During the FIA F3 weekend in Melbourne, with Pit Debrief in attendance, Bruno del Pino reflected on the challenges of adapting to F3, the lessons learned throughout his rookie campaign, and the work being done behind the scenes with Van Amersfoort Racing as he prepares for the next step towards F2.
Now entering his second season in the category, Del Pino explained that his previous experience in Eurocup-3 left him facing a significant adjustment when he first arrived in FIA Formula 3, particularly due to the differences in tyre management and race approach.
“Yeah so for me second year as well in F3, so it’s a bit more of a veteran side in a kind of way,” Del Pino explained. “Coming from Eurocup-3, especially the first year, it was just many different things.
“Eurocup has Hankook tyres so it’s a complete different way of how to manage tyres, how to manage the gaps, how to manage qualifying. In Hankook it’s basically a qualifying race, you know it’s 10 laps, 10 push and here it’s completely different.”
The Spanish driver admitted FIA Formula 3 requires far more tyre and fuel management than he had previously experienced, forcing him to quickly develop new skills across race weekends.
“You really need to save the tyres, you need to save even fuel, lift and coast and everything which I didn’t learn towards Eurocup-3 that I’ve learned here,” he continued. “So last year it was more of a learning experience for me coming into this season.”
Evolving from his rookie F3 campaign
After identifying weaknesses throughout his rookie campaign with MP Motorsport, Del Pino said both he and Van Amersfoort Racing worked extensively over the F3 off-season to address those areas ahead of 2026. Evidently, the work paid off, with the young Spanish driver securing the Sprint Race victory during the 2026 F3 Melbourne GP Round.
“I’ve worked really, really hard with Van Amersfoort, also with the weak points from last year that we managed to identify and try to solve them of course very, very early in the season,” he said.
“Still many things that we can see that we can lack or not, of course one race doesn’t decide all the things that we improved or not.”
Del Pino also highlighted the competitiveness of FIA Formula 3, explaining that the margins across the grid are so small that consistency and preparation become critical.
“In F3 the level is very high,” he added. “All the drivers are coming very prepared with so much training outside of the track and inside when they can with the testing days and everything, so everything is packed as you saw in qualifying.
“Ten drivers I think or seven drivers within a tenth [in relation to the 2026 F3 Australian Round], so you just need to be on it, trying to always be at 100%.
“Even though you don’t know the tracks 100%, you don’t really get enough track time to be in the limit, so you just try to be as consistent as possible and then the results will come for sure.”
