For Santiago Ramos, the 2025 FIA F3 season has been a year of highs, lows, and resilience. The 21-year-old Mexican driver, now in his second year in F3 and his first with Van Amersfoort Racing, has stood on the top step of the podium twice this season — winning the Melbourne Sprint and the Imola Feature — and added a second place in the Barcelona Sprint. Yet alongside those successes have come three retirements, nine non-scoring finishes, and the cancellation of the Spa Feature Race due to weather.
With the Monza finale approaching, Ramos sits 14th in the championship with 48 points. It is a position that reflects both his ability to deliver standout performances and the challenge of finding consistency in a fiercely competitive field. As the season nears its conclusion, Ramos reflects on the physical and mental demands of racing, his recovery process, and how he finds balance away from the track.
The demands of a triple header
The FIA F3 calendar is intense at the best of times, but triple headers — three consecutive race weekends in different countries — are especially punishing. This year’s Imola-Monaco-Spain run was a prime example, combining vastly different circuits with tight travel schedules and physically demanding conditions.
“It’s really, especially mentally, it’s really tough to have a triple header. You need to make sure, even if you have a bad weekend, to be able to reset and focus on the next weekend,” Ramos said in an exclusive interview with Pit Debrief.
For drivers, the mental reset is as critical as the physical recovery. Bad luck or mistakes in one round can easily carry over into the next if not managed properly — a risk Ramos is careful to avoid.
Early mornings, physical strain, and injury
While the driving itself is the visible challenge, the schedules behind the scenes can be just as taxing. Early starts are common, with drivers sometimes waking in the pre-dawn hours to prepare for practice or qualifying.
“Yeah, it’s really tough. Physically, it’s also tough. Like Ivan said, we usually have to wake up quite early. So you have many hours of sleep and plus the physical fatigue of driving the car, that it’s not easy for sure,” he explained.
Barcelona brought an additional hurdle when Ramos was involved in an accident during the Feature Race, leaving him with a minor back injury.
“It’s tough for me, especially after Barcelona, I had an accident in a Feature Race, so I injured a bit my back. So I went back to Mexico. I tried to recover, do some recovery sessions with the physio and everything, and try to rest well, get ready again for the second part of the season, and yeah, also recharge my batteries with the family, because it has been a long time since I don’t see them.”
Recharging with family and friends
For Ramos, returning to Mexico offered more than just physical recovery — it was also a chance to reconnect with family after months on the road. In a sport where most of the calendar is in Europe, those moments at home are rare and valuable.
Away from the track, Ramos is intentional about shifting his focus to non-racing activities, helping him maintain perspective and mental freshness.
“Yeah. And for me, it’s just a matter of trying to chill out from racing, think about other stuff, spending time with friends, family. Family is far away, so it’s more friends. So I’ll try to focus more of my energy on other stuff, doing sports. I like to play tennis, paddle, whatever. Just try to keep my mind out of racing for a bit. And yeah, focus on other stuff, things I want to do. If I want to go walk [around a] city, run, whatever I can do. Just try to relax and change the chip out of the racing mentality.”
From Melbourne to Imola: Season highlights
2025 began in the best possible way for Ramos and Van Amersfoort Racing, with a victory in the F3 Melbourne Sprint. That win was followed by a difficult run of races before a major breakthrough in the 2025 Imola Round, where he started on the front row and passed Rafael Câmara to win the Feature Race — his first Feature Race victory in F3.
In Barcelona, Ramos was again in podium contention, finishing second in the Sprint Race, inconsistent results in other rounds prevented him from building a stronger 2025 F3 Championship challenge.
From Trident to Van Amersfoort Racing
Ramos’ 2025 F3 campaign builds on a solid rookie season in 2024 with Trident, where he finished 16th in the standings with 44 points. That year included a front-row qualifying performance in Imola and a podium in Monza’s sprint race.
The move to Van Amersfoort Racing in 2025 brought Ramos new challenges but also fresh opportunities to lead the team alongside F3 teammates Théophile Naël and Ivan Domingues. While the points table may not fully reflect his ability, Ramos has shown that when circumstances align, he can convert opportunities into results. His Melbourne and Imola wins prove he has the racecraft and composure to compete at the front in F3.
Eyes on Monza
Monza, the “Temple of Speed,” will be the final chapter of Ramos’ 2025 F3 season with Van Amersfoort Racing. Known for its long straights and heavy braking zones, it is a circuit that rewards decisive overtaking and slipstream mastery — skills Ramos has demonstrated before.
For the Mexican driver, the focus will be on finishing the year strongly, using the lessons learned from a season of extremes to set up an even better campaign in the future. In an environment as intense as F3, Ramos understands that success depends not only on speed but also on the ability to reset, recover, and keep perspective.
The results have been mixed in 2025, but the determination and adaptability Ramos has shown — both on and off the track with Van Amersfoort Racing — suggest that his story in single-seater racing is far from finished.
