Campos Racing driver Nikola Tsolov executed a great Sprint race at the F3 Imola GP, finishing P3 and holding on to the 4th place in the standings. Having started the race from P4, Tsolov kept his calm and collected demeanour in order to overtake the drivers ahead. Unfortunately for him, the Safety Car obstructed his strategy, and it left him with not enough time to push in the last laps.
The Formula 3 championship follows a reverse grid format for the Sprint races. Therefore, even though the Bulgarian qualified P9 for the Feature race on Sunday, he had the advantage of a better starting position in the Sprint. This was also not his first podium of the 2025 season. Tsolov won the Sprint in Bahrain, and he gathered some important points in the Feature as well.
Unfortunate circumstances
Starting P4 did not give Nikola Tsolov the upper hand he was hoping for during the F3 Imola GP Sprint. In fact, he faced some struggles in getting past his teammate Mari Boya. The other driver had to abandon the race due to an issue that made him lose power. Nevertheless, the Bulgarian managed to hold on to that P3 position until the end. During a post-sprint press conference attended by Pit Debrief, Tsolov shared his conflicting thoughts regarding his 3rd place finish:
“Well, obviously, P3 is not the result I wanted to be fighting for in the season in general. I mean, everyone can say that for sure. But I think we tried to maximise as much as we could, which we did. Unfortunately for Mari [Boya], he had an issue, so we couldn’t score much points as a team.”
“But on my side, I can say I’m decently satisfied with P3 because also that helped me learn a bit how the tyre management was for tomorrow with dirty air and etc. So starting in the back tomorrow will be a bit more difficult, but I’m sure we can improve some things in the car, which I already know. So that’s already a good step.”
Moreover, the drivers seemed to encounter some issues with the overtaking. The Imola circuit is one of the oldest tracks on the calendar. For that reason, its narrow layout and small DRS zone can cause the F3 championship contenders a few problems. Nikola Tsolov expressed the difficulties he encountered when trying to pass Bruno Del Pino into the chicane after the main straight:
“Yeah, the thing was that Bruno [Del Pino] was always within DRS from Tim [Tramnitz], so that made it difficult for me. Actually, I felt like I was losing on the straight rather than gaining, so I was probably up after sector one, even further back, and then catching up in sector two and three. So if he lost the DRS to Tim, I think it would have been a nice battle for the second place, but I think Bruno managed quite well to stay with Tim, and he did a good race. So there wasn’t any opportunity for me to be honest, but let’s see for tomorrow.”
Future predictions
After gathering all the necessary data from the Sprint, Tsolov and the Campos Racing team are looking forward to the Imola GP Feature race. The Bulgarian gave a little overview of the “more aggressive” strategy, which could be in play for tomorrow:
“Looking at today, I don’t think we are expecting as big deg [degradation] as we thought, so it will probably be really important to gain a lot of places on the start and try and push as much as we can in the beginning of the race and make up, then see what we can do in the end by managing, but definitely the approach is going to be more aggressive than today.”
Furthermore, after the championship leader, Rafael Câmara, failed to gather any points in the Sprint race, the question of catching up came into play. Tsolov explained that his focus is set on securing a seat for next year. While he shared his point of view on the championship battle, he kept his answer very modest:
“Yeah, for me, like Tim [Tramnitz] said, I think obviously they look really strong and quite a few steps ahead of everyone at the moment, but like he said as well, one race can change everything and if they struggle a little bit, it might change their momentum and it might be a good moment for everyone else to step in. But at the moment, I’m not really looking at the championship, to be honest. He’s just so far ahead that for me, it’s better to focus race by race and try to do my best and in the end, secure myself a seat for next year as well.”
Despite his place in the Red Bull Junior Programme, Tsolov admitted that the pressure is only a big motivation to perform. He confessed his excitement and hopes for this partnership:
“Yeah, obviously, you always have pressure no matter where you are. I think so far I’ve been managing it quite well. I think it only motivates me to do better and to work harder. So I’m really happy and excited to be a part of Red Bull Junior Programme. To be honest, I’ve already been improving myself ever since I joined, so I’m hoping to keep going that way.”
Important changes and strategies
Due to the circuit’s gravel run-off areas and narrow configuration, there is almost always the possibility of a Safety Car. The Campos driver and his team considered this when coming up with strategies for the Imola GP. However, Tsolov planned for a “long game” at the Imola GP, and the Safety Car was not of much help:
“Yeah, I think, to be honest, on my side, the safety cars didn’t help me as much. I had the strategy to play the long game and try and make up places in the end, looking at last year’s races. But I think I started pushing a bit late on the race, which was impossible to overtake, like I said before. And for tomorrow, probably be a different strategy as well, considering our car, I think it was set up to be better in the end.”
Before his switch to Campos Racing, the Bulgarian drove for ART Grand Prix for 2 years. This F3 Imola GP marks Tsolov’s third round competing under Campos. Nikola Tsolov confessed to his ever-growing confidence in his new team, making sure to emphasise his focus on improving more and more:
“I think confidence has been up there, working with the team and finding new stuff each round. So this has been really important for me that we keep improving, we never stop. Obviously, there are still things to work on, but I think we are definitely making steps anyways. So I think going into each triple header, we have something to improve and that’s the way we want to look at things.”
After the Bulgarian driver mentioned his disappointment in the Sprint results, he reimagined the race. While nothing will turn back time, Nikola Tsolov wished he were “more aggressive” in order to maximise his results:
“Yeah, I think I would have gone a bit more aggressive in the beginning of the race as I took the long game approach, as I said. And that compromised me from being able to make up in the beginning. But other than that, I think later on management, etc., I managed to adapt quite quickly. And I think the pace was there towards the end.”
