TRIDENT’s Matteo De Palo finally opened his FIA Formula 3 points account with fourth place in the 2026 Silverstone F3 Sprint Race, although the Italian rookie missed out on a maiden podium at the final corner.
The 18-year-old has endured a difficult start to his F3 campaign, but Silverstone has offered his strongest weekend so far. After qualifying fifth on Friday, De Palo started eighth for the reverse-grid Sprint Race and charged into podium contention.
However, Campos Racing’s Théophile Naël passed him late on to take third. Even so, De Palo left the race encouraged by his pace, his racecraft, and TRIDENT’s improved performance across the weekend.
De Palo says Silverstone showed TRIDENT’s true potential
De Palo believes his Silverstone performance reflected the speed he and TRIDENT have carried beneath the surface all season. After several difficult rounds, the rookie felt the team finally brought everything together.
“We knew that this was our potential,” he said to Formula 3 after the race. “We’ve been really lacking in the previous races, but we managed to put it all together this week.
“We were starting pretty far from the podium in P8 for the first bit, so also seeing that we were fighting for P2 even at the end of the last lap, makes me confident for tomorrow because the pace looks really, really unbelievable.”
That pace gave De Palo a major boost after a challenging start to life in F3. Moreover, his ability to climb from eighth and fight near the front showed clear progress at a crucial stage of the season.
Although fourth place denied him a podium, it still gave him his first points in the championship and confirmed that he could race with the leading contenders.
Late Naël move leaves De Palo frustrated
De Palo enjoyed the intensity of the Sprint Race, particularly as he battled through Silverstone’s high-speed corners. However, the final-lap defeat to Naël left him with mixed emotions.
“It was really a fun race until the end,” he joked. “I lost the position to Théophile for the podium at the last corner, so it was funny until there.
“It wasn’t really fun for me then, maybe for Théophile because he got the podium. But overall the race was really good, fighting through the fast corners, on the outside, inside, it’s been a really, really nice race. I’m looking forward to tomorrow to have the same one. Hopefully with a better ending.”
The last-corner loss naturally frustrated De Palo. Nevertheless, the fight itself gave him confidence, as he showed aggression, control and pace while moving through the pack.
As a result, the TRIDENT driver now heads into Sunday with proof that he can contend for silverware when the weekend runs cleanly.
De Palo targets Feature Race fight from stronger starting position
De Palo described Silverstone as his cleanest weekend of the season so far. Previous issues had left him starting too far back, but this time he converted strong Qualifying pace into a front-running race.
On Sunday, he will start closer to the front and believes he can attack immediately.
“Tomorrow, we start more at the front,” said De Palo. “There are more opportunities to get, everything is there to take.
“We will look forward already trying to make up positions from the first lap. But I think we didn’t maximise completely our results in quali yesterday, losing the P2 by just half a tenth, so I think we can get there and hopefully fight with Freddie for the lead in the race.”
De Palo therefore sees the Feature Race as another major opportunity. While the Sprint Race brought his first points, Sunday could offer the chance to convert TRIDENT’s pace into an even stronger result.
After missing the podium by one corner, De Palo now wants a cleaner ending and a genuine fight at the front.
