Bruno del Pino made a strong start to the 2026 F3 season at the Australian GP, where he secured Sprint Race victory and a Feature Race P4.
The Van Amersfoort Racing driver qualified P12 to claim reverse-grid pole position, with his teammate Enzo Deligny alongside him on the front row. At lights out, del Pino got the start he needed and quickly began building a gap to his teammate and the remainder of the field, being 0.662 seconds ahead on Lap 2. From then on, he led a dominant race until a red flag forced the race to end early.
During Sunday’s Feature Race, del Pino moved up to P10 on the opening lap and gradually climbed up the order, setting the fastest lap along the way. He ultimately crossed the line in P6 but benefited from two penalised drivers ahead of him dropping down, which promoted him up to P4.
Del Pino “really happy” with season start
Speaking after the 2026 F3 Australian GP, the Spaniard reflected on the positive weekend, happy with his and the team’s efforts.
“The travel was worth it for sure! I think we started off in the right direction with the team. Winning yesterday was incredible, feeling a bit sad because of the points that we only got to grab half of it,” he noted, having only collected 5 points due to the drastically shortened race.
“Today I think it was a really good day for us. A bit sad in my opinion because I could have done a bit better. I could have maybe grabbed that podium, but either way we’ve done the job. We’re leaving here with really good feelings and really confident for the next couple of rounds. I’m really happy with the team. I’m really happy with how we started off the season.”
Targeting consistency and points finishes
With these impressive results, Van Amersfoort Racing leaves Melbourne leading the 2026 F3 Teams’ Standings, while del Pino sits P3 in the Drivers’ Standings with 18 points. With that in mind, del Pino made it clear that his focus remains on improving and finding consistency, despite his already strong opening championship performance.
“I don’t want to talk about championships. I don’t want to talk about championship positions because of course there’s many more rounds to come. There are many more things that can happen both good and bad. So I’m focusing on just keeping the momentum and keeping the consistency that we’ve been building up. I think this weekend has been really consistent.”
He added, “I just showed that if you’ve been consistent, then by the end of the weekend, you get the points. That’s what I’m trying to achieve for every race weekend. There’s more to come, and then from there we will see where we are.”
Room for improvement
While the Spaniard’s F3 Australian GP saw plenty of promise for 2026, del Pino was quick to highlight key areas for improvement, both as a driver and as a team.
“I think every area has to improve. We’re not the best team in any of the areas. I think we did a really good job. We’re up there, but we need to be the best.”
“Qualifying didn’t turn out the way that I wanted, even though that helped us get points. It’s a thing that we need to look at. It’s a thing that I also need to look at because from my side it can be better too. So we’ll just keep on working,” he concluded.
