Race Report
Formula 1 Gulf Air Bahrain Grand Prix 2024
FIA F3 CHAMPIONSHIP
Circuit: Sakhir (Bahrain), Length 5.412 km, 29th - 2nd March 2024, Rounds 1 + 2
www.bahraingp.com
JENZER MOTORSPORT 2024:
Charlie Wurz (A), Max Esterson (USA), Matias Zagazeta (PER)
Esterson takes points at the season opener in Bahrain
The FIA F3 Championship started the season-opening FIA F1 program at the 2023 Gulf Air Bahrain Grand Prix. The race took place following three official test days held here in mid-February. It was immediately apparent how close together this year the top-class field of 30 vehicles was. Sunshine and wind accompanied the race weekend in the desert state.
Race One Qualifying
Thursday, 29/02/24, 16.00 – 16.30, Weather: Sunny, 20°C
The program started on Thursday morning with free practice. Our three rookies had to get the best feeling out of the powerful F3 machines during the 45 minutes of action on the track.Charlie ended up in 6th place, Matias was 12th and Max 15th.
Later in the afternoon, with slightly warmer temperatures, the battle for the starting grid began. For our rookies it was their very first FIA F3 qualifying.
Max managed very good laptimes twice, but both were canceled due to track limits. Only in the last minutes of the session did he manage to set a valid time. Max achieved an excellent 10th place on the grid. After the good free practice, Charlie was full of hope, but didn't manage a valid time for too long and had to manage his last available lap without mistakes. With this he reached 16th place on the grid. Matias soon appeared in 15th position, then was not able to improve and which left him in 20th. However, laptimes were extremely close to each other, and in Matias' case, 27 thousandths of a second faster would have meant an improvement in the starting position by 5 positions...
This season, two FIA F3 races will be held per race weekend. The starting grid for race 1 (sprint race, 40 minutes) is based on the reversed 12 first positions of the qualifying session. Race 2 on Sunday (feature race, 45 minutes) takes place according to the exact result in qualifying. These constellations promise exciting races!
In order to give the locals respect and sufficient distance from the start of the Ramadan period, the Formula 1 Grand Prix race here in Bahrain, as well as the other main races of the event, extraordinarily took place on Saturday instead of Sunday.
| Race One Grid | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| 1st | Laurens van Heupen (NL) | ART | |
| 2nd | Nikola Tsolov (BUL) | ART | |
| 3rd | Max Esterson (USA) | Jenzer Motorsport | |
| 16th | Charlie Wurz (A) | Jenzer Motorsport | |
| 20th | Matias Zagazeta (PER) | Jenzer Motorsport | |
FIA F3 Championship
Race One (Sprint-Race, 40 Minutes)
Friday, 01/03/23, 13.15, Weather: Sunny, 20°C
The first race of the FIA F3 2024 Championship was the sprint race in Bahrain, which started shortly after midday on Friday. By reversing the starting order, Max was in a wonderful 3rd place on the grid. He got off to a good start and managed to hold on to 3rd place. Over long laps, the leading trio Tsolov-Van Heupen-Esterson even had a small lead over the rest of the field. But by activating the DRS, the chasing group managed to catch up with the leading trio again. Now Max came under pressure, was pushed to the outside by Lindblad, lost some momentum and so both Lindblad and Fornaroli were through. A few laps later, Tramnitz surprised him, so Max was now 6th. When Mini charged from behind and made several overtaking attempts, Max managed to keep him behind for the last three laps of the race in a super drive and thus achieved the excellent 6th place. Max collected important first points. Charlie started in 16th place and managed to improve to 14th place in the first few laps. Then he was involved in a fight with several vehicles and unfortunately fell back to 18th place. A sustained battle for position with Montoya began, and the two changed places several times. Finally, Charlie reached the finish line in 19th place. Matias lost a place at the start, but he soon made up for it. In the first few laps he moved up to 19th place. He tried to make up more places, but he was now driving in a group in which there was a lot of fighting. He was racing side by side with Smith and the two clashed. This ended in a spin for Matias. He managed to drive back into the pit lane. There, several collision damages were discovered on the vehicle, and Matias unfortunately had to retire from the race.
| Results Race One | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1st | Arvid Lindblad (GB) | Prema | 35:35.482 | |
| 2nd | Laurens van Heupen (NL) | ART | Gap | 5.478 |
| 3rd | Leonardo Fornaroli (I) | Trident | Gap | 5.514 |
| 6th | Max Esterson (USA) | Jenzer Motorsport | ||
| 16th | Charlie Wurz (A) | Jenzer Motorsport | ||
| DNF: | Matias Zagazeta (PER) | Jenzer Motorsport | ||
| Fastest lap: Laurens van Heupen (NL) in 1:50.451 | ||||
| Race Two Grid | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| 1st | Dino Beganovic (S) | Prema | 1:46.312 |
| 2nd | Luke Browning (GB) | Hitech | 1:46.598 |
| 3rd | Gabriele Mini (I) | Prema | 1:46.601 |
| 10th | Max Esterson (USA) | Jenzer Motorsport | 1:46.934 |
| 16th | Charlie Wurz (A) | Jenzer Motorsport | 1:47.191 |
| 20th | Matias Zagazeta (PER) | Jenzer Motorsport | 1:47.217 |
FIA F3 Championship
Race Two (Feature Race, 45 Minutes)
Saturday, 02/03/24, 12.00, Weather: Sunny, 23°C
The first main race of the 2024 season took place on Sunday afternoon in front of a large crowd. The large field set off and although there was brief dust, the first lap went well. It was clear that tire degradation and how the drivers dealt with it would have a significant impact on the outcome in this race. Max was one of the first who had to experience what it means when the tires degrade. He had to let drivers pass lap after lap. Max finished 24th. Charlie started well and maintained 16th place for several laps. He managed to overtake two competitors and moved up to 14th place. Later he had to give way to two other drivers again, and with that Charie finished in 16th place, the same place where he had started. Matias managed to steadily improve in this race and to prevail against several other drivers. He moved up from 25th to 19th place over the course of the long, 22-lap race. All three of our rookies brought their racing machines across the finish line well in the end.
| Results Race Two | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1st | Luke Browning (GB) | Hitech | 41:08.012 | |
| 2nd | Christian Mansell (GB) | ART | Gap | 1.264 |
| 3rd | Tim Tramnitz (D) | MP | Gap | 2.432 |
| 16th | Charlie Wurz (A) | Jenzer Motorsport | ||
| 19th | Matias Zagazeta (PER) | Jenzer Motorsport | ||
| 24th | Max Esterson (USA) | Jenzer Motorsport | ||
| Fastest lap: Dino Beganovic (S) in 1:50.261 | ||||
The next race will take place in Melbourne (Australia) on the weekend of 24th March. After that, FIA F3 returns to Europe for more days of testing at Barcelona in April before the racing season resumes in Europe.
Championship standings after 2 out of 18 races:
1st Luke Browning (GB), 25 points: 2nd Tim Tramnitz (D), 21 points; 3rd Christian Mansell (GB), 18 points; 4th Leonardo Fornaroli (I), 15 points; 5th Arvid Lindblad (GB), 14 points; 6th Sami Megetounif (F), 13 points; 11th Max Esterson (USA), 5 points
Charlie Wurz (A)
Max Esterson (USA)
Matias Zagazeta (PER)
2024 FIA F3 Meisterschaft
| 29 Feb 01/02 March | 2024 Formula 1 Bahrain Grand Prix | Sakhir (BHR) |
| 22/23/24 March | 2024 Formula 1 Australian Grand Prix | Melbourne (AUS) |
| 17/18/19 May | 2024 Formula 1 Emilia Romagna Grand Prix | Imola (I) |
| 23/24/25/26 May | 2024 Formula 1 Monaco Grand Prix | Monte Carlo (MC) |
| 21/22/23 June | 2024 Formula 1 Spanish Grand Prix | Barcelona (E) |
| 28/29/30 June | 2024 Formula 1 Austrian Grand Prix | RedBull Ring (A) |
| 05/06/07 July | 2024 Formula 1 British Grand Prix | Silverstone (GB) |
| 19/20/21 July | 2024 Formula 1 Hungarian Grand Prix | Hungaroring (HU) |
| 26/27/28 July | 2024 Formula 1 Belgian Grand Prix | Spa-Francorchamps (B) |
| 30/31 Aug 01Sept | 2024 Formula 1 Italian Grand Prix | Monza (I) |
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