Press Releases - F3 Masters Season 34 Review

F3 Masters Season 34 Review

Hey guys, this is my season review like I promised, I've spent a while going back and forth into it and I did rush quite a bit too so it isn't going to be the best but I hope it will be worth the sit back and read through because stuff is going to be tasty.
I start with the race by race review before going onto the drivers and will rating them by Grade and then some little facts.


We saw Chloe de St. Germain favourite to win the title after missing out the last 2 seasons, with Novikov the 2 time champion of this no longer eligible to compete, this could be her chance but she would have to watch out for Dare Atelsek who is a newcomer to this but highly rated and incredibly fast then consistent drivers like David Nalbandian and Sasu Suikkanen and maybe Aleksantari Kokkonen could come into play too.
We arrived at Pau with Chloe de. St-Germain on pole after a really tight qualifying, 8 drivers within a tenth, Atelsek was on the front row with the French Maiden and Nalbandian found himself in 3rd, the race got underway and it looked like to be St. Germain running away with the edge but Atelsek kept the gap honest and followed her tail until an early safety car brought everyone into a gap and then after it remained the same until the pitstops, Atelsek went for the undercut on St. Germain and while trying to put some quick laps in just as she went in for a pitstop, it looked like to be a close battle for the lead until Atelsek clipped the wall, leading to suspension failure a couple of corners later, St. Germain was able to coast and start off the season on a high with Nalbandian 2nd and Kokkonen 3rd. St. Germain was about to continue her winning ways on her home land as she went for more favourable, dominant 2 stop strategy while everyone else went for the 1 stop, and it turned out to be the wrong choice as the safety car appeared and took her out of contention for the win allowing Nalbandian to take the win and Joe Paulposichon taking adantvage to finish 2nd, a great weekend for the U24 favourites and Suikkanen in 3rd.
Off we went to Monaco and David Nalbandian continued his brilliant start and put in a brilliant lap to take pole position and sent warnings to his rivals, led the early stages of the race until a safety car was deployed and completed his mandatory pitstop to ensure he had the undercut on his rivals, when another safety car came out, Kokkonen, Wizgey and Atelsek all fell foul for it and Nalbandian soon found himself infront again but fresher tyres and lighter fuel on Atelsek saw a close battle for the win until the Argentine driver was able to hold on to take his 2nd win in a row, Pasek was 3rd and shoutout to Rick Rocket holding off a massive train of cars to hold onto 4th.
It wasn't long til these two fought again, still being bunched up to one another even the safety cars proved useless for these two, on Lap 35, Atelsek found his way past Nalbandian down through the staright and never looked back to take the win.
After quite an anomymous showing from St. Germain, she was back to take her crown with a dominant display at Zandvoort, pole, the win in the Sprint Race and even putting in the wet in the Feature Race, two fastest laps but she would need to do it again to catch up to Nalbandian who finished on the podium in 3rd both races, behind Suikkanen. And at Spa, she would have to do it all over again but it wasn't quite dominant as she wanted it, Nalbandian, Atelsek and Suikkanen all got their elbows out on her in the first stint before the overcut for St. Germain ensured she had the win again, the 3rd conseutive, it was another ding dong battle in the Feature Race, Atelsek finding his way on top until the late safety car, bunched everyone up, and it was a last lap overtake for St. Germain, taking her 5th win of the season while title rival Nalbandian had his first race off the podium in 5th and making it a major showdown for the championship between these two.
Onto Macau where it proudces surprises as always, Atelsek had pole but Nalbandian was down in 4th and St. Germain 7th, St. Germain climbed her way up through the field and even getting past Nalbandian until the safety car and pitstops came to play oonce again, she found herself in 2nd chasing Atelsek for the win until a spin at Turn 10 saw her around and down to 6th, while Nalbandian after going backwards before the safety car, found himself back in key position finishing 2nd and it turned out to be a must win situation for the French Maiden coming into the final race.
The decider got underway and rain came showering down, St. Germain starting doing bits again as she got the prayers she hoped for, a crash for Nalbandian put his title confirmation on hold, she got to 3rd until a strategy mix up between Wets and Drys really ruined her race and her title hopes sending her out of the top 20, quite a similar heartbreaking moment with Alex Reis months ago. St. Germain was able to recover to 4th as Atelsek was able to defify the odds of the strategy unlike lots of other drivers and hold off Kokkonen for the win with Reckziegel with a brilliant showing all race long to finish 3rd, but Nalbandian is champion.


David Nalbandian: Champion, 169 points
Consistency is what wins titles and he has just proved it, with only 2 wins which is the least ever wins to win a title, he finished on the podium 6 other times, with Spa Feature being only 5th and Macau Feature which was a DNF, brilliant season by him and a well deserved championship.
Rating: A++

Chloe de St. Germain: 2nd, 159 points
Once again, she's been robbed of a title, strategy really cost her big time but if I was going to be honest, apart from that win in the very first race of the season, it's the 3 after that cost her, espeically her whole Monaco meeting. But she dominated Zandvoort and won both races at Spa too, been the fastest outright driver 2nd season running.
Rating: A+

Dare Atelsek: 3rd, 148 points
Great effort despite not being in this series before, finally got to show the big boys what he's made of, but the only downside was that if he got some stuff together at Pau and Zandvoort then he would've been a very scary title contender.
Rating: A+

Sasu Suikkanen: 4th, 108 points
Very consistent season by the Finn, been close to victory a couple of times especially Spa Sprint and Macau Feature but something different was missing each time, he might feel he could've bagged a race win but he can swallow his pride for these peformances, good one.
Rating: A

Aleksantari Kokkonen: 5th, 104 points
This guy was really on it this season, good news for a potential champion next season, his speed and consistency is scaring his rivals right now. His Macau meeting was sublime
Rating: A

Tomek Pasek: 6th, 93 points
Was really on it at the beginning of the season, especially his double podium at Monaco but some things got him good at the 2nd half.
Rating: A-

Ravek Svoboda: 7th, 85 points
Biggest improvement from last season, went from barely scoring points and being miles off in the U24 championship to fighting for podiums at most of the races, take your cap off, Sir.
Rating: A

Bernando Reckziegel: 8th, 85 points
Arguably the most consistent in my eyes because he didn't crash or make a mistake just for that, put in some stellar drives at Zandvoort and Macau where he ended his season with the podium.
Rating: A

Joe Paulposichon: 9th, 67 points
Had some stellar drives at Pau Feature where he got the podium and his comeback drive at Monaco Feature but results kind of peaked for this season already with a DNFs almost ruining his U24 championship camapign but he did enough to hold on to it with Torvalds' slump which we will get to soon.
Rating: A

Paul Wizgey: 10th, 51 points
Quite an inconsistent season by the Brit, his only DNFs coming from the Sprint Races and struggled at Zandvoort. Had a great comeback at Macau mind, 35th to 6th. So that's pretty much where his U24 title hopes went.
Rating: A-

Linus Torvalds: 11th, 48 points
Was the favourite coming into Macau and then he was nowhere. What a shame because it was about to be a perfect season for him until he got caught out at the 2nd half
Rating: A-

Richard Nebesky: 12th, 45 points
He'll be happy with his points tally this year, his Monaco masterclass really made up before his Zandvoort Disasterclass.
Rating: B+

Philip Goldberg III: 13th, 42 points
Quite a consistent season from the American, scored points almost every race.
Rating: B+

Paul Carlotti: 14th, 41 points
Struggled at the start but then he got himself together.
Rating: B

Ema Nishino: 15th, 28 points
Consistent season by the Japanese driver, had her dream race to finish her dream season so far at Macau.
Rating: B+

Enrico Nuvolari: 16th, 22 points
Got to work at having a clean meeting. Season has been obviously inconsistent with one time putting in a good drive then the next time he falls back.
Rating: B-

Rick Rocket: 17th, 13 points
After taking that 4th place at Monaco, he struggled to finish the Feature Races, getting into incidents and that's how his U20 championship got away.
Rating: B

Marco Berti: 18th, 13 points
Had a poor start then got used to this environment by Zandvoort, let's see how well he can do over a season next season.
Rating: B-

Arkadiusz Wrona II and Adam Giza: 19th and 20th, 13 points
Two young poles have put in brilliant races but somehow once again kept their seasons consistent, Giza was able to take home the U22 championship. Props to both of the Sempre Senna Academy Drivers.
Rating: B

Andreas Ritter: 21th, 9 points
Needs to work on his setups but he had good races on the streets.
Rating: C

Csabi Szasz, 22nd, 9 points,
Had a car which would struggle at most tracks but he drove through it like it was nothing, espeically at Zandvoort in the Wet which was his best result of the year, stunning peformance but get into a good car next season, he could be up there.
Rating: B-

Manuel Vicente: 23rd, 8 points
Once again, finishes every race and shows off his brilliant consistency, had some brill races espeically at Zandvoort in the Wet conditions.
Rating: C+

Max Ginther: 24th, 5 points
Looked like he was going to be pointless until Macau Finale answered his prayers
Rating: C

Finn Hunter: 25th, 5 points
Judging by his wet races and the results, it looked like he had fun out there.
Rating: C

Nadia Portocarrero: 26th, 5 points
Should've scored more points than she could've but luck wasn't with her again, especially at Zandvoort when she just got into the top 10 but aquaplaned off the circuit.
Rating: C

Leo Halle: 27th, 4 points
Had a great start at Pau but then 3 DNFs in 4 races after that really dented his confidence, makes it worse when you're the first early retirement in all of those too.
Rating: C-

Helio Da Matta Jr.: 28th, 4 points
Good races there and there.
Rating: C-

Zebulon-Anatole Pips: 29th, 3 points
Got lucky at Macau with the wet conditions and took adantvage, can't fault him for ending his season on a massive high.
Rating: D

Jules Alesi: 30th, 1 point
Had a brilliant meeting at Monaco, finished every race and took a point at Macau to end it. Good one.
Rating: C

And now the ones who had no points...

Paulo Ricardo-Mentho
Been so close to the points once again and was consistent but he got to step up his game now.
Rating: D-

Max Kos
Been up there though..
Rating: D+

Tex Cobb II
Struggled to finish practice runs but he always made it up in the races, good peformance at Spa though, while Monaco is still somewhere he can't get to grips to.
Rating: D+

Milan Zakrajsek Jr.
Nothing I can say apart from the good meeting at Zandvoort and on the other hand, the final 4 races, 3 DNFs and missed out on the U20 title cause of that too.
Rating: D+/I]

Thorsten Trips
Couldn't get into the Top 20 and he often found trouble with the wall.
[I]Rating: E

Gerd Berger Jr.
Good result at Monaco and was really consistent for someone his age, that's how he won the U20 championship despite being the youngest in the field, tipping him for big things.
Rating: C-

Alberto Latorre
No comment
Rating: D-

Milano Albanese
Quite aggressive for his age and it resulted in a non-finish in half of the races.
Rating: E

Dave Clow
Couldn't get out of the Top 30 at all.
Rating: F

Thanks for reading this, hope you stay tuned for next season, also the awards have been sent. :) Thank you for the continued support and shoutout to beltmann for this season's funding.