With five wins, three pole positions, and seven podiums to their name, Adrian Campos Jr and his team heads into the final round at the Italian GP having enjoyed one of their strongest F3 seasons to date. Headed into the finale, Campos Racing find themselves just 19 points away from stealing the title away from Trident. While the team’s best-ever result in the Formula 3 Teams’ Championship has been fourth, they now line themselves up for the chance of securing their first-ever title in the series.
With Mari Boya, Nikola Tsolov and Tasanapol Inthraphuvasak leading the charge, the Spanish outfit has their eyes set on securing the teams’ title, while supporting Boya and Tsolov in their fight for second in the Drivers’ Standings. During Thursday’s virtual media session, Campos Jr spoke to Pit Debrief and other media outlets as he reflected on the team’s lineup and overall season performance this year.
Boya and Tsolov’s fight for second will go down to the wire
Although Trident and Rafael Câmara have wrapped up the Drivers’ Championship in Hungary, the fight for second continues into the final round. Separated by just two points, seasoned veterans Boya and Tsolov both have the chance to end their third F3 campaign on a high. Campos Jr acknowledged that both drivers understand that they need to be smart with their approach this weekend, knowing that any mistake could prove extremely costly.
“Well, I think they know that if they crash to each other, the first affected are them. They don’t have the second and third place guaranteed. So they will need to be smart and, let’s say, play together and try to fight for the second place between them and not with anyone else.”
Campos Jr stressed that while the team can prepare and guide their drivers, ultimately the rest falls into their own hands and what they do on-track. He hopes their choices this weekend can benefit their own battle for second, but also to secure the team’s title on Sunday.
“So obviously, we will try to do our best. We will try to explain them the situation. But at the end, they are the ones driving and we cannot wait for them. They will take their own decisions during the races. And hopefully, this affects also to the team in a positive way. So we can be also in the contention on Sunday for the team standings.”
Campos Jr. on Boya’s surge in confidence and pace
When asked by Pit Debrief about Boya’s development from 2024 and the latter half of the season, Campos Jr credited the 21 year-old’s pure pace. He claimed that Boya’s biggest weakness lied in Qualifying. However, Campos Jr emphasised that the young Spaniard’s ability to fight through the field was a major asset of his.
“Since Mari [Boya] arrived to our team, Mari has been extremely quick, mainly in testing, some pre-practice. He has always been quick. This is something that he didn’t learn with us. But there was always something going on when being quick matters, like in Qualifying or races.”
“Last year, he had issues in a lot of qualifying, and he had to start in the back of the grid in a lot of races. If you remember, he made really, really nice races, nice recoveries, nice overtakes, and making it to the points from the end of the back.”
Campos Jr said: “So in this case, this is something that I’d say he’s not quicker. He’s just more mature, more consistent.”
With the support of the newly-formed Aston Martin Driver Academy, he claimed that joining the programme gave Boya a fresh boost of confidence. Ultimately, Campos Jr drew to Boya’s newfound confidence and comfort in the car that has allowed him to perform at such a high level in recent rounds.
“I think the fact that he saw an F1 [driver] academy trusting him gave him a boost of confidence. Let’s say that he’s managing the pressure better.”
“When things matter, like in qualifying or in some of the races, he’s performing like he used to do in testing. So this is the main difference. He’s now feeling more comfortable and with a lot more confidence in himself.”
Advantage of simulator preparation
For many drivers, simulator work has become an important aspect of preparation for a race weekend. While some established junior single-seater teams do have simulator facilities, they aren’t on the same level as those available in Formula 1 team’s headquarters. Nonetheless, it is still a very useful tool.
Campos Jr explained that rookies nowadays have come to rounds much better prepared than they used to. Having learned the tracks beforehand, he explained the team maximises the way they prepare drivers with the resources readily available to them.
“Being a rookie in the past was not the same as now. They can do as many laps as they want and they can learn the track. So here when they arrive to the circuit, they already know the track perfectly since the first lap. So as a team, obviously we, at least in Campos, we don’t have a Formula One level simulator, which we can do absolutely everything. But there are a lot of things that we can do. At least we use the same steering wheel that we have in our cars.”
“We can try, for example, the starting procedures for the race starts, for the pit lane, for the pit stops, everything. Now we are starting to work also on setup in our simulator. But this is something that is new for, I think, F2 and F3 level. So every year it’s improving.”
Simulator work key to preparing for fast-paced environment of F3
With only a 45-minute practice session each round, the turn around to Qualifying is rapid, leaving these young drivers little time to adapt. Campos Jr highlighted how simulators have become an essential tool for drivers today, allowing them to prepare for the fast-paced environment. He stressed that taking full advantage of this technology has been crucial and helpful in the development of young drivers today.
“Simulator is improving every year and I think it’s the biggest tool that the driver nowadays has to improve themselves and to get ready for the race weekend. The race weekend like F2 and F3, where we have a pre-practice and then we go straight to qualifying. So yeah, that’s it. It’s the biggest tool that the drivers have now and they have to take advantage of it.”
“Very very happy” with their 2025 campaign
Campos Jr kept it simple when Pit Debrief asked both team principals about their general consensus of their seasons. Reflecting on their year, Campos Jr said: “Well, from our side, I’m overall quite happy with the performance that we had.”
However, he ends the season with minor regrets following the issues they faced at Red Bull Ring, which might have allowed Boya or Tsolov to bring the fight to Câmara for the Drivers’ title this weekend. Despite this setback, Campos Jr expressed satisfaction with the team’s performance and results they have managed to achieve this year.
“To be honest, I wish we didn’t have the issue that we had in Red Bull Ring that maybe we could also bring the drivers’ title here to Monza, the title fight, and not only the team’s title fight.”
“But still, I think overall, taking this [the situation in Austria] out [the season] has been good. Drivers have been performing well. We gave them a quick car. We didn’t have technical issues. Overall, I am very, very happy with the team, how they performed this year.”
Benefits from an experienced driver lineup
In 2025, Campos Racing turned to experience for their driver lineup: Boya and Tsolov with two seasons under their belt and Inthraphuvasak with one. With the new generation of F3 cars introduced this year, Campos Jr believed that a driver’s experience was essential to helping the team gain a better understanding of the car. Entrusting their season with three experienced drivers, Campos Jr said he has no complaints about the decision to run the lineup they chose this year.
“From our side, we thought this was going to be very successful. This is why we prioritised the more experienced drivers, so that we didn’t have a fear that it was going to be new from last year, so it was going to be an impact on everyone. But yes, you heard some development in the car, and we found that the experience was going to be nice.”
“Obviously, it has something that important because the drivers would have the same experience [in learning about the new generation of cars] as us, and they also did a great job. I have to say that they can pass along and make some better suggestions. The behaviour of the car from last year, so I thought it was very helpful. I only have experienced drivers, so I cannot complain.”
