Freddie Slater came within touching distance of his maiden 2026 F3 victory in the Spielberg Round Feature Race, leading for much of the contest before eventually crossing the line in third. The TRIDENT rookie climbed from fifth on the grid and looked poised to take the win, but tyre degradation and the circuit’s powerful DRS effect ultimately left him vulnerable in the closing laps. Despite the disappointment of missing out, Slater took positives from another competitive weekend and believes he is continuing to make significant strides in adapting to Formula 3.
Looking back on the race, Slater said his priority from the outset was to move clear of the midfield battles, a strategy that allowed him to fight at the front for much of the afternoon.
“I think obviously for me starting fifth, tiny bit further back, I think it was very important to get through and get out the chaos as soon as possible really, which we did and I was leading for quite a long time.
“As we know the DRS is very powerful around here and it just didn’t quite go to plan. Obviously yesterday probably lost a little bit of knowledge on what the tyres were going to do and that’s how it goes sometimes and I think we did a really good job as a team to maximise the result. Obviously congrats to Noah as well, it’s great for the team, now we look forward to the next one.”
Contact in the Sprint hindering Slater’s data for the Feature
Slater was knocked out of Saturday’s Sprint Race at the Red Bull Ring after a racing incident on Lap 1 with TRIDENT team mate Noah Strømsted. The Briton admitted that missing out on the Sprint Race deprived him of valuable information about tyre behaviour, making it more difficult to judge how hard he could push during Sunday’s Feature Race.
Although hindsight suggested there were areas where he could have managed the tyres differently, the Briton said the race itself was an important learning experience.
“It’s hard to say because I think if yesterday I would have seen what would have happened then I probably would have managed a bit more maybe in a different area, but today that was the plan to try and feel what was underneath me and I tried to do that the best way possible.
“Towards the end I just started to struggle a little bit and also had a few, weird issues going on in the low speed corners with the power, so I need to look into this on the last couple of laps. So yeah, I think a few things that could have gone a little bit better of course and probably could have meant we would have won.”
Growing experience and confidence throughout his maiden F3 season
Despite narrowly missing out on the Spielberg Feature Race victory, Slater believes his understanding of F3 continues to improve with every round. Having arrived in the championship from a very different style of racing, he says managing tyres and race strategy has been one of the biggest adjustments.
“Yeah, I hope so, I hope next week means a win on Sunday, but I think it’s been good progress throughout the year and I think I’m just learning more and more how the races work out and how the tyres evolve throughout the race and kind of the race strategy, how you play it.
“It’s completely different to what I’ve driven before, so obviously it’s new for me this year, but it’s been a good learning curve, a steep learning curve for sure, it’s completely different.”
While a maiden Formula 3 victory narrowly slipped away in Spielberg, Slater leaves Austria with another podium and growing confidence that his breakthrough win may not be far away as the championship heads to his home circuit, Silverstone.
