Race Report
2023 Monaco Formula 1 Grand Prix
FIA F3 CHAMPIONSHIP
Circuit: Monaco (MC), Length 3,340 km, 25th - 28th May 2023, Rounds 5 + 6
www.acm.mc
JENZER MOTORSPORT 2023:
Nikita Bedrin (ITA), Taylor Barnard (GB), Alejandro Garcia (MEX)
Barnard twice in the points in the streets of Monaco
Free Practice
Thursday, 25.05.23, 13.30 – 14.15, Weather: Cloudy, 20°C
Monaco, the most prestigious race on the Formula One calendar, spells glamour, but also inevitably very difficult working conditions for the teams. The FIA F3 paddock was set up next to the Monaco Country Club Tennis, which meant that the powerful race cars had to drive the long way round to the pitlane in a slow procession, followed by all the team‘s tyre and tool vans, in front of grandstands which were slowly filling up because the FIA F3 were the first race cars to hit the track. This meant that they had an especially difficult task to full fill. Our drivers, who were competing on this narrow, demanding, but spectacular track for the first time, had to get used to the extreme conditions. Here the smallest driving error can lead to an encounter with the barriers, and then the damaged cars have to be abandoned and valuable session time is lost.
A heavy downpour soaked the track just as the drivers made their way to the pitlane for the first time. Their task to discover the track was made even more difficult by this, but lap after lap, our drivers were showing promising pace in wet conditions. When a dry line started to appear there was an incident which brought out the red flag. After the restart of the session, with the track still drying, a few more incidents happened, which brought out the Virtual Safety Car. However, in the final 10 minutes of the session, the sun was shining and we were able to fit slick tires. The intense traffic which followed didn’t allow our drivers to complete their best laps. Nikita still managed to take a great 13th place, while Taylor finished 26th followed by Alejandro in 27th.
| Free Practice | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| 1st | Gabriele Mini (I) | Hitech | 1:26.686 |
| 2nd | Franco Colapinto (ARG) | MP | 1:26.919 |
| 3rd | Gregoire Saucy (CH) | ART | 1:27.321 |
| 13th | Nikita Bedrin (I) | Jenzer Motorsport | 1:29.015 |
| 26th | Taylor Barnard (GB) | Jenzer Motorsport | 1:35.268 |
| 27th | Alejandro Garcia (MEX) | Jenzer Motorsport | 1:37.592 |
Race One Qualifying
Friday, 26.05.23, 11.10 – 11.26 (Group A), Weather: Sunny, 20°C
Friday, 26.05.23, 11.34 – 11.50 (Group B)
In order to allow enough track space to all the 30 drivers of the FIA F3 field, the qualifying format got changed for this round – adopting the same format that the FIA F2 Championship has always been using in the streets of Monaco. Following a ballot, the drivers got split into two groups: Group A consisted of even-numbered cars while Group B of odd-numbered cars. Each group had a 16-minutes session and the aggregated results determined the grid for the Feature Race on Sunday. As per usual, the top 12 were reversed for the Sprint Race on Saturday. Nikita and Alejandro were in the first group hitting the track on Friday late morning. Nikita was immediately fast and managed to snatch the great 7th place in his group, with Alejandro qualifying 14th in the session. After them, it was Taylor’s turn to get in the car. The British rookie showed a great pace and managed to snatch the 5th place in his final push lap. With the track conditions improving, Group B was the fastest. In the overall classification, Taylor qualified in an incredible 9th place, Nikita got the 14th spot, while Alejandro the 28th. Due to some post-qualifying penalties, our driver moved up in the starting grid.
| Group A times | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| 1st | Dino Beganovic (SWE) | Prema | 1:23.880 |
| 2nd | Luke Browning (GB) | Hitech | 1:23.883 |
| 3rd | Sebastian Montoya (COL) | Hitech | 1:24.122 |
| 7th | Nikita Bedrin (I) | Jenzer Motorsport | 1:25.742 |
| 14th | Alejandro Garcia (MEX) | Jenzer Motorsport | 1:27.147 |
| Group B times | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| 1st | Gabriele Mini (I) | Hitech | 1:23.278 |
| 2nd | Paul Aron (EST) | Prema | 1:24.152 |
| 3rd | Caio Collet (F) | Van Amersfoort | 1:24.357 |
| 5th | Taylor Barnard (GB) | Jenzer Motorsport | 1:24.763 |
| Race One Grid | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| 1st | Josep Maria Marti (E) | Campos | |
| 2nd | Leonardo Fornaroli (I) | Trident | |
| 3rd | Taylor Barnard (GB) | Jenzer Motorsport | |
| 4th | Gregoire Saucy (CH) | ART | |
| 5th | Franco Colapinto (ARG) | MP | |
| 6th | Gabriel Bortoleto (BRA) | Trident | |
| 13th | Nikita Bedrin (I) | Jenzer Motorsport | |
| 26th | Alejandro Garcia (MEX) | Jenzer Motorsport | |
FIA F3 Championship
Race One (Sprint-Race, 40 Minutes)
Saturday, 27/05/23, 11.00, Weather: Sunny, 22°C
On Saturday in late morning, under bright sunshine, the lights went out for the sprint race. Taylor was starting from the 3rd place and expectations were high. When the race got underway, Taylor and Saucy approached Turn 1 together, and Saucy managed to overtake our rookie on the outside, which dropped Taylor down to 4th place. Behind him, Nikita held on to his 14th position and got on well. Unfortunately, Alejandro got caught up in a contact and had to come back to the pits. As the Safety Car was deployed at that time, Alejandro was able to rejoin at the back of the group and the race got underway again at lap 5. Taylor was doing well, staying glued at the rear of the cars in front doing great lap times, but at the hairpin Colapinto got him by surprise as Colapinto managed to slip through on the inside. Taylor now settled in 5th place and was determined to keep it. Further down, Nikita lost one place and was now 15th after a slight contact with Tsolov. Alejandro was following in 26th position. With tyre degradation setting in, everyone in the field was busy to keep their positions to the end. Taylor crossed the finish line in a fantastic 5th place, collecting valuable points. Nikita brought his car home well in 15th position and Alejandro saw the checkered flag in 26th place. Our drivers had done very well in their first race in the challenging streets of Monaco.
| Results Race One | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1st | Josep Maria Marti (E) | Campos | 35:47.957 | |
| 2nd | Leonardo Fornaroli (I) | Trident | Gap | 8.123 |
| 3rd | Gregoire Saucy (CH) | ART | Gap | 8.835 |
| 5th | Taylor Barnard (GB) | Jenzer Motorsport | ||
| 15th | Nikita Bedrin (I) | Jenzer Motorsport | ||
| 26th | Alejandro Garcia (MEX) | Jenzer Motorsport | ||
| Fastest lap: Sebastian Montoya (COL) in 1:26.212 | ||||
| Race Two Grid | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| 1st | Gabriele Mini (I) | Hitech | 1:23.278 |
| 2nd | Dino Beganovic (SWE) | Prema | 1:23.880 |
| 3rd | Paul Aron (EST) | Prema | 1:24.152 |
| 4th | Luke Browning (GB) | Hitech | 1:23.883 |
| 5th | Caio Collet (BRA) | Van Amersvoort | 1:24.357 |
| 6th | Sebastian Montoya (COL) | Hitech | 1:24.122 |
| 9th | Taylor Barnard (GB) | Jenzer Motorsport | 1:24.763 |
| 14th | Nikita Bedrin (I) | Jenzer Motorsport | 1:25.742 |
| 29th | Alejandro Garcia (MEX) | Jenzer Motorsport | 1:27.147 |
FIA F3 Championship
Race Two (Feature-Race, 45 Minutes)
Sunday, 28/05/23, 08.00, Weather: Sunny, 21°C
Very early on Sunday morning, under sunny skies and in already warm temperatures, the Feature Race got underway in Monaco. Starting from 9th spot on the grid, Taylor Barnard managed a very good start. Three cars were approaching the first corner side by side, this was not going to work. Taylor took the escape road and found himself in 7th place after that. Later in the race, the stewards considered he gained an advantage, and Taylor received a 10 second time penalty. Behind him, Nikita lost one position at the start, while Alejandro moved up to 25th after the opening lap. A Brief Safety Car phase neutralized the race which then got underway again on lap 5. Despite the penalty, Taylor didn’t give up. The British driver kept pushing, was not going to give championship leader Bortoleto, who tried to close in on him, a chance for an attack and was able to improve lap times again in the final stages of the race. Montoya and Collet fell off after touching which brought out the Safety Car again. Taylor was now in 5th position, and with very good pace kept this place until the checkered flag. However, the time penalty was now applied and he fell back to 8th place in the results. Overall, he could still be very proud to have reached great points positions in both of the races. Behind, Nikita had been driving strong throughout the race as well, managing the pace and keeping his position. Nikita then gained two positions after some drama that happened in front and brought home an excellent 12th place. Alejandro pushed throughout the race but found overtaking was nearly impossible. Nevertheless Alejandro made it to a nice 21st position. With this a very special race event at Monaco came to a very good end for our team.
| Results Race Two | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1st | Gabriele Mini (I) | Hitech | 41:45.651 | |
| 2nd | Dino Beganovic (SWE) | Prema | Gap | 0.452 |
| 3rd | Paul Aron (EST) | Prema | Gap | 7.214 |
| 8th | Taylor Barnard (GB) | Jenzer Motorsport | ||
| 12th | Nikita Bedrin (I) | Jenzer Motorsport | ||
| 21st | Alejandro Garcia (MEX) | Jenzer Motorsport | ||
| Fastest lap: Gabriele Mini (I) in 1:25.165 | ||||
Championship standings after 6 out of 18 races:
1st Gabriel Bortoleto, (BRA), 73 points; 2nd Gabriele Mini (I), 56 points; 3rd Gregoire Saucy (CH), 47 points; 4th Dino Beganovic (S), 46 points; 5th Paul Aron (EST), 38 points; 6th Josep Maria Marti (E), 37 points; 13th Taylor Barnard (GB), 12 points
Nikita Bedrin (ITA)
Taylor Barnard (GB)
Alejandro Garcia (MEX)
2023 FIA F3 Championship
| 3-5 March | 2023 Formula 1 Bahrain Grand Prix | Sakhir (BHR) |
| 31 March - 2. April | 2023 Formula 1 Australian Grand Prix | Melbourne (AUS) |
| 19-21 May | 2023 Formula 1 Emilia Romagna Grand Prix1) | Imola (I) |
| 26-28 May | 2023 Formula 1 Monaco Grand Prix | Monte Carlo (MC) |
| 2-4 June | 2023 Formula 1 Spanish Grand Prix | Barcelona (E) |
| 30 June - 2 July | 2023 Formula 1 Austrian Grand Prix | RedBull Ring (A) |
| 7-9 July | 2023 Formula 1 British Grand Prix | Silverstone (GB) |
| 21-23 July | 2023 Formula 1 Hungarian Grand Prix | Hungaroring (HU) |
| 28-30 July | 2023 Formula 1 Belgian Grand Prix | Spa-Francorchamps (B) |
| 1-3 September | 2023 Formula 1 Italian Grand Prix | Monza (I) |
1) Cancelled after heavy flooding in the region
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