James Wharton returned to PREMA Racing for his second full FIA F3 season with clear expectations. After a difficult rookie campaign with ART Grand Prix, the Australian reunited with the team that had guided much of his junior career and viewed 2026 as an important year for proving what he could deliver.
Wharton improved his points total from 25 to 39 and claimed a Sprint Race victory in Barcelona alongside a second-place finish in Madrid. However, 17th in the Drivers’ Championship represented only a one-place improvement on 2025. His season therefore combined genuine progress with the same inconsistency that had limited his rookie year, particularly in qualifying.
Wharton returns home to PREMA with higher expectations
Wharton already knew PREMA well. He raced with the Italian outfit from 2022 to 2024, winning the 2023 Formula 4 UAE Championship and finishing runner-up in Euro 4 and Formula Regional Europe. After spending his first full F3 season with ART, he returned to PREMA describing the move as coming “back home” for his second campaign.
The reunion also carried pressure. Wharton had won the Spielberg Sprint Race as a rookie, but four points-scoring finishes and 18th in the standings fell short of expectations. Ahead of 2026, he told Pit Debrief that consistency and qualifying would prove crucial. PREMA also needed to improve after a difficult 2025, making progress a shared objective.
Melbourne injury immediately disrupts his campaign
Wharton started his home weekend in Melbourne with encouraging pace and qualified eighth, but his campaign changed dramatically during the Sprint Race. Contact with teammate Louis Sharp sent both cars heavily into the barriers and left both drivers injured. PREMA withdrew Wharton and Sharp from the Feature Race on medical advice, denying Wharton the chance to capitalise on his strongest qualifying position to that point.
The long gap before Monaco allowed Wharton to recover, but he returned needing to rebuild momentum. He declared himself fully fit ahead of the second round, yet Monaco delivered another difficult weekend. Wharton qualified 13th in his group and therefore 26th overall, leaving himself with too much ground to recover around a circuit where overtaking remained extremely difficult.
Barcelona finally delivers the breakthrough
Barcelona transformed Wharton’s season. He qualified 11th, placing him second on the reversed Sprint Race grid, and turned that opportunity into his first victory of the year. After initially losing a position to Freddie Slater, Wharton fought back, passed Gerrard Xie for the lead and controlled two Safety Car restarts before setting the fastest lap and taking the chequered flag.
The Barcelona Sprint Race victory gave PREMA its first F3 win since 2024 and provided Wharton with 11 points. However, the weekend also exposed the team’s continuing qualifying weakness. Starting 11th created the Sprint opportunity, but it left Wharton outside the ideal positions for Sunday and prevented him from turning Barcelona into a larger haul.
Race pace cannot fully overcome qualifying limitations
Spielberg continued that pattern. Wharton started the Sprint from reverse-grid pole and led for much of the contest, but Ernesto Rivera eventually passed him before a late mistake and a damaged right mirror contributed to further losses. Pedro Clerot and Jin Nakamura both passed him on the final lap, dropping Wharton to fourth when a podium had looked achievable.
Silverstone produced only one point before Spa became another weekend to forget. Wharton exceeded track limits seven times during the Belgian Sprint Race and received four separate five-second penalties, dropping him to 27th. PREMA also struggled more broadly during this phase, and inconsistent qualifying prevented Wharton from building sustained momentum.
Budapest finally brought a more complete weekend. Wharton scored three points in the Sprint Race and six in the Feature Race. Although neither result matched Barcelona, the double points finish showed the value of putting together a cleaner weekend and helped him rebuild his championship total after the difficult Spa round.
Madrid podium provides a stronger finish
Monza yielded only one additional point, but Madrid allowed Wharton to end his F3 career positively. After qualifying 12th, he started the Sprint Race from reverse-grid pole at the new Madring circuit. Théophile Naël beat him off the line, but Wharton held second and finished ahead of new teammate Alex Powell.
Wharton described the result as “bittersweet” after his second-place Madrid finish because he missed the chance to become the first F3 winner at the circuit, but the podium still represented his second top-three finish of the season. He added another point in Feature Race 1 before ending the final race outside the points, taking his total to 39.
That tally made Wharton PREMA’s highest-scoring driver. Louis Sharp scored 21 before leaving ahead of Monza, Powell added 14 across the final two rounds and José Garfias managed one. Wharton therefore contributed more than half of PREMA’s 75 points as the team finished seventh.
Progress falls short of the breakthrough Wharton wanted
Wharton improved on his rookie season, but not by the margin he had targeted. He scored 14 more points, added another F3 victory and finished as PREMA’s benchmark, yet 17th in the championship remained far from the front-running campaign he wanted. PREMA’s struggles provide important context, but Wharton had also identified his own qualifying execution as an area that needed improvement.
Barcelona and Madrid showed what he could achieve when starting position and race pace aligned, while Budapest demonstrated the value of a clean double points finish. Too many weekends, however, left him recovering from difficult Fridays or dealing with setbacks that prevented sustained momentum.
His next step confirms that his progress still carried weight beyond the final standings. TRIDENT has confirmed Wharton for the 2027 FIA Formula 2 season, reuniting him with the team that gave him his F2 debut in Qatar in 2025. His second F3 season did not produce the championship breakthrough he wanted, but it gave him enough victories, podiums and experience to earn the next opportunity on the junior ladder.
