Freddie Slater made his impressive debut appearance in Formula 3 with AIX Racing this season in Bahrain. Round 8 of the season greeted him again, this time with Hitech TGR around the iconic Spa-Francorchamps circuit.
Podium on splendid debut
With the teenager’s first appearance in Round 2 at the F3 Bahrain GP, he came out with guns blazing. Qualifying had the rookie lining up tenth on the grid, and as F3 reverses its top 12 positions for the Sprint, Slater looked at a third place start. After a great launch off the line, he immediately got his elbows out going wheel to wheel with Martinius Stenshorne. Soon after the battle, Lap 1 saw the debutant go around the outside of Stenshorne to take second place.
On Lap 3, the teenager zoomed past Joshua Dufek down to Turn 4 to take the race lead. The rookie put up a brave fight for the win, battling Nikola Tsolov with great braveness. While Slater did everything to fend him off, Tsolov stormed past him on Lap 11 eventually grabbing the victory. Still, Slater’s debut remained thrilling as the young driver grabbed a P2 finish. The then 16-year-old Brit showed massive potential as he achieved his first F3 podium on debut, successfully becoming the second-youngest podium finisher in F3 history.
The racer was highly impressive in his first appearance, battling his way to a podium finish in the Sprint Race. The Feature Race was not as lucky for the driver. After lining up tenth on the grid, the start was chaotic. After an incident with Alessandro Giusti early on leading to great damage, Slater returned to the pit lane. The young driver was forced to retire on Lap 3. Unfortunately, the damage did not allow the driver to continue the race and his fantastic weekend took a sour turn.
Second appearance and future potential
Spa told a different story as the rookie returned to the F3 grid with Hitech TGR this time around. While Slater qualified P12, and the Sprint Race had him lined up with reverse grid pole. When the green lights went out, he immediately had to get his elbows out to battle Noah Strømsted. After losing the lead to Strømsted on Lap 3, and soon having Ugo Ugochukwu and later Charlie Wurz overtaking on Lap 8, the Sprint went downhill for him. Lap 9 saw the teenager running wide and kicking up gravel.
Still, the rookie showed outstanding skill fending off the more experienced drivers behind while he could. Unfortunately, he tumbled further down the order on Lap 10 and ultimately finished the race P10. The next day, the Feature Race was forced to be abandoned after two red flags. The race finished with no points and no classification.
After two turbulent race weekend appearances, the teenager showed flashes of brilliance and hunger for more. Brave moments of wheel to wheel battling showed great potential and experience beyond his years.
Recently, it was confirmed that the 17-year-old secured a seat for the 2026 F3 season with TRIDENT. With his first full campaign in F3 slowly approaching, the youngster is a talent to watch.
