competitiveness of the rest of the grid also plays a part. Five teams qualified in the top five positions in Barcelona, with Trident (Stanek) leading the way from ART (Martins), MP Motorsport (Alexander Smolyar), Hitech (Isack Hadjar) and Prema (Leclerc).

It’s not gone unnoticed among drivers with championship leader Martins, the Barcelona feature winner, saying that his team is “there on the race pace” and that the pack has closed together this season.

“We don’t know what [Prema] are doing in the tracks and in the team, so we don’t know what the drivers do in the car, if they make mistakes or if they struggle in the quali,” he said. “But for sure, they are there on the race pace, we could see that with Leclerc in Bahrain, in Imola, Crawford also.

The 2022 F3 grid has been much more competitive than in recent seasons as team performance converges with the current cars

Photo by: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images

“But I think on the one [lap] pace we’ve got everyone a lot closer to them, or maybe in front I will say. Trident, to be honest, they have been good since the beginning of the season, so I don’t know if they have the best package but they make the most of qualifying better than the others.”

Smolyar agreed: “F3 is a very competitive series. Maybe when they changed the car, it was like two or three teams who were able to fight for pole. Now, this year, we can agree that we’ve moved much closer to Prema, at least in terms of quali pace. So now if you ask before qualifying who’s going to take pole, it’s really hard to answer.

“I was surprised in Bahrain that they were quite far off in qualifying, I thought they did something, some kind of mistake. But I think now we can see that we’re finally probably on the same level with them. Still in the race they are very quick, you can see it with Leclerc doing mega comebacks and seeing a Prema car in your mirror in the race is not a good thing for sure.”

Smolyar is right to say Prema’s race pace is absolutely competitive, as all three drivers, especially Leclerc, have shown. And once their qualifying issues are resolved and they’ve made the “little adaptations” Rosin mentioned, the Italian outfit could resume its familiar position at the top.

With qualifying issue fixes to come, can Prema return to being the dominant force in F3?

Photo by: Ferrari