DAMS Lucas Oil’s Gerrard Xie enters his sophomore F3 campaign in 2026 with renewed determination, having taken valuable lessons from his rookie season. The Chinese driver endured a difficult 2025 campaign with Hitech, finishing 29th in the Drivers’ Standings with just a single point to his name.
Ahead of the season opener in Melbourne, Xie highlighted the work he put in over the off-season, noting that he spent a significant amount of time on his simulator at home. As he joins a new team this year, the 19 year-old is confident in DAMS’s potential and is looking forward to the 2026 F3 season with them.
Xie said: “From post-season tests we were quite strong overall. The only thing we can do to stay active is using the simulator. Fortunately, I have one in my apartment, so I did quite a lot of sim work during off-season.”
“I would say it’s been very positive off season overall and the team is very professional. They are a team that has achieved a lot of success in F2 and I think they are able to bring the success into F3 as well, so I’m looking forward to this season with DAMS.”
Qualifying lessons learned key to improvement in 2026
In 2025, Xie struggled to put together strong Qualifying performances, which left him fighting at the back of the field for much of the season. However, heading into this year, the Chinese driver is determined to turn that around.
With limited track time in F3, he believes the experience gained will be crucial. Having learned how to better manage Qualifying, he sees it as a key factor in achieving stronger results this season.
“There’s definitely more of an advantage with the experience because in F3 you don’t have too much track time. So that’s definitely a good advantage to take into the race weekend compared to the others.”
“I think the biggest thing I learned last year was just how to manage Qualifying. That will be the key. Other than that, it will just come when it comes, but managing all of these things at once is a big learning curve. Once everything clicks, you’re good.”
