As Sprint Race Saturday came to an end at the F3 Austrian GP, officials handed PREMA Racing’s Ugo Ugochukwu and DAMS Lucas Oil’s Christian Ho post-race penalties, while AIX Racing’s James Hedley was disqualified.
All three drivers were pushing for stronger results—Hedley making his return after sustaining an injury in Monaco, while Ugochukwu and Ho continued their efforts to break into the points. However, this penalty is especially harsh for Ugochukwu, who had initially achieved his best finish of the season thus far.
Ugochukwu loses podium-finish; penalised for leaving the track and gaining an advantage
It is clear that the 2025 season has been a tough one to swallow for PREMA Racing. So far, only Ugochukwu and Noel León have managed to score points, while Brando Badoer is still chases for his first. With all three drivers qualifying in the Top 15 yesterday, it looked like a turning point was on the horizon. Starting P4 and P5, Badoer and Ugochukwu looked to be well-positioned to secure PREMA’s best result of the year thus far.
Ugochukwu initially crossed the line to deliver his best result yet with a P3 finish. However, after the race, the stewards have now penalised the American with a 10-second penalty for allegedly leaving the track and gaining an advantage over Campos Racing’s Nikola Tsolov—who now takes the final spot on the podium. With the penalty applied, Ugochukwu drops from P3 to P16, costing him and PREMA a crucial result and points finish.
Disqualification for Hedley after failing to reattach steering wheel
The F3 Austrian GP marked a return to the grid for Hedley after sustaining an injury in Monaco. However, his comeback weekend has definitely gone as he had hoped for. After parking and jumping out of his car in Parc Fermé, the Briton left without reattaching his steering wheel. Returning to Parc Fermé to fix it himself—an action that breached Article 45.1 of the F3 Sporting Regulations, which prohibits any interventions in Parc Fermé conditions unless authorised by officials. As a result, the stewards disqualified the Briton from the race.
However, this disqualification wouldn’t have much of an effect as Hedley crossed the line in P20—far from any point-scoring positions.
Ho receives five-place grid drop for next race
It was an unfortunate day for Ho. Retiring from a race for the second time this season, the Singaporean was forced to retire after colliding with ART GP’s Tuukka Taponen. Initially, the stewards handed the Singaporean a 10-second penalty for the incident. However, since Ho didn’t finish the race, the stewards converted the penalty into a five-place grid drop for Sunday’s Feature Race. After qualifying P23, Ho will now line up on the grid in P28 tomorrow.
