Brando Badoer left the 2026 F3 Budapest Round with his second consecutive podium after climbing to third in the Feature Race, backing it up with fifth in the Sprint Race to score 21 points across the weekend.
The Rodin Motorsport driver now sits fifth in the Drivers’ Championship and remains in contention for a top-three finish with two rounds remaining. Speaking after the weekend, Badoer reflected on a complete performance that delivered exactly what he and the team had hoped for.
A weekend that delivered
For Badoer, the priority heading into the 2026 F3 Budapest Round was simple: score strong points to keep himself in the championship fight. Leaving the Hungaroring with over 20 points and another podium, he felt both he and Rodin Motorsport had achieved exactly that.
“I’m feeling good, it was very important for us to perform this weekend ahead of the championship fight and also there was the need to put some good points on the board.
“That was the mindset we came in with and that’s the way we came out of the weekend so I’m really happy. The team did a good job to give me a competitive car for me to finish the job and I’m really happy with all my performances.
“Over 20 points in two races, I can be happy with that.”
A complete performance in the 2026 F3 Budapest Round
Badoer described the Budapest weekend as one of his most complete of the season, having qualified strongly before making progress in both races to maximise the points on offer.
“It’s been a complete weekend. We qualified well, then made some good moves in the Sprint Race to maximise the result and today we did some good moves.
“We managed the race well, maximised the pace and the car and we got away with a P5 in the Sprint and a P3 on the Grand Prix Sunday, which is cool.”
Keeping the pressure on
During the closing stages of the Feature Race, Badoer found himself battling championship leaders Freddie Slater and Ugo Ugochukwu. He explained that the repeated Safety Car interruptions helped preserve the tyres before the trio pushed to the finish, while praising both his team and their execution across the weekend.
“To be honest, Ugo pushed quite hard during the race but he had a good balance which allowed him to be fast in the final stages as well. Me and Freddie managed in a similar way, I would say.
“We had quite some interruptions during the race for the Safety Cars, which helped the tyre life a bit and at the end we’ve been pushing really hard so not much more left.
Although he remains behind Slater and Ugochukwu in the standings, Badoer believes being viewed as an outsider in the title fight could work to his advantage over the final two rounds.
“But from my side and by the team’s side, we’ve done a great job and we have to keep pushing in this way and continue bringing important results home in the next races.
“The positive thing is that we are on paper not the favourites so we go racing with quite the least amount of pressure compared to Freddie and Ugo so we just need to maximise what we have ahead of us and after Madrid, the second Feature Race, we’ll see where we’ll be up to.”
