With the F3 season meeting its end at Monza, Hitech TGR’s Team Manager, Paul Bellringer, reviewed the team’s overall performance in 2025. Their P8 finish in the Teams’ Championship left Hitech disappointed, yet Bellringer managed to pick out some positives. Accumulating a total of 90 points over the course of ten rounds, Hitech TGR welcomed their best race weekend in Spielberg, Austria.
Their best driver in the 2025 lineup, Martinius Stenshorne, earned four Sprint Race podiums, including a P1 in Monaco, and one Feature Race win. Gerrard Xie, the other consistent driver of the team, only collected one point in his rookie season. Hitech TGR’s third seat welcomed multiple drivers in 2025, with Nikita Johnson finishing the season.
Mixed feelings about a complicated season
When reflecting on the 2025 F3 season, Bellringer admitted to a certain disappointment with Hitech TGR’s inconsistency. While he recognised the promising moments, the team manager was disheartened with the “off weekends”.
According to Bellringer, those unfortunate rounds were the reason Hitech did not challenge in the championship fight:
“I think it was a bit of a mixed season. Really, we had some parts of the year where we showed good promise. And then equally, we had a couple of bits where, for a whole raft of reasons, it wasn’t as ideal as it possibly could have been.
“But I think this year, especially, it was a championship year that was pretty strong. And you couldn’t really afford to have an off weekend. If you did, you were quite heavily penalised for it.”
Stenshorne’s success in his second year
When discussing Hitech’s 2025 F3 line-up, Paul Bellringer praised Martinius Stenshorne’s second campaign with the team. Recognising the “roller coaster” in terms of the Norwegian’s race outcome, the team manager spoke of his individual potential.
“Martinius [Stenshorne] obviously came back with us for the second year. And we fancied our chances with that. Again, it was sort of a roller coaster. Started off well in Australia, with a second in the sprint. And we thought we’re on our way.
“He was on the podium five times. So, he showed as an individual he had the pace in him. And equally, I think it showed that the Hitech car was able to mix it at the top end of the time sheets.”
A driver cannot reach P5 in the championship without a competitive car, and Hitech provided just that at points in the season. However, the results were mixed, with both great wins and unfortunate DNFs:
“Then it sort of peaked and troughed a little bit. Winning Monaco was nice, and then to win later on in the year in Austria was a good result. But then that couple DNFs. One thing or another, and you lose your momentum a little bit.”
Xie’s improvements
Bellringer went on to acknowledge Gerrard Wie’s progress with Hitech as he took on the learning curve in the 2025 F3 season. While the Chinese driver had a tough season, his improvements carried through in the background:
“Gerrard had a good year on balance, since he came in with limited experience of the F3 level. And I think he steadily improved all year. But unfortunately, everyone else was improving as well.
“So I think his genuine improvement that came within himself wasn’t necessarily reflected in the timesheets at times. But I think it was nice that he got himself a point towards the end of the season as a reward for his efforts.”
The third driver difficulties
When it came to filling up that third seat at Hitech, the team went through three different drivers: Joshua Dufek, Freddie Slater, and Nikita Johnson. Unfortunately for Bellringer and the rest of the Hitech TGR team, each driver swap restarted their progress in the 2025 F3 season. The team manager spoke of the hardships, emphasising the frustrations that came with being behind other teams:
“On the third car, obviously, through varying reasons, we had three more drivers for the rest of the season. But, to come in at that stage of the season when everyone else is fully up to speed.
“And they’re coming in basically as rookies, they were always going to be on the back foot. Which proved to be the case, which was frustrating for us.”
Hard testing sessions
In terms of testing, both in-season and pre-season, the team had a serious issue with learning the potential of everyone. Paul Bellringer confessed to the difficulties with comparison during testing:
“Testing, particularly at the end of the year, is difficult in terms of trying to get a gauge on the real level of everybody. Because pretty much Day 2 AM is the golden couple of hours where everyone throws the tyres on trying to replicate qualifying. And I think you get a bit of a read on it.
“But other than that, there’s such a mix between people on long runs. People are doing Sprint Race simulations, Feature Race simulations. You’re never really comparing like for like.”
With Hitech TGR’s inconsistent third driver and inconclusive testing, the 2025 F3 season ended up even more strenuous, as Bellringer explained.
Preparing for 2026
Deciding to put the 2025 F3 season behind, Paul Bellringer spoke of the work that Hitech and its drivers will have to do in order to prepare for the 2026. As the racing drivers will be busy with getting the car ready and testing, Hitech TGR plans to be on top of developments.
“From the driver’s point of view, they’ll be working with their engineers in sim sessions and testing one thing or another. It’s quite busy.
“Although Melbourne seems a long time away, it’s going to go in a heartbeat. Particularly when you take out the Christmas break. February will soon roll around, and we’ll be back in Barcelona. I think then you get a bit more of a read on the lay of the land.”
