After starting from second in the F3 Belgian GP Sprint Race, Noah Strømsted showed his pace by taking his maiden F3 win. While speaking to media including Pit Debrief post race, Strømsted spoke on the race he had just completed.
As well as speaking on the Sprint Race, the Dane spoke ahead to the challenges of tomorrow, as well as his Championship battle. At current, he sits P6 in the standings, just 20 points behind P3, where he strives to finish the season.
Strømsted’s maiden win in Belgium
Taking home his maiden win, at the historic track of Spa-Francorchamps was a great feeling for the Dane, especially after recent misfortune. The last few rounds have seen Strømsted struggling with race pace, although today that seemingly turned around.
Finding pace early on saw him quickly pulling away with a gap, allowing him to control the race the way he needed to.
“Yeah, it’s very nice to win here in Spa, especially after the last couple of weekends we’ve had, we’ve struggled with the race pace and today I think our pace was amazing, I managed to pull a gap and kind of control it there, we had the pace to control if I wanted to go faster, I needed to go a bit slower. So yeah, today was very, very good.”
With the early pace he found, he was able to quickly overtake Freddie Slater who started from pole. This is precisely the point he knew he was in with a chance to take the win. Despite having the pace, he remained cautious of how his tyres would hold up, saving them largely for DRS zones in order to overtake Slater. His plan was a success, and he ran the remainder of the race with plenty of room.
“Yeah, to be honest, already from lap one or lap two, because I thought I would just kind of stay behind and save my tyres with the DRS, but I felt I had a lot more pace so I decided to go by and I went pushing for a bit to try and drop him from the DRS and it worked from there, I just had the pace on the way through.”
The difference in wet running between F3 and other categories
With prior experience in F4 and FRECA, Strømsted was asked about the key differences in wet weather running to F3. He argues that overall, the feeling of driving in wet weather is not a whole lot different. Although, he acknowledges they do have a few major differences.
These differences come down to the level of spray, the downforce and grip. He also mentions that in Formula 3, you have to be more conscious of tyre management than in categories like F4 or FRECA. In these other categories, you retain the ability to push each lap without consequence, although, he doesn’t have too much experience or understanding of running on wet tyres, after little chance to run.
“Yeah the feeling of driving in the wet is not too different. The biggest difference is the spray, the downforce that the car generates, for sure it’s also more grip and you have to manage the tyres more than in F4 and FRECA.
“There you could push every lap and nothing would happen and yeah to be honest we don’t have too good of an understanding how the wet tyres are throughout the race.
“We had the race in Australia but there was a lot of safety cars and not a full race so yeah if it’s rain on Sunday we’ll kind of have to figure it out out there.”
Experience in other cars around Spa, minimally helpful
Strømsted has experience around Spa-Francorchamps in categories like F4 and FRECA, although when asked how important prior experience was, his answer shocked. Strømsted argued that is is fairly tough to compare past machinery to the 2025 Formula 3 cars.
He explains the key differences, emphasising the difference in tyre management, and race craft. In today’s Sprint Race he managed to pull away, and did not need to battle again. In comparison to FRECA last year, this is a large difference, with the Dane battling through the final laps in FRECA.
“Yeah I think it’s very different this car. To compare to all the other cars I’ve driven around here, the way you manage the tires, the way you need to manage the race. Today was quite easy for me to be honest. I overtook and I pulled the gap and I kind of just managed it there.
“Last year we had a lot of fighting in FRECA even until the last laps so yeah it was quite different this year for me.”
What clicked this weekend
Coming off a few tough weekends, it was clear something had clicked for Strømsted this weekend. When asked about this by a representative from Pit Debrief, the Dane put it down to strong pace, and lack of mistakes.
Although he feels he was quite unlucky in Qualifying, he acknowledges the pace this weekend has been strong. Across the season so far, he believes the pace has always been there, putting his misfortune down to mistakes and the need to learn. Despite this, everything seems to be coming together for him now, and hopefully continues to the season’s conclusion.
“Yeah to be honest this weekend the pace has been very strong. I was quite unlucky in the Qualifying.
“But yeah in general this year, in Barcelona, we were pretty unlucky and there’s some places where we should have done a lot better gotten a lot more points but in general pace this year has been strong always and just some mistakes from my side and a lot of learning but yeah it’s all starting to work now.”
The challenges ahead of the Feature Race
Starting from P11 in tomorrow’s F3 Belgian GP Feature Race, Strømsted will face the challenge of fighting his way up the grid. The Dane remains confident that should the weather remain the same tomorrow, he will be able to perform as well as today if not better. Although, he also knows that everyone else will be looking to improve, posing further challenge to his race.
“Yeah, I think it looks quite good if it’s the same conditions to be honest, but tomorrow obviously I start further down and people are for sure going to improve for tomorrow, so we have to do the same.”
Today’s Sprint Race has shown him how the tyres degrade in the conditions of the day. Apart from this, he mentions that his car will need some rebalancing. Starting from further down the grid tomorrow means he will be looking at his teammates data to gain understanding of conditions further back.
“For me it’s going to be very different for tomorrow starting P11. But yeah for sure I learned how the tyres degrade. Have to do some rebalancing for the car tomorrow and yeah we’ll have to see.
“Of course we have the data from my two teammates so we’ll try to understand from that and go from there.”
Strømsted’s Championship battle
Sitting in P6 in the Championship Standings at current, leaves Strømsted in a great position to finish closer to the top three at the end of the season. When asked about his Championship goals, the Dane mentioned that he would like to ideally finish in the top three.
With many of his Championship rivals starting ahead of him in tomorrow’s Feature Race, Strømsted will be trying his best to catch and overtake them. Hopefully, making progress in the Championship at the same time.
“Yeah it’s going to be very tough. I think today was a good day and tomorrow I start further down. Some of the guys in the top five, top six start ahead of me so I’ll try to do my best to catch up to them tomorrow and make some progress.
“But yeah for sure try to be in the top three at the end of the championship and do my best in the next few rounds.”
